Is computer audio a bust?

Mitch2, I was only asking, I thought you were there to tell us what was most used,I still believe spinners will be around for along time to come, most world class dacs sound best with transports that you do not use an inferrior cable like usb,I may very well set up a comuter audio, or streamer set up in the second system I will build, however, I will not pay all the money for numerous cables to do it like I have with my main system that has one I/C, one pair of speaker cables, can you imagine how much that would cost? at the end of the day, with computer audio, it may be fun, may sound very good, will never surpass the sound quality of such world class cables that I have on main system, if it could, Man!, I would sell all of it off and buy some cheap $2,000.00 a meter usb cable, and buy lots of them and gladly jump onto the computer audio band wagan for main system, and be able to buy brand new automobile with money left over!

Naturally the 'manufacturers', or those who upgrade them, must go to what's new. Just like they mainly jumped to CD (perfect sound forever) in the early 80's --although any of us with an ear, or decent system, heard the s*****t sound CD replay gave then. That's when I bought my Goldmund; knowing it was already an antique--but my ears have thanked me ever since. Somehow I just cant put low res ahead of CD; after working all these years to get my CD sound to "acceptable". Does anyone remember the sound of the reel to reels? Remember the density? Mmm.

"Does anyone remember the sound of the reel to reels? Remember the density?"

As in 15 ips with 1/2" tape on an Ampex 350, with need for periodic careful head alignment, controlled tape storage, and print through? I do.

Ptss, Hi, believe it or not, I believe they still make some reel to reel units, brand new very high-end ones!, I always wanted one and have liked the analog sound that I heard many years ago, I bet the new ones are spectacular and could compete well against any music media today, I recently watched a youtube video of a reel to reel set-up of one of the recent CES shows, I was astonishied of the sound, all the equipment that was used with the reel to reel was top equipment, cheers

Audiolab.. wrote:"most world class dacs sound best with transports that you do not use an inferior cable like usb"

Its not the cable that is usually the limiter here. Its the USB interface design and associated clocking circuitry. Most USB DACs have inferior USB interface designs, but a few are world-class. Its a lot like vinyl cartridges. Some are great and most are just mediocre. The Empirical Audio USB interface has won many shootouts and best of shows, including this latest shootout:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1398132150&&&/Absolute-top-tier-DAC-for-standard-res-R

Good cables for USB include the Revelation Audio Labs and the TotalDAC. Not cheap, but great performance. Buying a good USB cable alone, is not sufficient however. In addition to the USB cable, the common-mode noise must be addressed on the USB cable. This is the noise on the ground wire, not the signal wires. This can be addressed with a USB cable filter like the Empirical Audio Short-Block, or for USB interfaces that use the power in the cable, a filter/supply like the Power Block from Empirical Audio.

BTW, an excellent cable for S/PDIF coax is the Empirical Audio BNC-BNC with RCA adapters. Beats all comers at only $250.

Several of my DAC customers have actually sold their vinyl setups when they got my Overdrive SE DAC. Its only a matter of choosing the right equipment.

The question of whether computer audio can be great or not is silly. The answer is that there are no technical roadblocks that cannot be overcome, just like other technologies. Just requires a clever, experienced designer.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio