I use digital coax from my Node2 streamer and Toslink from my Audiolab cd transport to my MHDT Orchid DAC. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions to both my MHDT dealer and Silnote Audio (interconnnects) and came to the conclusion that as long as the DAC supports the same bit rate quality on each of the port types it should only come down to the quality of your cable. I made sure to get Wire World’s highest grade Supernova 7 Toslink cable (Silnote chose not to produce a Toslink line) since Toslink made me the most nervous for various reasons (neither the streamer or the cd transport support USB), including the bending of the fiber optic cable (I prefer the shortest cable length they offer in this application) with the highest quality glass (not plastic), etc. Toslink will pop out of the port much easier than the other connectors, but one just has to be extra careful not to bump it and make sure it is seated properly each time I’m moving components around a bit. Done right, I think I would be happy with any of the connection options.
Digital Audio Output Differences? Is USB Audio Really The Top-notch?
Hello guys,
So after some struggles between spending time in optimizing my PC audio functionalities and adopting a dedicated music streamer, I opted for the second one.
I purchased the Munich M1T by Silent Angel, given it’s good reviews in UK and Germany and Switzerland, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot, but frankly speaking, the mainly reason was because the price fits my wallet more hahahah...
Anyways, so there are several digital outputs on its back panel, AES/EBU; I2S(HDMI), Coaxial, USB Audio, hell hahah, I have literally no idea which one is better or which can provide a special feature or something, I mean it does show that the USB Audio supports up to up to PCM 768KHz and DSD 11.2M (DSD256), but does that the higher the sampling rate, the better the sound quality? I just can’t make sure...
And if the USB Audio can provide the " best " digital sound quality, then why added other ports? Ain’t that just costing more on the manufacturing end?
Hope you guys can give some insights on this, or share some of your experiences, because this is the first time I saw an AES/EBU port on a audio streamer...
Best,