Streamer output options

@mclinnguy "noise that piggybacks on the data itself" 

Somebody is going to have to explain that one to me. 

USB-Audio uses isochronous, interrupt, and control transfer. Characteristics of the Interrupt Transfer mode are:

• Guaranteed Latency
• Unidirectional Stream Pipe
• Error detection and next period retry.

USB has error control and management. Any 'noise that piggybacks on the data' to be relevant (audible) would have to modify and corrupt the bitstream. That would cause a checksum error and have the effect of triggering the error correction. Then, a retransmit would occur of uncorrupted data. The concept of 'noise that piggybacks on the data' causing audible issues is not possible with USB data and simply not applicable.

Anything and everything you hear from a streaming source is derived from the bitstream. RF noise, at frequencies thousands of times higher than human hearing is taken care of by the reconstruction filter of the DAC. Any audio band noise measurable after that point on is from the analog section of the DAC, downstream line amp, or power amp, and likely due to improper gain staging.

@mclinnguy OK Will do.

And while I'm at it I'll ask about this, too:

"At each end of the cable you can see a pair of “speaker kegs”. These are similar to the kegs we use on our powercords. However they are quite different – the power cords kegs are designed to pass 50/60Hz but the speaker kegs must pass the whole audio band. So these kegs are reformulated and tuned to this application."

Kegs are a slang term for ferrite beads, often found used legitimately for damping RF on power cables. No problem, That has a measurable impact as a low pass filter. And they are inexpensive - You can get an 80pc assortment on Amazon for $20.99. So, lots of opportunity to reformulate and tune for the price of a pizza. But they are a low pass filter, so they have other measurable impacts when used on signal cables, like hysteresis and latency, as well as limiting bandwidth. All immaterial on power cables, not so immaterial when dealing with signals.

@mclinnguy Thank you for the Laugh of the Day. Although I'm sure there are many here who don't get the joke. 🙄