Eric, I agree in essence with what you are saying. S/PDIF is inherently flawed. USB has advantages in terms of the ease of reclocking, etc. However, not all USB interfaces are created equal. Steven Nugent himself told me that there is a fair amount of variability in the quality of USB reclocking chips, which is where the $ is. That being said, I wonder if the sonic attributes of this WDP (nice Dgarretson....) are simply a byproduct of the USB interface or is it something more? I think you are operating under certain assumptions about the purported sonic attributes of USB data architecture. There are USB products out there which, while very good, are not a quantum leap beyond current offerings.
I will leave you with a quote from the Benchmark gang taken from a Stereophile thread:
We did measure the audio performance (Freq response, THD, IMD, etc) of the USB input, and it was completely similar to the all other digital inputs of the DAC1 up to 96/24. We also did listening tests. I am continuously conducting this test (as we speak ), as are several others here at Benchmark. Testing with a CD transport feeding the Coax input, and the computer feeding the USB with the same music, no one has been able to differentiate the two inputs.
--------------------
Elias Gwinn
Engineer
Benchmark Media Systems, Inc
www.BenchmarkMedia.com
I will leave you with a quote from the Benchmark gang taken from a Stereophile thread:
We did measure the audio performance (Freq response, THD, IMD, etc) of the USB input, and it was completely similar to the all other digital inputs of the DAC1 up to 96/24. We also did listening tests. I am continuously conducting this test (as we speak ), as are several others here at Benchmark. Testing with a CD transport feeding the Coax input, and the computer feeding the USB with the same music, no one has been able to differentiate the two inputs.
--------------------
Elias Gwinn
Engineer
Benchmark Media Systems, Inc
www.BenchmarkMedia.com