[citation][nom]PaperBoy[/nom]IMHO a pure digital optical sounds lifeless and dead but with a DAC I can customized the nuance to my personal liking whereas pure Digital is cold and lifeless with no personality and warmth.[/citation]
A DAC is a Digital Audio Converter, and has absolutely nothing to do with the 'life' of the audio, a DAC merely takes what is there and reproduces it in analog. If your source is lifeless then your output will be lifeless, if your source is good, then the output will be good. A low quality DAC will add digital noise/artifacts, or have a lack of clarity, while a high quality DAC will be very accurate to the source material. Everything that runs inside of your computer is digital, and every computer has a DAC before going out to your analog outputs. If you have a digital amplifier/reciever then you can go straight from your computer to use the better quality (well unless you have a crap reviever) DAC that is built into it.