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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 AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised.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
j_andrews
146 posts
 

@lalitk 

Thank you, and sorry …I was thinking of the N150 not the N100.

I believe that’s more in line with the new Pulse from Innuos.

It and the Pulse are both USB only and apparently that output is touted by both companies to be excellent ..and both are priced around the same ($3250 vs $3500)

I would say that would be my stretch at this point .  I can’t go to the N200 this year.

I love that the Pulse is sans screen but the N150 has a nice monochrome text only screen that is subtle and can be turned off.

So, my question is really… given that both those units are USB-only … would placing an Iris after them redundant or counter productive?

I will definitely look into a pre owned N10 based on your suggestion.

regarding the Ifi, it’s been a great intro to streaming.  I haven’t had to use the interface since I’ve been using Tidal Connect… but now I’m using Qobuz and I have to use the M-connect app to get the streamer to play those high rez files and I can’t stand using M-connect.

Thanks again 

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,570 posts
 

@j_andrews 

RE: Iris, let your ears guide you if it yields improvements after Pulse or N150. BTW, Pulse has USB, coaxial, optical and AES/EBU outputs. 

soix
9,660 posts
 

@j_andrews My advice, especially since you’ve got an Iris, sell both your DACs and get a Musician Draco. Why? It’s got an i2S input that your Iris can provide to it. I’ve got an Iris feeding my Musician Pegasus into its i2S and the transformation over USB was at another level. Not even close. You want as short of an HDMI cable as possible, and I’m using this lowly 6” cable from Monoprice that was more than capable of showing the superiority of i2S. You’ve got a wonderful Iris, so I say USE IT!!! The Draco is 95% of my Pegasus (and by association the Denafrips Pontus ll) at a big discount, and it’ll love you feeding it with your Iris. Just my experience FWIW, and best of luck!

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13578

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096S6HBQY/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_30?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

 

j_andrews
146 posts
 

Thanks for all the great suggestions 

happy new year!

hickamore
679 posts
 

@lalitk N200 is USB out with coax only for "legacy" or second system DACs. Which DACs in the =/< $5k range are specifically optimized for USB input? (External clocking is out of the question).

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