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  3. 181426-149317

USB yet again

For a few years I have had an Intona Isolator with Oyaide Continental 5S upstream and Intona Reference downstream connecting Streamer and DAC. Given the Strong benefit of filters on the upstream Ethernet connection I added a LHY Audio USB 3.0 purifier with a Grey Knights power cable. The tightening of the transfer and resultant SQ was remarkable despite having used superior cables before.

While USB remains a compromised transfer format, asynchronous USB is the only protocol synchronising the server’s and dac’s clocks unless both have master clock connections. AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised. Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution. It is interesting that there seems to emerge a trend to combine server and dac: one wonders why?

antigrunge2
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,570 posts
 

“Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution.”

@antigrunge2

It is very unlikely to see a groundbreaking advancement in the areas of USB, AES/SPDIF implementation. These protocols, IMHO have matured and may’ even reached their maximum potential. As you have mentioned, the industry is fast moving and trending towards Ethernet based DAC’s with embedded streaming client (renderer). There are some very high quality offerings from Grimm Audio, Merging Technologies, Weiss Engineering, DCS, and Bricasti. The current trend is, simple one box DAC/streamer/Pre solution. Just optimize the Ethernet path by adding a high quality Ethernet switch/LAN cables and you’re in business. The performance of these one box DAC/streamer is getting awfully close to a separate DAC and Streamer setup.

I recognize, there is always going to be those who wants the separates for flexibility and the last word in SQ :-)

As far as I’m concerned, my days of fiddling/optimizing the USB or AES/EBU supported audio devices are ancient history. 

antigrunge2 OP
1,427 posts
 

@lalitk 
 

agree with your assessment. It seems though pretty damning that both on Ethernet and USB even on high end equipment you have to engage in extensive optimisation efforts before you get a decent result. As I said the single box solution can be seen as a capitulation.

fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,633 posts
 

Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution.

This "problem" has been solved in the marketplace (by Ted Smith) for at least 8 years.

Sorry you missed it.

antigrunge2 OP
1,427 posts
 

@fuzztone 

care to be less opaque and dismissive?

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