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Streamer output options

In my younger days, I was told so often that spdif was better than usb that it became doctrine.  I'm in the market for a 2k$ish streamer and I see many higher end streamers with usb outputs that pass far higher res data than the spdif 192/24 does. My DAC takes either, but not i2s. Are the new implementations of usb now better than spdif? 

pprocter
travelinjack's avatar
travelinjack
193 posts
 

15 to 20 years ago USB was not a great choice for audio but it has come a long way since then.

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,834 posts
 

If you’re running usb out of a computer there’s a possibility that power might be running through also and that can add a bunch of noise, but if you’re running out of a streamer that’s set up for using usb as it’s preferred output like Aurender, the signal will be a lot cleaner before it hits the DAC.

panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
547 posts
 

@mclinnguy "noise that piggybacks on the data itself" 

Somebody is going to have to explain that one to me. 

USB-Audio uses isochronous, interrupt, and control transfer. Characteristics of the Interrupt Transfer mode are:

  • Guaranteed Latency
  • Unidirectional Stream Pipe
  • Error detection and next period retry.

USB has error control and management. Any 'noise that piggybacks on the data' to be relevant (audible) would have to modify and corrupt the bitstream. That would cause a checksum error and have the effect of triggering the error correction. Then, a retransmit would occur of uncorrupted data. The concept of 'noise that piggybacks on the data' causing audible issues is not possible with USB data and simply not applicable.

Anything and everything you hear from a streaming source is derived from the bitstream. RF noise, at frequencies thousands of times higher than human hearing is taken care of by the reconstruction filter of the DAC. Any audio band noise measurable after that point on is from the analog section of the DAC, downstream line amp, or power amp, and likely due to improper gain staging.

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
579 posts
 

@panzrwagn If you are looking for an explanation feel free to ask the source of that information and the designer of those cables. I don't even use a USB cable. Let me know how it goes. 

https://www.madscientist-audio.com/

 

mahler123
3,382 posts
 

In the early days usb was significantly worse than other digital connections, but that issue was solved years ago.  It was mainly due to the asynchronous nature of usb due to the fact that usb sends data in packets.  Most DACs now reclining it.  My Bryston DAC3 sounds equally great with every input

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