What's the best (or is there a "best") DAC input to use?


Many DACs have all or most of the following inputs: USB, Toslink, Coax, BNC, AES/EBU. Is there a "best" or "preferred" input to use (i.e. which input should theoretically produce the optimum performance) and if so, what is it?
128x128gdhal

Showing 3 responses by gdhal

@kijanki 

Thanks for your rather informative response. From literature I read from DAC manufacturers, it would substantiate your claim that USB should theoretically be better. For instance, the Schiit Yggdrasil manual indicates "USB is great for audio. Try it, you’ll like it" and elsewhere in their manual go on to write "...buy a better transport.
Or use USB". 

I glean they at least prefer USB. Again, thank you @kijanki  
@audioman58  perhaps then I should ask if in this case *theory* translates into any real perceivable audible advantage. And @mofimadness , I wouldn't have the luxury of trying 100 DACs. I'm trying to get a potential purchase right the first time. I suppose what I'm wrestling with here is if I'm to buy a reasonable good DAC (like the Shiit Yggy) and then use a reasonable good transport (like my Oppo UDP205 or maybe even a Blue Sound Node 2), do I now need to be *overly* concerned with how I connect the two? 

And when I *look* (not buying one anytime soon) at high-end DACs like a Lampizator Big 7, even they are not offering an option to add I2S or firewire as an input option. So what commercially available DACs have that input?
Very enlightening responses by all. Sincerely appreciated. Besides the fact that the DAC itself often wouldn't have every conceivable input, the transport also wouldn't have every conceivable output. Amazing how this hobby's possibilities and the quest for audio nirvana is seemingly never ending, because given the responses thus far, finding the right combination of DAC, transport and cabling between the two can be rather challenging.