You may not need a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for your laptop or computer, but Audioengine's D3 Premium 24-Bit DAC makes a strong case for it. At $189 (direct), it costs as much as a quality pair of headphones or earphones (though the sky is the limit with the high-end audio realm). The listeners who will get the most out of the D3 are those who already have a solid pair of headphones or earphones (or speakers), but are typically listening via the headphone jack of their laptops and computers. The D3 uses the USB output of your computer to bypass its weak headphone jack and improves the experience, boosting the signal and bit-rate, and playing native sample rates of up to 96kHz. In other words, it plays tracks back at their fullest sonic fidelity level. Is this an improvement everyone will notice? No, not everyone—but if you got used to the D3 for a month or two and then eliminated it from your chain, you'd likely start to realize what you've been missing out on. Perhaps th...
The Audioengine D3 Premium 24-Bit DAC improves the fidelity of the headphone and speaker experience, bypassing the computer's headphone jack in favor of a digital stream from the USB port.
Bypasses computer's audio headphone output, pulling digital audio from USB port and increasing the signal; Upsamples lower bit-rate audio to 24-bits; Plays native sample rates up to 96kHz
Can get quite hot