How are most audiophiles going from streamers to DACS
USB a to b, , Coax, or Optical ? what's the better one ? I have a Node 2I and a Denafrips ares 2 dac thats in transit , what is everyone using for audio ? not brands of cable just format what way is better for streaming High rez music ?
Wow, a tremendous amount of pontificating, bad advice, and stuff that doesn’t apply, If you are going to give "advice" you could at least see what the equipment is capable of.
gotta agree w herman
folks who spout without carefully reading the question aren’t really helping
you should perhaps try a usb reclocker if you are streaming from a mac book - here is one well respected choice of usb cleaner/reclocker among several on the market
I've done comparisons between optical and coax connections from my Node 2i, and in my system the coax easily sounds better. Coax sounds more natural, and has less digital glare.
I agree with Herman. If you have a Node 2i, then you are limited to coax or optical. No USB.
I have always had better results with coax in most applications over optical. My Node is no exception. Per the review of the Node 2i by Audio Science Review, the SINAD is better with coax than optical, but that could have been an issue with the sample reviewed.
I have a Node 2i connected to a Denafrips Terminator via coax. Much better results than the internal Node DAC. In addition, I found that feeding the Node with an UpTone etherRegen added clarity and more soundstage depth. Sadly though, it still does not compare with the sound quality of my Oppo 105. I think there is limitations to the Node as a streaming device.
80% of my listening is hi-res streaming from Qobuz and Tidal
My limited understand of the hierarchy of good, better, best guidelines is as follows, and in all cases the shorter the cable the better
optical, coax, USB, I2S
I've tested all of them and have gravitated to I2S
This is one of the areas where the symmetry dance between your components is important
The SQ of entry level electronics typically will sound their best when using good cables but great cables will not promote entry level electronics to reference grade sound
Optical should be the best in theory, but it's probably the worst because there isn't a good interface available, as far as I know everything in audio is toshlink.
Agree with reclocking. The transmitter and receiver are your limitation, therefore avoid bandwidth limited optical and go USB, possibly coax. Coax is TEM00 and USB is twisted pair, at least it better be. But this is digital so the cable bandwidth is not that critical as analog, and if you mismatch cable impedance, which is never perfect, your error correction from cable reflections, unless your connection is under 6", should give you 100% of your signal. I get no errors in my hi res system.
I started with the Node2i, connected via both Coax and Toslink to both a Sony AVR and then a Marantz unit that were "supposed" to support Hi Res. Both companies tech support knowledge about HiRes and connectivity was pathetic. I ended up with a NAD t758 v3i - with a BluOS module (with WiFi dongle/Bluetooth dongle) installed. The dongle connects to the module on the NAD via USB. Runs all Hi-Res streaming services including Tidal's MQA (let's not debate that here, it's more hype than actual performance worthy) via the BluOs android app. I also stream digital files from my PC - those files were my library of SACD's and DVD-A's that were converted to FLAC files. Easy breezy. Speakers are all Klipsch including a pair of Atmos.
Actually the optical/toslink issue, unlike many
sonic preference sin audio, is not a matter of opinion. It does not
support high res
all inputs on the DAC support 24/192. I don't know if the Node outputs 192 but that is not a Toslink limitation.
Not in the original standard and rarely supported. And part of the reason is the pulse spreading in the plastic optics. Its also a very old standard and since it is almost exclusively used by TV manufacturers, the focus has not been on improving it for high end.
As to USB, the real issue here is not "what magic cable should i thrown money at?" but "how do i get good sound?" Which really begs a different solution.
Herman... "I don’t know if the Node outputs 192 but that is not a Toslink limitation."
Just a point of clarification, I have my Node 2i hooked up to a Cambridge 851C I’m evaluating. When I use coax, the Cambridge DAC shows 192k. Then when I switch to optical, the Cambridge DAC switches to 96k. The Cambridge upsamples to 192k max.
Living on a limited budget. Running a Bluesound Node 2i , Audioquest cables to a Shiit Byfrost, , sounds good but not close to the CD sound of the innous mini mk III. Running UDP on direct Ethernet. The details for symbol decay, ring, instruments blending. Bass is good on streaming but not as solid and controlled as the Innous. I can live with the streamer because overall it would cost at least twice as much to get some improvement. I love the simplicity and functionality of the Blu OS. I just sit back and enjoy the music. I am very happy it sounds so good for the cost and being thankful for what I have.
Newbie question, looking to purchase a high resolution streamer. What I don’t understand is people hooking coaxial digital or optical to their receiver. I thought optical and coaxial didn’t have the full resolution that hdmi has for the new formats. If you’re using a high quality streamer, even with a decent receiver, shouldn’t you use the the RCA out to take advantage of the DAC from the streamer?
Typically optical is of poor quality. SP/DIF (RCA) or AES will have full resolution. Music streamers normally will not have HDMI outputs, those are for home theaters.
A streamer can have a DAC with it. Normally if you talk about a streamer it wound be assumed not to have a DAC. But there are all sorts of combined units. If the unit is a streamer and DAC, then there is likely single digital output for connection to an external DAC and dual RCA analog (and maybe dual XLR) outputs for connection to a preamp.
Make sure you are not mixing up fiber (i.e., optical) in lieu of Ethernet for purposes of bringing the digital information to the streamer vs. toslink (i.e., optical) as a means of conveying digital signal from the streamer to the DAC. The first is in no way a compromise compared to Ethernet (although some will argue that it depends on the interface). The second, optical toslink vs. electrical coax is discussed in this paper. BTW, Charles Hansen was founder/owner of Ayre Acoustics. If you click on his name at the bottom of the article it brings you to more discussion than you probably want. In short, both toslink and coax can sound fine although coax is typically considered better...unless you start talking to folks who use USB. Here is a post discussing USB vs. S/PDIF, which favors the USB interface, primarily because of the benefits of asynchronous mode USB, which slaves the source (i.e., server or computer) to the DAC. However, according to the author, S/PDIF interfaces have improved to the point where there is virtually no measurable or audible difference between the two, when properly implemented. This is beneficial to those who still spin discs with a CD transport, which typically output through S/PDIF.
If you are starting out with just a roku or similar media streamer with hdmi interface, here is a very inexpensive yet effective way I have found to do it:
This really depends on the equipment you are using. Since the node currently doesn't have a USB output, you are likely goin to have to settle on digital coax which will likely be your best performer.
That being said, it really depends on the gear. If I was using Chord gear, BNC will outperform any other input. If you are running Rockna, I2S is the best input but if not available, next best is AES and I have customers whoe report "glorious" performance between say the Bricasti M5 and the Rockna Wavelight via AES.
There is no universal truth on this one. The gear matters.
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