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USB vs s/pdif

I'm using a Wyred 4 Sound DAC 1. It has the usual compliment of inputs, including USB. I connected my MacBook via the USB input and was surprised to hear how bad it sounded. At least compared to the s/pdif output of my Squeezebox 3 with Bolder digital mods. There was really no comparison. The USB/MacBook sounded flat, lifeless, constrained and not very extended at the frequency extremes.

Why is that? Is the SB3 that good or am I doing something wrong with the MacBook?
ecruz
mmike84
309 posts
 
I keep trying USB interfaces on DACs and I just haven't heard one I think is very good. I have heard the USB interface on a Wyred4Sound DAC2 and compared it to spdif and toslink. If I owned that DAC I wouldn't use the USB interface, just like I don't use the one on my own DAC.
meiwan
399 posts
 
I'm using USB with a moon 100d which is asynchronous. Moving to a decent USB cable made a lot of difference. Tried toslink, which was OK, but I prefer the USB route.
mihaitaa
111 posts
 
My experience with USB was always a letdown until the async USB of the W4S DAC2 I'm currently enjoying.
In my opinion, unless asynchronous, USB is not up to par with S/PDIF. In asynchronous version, the cable stops making a difference, as no timing info is passed from the transport to the DAC.
I'm sure other posters will have different opinions, though, as usual.
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