First impressions of new MH-DA006, Musetec flagship

@catastrofe I agree my experience is only anecdotal evidence, but then there are many others who assert I2S superiority. Others claim usb superior.

Personally, I tend to put far more value on comparative reviews, and those comparisons should be fair. And so we often make equipment purchases based on other's reviews because we judged those opinions as factual or honest. Which brings us to our own subjective analysis of what we hear when inserting that equipment into our systems. I've long researched both usb and I2S interfaces, know all about the pluses and minuses,  I felt the need to come to my own conclusions, not rely on others. I've now heard both and have come to my own conclusions, whether someone wants to believe me is totally up to them.

By the way, meant to say empirical evidence rather than experiential. And since this is thread devoted to Musetec 006 my direct claim is full potential of 006 will not be unlocked using usb input or some other DDC of unknown or dubious quality (compared to Gaia). My contention is internal I2S clock is what's holding that performance back. I'll further make this statement conditional on running an optimized usb into the DDC such as I have. Making the presumption everything in chain is critical, running a less than optimal usb into this or any ddc will affect quality of it's output which will impact sound quality.

@catastrofe 

There is the music data and there is the clock signal. Together with a third they constitute what we know as the I2S streams.   A Raspberry Pi has I2S data available on its GPIO pins, allowing the connection of external audio codecs or DACs that support the I2S protocol   RPis are used in many streamers, including commercial ones, and RPis, or their functional equivalents, are used in virtually every streamer that has ethernet as an input.   For the streamer to output spdif there is a conversion of data on the three pins to an spdif or AES/EBU transmitter chip for the spdif or AES/EBU output.  Then within the DAC there is a spdif or AES/EBU receiver chip for conversion back to I2S.  The spdif or AES/EBU line carries exactly the same data on one line that was on three, except that it cannot carry as much so the max sampling rate is reduced.  You will notice that, almost always, a streamer having I2S output will also offer spdif and or AES/EBU outputs because they are so closely related.

The most important advantage of the I2S connection is to avoid the double conversion from I2S to spdif or AES/EBU inside the streamer and vice-versa inside the DAC.  And I2S is usually associated with lower jitter than spdif or AES/EBU.

It could be that I2S needs more care in its implimentation to sound consistently better than the others.  In my own system the I2S beats a spdif that I have tried and also a USB.  But I cannot say that all other things were equal in those comparisons.  Nevertheless an ethernet to I2S streamer is working very well for me.  As usual YMMV.

@melm The Okto dac I purchased some years ago was the streaming version, that streamer being a Raspberry Pi, never really experimented much using as streamer since I had the Sonore at the time, assumed it superior.

After some time reflecting on specific sound qualities I'm hearing with 006 via usb, vs I2S using 006 internal clock vs I2S using Gaia clock it occurred to me some could possibly prefer the presentation of usb and/or I2S/internal clock. Specifically, both these outputs provide what I'd call a more intimate presentation, I could also describe it as more neat and tidy. The more expansive sound stage using Gaia tends to blend individual images in that image outlines more diffuse, the other outputs present more tightly drawn images. I'd describe the more diffuse image presentation more along the lines of a live acoustic band, very little sound reinforcement, the other presentation more like what you'd hear with live or studio recording taking feed off soundboard. Another issue a more expansive, more diffuse sound stage could offer is it could excite certain listening room anomalies, for example reflective areas in room could emphasize certain frequencies which could be heard as extra harshness. One easily heard effect of the more expansive sound stage with Gaia clock is the sense of sound being freed from the front speaker plane or baffle, this presents not only a more upfront presentation, but also may more highly excite reflective surfaces close to speaker (this could affect surfaces further away as well). Perhaps I'm different in that I seek performers in room perspective, others may prefer being transported to recording venue. One is a more upfront presentation, the other more distant, no doubt the Gaia presents the more upfront presentation. I should add I spent many years experimenting with many types of room treatments and placement of them. Much listening time used visualizing sound waves of various frequencies and how they intersected with room boundaries. Reflection, diffusion, absorption all need to be in balance. My specific room dimensions (30 foot length, speakers fire down length) also provide a natural venue for my preferred sound staging  I can envision a room in which Gaia presentation could be less preferred.

In thinking back to when I added an audiophile switch, I recall hearing this exact same more tightly drawn imaging, neat and tidy sound staging. I very much disliked the presentation and sold the switch, never understood some people's preference for them ever since. For me the Gaia presentation is more like a natural acoustic, vs the other presentation being more hifi.

Another thing that brought this whole sound staging preference to mind is a recent thread in which I participated where individual specifically mentioned he didn't like the exact presentation I prefer.

Finally, going in another direction, not unusual for lower noise floors/greater resolution to be less preferable for some people and some systems. I equate what many describe as musical is in fact a lower level of resolution that doesn't expose lesser recordings and/or certain defects or anomalies in audio systems. With the Gaia I certainly hear more into all recordings, along with the good comes the bad. Being a seeker of high resolution I've come to accept the bad along with the good. There are times when I may play several poorer quality recordings in succession when it gets to me, I will then specifically seek out higher quality recordings which remind me of the great benefits of a highly resolving system.

@sns  Have you had a chance to listen to a Mojo Audio Dac to compare to the Musetec?