Use of Denafrips Iris 12th DDC with computer

Yes it makes a nice upgrade IMO to your dac 

even their newer 12 th  the Hermes having better of everything 

including  dual oven  controlled clocks and much better regulation and isolation is 

worth the extra bucks but if you don’t have the $$. The Iris 12 is the best ddc I have heard under a grand ,much better then the old iris2 and for sure use I2S that is by far the best  just use a good brand I2S cable ,yes they look like a hdmi  cable 

but ones made for audio have better dielectric and build quality .we have tried $100  hdmi , and  a few brands I am not spending $600:on a I2S cable. AQ or Wireworld 

Are  popular.

Denafrips IRIS in front of Denafrips Pontus II made a significant improvement in soundstage depth and width as well as clarity and detail.  Now I now what a “black” background sounds like.. I’d estimate a 20% improvement, subjective of course. $500 well spent on a modest $20k rig.  You should also consider a dedicated power line with true earth ground and upgrade power outlets, another 5 to 10 percent improvement. With digital source, seems the cleaner the power and signal the better. 

Paul McGowan talked about the digital signal in recent Copper Magazine and the early Genesis Digital Lens, basically a DDC. System synergy is important and everything can make a difference. If you can hear it, it matters, if you can’t, it doesn’t. 

I’m going to contradict myself some relative to my last post.  I think the DDC is a good upgrade especially if you use a laptop to stream.  Many here state that computer audio pales in comparison to a good streamer, not necessarily expensive just good at streaming.  That has not been my experience.  I had a HiFi Rose 250a which was a great unit but not quite as good as my laptop to DDC/DAC.  I don’t know at what point a quality streamer would eclipse my current digital stack but I haven’t found it yet.  Streaming with a WIIM Pro did not sound as good as the laptop, both connected to the DDC/DAC combo.  I did use the optical input for the WIIM vice USB for the laptop, so it’s not exactly apples to apples.  Would a Bluesound, Aurender, Innuos etc sound better than my laptop?  Maybe, even likely but I’d still run the signal through the Hermes so it’s not like I’ve spent money on something I wouldn’t use. The Iris is $550 the Hermes is $1300.  At this point I think I’d need to spend two to three times the cost of the Hermes to better the laptop.  The DDC will serve you well and would work with any streamer upgrade you might make.

If you spend $4k on a innuos streamer to your dac then it’s noticeably 

better and has a good interface like Roon but free 

any decent ddc and computer will beat the blue sound it’s just purposely made just for cleaning the signal ,blue sound inside even the latest not much filtering at all 

and the dac I would never use ,you can buy a pretty decent R2R dac new for under $700

I agree with @jastralfu, I’m running a dedicated fanless silent mini PC with optimized settings, no extra programs other than iPad connectivity, fed by cat5 cable from industrial grade switch fed by optical fiber internet service streaming Qobuz.  PC connection to IRIS  with good quality USB, and IRIS to Pontus II by I2S cable.  Less than $3k in all of the above.  I think I’d have to spend double or triple thar on dedicated streamer a la Grimm, Aurender, Lumin, etc., to get the same performance. Really just personal preferences and choices.