Dedicated Music server vs Mac mini on a Devialet via Ethernet (AIR) connection
@shadorne and @roestano That hasn't been the findings of my own testing and many others on computeraudiophile.com See this massive thread: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-com... |
@limniscate Ethernet is great so is optical. Optical has perfect galvanic isolation and a jitter immune DAC will just reject the higher jitter on an optical feed. However it all depends on a good DAC. If the DAC works perfectly then it will sound the same if the bits arriving are the same - no matter if they come over optical, coax, USB or ethernet. (not saying all DACs sound the same but a good one ought to sound the same on any digital input if it receives the same bit perfect data) It boils down to the DAC performance - and performance leaves a lot to be desired for many products out there...so no wonder folks report differences with all kinds of tweaks and different inputs, bridges etc. |
I have not delved into the jitter rejection system on the Chord or Ayre. Unfortunately most methodologies still allow low frequency jitter to affect performance even if all high frequency jitter is rejected and it performs well on the AES test that Stereophile perform. (Low frequency jitter can be quite audible) |
