macmini spdif out vs. usb

Kana813,
I'm actually quite impressed with the sound quality of the current set-up (Mac->optical cable->MF Tri-Vista), and find it sounds as good (some listeners I've had over say "better than")as playing a CD using the Tri-vista as both transport and DAC. However, as a card carrying member of the audiophile community, I'm always interested incremental improvements in sound quality. In my case, I would add "Cost effective" to that search. That is why I was hoping for a relatively inexpensive cable solution to improving the sound quality. I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars on this unless it makes a discernable improvement over the current set-up. Howver, if I can do a lot better than I am now with a relatively small investment, I'll do it. I would like to try it out before making the investment though.

Bruce_1; you are welcome. Definitely get some input from the folks who make their living in that field, and listen and weigh the specific alternatives yourself. Report your findings here when you have...perhaps another thread. Have fun! Worst case scenario - it does sound like you have an enjoyable system already - Nothing wrong with that!

Hey Rene - How have you enjoyed the Wavelength Brick? Did I describe the sound in a way that was similar to your own impressions of it? Have you held onto it?

Marco

Marco (Jax2), I got the Brick and I am holding onto it. Your description was on the dot - relaxed and smooth, very natural sounding with solid midrange, solid images and deep soundstage, good separation between instruments, every instruments is well defined sonically and spatially. The bass can be a little on the soft side, but I did notice some reaction to tube rolling. I am able to get closer to a solid state type bass and top end extension, but at the sacrifice of some of the positive qualities. I just got some more tubes for tube rolling (Mazda triple mica etc.) to play around soem more. Overall a slightly different sound and presentation from my Audio Aero Prima, but with similar strengths. The Prima seems to ad some more resonance and texture, while the Brick shows more realism and a more natural sound.

Thanks again for all your help and comments :)

Rene

Bruce_1- Mahalo for the feedback.

Own the Cosecant, owned the Brick-both incredible products...Have done exhaustive research on this matter...Choose whatever DAC you like, but I can tell you from experience of going through the Computer DAC "as a front end route", and listening to alot of different DAC's (from Benchmark to Levinson) the Brick from Wavelength betters the Benchmark in spades. For $700 bucks or so more than the BM, it's a no brainer IMO. The USB controller in the Wavelength stuff is also custom designed by Gordon, not a commodity-based DAC chip like just about everything else out there with a USB interface at the moment. To me thats makes Wavelength VERY special indeed.

To answer your question though:

USB is a bi-directional connection, so jitter is dealt with very effectively-on the way in, and therefore corrected on the way out. I believe on Gordon's site it says jitter is eliminated actually, could be mistaken though.

SPDIF is not bi-directional, therefore requires clocking to deal with jitter. It was never designed to do what we do with it in hifi. So to answer your question USB is a better choice of the two, sonically, and practically.

Whether the future brings a better connection than USB at some point remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, my current USB/PC based is the BEST digital I have ever heard, and I have heard alot.