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

@mclinnguy OK Will do.

And while I'm at it I'll ask about this, too:

"At each end of the cable you can see a pair of “speaker kegs”. These are similar to the kegs we use on our powercords. However they are quite different – the power cords kegs are designed to pass 50/60Hz but the speaker kegs must pass the whole audio band. So these kegs are reformulated and tuned to this application."

Kegs are a slang term for ferrite beads, often found used legitimately for damping RF on power cables. No problem, That has a measurable impact as a low pass filter. And they are inexpensive - You can get an 80pc assortment on Amazon for $20.99. So, lots of opportunity to reformulate and tune for the price of a pizza. But they are a low pass filter, so they have other measurable impacts when used on signal cables, like hysteresis and latency, as well as limiting bandwidth. All immaterial on power cables, not so immaterial when dealing with signals.

@panzrwagn 

I am aware of ferrite cores. If you want to see a cable gone crazy with them check out these: The only reason he didn't put on any more is that one wouldn't be able to bend it 

https://www.wavehighfidelity.com/

@mclinnguy Thank you for the Laugh of the Day. Although I'm sure there are many here who don't get the joke. 🙄

It's completely DAC dependent IMHO! Some DAC's like my Holo Audio May KTE have done an excellent job of implementing the USB and it has double galvanic isolation. USB has come a long way and can sound excellent!