The Sterophile.com review of the RR2160 was that the internal DAC was mediocre (at the bottom of the "Measurements" page).
Has anyone tried an external DAC, and what difference did it make? Thanks.

You can't have everything in one piece of gear at the price of the 2160. The review was very good, especially considering that it was tested with gear costing more than $16K. If you read the whole review it raves about the 2160s power, overall sound and its phono stage. The reviewer was very complimentary of the whole package. If you get one, listen to it before you decide the DAC is mediocre and spend more $$$ on another piece of gear. Myself, I tend to stop paying a lot of mind to reviewers that use a bunch of flowery words to describe how something tickles their fancy.

Make sure to reread the review. The performance of the DAC is quite good; John Atkinson was disappointed it doesn't reject more jitter from the source device. We would argue, at this price, the focus needs to be on the performance of the receiver and making sure it does its job very well, and if your source has enough jitter or timing deviations to cause issues then it is time to buy a different source!

Thanks for the first 2 replies, but let's not loose sight of the question: "Has anyone tried an external DAC, and what difference did it make?" If possible, include year, model, cost. Thanks.

I would think the answer is No. My point was that you should try the equipment yourself to find out if there is an issue with the DAC. I would venture to say that it would be very difficult to tell a difference.

I have tried it and it sounds very good with the built-in DAC. No need to be defensive. I think it is possible someone may try an external DAC. I guess I should re-phrase my question to: "if you have tried an external DAC, please tell us about it."

I got an external DAC, a Mytek Brooklyn DAC, and it does sound much better. I do not think that will surprise anyone, since it is expensive.

I've owned an RR2160 for a couple of years now and I'm very happy with it. I was not much impressed with the internal DAC however. I eventually upgraded to a Chord Qutest. Pricey, yeah, the Chord cost more than twice what I paid for the receiver. But the improvement in the sound was obvious and substantial, well worth it in my opinion.

I'm in the wrong business. Chord takes a $27 chip, over engineers some digital filters and sells it for >$1500.