Are all asynchronous USB inputs similar?

You will all see the transformation away from USB quickly.
We are in an industry where we will send back $50,000 amplifiers to have them rewired with another $20,000 of wire. We upgrade fuses and have our houses rewired. How, then, do we just accept a standard USB output on a consumer grade PC to be the be all and end all in computer audio? I know, we have Steve at Empiracle Audio with his 30 day money back guarantee, to make it all better. Me, I would rather not buy off the rack in a custom audio world.

Davide256, I am with you on this one. I did like my set up with my USB converter, but UPnP via hard wired Ethernet is amazing me. Mac Mini with JRiver as the media server and library, Resolution Audio Cantata as the renderer, using either PlugPlayer or JRemote as the control point. Would like to try wireless version via a bridge but am told Hi-Res files could be problematic with that configuration.

The thing to realize is that an external USB converter like an Off-Ramp 5 driving your USB DAC with S/PDIF will undoubtedly beat your USB interface and probably your transport too. I have lots of customers using the Off-Ramp 5 to drive USB DACs, abandoning the built-in USB interface. 30-day money-back, less shipping.

This has been my experience also. I think just about anyone who has used a usb to spdif converter wouild agree that it is better (in almost every case)than using built in Asynchronous usb on the DAC.

I use a Musical Fidelity "V-Link" as a way to escape the usb interface. It will only do up to 96 but it is inexpensive and most of the music on my computer is from ripped CDs so that is adequate fidelity for me. I'd like to try something like the Berkely Audio or the Off Ramp but both of these cost more than my DAC an Oppo 105) and they just don't make sense from that standpoint.

Everyone seems to think that the DAC is more important than the master clock device (USB converter or reclocker). Not so. The jitter of the source is more important, particularly if you goal is to eliminate harshness and get more detail, better slam and imaging.

I would much rather have a less expensive DAC and a good USB converter.

Steve N.