USB is not inferior and offers superb sound quality in my opinion. As always it depends on implementation and other digital supporting elements in one’s front end.
USB yet again
For a few years I have had an Intona Isolator with Oyaide Continental 5S upstream and Intona Reference downstream connecting Streamer and DAC. Given the Strong benefit of filters on the upstream Ethernet connection I added a LHY Audio USB 3.0 purifier with a Grey Knights power cable. The tightening of the transfer and resultant SQ was remarkable despite having used superior cables before.
While USB remains a compromised transfer format, asynchronous USB is the only protocol synchronising the server’s and dac’s clocks unless both have master clock connections. AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised. Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution. It is interesting that there seems to emerge a trend to combine server and dac: one wonders why?
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One can perceive the complexities of streaming as a burden or a delight. I've found it to be much more delightful than burden, especially as the vast majority of my efforts have gone in direction of better SQ. Devoid these complexities I'd be pretty much in static position in regards my system.
Much of what makes pursuing audiophile hobby worthwhile for me is experimentation, streaming certainly provides that!. I'm getting to point where my audiophile bucket list is rapidly emptying, question is can SQ alone provide for all my audiophile needs? Over nearly thirty years, the process of building and optimizing audio systems has been pretty much as fulfilling as the enjoyment I get from countless listening sessions. |
@sns I agree and once one has synergy in their digital front end the worlds of music unfolds. |
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