USB to DAC questions

Musicman... I'm not sure what I2S is... I mean, its a protocol of some sort I gather... but what medium is it carried across, etc..?

It's good to hear you like the paradisea. Ya, I heard a couple not-so-appealing things about SN DACs... and they would actually be basically just as or more expensive than the paradisea anyway. Thx for the info.

Ckorody - Ya, I know what you mean about the andromeda. I dismissed it for a long time... now just recently I started to look at it again. Your probably right though, I will probably stay away. It is appealing though... the results people get out of it when it does work look amazing. He's in the middle of making a new system that uses a firewire connection.. that should be much better.

Ya, I know I've researched like crazy at this point... I always do this. I feel I'm nearing an end.

I'm not sure what you meant by "Better IMHO to do less better"... meaning just use amp and no integrated or were you referring still to not getting the andromeda... hmm, im guessing the latter b/c then you recommend just picking up an integrated...?

Not sure what you meant about 'No discussion about speakers here...' either...

Anywho, ya an integrated was what I was leaning towards too. Then I can hook up an el cheapo DVD player and what not as well if need be. I know that there are so many times when somehow my PC audio was turned all the way up... that would be a total bummer to have that happen on my new system... on small speakers, nonetheless.

Would a Trends USB DAC be comparible to a paradisea?

I saw those chinese amps on Ebay... they are like 12 dollars plus 200 for shipping. They looked nice, but I couldn't find any reviews on them anywhere. They are pretty good though? I wonder how they would compare to NAD stuff...

Here is what I have landed on at this point:

Ibook -> USB cable -> Paradisia+ -> Monster 1000i RCA interconnects -> Nad 325Bee integrated -> Monster Z2 reference speaker cable -> 2 Paradigm Atoms v5.

What u think?

I just found a used paradisia for sale... It's about 6 months old but this is the second owner... think I should stay away? He said its in great shape... has about 600 hrs on it... and is including like 5 tubes... "NOS 1954 WE396A, NOS 1950s Tungsol 2C51, NOS Bendix JAN CEA 2C51, NOS GE JAN 5670W and GE 5670 stock tube".

I know I'm full of questions... I just dont want to pull the trigger on anything and feel like I should have done something else all of a sudden.

Djembeplay,
If reliability is what your worried about..no need with the Paradisea.I keep mine on at all times. Up until vacation recently it had been powered up for at least 6 months non stop. Also it is well known enough at this point. You would have no problems selling it if you needed to. He's including a lot of tubes!

I also owned a Trends UD-10..it is great as a USB converter when using other Dacs. It isn't in the same league as the Paradisea as a stand alone Dac.

Actually the only way to figure out what you're looking for is to listen and experiment with different gear. As time goes on, you'll try different gear until you sort out what you like best. That's just the nature of this hobby. It will become a disease. Once infected..there is no real cure and no going back.

Heh, I think I have early symptoms of the disease... as you can tell by all my posts recently.

Well that sounds good then... I think I am going to settle on the system I described in my last post. It took *tons* of research and comparing each and every component from source to speaker to get to that point... I was basically coming from knowing nothing about any of this, so its been quite a journey I would say.

Djembeplay, yeah sounds like you're well on your way to a full blown outbreak of "the disease", lol. Anyway as mentioned you really do need to listen and figure out over time what it is that you like and go forward from there. Your proposed setup looks decent, choked a bit on the Monster cabling, but as long as you don't pay retail they aren't bad.

Also as mentioned the Trends UD-10 is primarily a USB converter that can be used as a DAC, but it will not compete with something costing at least 3x the price like the Paradisea. If you get a USB DAC you'd have no use for the UD-10.

Check out http://www.empiricalaudio.com/ for more on I2S and the linked 6 Moons review.

Basically I2S is an "electrical serial bus interface standard used for connecting digital audio devices together. The I2S bus separates clock and data signals, resulting in a very low jitter connection. Jitter can cause distortion in a digital-to-analog converter."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I²S

Cool, I'll read up to see what I2S is all about.

Hmm, so you don't think monster cable is that good, huh? Man, I researched cable like crazy... people said the Z2 was really good. I also had some audioquest starquad type 4... and I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone which would be better. The Monster Cable Z2 looked better, so I just kept that one... but I still haven't hooked it up yet... lol, too busy trying to get the rest of my system together.