Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

I had Shunyata Anaconda and Python in my system for years, still use a Python VX on lps for NAS.

Critical thing in consideration of inputs on dac is quality of rendering in streamer. The quality Amanero usb board in 005 absolutely requires the best quality rendering from streamer. Far too many usb ports on dedicated streamers come directly off motherboard, motherboard directly transfer any noise on them to that port. Optimized usb ports on streamers must be treated exactly like optimized ports like Amanero usb in005. This means having it's own dedicated board with power supply and femto or OXCO clock, even more optimization can be obtained if this board can be powered via external lps. You will only see this level of optimization with Taiko Extreme, Wadax level streamers, Aurender W20SE has next best optimization I've seen via off the shelf combo server/streamer or one computer setups. For me this rendering deficiency is the greatest liability of nearly all off the shelf streamers, a real shame they charge so much and then have this glaring mistake, charge me the extra $1-2K, but don't leave out a critical function! They do good job with minimizing noise, optimizing software and simplifying user interface, providing nice looking enclosure, but skimp here. Some understand what they're leaving out offering external lps and usb,  Innuos being but one example, others don't even have these options, ridiculous.

With my new streamer I have choice between the absolute best usb optimization via drop in PCIe card, in this case JCAT or Pink Faun usb cards, both include all the optimizations I listed above, and with the capability of being powered via external lps, no power off motherboard power supply.

The other option for optimized usb rendering is via dedicated streamers such as SOTM, the Holo mentioned above, Sonore, and others. The good dedicated streamers do all the optimizations listed above. and the SOTM and Sonore OpticalRendu I'm using at present which I've directly compared to usb out of my previous streamers and present new streamer, which has only somewhat optimized usb are far superior in sound quality.

So, bottom line, you are not hearing full potential with your 005 unless your taking equal care with usb out of streamer. This is not a small upgrade assuming your system is resolving/transparent enough! Get optimized rendering via usb and I guarantee you it will beat any other input on 005, to repeat Amanero board is optimal input with 005, designed to specifically use it. The I2S or other inputs may bypass certain functions within 005, but simpler doesn't always mean better. Also, ask yourself is bypassing this function within 005 really worth the effort of adding more complexity with whatever optimized I2S rendering device one is using. This was my calculation when I decided to not even bother trying I2S with my Singxer SU-6, reportedly one of best I2S renderers out there. Power supply and clock on Amanero board superior to that on SU-6. This became even more clear to me when I observed various experienced users having to modify these I2S devices to overcome sound quality limitations they heard.

@car123 The way you describe 005 is exactly  how I hear it, no softening or hiding anything, simply getting the real thing, more live sounding than any other digital I've ever heard in my system or any other system. I'd not even trade better jitter measurement if it took away any of this sense of liveliness. The greatest thing is the more I expose the 005 the better it gets, no hidden flaws with this dac.

As for battery power vs AC :PC. Symetrical sine waves are one thing nearly all these portable power supplies supply. how that is achieved is another. I and others have heard the liabilities of inferior inverters. I presume there is reason the Stromtanks so costly, superior sound quality vs other battery supplies is that reason. I'm sure there are various levels of sound quality vs various other battery supplies, my motivation isn't high to experiment at this point since I'm so enamored of present sound quality, remains in revelatory territory since new streamer and footer/isolation solutions. Towards that end, just added suspended solution for signal enclosure of Coincident Statement, power supply enclosure continues to use Aurios Pro to diy sandbox. Expect this to be another upgrade vs Stillpoints to maple cutting board sitting in diy sandbox coupled via amp stand to fireplace hearth which is sitting on suspended floor sitting on floor jacks.  All my suspended supports sit on this fireplace hearth. If this works out well, new Thoress phono stage will also be suspended. All  components are being compared to either Aurios or Stillpoints Ultra SS in diy sandboxes with either Birch ply or 1/2" aluminum top plates with integrated vibration planes in diy sandboxes. Already wrote off a multitude of other type footers used over the years, these two are last standing. Aurios can add hard edge, some state metallic sound, but damn things are spacious,open, transparent. Stillpoints keep most of the open, spacious, transparent sound, add greater stability to images within sound stage, mitigate the hard edge. No footers retain all the good things of both, no colorations of any kind, why I maintain no footer is best footer. So far I only maintain this for source components, other components may benefit from being mass loaded and anchored to something solid.

In my server the JCAT XE USB card adds only 10% of the improvement that can be had from the server when powering from the mother power. Another 10% improvement when powering it with a high quality LPS. The majority comes from the s/w & network optimization and a high power power for the server itself. I could still live with the motherboard USB port if I didn’t want to spend money on the JCAT. The motherboard USB sounds as musical, just not as much details I get from JCAT.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a good power supply for any digital components and the Musetec 005, or for that matter most of today’s DAC, will scale very nicely when fed with quality signal and it doesn’t have to be SPDIF. A good USB implementation can work wonders. Apart from the power supply, the two other things that will do the most for any streaming system is by taking great care of s/w and network optimization.

@debjit_g  Very interesting! I've not felt the need to even try the USB cards as I'm so enthralled with using new streamer as server only, Sonore OpticalModule and OR doing rendering duties, thus far beats several permutations via motherboard usb out. Thanks for the input!

Still, at some point my intention is to try one computer setup, there are some Euphony OS permutations that may allow for better SQ vs two computer setup.  Less complex setup may also provide for better SQ, in any case I have so many options to choose from with new streamer, have this need to explore all, just not motivated at present. I totally agree on network optimization and quality power supplies, optimal streaming requires all i's dotted and t's crossed!

@sns you will be surprised to know that the performance of motherboard usb really depends on a lot of variables, like the motherboard, chipset used, quality of onboard clock, Operating system used etc and off-coarse the big demon power supply. I have gone through a varied different types of x86 motherboard over the yrs and I am amazed to see how much different they can sound. Even which usb port you are using changes the sound. Its not just possible to comprehend and hence an audio grade quality USB pcie card solves this part of the puzzle.

On the OS, I was an avid Euphony v3 user and Windows server 2012R2 prior to it. When I changed by motherboard later at some point and incorporated a newer Intel proc, Euphony v3 sounded really bad. The v3 was using older kernel which just didn’t optimize the system in a way it should have been with newer generation of hardware. I moved back to Windows and experimented with 10 ltsc, Server 2019 and WinPE with variety of optimization over the months, until recently when Euphony v4 was released. I did the trial and it indeed sounded very good and a lot lot better than the v3, almost same as my optimized Windows. Unfortunately, Euphony v4 moved to a subscription model which is a recurring cost and not cheap either. I am still undecided at this point.

If you want to put all hands on deck with DIY, I would suggest experiment with JCAT or Pink Faun w/ ultra ocxo clock. You never know what you are missing (I used to own the Rendu). Whatever route you go, DIY or OR, getting a quality power supply (with low impedance) will be the key to how your DAC might sound.