Audiophile USB to PCM

Why do you want to convert to PCM before your DAC?

No problemo Rsbeck!!! Edirol DOES make one that converts usb to pcm. As does M-audio, Xitel, Waveterminal, and several others. I'm just trying to find which one is the best.

harry

Oops -- forget that one -- didn't notice that it is the opposite of what I thought. It is for sending digital input INTO your computer using the USB port. Sorry 'bout that. That's what I get for posting before I've had coffee!

Here is something that will take a USB input from your computer and convert it to toslink or SPDiF without performing DA conversion for $79 ----

http://www.computersandmusic.com/xcgi/SoftCart.exe/store1/edirol/ua1a.html?L+mystore1+urub1816+1088598294

Yes, I'm using the Mini-Dac as a DAC. I'm running USB from the Mac G4 laptop to the Apogee, then balanced XLR interconnects to a pair of Mackie HR824's --- I'm pretty astounded at the quality. I don't know that you need to convert the digital signal from your laptop to PCM in order to run it with your dCS gear. I could be wrong, but I believe you just need to keep it in digital since your dCS gear probably doesn't have a USB input, you need something between your laptop and dCS, something to connect them while keeping the signal in digital. I tried that with an input of a Proceed AVP2 so I could use the DAC in the Proceed. For some reason, it didn't sound that good. Only thing I can figure is that something in the M-Audio piece was degrading the signal somehow. Everything sounded time smeared. I'm going to guess that you could use the Apogee similarly and it would sound way better. I know the Apogee has a better clock/buffer which helps eliminate jitter, so maybe the signal was getting smeared by going through the M-Audio piece even though I didn't use it for DA conversion. When I get some time, I will experiment with the Apogee, connecting to the laptop with USB and taking an SPDiF out of the Apogee to the digital input of the Proceed and see if there's a huge improvement, as I expect, over the M-Audio piece. There may be a less expensive piece that will handle the transer and keep the signal in digital while eliminating jitter and smear for less money -- if there is, I'd like to know about it. In the meantime, I can tell you that the Apogee sounds great in my application.

I'm using an M audio Firewire Audiophile. It sounds quite good, but it has some quirky volume problems. They are supposed to address this in a future firmware upgrade, but until they do that, I can not recommend it.

Rsbeck:

Do you use the Apogee to convert to analog?? I'm just looking to convert from USB to PCM so I can run it into my dCS gear.

Onhywy61:

Yes, dCS has a firewire version but I don't have it.

harry

I use an Apogee USB Mini-Dac with my Mac G4 laptop -- sounds really good for casual listening, using the laptop as a juke box. I rip my CD's to the hard drive uncompressed using AIFF. I had an M-Audio Audiophile USB Dac prior to the Apogee -- the Apogee blows it away. Of course the M-Audio cost $175 while the Apogee cost $976.

There are various firewire based interfaces (Metric Halo, M-Audio and others), but I don't have direct experience with them. They tend to be geared to professional multi channel use. I've also seen PMCIA based interfaces.

Doesn't the dCS have a firewire option?

Any other recommendations for a laptop??

Harry

Edesilva, I have two computer based systems. One uses the RME with the AES/EBU balanced digital out and the other an M-Audio Sonica with an optical out. The RME sounds better. The RME also betters the built in optical output on the Apple G5. It's not an earth shaking, dramatic, blows away type of difference, but it's there and I find it worthwhile.

What about something as simple as the Edirol UA-1D? Its a simple USB device with a single S/PDIF coax output. I use mine off my Win XP Pro box, going into a Theta Pro Basic IIIa. Works reliably for my set up, which is playing mp3s through the home office stereo. Hard to go wrong for $80.

I'm curious about the RME and other AES/EBU cards, however. Onhwy61, have you compared any of those to any of the simple USB devices like the Edirol or M-Audio Sonica?

The ESI U24 that we sell as part of our Professional test kit is 24 bit 96kHz and has SPDIF out as well as analog out. Might work very well for what you are trying to do.

A professional caliber soundcard w/ AES/EBU output should out perform consumer oriented USB devices. I use an RME, but there are others.

I read about the Sutherland and it was panned as basically an expensive piece of junk (looks pretty cool though). If you can run a digital out from any external soundcard into your DAC, you would already be way beyond the Sutherland.