Which personal confuser for ultra high end audio, MAC, PC, notebook, tablet or desktop?

Blindjim, it's good to see you back here lately.  Your posts are always witty and enjoyable.

Regarding the possibility of ethernet cables making an audibly significant  difference, see the following threads:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/high-end-ethernet-cables-real-deal-or-snake-oil

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/most-important-unloved-cable

An excerpt from one of my posts in the first of those threads:

...any cable that is conducting high speed digital signals, such as an ethernet cable, and that is located in physical proximity to the audio system (e.g., in the same room), can radiate or couple RFI into the audio system. And in addition, noise conducted into the destination component via the cable could to some degree (depending on the specific design) conceivably couple around the ethernet interface circuitry and into other circuitry within that component that is more directly involved in processing the audio. Including circuitry that may be sensitive to noise-induced jitter.

None of this necessarily means, however, that an ethernet cable costing hundreds or thousands of dollars would be any more beneficial than an upgrade to a very modestly priced cable. You may wish to consider experimenting with inexpensive shielded ethernet cables, as member Bryoncunningham described doing in this thread, with significant sonic benefit resulting. (I consider him to be a particularly astute and perceptive listener, btw, and one who is very thorough in his approaches to evaluating tweaks and optimizing his system. Unfortunately, though, he hasn’t been posting here in recent times). See the posts in that thread dated on and around 2-16-12. Inexpensive ethernet cables are commonly unshielded, but good quality shielded cables are also readily available at low prices.

And from the second of those threads:

As an electrical engineer having extensive experience designing high speed digital, analog, A/D converter, and D/A converter circuits (not for audio), I don’t find the reported differences to be either surprising or mysterious. And I consider them to be well within the bounds of established science and engineering.

Most likely what is happening is that differences in the characteristics of the cables, such as bandwidth, shielding, and even how the pairs of conductors that carry the differential signals are twisted, are affecting the amplitude and spectral characteristics of electrical noise and/or RFI that finds its way via unintended pathways to unintended circuit points "downstream" of the ethernet interface in the receiving device. "Unintended circuit points" may include the D/A circuit itself, resulting in jitter, and/or analog circuit points further downstream in the component or system, where audible frequencies may be affected by noise that is at RF frequencies via effects such as intermodulation or AM demodulation.

"Unintended pathways" may include, among other possibilities, grounds within the receiving device, parasitic capacitances, coupling that may occur into AC power wiring, and the air.

What can be expected regarding such effects, however, is that they will be highly system dependent, and will not have a great deal of predictability.

As you'll see in the second thread, in addition to the member I referred to above a number of other widely respected and highly experienced members confirmed that very inexpensive upgrades of their ethernet cables provided significant sonic benefit.

Best regards,
-- Al
 

Right on again Al.

Dave

Dlcockrum > There is so much snarkiness and ridicule on this forum by the eternally cognitively cynical

Blindjim > U R welcome.
It took a while for me to overlook ‘drive by posting’, and or barbs thrown on the web that contain no real consideration of others.

Thread posts, blogs, emails, texts, etc., seldom intimate everything intentioned unless it is plainly negative. I will ask for clarity or I will simply refuse to acknowledge them as they are not deserving of a thoughtful reply. Usually.

We only have the capacity for how we will receive what others and for that matter, life hands us. Nothing more. React, respond, or ignore it. Nothing here is life or death.

Dlcockrum > posters that exceed reasonable limits of tolerance regarding misinformation, dishonesty, or stupidity

Blindjim > well…. Ignorance and dishonesty can be fixed. But you just can’t fix stupid. So, why try?


marktomaras
> ….back to audio obsessions...

Blindjim > … and the voice of reason beckons us.


Jond > the Lightning DS setup process takes you through that and is available for both IOS and Android

Blindjim > Check. Kind of figured that one out too. Cool. THX!!


Almarg > good to see you back here lately. Your posts are always witty and enjoyable.

Blindjim > Thanks! tell all your friends.;-((

Yeah. Been pretty ill. About out of the woods now hopefully. Life as well delivered some quite deleterious and definitely unexpected adverse things which demanded my immediate and undivided attention on several fronts.

Al on the flip side, if the approach here is for learning and we remain little fish in a big pond, mostly, all will be well and all of our systems will benefit from this effort and from the experiences of others as they may pertain to something of use to ourselves, and our various audio concerns.

I feel I’m on the right wavelength with your inferences. Thanks for the thread links. They’re a big help. I’ll read ‘em asap.

One last note on shielding per se, having been a former gear head racer kind of guy, there are split hoses in varying colors, for the more fashion minded, which can slip onto and over different wires like OEM power cords for CATV boxes, CAT cables, USB, etc. in autoland, their application is for the electrical system where heat could damage wires insulation or where one wishes to add them like on spark plug wires.

The wire slip covers are cheap. easy to trim. Easy enough to apply. And if one wants, another ‘coat’ of sorts can usually be affixed to the wire being inserted into one of these ‘conduit’s.

I’ve been affixing these plastic fantastics onto all the aforementioned as often as possible. Even onto ICs which obviously have no shielding in place.

Although I’ve not spent time or employed any scientific theorem I’m not picking up any local TV or radio stations. Nothing whines in my listening room but me being desirous of all the things made up of too much ‘unobtainium’ or ‘‘can’taffordium’, I’d love to own. Or think I would love to own.

Or the stuff I did own and did not like.

Gee. I feel all warm and fuzzy now. A lil’ AC DC ought to fix that!

certainly there is the Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC if one only needs PCM support.

is there a DAC that supports all of the current popular audio formats without conversion that could be an option here that excells in SQ too?

I have used a high-end Dell laptop running Windows10 Pro for streaming Tidal, recording my CDs to AIFF files with iTunes and to run Roon.

The key things with a computer are 1) the quality of the USB port and 2) having more memory, the speed of the processor is not as important as the amount of RAM.

Windows requires that you install a USB driver from the DAC manufacturer and Windows does not support DSD, only PCM and only up to 192kHz/24 bit.  I believe that most modern versions of the MacOS support USB, so no manufacturer supplied drivers are needed.

I have never had personal experience using a Mac to do my digital audio, so I can't say for sure if the USB port is of good quality, I suspect it is, as Mac's seem to be well engineered and not cheap to purchase.

If your USB port isn't the best, you can purchase an outboard device (like the Schitt Wyrd device) to isolate the USB ground and reduce the noise.