I got the USB DAC per everyone's sugguestion BUT..

Wyred 4 sound DAC2

Excellent DAC

24/192 over USB

USB is not limited. There are a lot of DACs available with async USB supporting up to 24/192. These have been around for years actually.

My advice is: be careful about buying based on specs or chip complement. There are a lot of 24/192 Async USB interfaces that are poor performers IMO. Look to the manufacturer with a long track record with USB and many generations. Read the reviews, particularly customer reviews.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Dtc....is that true about the MF M1 DAC USB input accepting 24/192? It's a great unit but last I checked it's USB was limited to 16/44, coaxial and S/PDIF up to 24/192. Someone jump in if I'm wrong since I just passed up a good deal on one!

Thanks Audioengr, for the confirmation and recommendation. I had started out using EAC to rip .WAV files into my network server. Later on, I used MS Media Player w/ error correction option turned on. I had a Cowon i5 portable player, and I could tell the difference between .WAV and FLAC files. I may try the comparison again with the new DACs.

FrankC

"So the question is whether the USB cable will transmit the 24/192 signal to the DAC?"

Yes it will, however it will be resampled by your DAC.

I highly recommend using JRiver Media Center and Kernel Streaming or WASAPI. Otherwise, you are hearing Core Audio nasties. Rip with dbpoweramp with Accurate-Rip enabled. foobar is pretty good with KS, but not as good as JMC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thanks for confirming, Timlub! I can't wait to get my system up and running.

FrankC

Gundam91,
Yes, at least my laptop with win7-64 with foobar, outputting wasapi to mg Musiland DAC does

Hi all, spent all night last night trying to find a specific discussion on this exact topic without any success. I have a Benchmark DAC-1 USB and it will take 24/192 signal. So I have downloaded some 24/192, 24/176 files from 2L and dCS. The computer will be either a laptop running Win 7 / Foobar 2000 (or JRiver) or a desktop running Vista and Foobar (or JRiver). Both of these software will decode 24/192. I intend to connect the Benchmark to either computer via an USB cable. So the question is whether the USB cable will transmit the 24/192 signal to the DAC?

My house remodel is wrapping up in about 2 months, and all my equipment are in storage, so I am not able to "plug it in and give it a try" at the moment. So posting here to try to get a definite answer. Thanks in advance.

FrankC

The Schitt Bifrost uses asynchronous USB 2.0 for 24/196however it does not up sample. Great value for the money

I'm quite satisfied with the HRT Streamer II.

The HRT Streamer II and II+ USB DACs do 24/96 at attractive prices. The II is an especially good deal. At a somewhat higher pricer, the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC has gotten a lot of good reviews and it does 24/192 USB input, although the output is limited to more like 24/96 (drops off signficantly in the 40 KHz range). People seem to like the Schiit Bifrost but I have never heard one. I believe it does 24/192 on USB. Not sure where the Bifrost output drops off in frequency. Some people have reported that it is more on the analytic side. THe HRT is more "musical".

Old thread, probably well known by now, but VDAC II has an improved USB interface built in runs 24/192 very well and reports say it is better than the VDAC. I've been using an inexpensive Musiland Monitor 02US, it runs 24/192 on all inputs including USB, incredible value. I'm going to try to compare it to a VDAC II and/or a Schiit Bifrost in the near future.

this is odd - I have a Burson HA-160D and it plays 24/192, 24/96 files just fine via the USB output of my Macbook Pro laptop. No third party driver but I am using Decibel for playback and not Itunes.

These are HD files from 2L and LessLoss.

I see. Thanks for all your suggestion. All the brand names mentioned here, did you guys actually tried it and confirmed that it will work at 24/96 in Windows 7?

Anyways, after weeks of trying, I finally got the V-DAC to work at 24/192. These are my findings:

USB -- limited to 16/48, doesn't matter if you have USB 1.1 or USB 2.0
Optical S/PDIF -- limited to 24/96, it won't pick up any signal beyond that as the green light goes dark....
Coaxial S/PDIF -- to my very surprise, this actually does the magic. Plugged in a good quality Coaxial Cable and ah-ha~ there goes the magical 24/192.

While the M2Tech HiFace is probably a very good solution, it's too expensive for a USB to S/PDIF converter. I just gave up on using this for my laptop and wire it to my desktop that has a good sound card configured as "digital pass through".

I got to say though, damn... this V-DAC REALLY good. It's an unbelievable deal for the price. Too bad it uses a cheap USB chip.

Nuforce Icon HDP

http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconhdp/index.php

Will do 24/96 using stock Windows drivers, and up to 24/192 with S/PDIF, optical. Cost around $450

I use a Musiland Monitor 01 USD USB-to-S/PDIF Converter to get hi-res to my DAC. It comes with it's own drivers.

The M2Tech HiFace will do 24/192. It is a USB to S/PDIF interface and does require a special driver. It then has to connect to a DAC. I just looked at the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC to do 24/192 (over S/PDIF) with a HiFace. The M1 DAC accepts 192 on S/PDIF, but the output seems to only go to 40 KHz with either 96 or 192 input. Higher end 192 DACs (e.g. Berkeley) output 60 KHz + with 192 input. My point is that even though an entry level DAC accepts 192 KHz input, it may not output anything better than it would with a 96 KHz input. If you are OK with 24/96, then their are a large number of used DACs that will do that over S/PDIF. The M2Tech will do the USB to S/PDIF conversion. I use a Musical Fidelity A3-24 and it does fine with 24/96 over S/PDIF. Note : the output freqency numbers above come from the bench tests from Stereophile.

At Axpona/NYC I just heard a nice sounding Mytek hi-res DAC in the Chesky/HD-Tracks booth. This is a new product that I don't see on the Mytek web site. Mytek's background is in pro audio.

http://www.frontendaudio.com/Mytek-Digital-Stereo192-DSD-DAC-p/9999-08885.htm

Includes a fully balanced analog section and a head phone jack.

I think the Wired 4 Sound DAC 2 is probably the least
expensive USB based DAC that can handle higher than
14/48.

The Apogee Duet 2 can handle 24/96 at less than half the price of the Wyred.

I'm using HRT USB Dac...I was going to get V-DAC, but I just got HRT Stream Plus. It's easy to use and I'm having great experience with this. I'm a 1st timer PC audio, but with this HRT i'm having fun.

I think the Wired 4 Sound DAC 2 is probably the least expensive USB based DAC that can handle higher than 14/48.

The Ayre USB DAC and some others will handle 24/192, but at this time, most USB DACs won't. If you are ripping vinyl at hi-rez and want to play it back that way, you need to spend for hi-rez playback

My Musiland MD10 handles it all just fine. I stream from Windows 7, Vista, Dishnetwork, Cable, cd and more. The only thing it can't handle is multichannel digital.

You do know that most redbook cd's are only 16bit. If you have vinyl ripped at 24 bit, it would be a drag to have to re-rip it at a lower rate.