Tok20000
Please tell me how you rip 16/44.1 CDs to a 24/96 format?
or anyone else for that matter.
et al... I'm not so sure the inference that USB sucks is either truthful, or appropriate.
I say this only becuase what I'm getting via a USB DAC sounds better than what I was getting from my CDP via the same DAC using coax.
There are indeed other factors aside from just the interface, I suspect.
I keep hearing folks allude to fire wire, & I2S. i DON'T SEE MUCH BY WAY OF AFFORDABLE PATHS THERE THOUGH. i2s, ESPECIALLY. a $1,000 for the gizmo needed to get the info to a I2S DAC? Then there's the I2S DAC costs. how much is a decent one of those going for lately?
I'm pretty well pleased with my BC DAC3. Either way... coax or USB. Even it's optical interface isn't bad. I spent some hours last night using just that link and had a very good time with it using my mega changer as a source. So in essence I was using a $300 CDP, the BC DAC3, a $10 fiber optics cable, some HT Magic II rca LINKS OFF OF IT TO AN ONKYO 805, then out via Audio Art ICS to Dodd mono blocks & sonata IIIs & Velodyne DD15.
No getting around it, it was fun. Fun to me is being able to listen without the idea popping up 'something isn't right here', for extended periods. When I can just keep playing till the wee hours of the night, I'd say I'm enjoying what I'm getting.
.... using the laptop via USB into that same deal is noticeably better.
... better too is using my preamp and better ICs & pcs.
.... better still is using this last path with J river MC, and the Vista 32 laptop on it's DC power supply sitting atop a small Ebony folding table.
...yet one more level up is using this USB driver:
http://www.usb-audio.com/download.html
$70.
Ripping with error control is yet another step up.
ALAC, AIF, WAV, all sound very good to excellent, depending on the orig recording of course. Even compressed AAC files sound at least decent.... only the mp3 files were noticeably poorer sounding... (many of which were seven or eight years old too and done at 320kps constant bit rates).
I'm hard pressed to believe USB sucks IMO.
the pc path I use not counting wires came to me at $2750. $750 of which (the laptop) was free. So $2K for the DAC and 1TB NAS drive.
M Audio does issue a Fire wire sound card duplicate of the Audiophile 192... which I own in PCI format. I believe it's under $300 or right at it. I wasn't aware of that when I bought the PCI version... BTW, their support is great.
Check "M" out. ;-))
