do these things work as DACs? and if so do they improve sound quality of MP3s played through a traditional separates system? or am i better off getting a beresford or similar dedicated DAC?
AE have an inbuilt DAC yes, and although using it's analogue output fed directly to an amp is ok, using it's digital out(by-passing it's internal DAC) fed to a dedicated DAC will sound much much better!!
Pioneer PDP-LX5090/BDP-LX71,Humax HDR/9300T,AB-IPBox,Mac Mini,Beresford Caiman,Roksan Kandy MKIII,Arcam AV9/P7,PMC FB1i/TB2M-Ci/DB1i,BK Monolith DF,Chord cables,Tacima CS929