Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

Oops. That should be: 

The other part of this puzzle is the selection of a USB cable, and they can be very, very different. More on this later, with at least one surprising result.

@debjit_g

If you decide to buy the WW hdmi, be patient to give at least 500 hrs to it. Though I don't have direct experience with WW ethernet cables but the Starlight 8 is a good buy and not that expensive.

I managed to get a custom made WW Starlight CAT 8 Ethernet cable (The red one) it's about 0.4m, maybe a little less. Good price only $120.00

This cable is crystal clear, hyper detailed through clarity. You can hear every bass note being played. I can't say it's sterile or uninvolving just mega clear. I know it needs more burn in but for I2s it's too clear and revealing.

I've just received my 0.6m Furutech NCF Ethernet cable and that's put everything back in the zone, I can hear guitar distortion and fuzz pedals again.

So the WW Starlight is currently between my Ediscreation Fiber Box and Aurender N20. The Ediscreation has Bybee Purifiers and they seem to be taking the edge off the WW and it all seems to be balancing out nicely.

@lordmelton Right now I am not using any DDC. Over a year ago I bought my Grimm MU1 streamer and I found going straight from it to DAC with a single AES/EBU cable sounded better than my complex USB chain with multiple USB decrapifiers.  Interestingly, the MU1 has bonified DDC capabilities (e.g. it can convert toslink to AES) but I don't use it in this way for music listening.

My last experience with a DDC was a Denafrips Hermes clocked by a Denafrips Terminator Plus.  My complex USB chain fed the USB signal to the Hermes which then outputted an I2S signal via an HDMI cable to feed the T+. Testing this Hermes configuration against the MU1, I preferred the MU1. 

I would love to get my hands on a Denafrips Gaia to experiment with the MU1 and 005 but this is not high on my list.

On another topic, three SR Purple fuses are arriving today. I'm installing one each in the 005, the Benchmark LA4 preamp, and my Ferrum Oor headphone amp.  I will report back my results in a later date. 

I remain unconvinced of superiority of ddc devices using usb, still using usb, so most salient cause of change in sound is not exactly known. Two, is the sound indeed better or simply different.  We also need direct comparison of  optimized usb chain by these users. Until this criteria met I2S not proven to be superior to usb for 005, IMO.

I'm also very skeptical about the benefit of bypassing 005 internal usb board. First, it is one of the best out there, Melm  clarified some of the details. Two, in regard to usb board contamination of dac power supply, Melm also mentioned  004 experiments with transformer, while I haven't gone back to that thread, seems to have not added much if anything, and that with inferior usb board in that dac. Three, as I mentioned previously, I've seen a whole lot of experimentation with streaming, haven't come across much if any talk about usb boards contaminating dac power supplies or interfering with dac processes resulting in lowered sound quality. Now, this doesn't mean there may be theoretical losses, I believe the present bias to addressing what feeds dac is correct.

For me, a more compelling argument for I2S superiority to usb in 005 would have to be an optimized I2S port on server direct out to I2S in on 005. 

Complex usb setups are also not optimized IME, less is better, I believe straight wire concept applies to streaming chains. So many usb decrapifiers out there, how effective they are so chain dependent. Power supplies also come in many degrees of quality and effectiveness.

Premature at this point to make blanket statements about superiority of any single streaming solution, and this just for 005. In regard to other dacs, there may be another best solution for those dacs.  I always go back to whatever solution one goes for, optimization is key, purity is other, we shouldn't mix conversion protocols. In doing such a comparison we also have to keep in mind every single unique feature of our individual streaming solutions.

Funny thing, but I can understand how everyone here has come to their preference in streaming chains. I can at least understand the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of all these setups, I don't doubt the results are valid for each user.

@sirnui Oh, I remember now you bought the Grimm MU1. I have heard that streamer and it gave a very delicate sound very suited to classical type recordings.

It's been a constant battle between AES and USB for me until I got the LKS 100. Now I've stopped switching between them and I've got the sound that I want.

Regarding Purple fuses, if they are the wrong way around you will realise after about two hours that the bass has disappeared and the sound is without body.

The 005 has a Chinese tuning fuse inside already so you will get an improvement but not so much, however your pre-amp should get a massive boost. Only put one fuse in at a time to make sure they are correct.