2. digital
  3. 1307688047

Wyred4Sound Dac-2 vs Preamp and separate DAC

I’m about to upgrade to either the Wyred4Sound DAC-2 to use as a Preamp/Dac or possibly considering a used Classe Audio CP-60 and Wyred4sound DAC-1. If I’m only going to use a CD transport and USB to play lossless files is there any advantage to having the separate Preamp/DAC setup. I would personally think the Dac-2 would be the cleaner path but I’m a little worried about the digital volume control. Any opinions welcome. Preamp also doesn’t have to be Classe but some type of balanced pre along those lines.
r_garland
ranperry
13 posts
 
I am using the S/PDIF output from a M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card. Works great.
allen_bh
17 posts
 
@ranperry: you really should try the USB async directly into the dac2. Youre missing out on the best sounding part of the unit (IMHO). I tried exacty what you have and found the m audio spdif nowhere near as good sounding as sending the usb direct to the dac2 using kernel streaming with jriver mc.
ranperry
13 posts
 
I can't. Wyred4Sound does not provide their proprietary drivers for Linux. Also, I prefer using Linux as I get Bit Perfect sound, bypassing the OSs mixer altogether. USB audio is not mature yet (this is from a hardware engineer perspective). Once DAC manufactures will start using the standard audio protocol in USB 2 and USB 3 I may give it a try. The problem is that Microsoft does not have native hi res support and Apple's own implementation is lacking. Maybe in a few years....
allen_bh
17 posts
 
Jriver's implementation of kernel streaming bypasses the os's sound mixer alltogether. Its a relatively new feature that's come out in the last few months. Id say its better than anything else in windows. But i also agree with you that Linux rules. Id be curious how the latest implementation of windows kernel streaming in jriver compares with what youre using. What application do you use for playback?
ranperry
13 posts
 
I am using MPD on the server and GMPC (ubuntu desktop) and MPDroid (Motorola Xoom) to control my music. Can you control the volume within Jriver? How can you tell that it bypasses the mixer?

More to discover