2. digital
  3. 181426-149317

USB yet again

For a few years I have had an Intona Isolator with Oyaide Continental 5S upstream and Intona Reference downstream connecting Streamer and DAC. Given the Strong benefit of filters on the upstream Ethernet connection I added a LHY Audio USB 3.0 purifier with a Grey Knights power cable. The tightening of the transfer and resultant SQ was remarkable despite having used superior cables before.

While USB remains a compromised transfer format, asynchronous USB is the only protocol synchronising the server’s and dac’s clocks unless both have master clock connections. AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised. Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution. It is interesting that there seems to emerge a trend to combine server and dac: one wonders why?

antigrunge2

Showing 2 responses by soix

soix
8,808 posts
 

One can perceive the complexities of streaming as a burden or a delight.

@sns Totally agree, but I think I’d substitute “delight” with “unbridled opportunity.”  I mean, this stuff can just get better and better almost seemingly without bounds if you’re willing to put in the thought, effort, and $$$.

@vthokie83 My experience running an Iris into my Musician Pegasus absolutely mirrors your experience.  Immediately noticeable and this with a cheap little 6” Monoprice HDMI cable.  Amazing, although maybe our DACs are set up to be optimized with the i2S input so I have to submit that as a variable.  Maybe other DACs prefer other inputs, but I’m all in on i2S.

soix
8,808 posts
 

@j_andrews My advice, especially since you’ve got an Iris, sell both your DACs and get a Musician Draco. Why? It’s got an i2S input that your Iris can provide to it. I’ve got an Iris feeding my Musician Pegasus into its i2S and the transformation over USB was at another level. Not even close. You want as short of an HDMI cable as possible, and I’m using this lowly 6” cable from Monoprice that was more than capable of showing the superiority of i2S. You’ve got a wonderful Iris, so I say USE IT!!! The Draco is 95% of my Pegasus (and by association the Denafrips Pontus ll) at a big discount, and it’ll love you feeding it with your Iris. Just my experience FWIW, and best of luck!

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13578

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096S6HBQY/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_30?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

 

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