Esoteric K-01 and Aurender S10 compatibility

I wanted to stay with USB to maintain an asynchronous connection between the Esoteric and Aurender S10.

I can use SPDIF and achieve 192Khz into the Esoteric DAC but loose asynchronous functionality.

We suggested this in another forum (because Esoteric uses a custom driver for their USB implementation and does not currently support Linux as an OS for the USB driver).

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1354751988&openmine&zzDoggiehowser&4&5#Doggiehowser

Here's someone who bypassed the USB input on a K-03 with a Bel Canto REFLink. I gather the USB implementation on the K-01 and K-03 are the same so the gains on your system may be similar.

However, I did also mention that the Aurender was designed primarily as an AES output device so that (and SPDIF) may be a better bet.

The alternative would be to trade in your Aurender for the newly announced model that has a clock input. That would provide clock control from an external device (like Esoteric's) that can sync the data transfer between the Aurender and the K-01.

Getting close to make the jump into Computer Audio, trying to ensure I go the right way from the start. Thanks again.

You should use whatever sounds best which may not be the USB vs the 192k from SPDIF.

You just need to connect the Aurender via SPDIF and you should have no problem. You don't need any drivers, and as long as you are running AES you can get 192k on the Esoteric,

I am using a Qsonix and 192k files via spdif aes/ebu sounds fantastic.