2. digital
  3. 1335227839

Coax or USB between transport and DAC?

It’s been a long time since I had digital separates and I am thinking of getting a DAC to use with my Pioneer transport. Which cable offers better transfer, a coax or USB or is the difference minimal?

Thanks.
128x128sndsrtaud
meiwan
399 posts
 
I doubt your Pioneer transport can do USB? USB is only for computer sources and works very well or very poorly depending on the design of the DAC. Coax or toslink is what you'd be considering. Either can work very well.
audiofreak32's avatar
audiofreak32
281 posts
 
If you were to buy a Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2, it has an asynchronous USB connection and built-in volume control (as well as many in's and out's)... connected USB direct from any PC or laptop will kill any COAX connection you try. Forget the transport idea completely. Rip all your CDs as 24/96 or 24/192 WAV or FLAC, it will sound far better than using any CD player. I had a DAC-2 but recently upgraded to a LINN Akurate DS, no more discs!!!
katylied
54 posts
 
Audiofreak32, CDs are 16 bit and ripping them at 24 bit will not give you any benefit. Then, IMHO, FLAC is the way to go if you want to manage the library in a convenient way because WAV doesn't support the tags.
audiofreak32's avatar
audiofreak32
281 posts
 
Katylied,

Ripping at 24 bit makes a significant difference. Have you heard a 24/96 or 24/192 WAV or FLAC file off a LINN DS? There are not many CD players made that will compete. The key is eliminating the transport all together. They are comparing a LINN Akurate DS to CD players in excess of $20k.
katylied
54 posts
 
Audiofreak32, I'm a Linn dealer and one of the first to embrace wholeheartily the DS bandwagon (at least here where I live and work)....... so I know a little about it. A different matter are "real" 24 bit files but one CD (that is 16 bit) ripped at 24 bit will not become a real 24 bit (I mean real high reolution file). I've tried to rip some CDs as 24/96 files but IMHO is a waste of time as anyway the Linn DS is doing this same job internally. Here is an excerpts from a thread on the Linn forum posted by a Linn DS engineer: Internally, the DS uses 35-bit precision for upsampling and digital volume control. There is then a single, properly dithered truncation to 24-bits just before the DAC. External upsampling introduces an additional truncation (to 24 bits) so the overall processing chain becomes more lossy.

Happy listening with your DS and yes, no more CD player for me too.
Cheers
More to discover