Thanks for all the great suggestions
happy new year!
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 AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised.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?
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@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). |
Maybe I don’t know what an ethernet based DAC is??? Isn’t it just converting the ethernet stream to a protocol like I2S? There isn’t a cable or a connector as it can be wired directly but wouldn’t it be prone to have all the same issues as a separate processor without the convivence of upgrading the source? The Peachtree GaN 1 Beta eliminates the DAC by only accepting a COAX input but that’s not ethernet either??? Cheers |
Holo May KTE and Denafrips Terminator II are the two comes to mind at top of 5K range. Now I have not done head to head comparison with aforementioned DAC’s but did audition Konus Audio Digitale 2000 in a very high end system. Gorgeous analog sound with lots of detail. We listened to multiple genres and nothing sounded out of place or forced. The fact, Digitale 2000 - $3900 held its own in a system just shy of $100K, it was quite remarkable. My only knock, it does not do DSD or anything above 24bit/192kHz. |
@lalitk Appreciate the tips as ever and will check out those mentioned. Top two would be a stretch at present but Konus has my interest. I gather all are plausible candidates for USB-only streamers such as N200. Current DAC takes mini-USB only, which can't be ideal. |
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