Higher End DACs

Mike - how can local vs streamed files sound better? How can you sense ’edgyness’ from one vs the other if the bitstream is the same. The MSB Select II supports a bit-perfect test file. Play the test file from SGM Extreme or ’pick any server’ using local or streamed and it will be reported by the MSB as being ’bitperfect’. So the innards of the MSB get all the bits 100%. So its not data corruption; its not jitter ...but the sound is different? Follow the evidence, Mike, it’s all about analog noise. Each server throws off a field of RF energy that gets into the DAC. Via signal, via power or through the air. This is the core issue here.

@dmance

did you read the review that was linked? and also read my comments? my comments referred to that review. they use a totaldac, not an MSB dac.

i made no mention of hearing any edginess from my Extreme/MSB setup.

and if you read that review it explains why local files sound better than streaming files. I’m no techie; I’m just a listener who reports what I hear. and that is what I hear. I don’t get caught up in technical rationalizations contradicting my perceptions.

btw; Emile Bok, the Extreme designer also agrees that local files sound better than streaming. you could contact him and make your case. he is a techie.

 and when he visited me last fall we both heard these same things from the Extreme/MSB combination.

@dmance Would a fibre optic cable from the network switch into the DAC solve the analog noise into the DAC? If so that is a relatively cheap solution. For example Sonore SystemOptique or the more expensive Lumin X1 DAC ( $13K ) with fibre optic input. Both have ROON READY support.

Even at the top echelon ( which is ever moving ) a well sorted network and electrical power system in home is essential. ... many things can be done at low/no cost. Which leg of your panel is the audio system on ? What leg are the “ hash and trash “ generation bits on ?

Consider a DAC with the ugly bits in a Faraday cage... to wit Aesthetix 

the Brinkmann as another poster noted above is also superb

@yyzsantabarbara
@tomic601
RF is insidious. If we had eyes that revealed the full EM spectrum we would see fire hoses of radiated energy everywhere. I don’t know why DACs are so sensitive to RF noise but as our systems become more transparent, its clear to me that less RF noise impinging on a DAC improves the sound. I can’t delve into a DAC to measure whats going on (and in fact the levels are below test equipment noise floor). What I do is measure is the full spectrum (audio band and RF) coming into and leaving a DAC. My corollary for better sound is less measured RF energy in all cases. So the challenge for audiophiles is to get the RF level down to ambient.

To answer your questions: using optical where possible helps, using battery power helps, using low powered sources reduces their potential RF and that helps. I am all about optical isolation (DX and USB in my case), lifting the digital chain off the AC mains with battery and moving the digital components as far away from the DAC as possible. In the case of using best practices with an RF-STOP faraday cage, you have an equivalent separation of 1000 meters, optical to the DAC and optical to the (distant) network switch. It requires an audiophile to appreciate and understand that it’s a whole chain process ...no single product is a fix. But then the isolation is guaranteed by physics.