I’m thinking about buying an Epiphany EDAC to betterify the sound from the computer through the hi(ish)fi.

Obviously there’s more info in the original CDs, but the EDAC is apparently very good indeed, and no doubt better than the 1Bit DAC in the 17 year old TEAC CD player. So presumably I’d get a better sound playing the original CDs through the laptop or even the old Cambridge Audio DVD player and the EDAC rather than the CD player?

But I don’t really want to fire up the laptop if I’m just playing CDs (I’ve got plenty I’ve got that I’ve not ripped, and none ripped lossless) so it would be quite nice to get a DAC that took the optical digital output from the back of the CD player.

Which brings up the next question – a DAC for the telly. I’d lined up a Lindy thing costing £30, then read a bit more and found out that as my telly can’t convert Dolby Digital to PCM, I’d need to get a DAC that could – e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Optical-Audio-Digital-Decoder/dp/B00KBORSIM

So with the Lindy and the Epiphany EDAC, I’d have spent £175 on DACs. I’d have a great DAC to play music from the laptop, an acceptable (?) DAC for audio from the telly, and a quite good DAC (?) in the CD player.

Is there a DAC out there that will take optical in, decode Dolby Digital, be as good as the epiphany without costing much more than £200? Moon on a stick?

Thanks to anyone who’s bothered to RATS. Any hints, tips and facts gratefully received!