Is USB overrated as decent digital source?

mikechai@gmail.com - anywhere near 1 nsec is high jitter in my book. For instance, the stock Squeezebox and AirPort Express have 300-400 psec, which is half what you are saying and I can easily hear the jitter.

Until you have heard really low jitter, you dont know what you have been listening to all these years...

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

Firewire and USB are similar in performance. The advantage of USB is there are more drivers and better chips available that support it.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

Unclejeff - It's a shame to spend $2K and just use the S/PDIF output. You would be better off to drive your DAC with I2S IMO. It's inherently superior and lower jitter.

Audioengr:

you have to study the Konnekt brochure a bit more carefully. The 1 ns jitter is for the complete A/D, D/D and D/A loop. They developed their own firewire software driver for mac and pc, the mentioned Dice II and Jet chips developed for jitter attenuation and stable and jitterless clock. It has a 12V 2A external power supply.

I am using a Konnekt 24D since last december with my Altmann DAC. In the last 2 and half years I tried dozens of different USB, USB2 and Firewire to SPDIF converters with coax and with Toslink outputs. None of them were working so well (for me at least, YMMV) as the Konnekt with my latest Macbook. I sold my Accuphase DP-100/DC-101 when I became familiar with the Macbook - based solutions. Never looked back. The only CD player which is in the same league was the Naim CD555. Nothing else.

Since last week-end I am using the Altmann Creation ADC as an SPDIF clock generator for the Konnekt, it is now externally synchronized to the battery driven ADC and its Ultra Precise Clock. Soon I will be using the Konnekt from the same battery as the ADC. Can not imagine more pleasure from my cds and high - res audio files.

You can find a picture of my system here:

http://www.penna-media.hu/altmnn/source/kf1.htm

and here:

http://www.penna-media.hu/altmnn/source/kf2.htm

It is one of my friends' system with a custom built CD Pro transport using a spruce board from Charles Altmann:

http://www.penna-media.hu/altmnn/source/system1_1.htm

Audioengr; You make a good point. Also, your inputs over at That Other Forum is really appreciated. For now I am using the Transporter digital output for two reasons. First, on my main system I prefer the warmer signal going to my amps that comes from the Audio Aero, as opposed to the more analytical sound I get from the Transporter. Also, the Audio Aero allows me to seamless switch audio sources without adding an awkward switching device. My Audio Aero accepts Toslink from the Satellite Receiver which also doubles as a decent OTA High Definition Receiver, and I use my Audio Aero's coax input for DVD and the AES/EBU input from the Transporter that also pulls music from my computer as well as streaming audio. Then, of course there is the occasional CD I play on the Audio Aero Capitole itself.

I am using the Transporter's analog output to another room that has a very nice secondary music distribution system which includes the Audio Aero Capitole amp.

The folks at slimdevices tell me that, for my purposes, the squeezebox that was given to me by them(when the Transporter was back-ordered) will suffice as, by bypassing the DAC I am not gaining any more by upgrading to the Transporter. However, I disagree as whatever happens when the Transporter it used sounds better.