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USB - SPDIF on Eastern Electric DAC

I've recently gotten the upgrade bug and am looking to replace the stock USB input of my EE DAC with an asynchronous converter. I've tried a few USB to SPDIF converters, namely the Halide Design
Bridge, and the Stello U2 (which isn't asynch) fed into the RCA SPDIF input of the DAC. I've been having
some issues with the sound dropping out suddenly every 30 seconds or so
with both units. This doesn't happen at all when I use the stock USB
input, but does happen in both the RCA and BNC inputs when fed by the
USB->SPDIF converter. At first I thought it might be because I was using
a long USB wire, and the USB-> SPDIF converters (both being passive
devices) weren't getting enough current from the USB port. However, I put a 1 amp powered USB hub into the equation and also tried shorter USB
cables, but am still having the same problem. Have anyone ever heard of this problem or know of any remedies? Also I am using a macbook pro with OSX 10.6.4 and itunes if that helps. I'm thinking of trying either the musical fidelity V-link or ART legato, but am wary that these will have the same problem. Has anyone had any luck with any usb to spdif on this dac. Thanks, greatly appreciated.

Ron
linaeum66
dallasjustice's avatar
dallasjustice
27 posts
 
I have personal experience with Wavelink and Off-ramp v4 with Ultraclocks and monolith battery. I sold the wavelink. The EA is far superior via spdif or I2s. I doubt there's any better USB to spdif/i2s converter out there.
linaeum66 OP
60 posts
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!! I just purchased a musical fidelity V-link and it works perfectly. Definite improvement over the stock USB input and perhaps even more importantly it works with my EE dac and doesn't have drop outs. As others have mentioned above, as did the guy from morningstar audio, the Sabre DAC is very sensitive to jitter from its inputs. The Stello U2 and the halide bridge have too much jitter for the EE DAC to work properly, if at all. Don't waste your time purchasing either or any other high jitter devices if you have the EE DAC. The V-link has virtually zero jitter and hence works like a charm. I've also heard from others that the hiface works as well with the EE DAC. I'm assuming that other very low jitter devices like the wavelength, off ramp, and audiophileo will also work, but haven't tried them. Let me know if anyone has tried any of these with the EE DAC
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
Linaeum66

This is great news, especially if older DACs without USB inputs are depreciating more rapidly?

Because it seems to me that the manufacturers are not afraid to ask a hell of a lot more for the latest generation of USB DACs than a $169 premium to their non USB capable predecessors?

If the V-link + older DAC might sound even better, I will be ordering several USB to SPDIF converters soon and look forward to scouring the digital classified ads.
mihaitaa
111 posts
 
I strongly believe that no USB to SPDIF converter will, jitter-wise, do the same thing as as "native" async USB DAC.
This is because SPDIF itself introduces jitter and no matter how jitter free the signal is inside the converter, once outputted as SPDIF, things tend to go to square one again.
I'm not saying that Linaeum66's solution didn't improve the USB input of the EE DAC which has a relatively weak USB implementation out of the box.
hightechredneck
27 posts
 
I Use the EE DAC with the M2 Hiface. If the Hiface is set to anything higher than 44.1k using the Midi setup software, I get intermittent signal drops. I am using 12 feet of BNC coax cable. I have two Macs, an iMac and Macbook Pro running 10.6. No matter what software used (Itunes, Pure Music, Fidelia, Audirvana, Decibel, Amarra, Song Bird, Vox) the story is always the same. Toslink yields the same signal drops but limited to 96K of course.

Would like to know how Linaeum66 has the MF V-Link hooked up? Toslink or Coax? What is the output set at?
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