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USB-S/PDIF Converter or USB DAC?

I've decided it's time to use a music server with my main system. I currently use one (iBook) with my headphone system with the Grace m902 headphone amp with built-in USB DAC. I intend to get a new Intel iBook when they are released (March/April).

I currently have an unused Wavelength Audio S/PDIF DAC that I could use with a USB-S/PDIF converter (such as Empirical or Red Wine Audio) or get a USB DAC (WA Brick, Stello, ???). Is a dedicated USB DAC preferred over the hack USB-S/PDIF converter route?
budrew
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drubin
3,267 posts
 
Thanks. I think I get it. This could solve a major problem for me, which is how to locate a laptop at my listening position and feed a DAC across the room without running a physical cable. I'd stick one of these hubs near the audio rack. I wonder if the frequency this thing operates at will pose any problems to an audio system.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Not sure about the spurious emissions. It is evidently the new ultrawideband technology in the Belkin device, which is low-power but wide frequency emissions. If there is an RF technology that might cause problems, this is it.

If you want something safer, then go with the AirPort Express. This is 802.11G. I have a version of this, Off-Ramp WIFI with S/PDIF or AES output, and soon hopefully I2S output.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer
dmitrydr
221 posts
 
So guys, what about the fact that all known USB DACs use isoncronous data transfer, which makes the major advantages of generic USB: it's bidiretional and the signal is error corrected at both input and output, to lose its value? It works pretty much simlar to SPDIF, and prone to even higher jitter... Why would anyone want it?
herman
2,216 posts
 
Gordon Rankin at Wavelength claims that his DACs are not isochronous, he says they are bidirectional with error corrrection.

Even those that are, if they properly re-clock the data, should be about as jitter free as you can get.

Steve, heard anymore about the Belkin? Seems to have dropped off the radar.
splaskin
170 posts
 
Belkin stated that the release of the wireless USB hub will be in Sept. The chip maker backed out of the deal.
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