Swapped out the digital cable between my DAC in PC and oh my God!

[Audioseduction]

I was using a digital RCA coaxal cable and was recommaned by Bel Canto to use the USB to ST Glass Fiber converter which is compatible with native drivers on Mac and Windows. I was blown away at the level of extended clarity playback I could hear. Below are some benefits from using the converter.

- Low-jitter clock recovery features reference crystal oscillator
- Self-powered via USB input benefiting from LC filters and low-noise local regulation
- Galvanic isolation between computer and audio system prevents high-frequency noise from polluting signal

Also:

Windows XP or Vista Operating Note: Because the USB Light Link is a 24 bit playback device the Windows operating system and Windows Media Player 9 or later versions will automatically decode HDCD material for correct playback even with NON HDCD DACs.

 

[amey01]

Told you so.........Using a PC for audio related tasks (clocking) is not what you want to be doing. You might want to look at getting the PC out of your listening room next!

 

[Audioseduction]

I disagree in regards of removing the PC out of the listening room. It’s not like the PC is from the late eighties or something. They have made tremendous advancements since then. I’m using my Esoteric x-03SE as a baseline and I strongly feel with my current music streaming setup I have advanced the play back a bit ahead of my dedicated CD player in many ways including better overall reduction in noise floor. There are plenty of very high-end CPU/local storage systems running Windows, iOS or Linux that are incorporated in the audio rack. You should stop by sometime to have a listen and be amazed at how awesome a world class reference system sounds.

 

[Audioseduction]

My God, look at all those computer based source in their demo rooms at the RMAF 2011. They better relocate them out of the demo room as they have a negative impact on payback. NOT, if that was the case they would use a CD player instead. Why would someone demo there multi $1,000's equipment if having their computer based player in the same room as the equipment be a bad thing?

 

[amey01]

My God, look at all those computer based source in their demo rooms at the RMAF 2011. They better relocate them out of the demo room as they have a negative impact on payback. NOT, if that was the case they would use a CD player instead. Why would someone demo there multi $1,000's equipment if having their computer based player in the same room as the equipment be a bad thing?

Certainly - if you'd get just as much enjoyment from your system if you had 20 people in the room, people shuffling in and out every minute, the door opening and closing constantly, hotel style air conditioning whirring away, etc then I guess - yes - be my guest.

 

[amey01]

I don't quite understand why you're arguing with me?

All I said was simply that I wouldn't want to do the clocking/timing of digital data inside a PC. That's all. Now you've found out I wasn't kidding.

It was just friendly advice from someone who's been network streaming music since 2004. And the results I got initially were pretty p1ss poor.

By the way - how did you get around the high-res issue with USB, as per http://www.martinloganowners.com/fo...pdif-converter&p=140713&viewfull=1#post140713

 

[Audioseduction]

The current ST Fiber converter plays up to 24/96 which is fine for me for now. I may down the road try another media converter that requires using their custom drivers to be able to play up to 24/192. As of now my red book tracks play back sounds glorious!

 

[Dan Osib]

After heavily looking in to this issue it looks like you are right here when you say that for optimum sound quality you shouldn't do the clocking/timing inside the pc or mac. This has been proven because audioseduction is definitely hearing improved sound quality by doing the usb - spdif conversion outside the pc through the bel canto. The only thing i disagree with here is that audioseduction is using a glassfibre/optical cable from the bel canto to his dac. He should be using coaxial for the best effect.

 

[Audioseduction]

The current ST Fiber converter plays up to 24/96 which is fine for me for now. I may down the road try another media converter that requires using their custom drivers to be able to play up to 24/192. As of now my red book tracks play back sounds glorious!

No, ST Fiber totaly isolates the.PC from the DAC. Very critical for cleaner signal to DAC.

 

[amey01]

He should be using coaxial for the best effect.

I'll stay well out of this one! Use what you think sounds best - and bear in mind that what sounds best might be different depending on your components.

 

[sleepysurf]

I'll muddy up this debate further by posting this interesting tidbit from S'philes RMAF coverage.

New from the Norwegian Hegel company at RMAF was the HD11 D/A processor ($1200), which features a 32-bit TI DAC but also a unique impedance-optimizing circuit on one of its coaxial S/PDIF inputs. Single-ended digital audio connections are specified to be 75 ohm transmission lines, explained Hegel's Anders Eitzeid, but not all all datalinks conform to that specification. (The RCA plug is a major source of the impedance mismatch even when the cable itself has a characteristic impedance of 75 ohms.) The impedance mismatch creates reflections that corrupt the integrity of the RF datastream, increasing jitter.

Using Totem Forest speakers driven by Hegel's H70 integrated amplifier ($2000) and with the HD11 supplied data from the Hegel CDP2 transport ($2650) via the well-regarded Nordost S/PDIF cable, Anders convincingly demonstrated the sonic improvement offered by the impedance-matching circuit by switching between the DAC's digital inputs. (To keep price down, the new circuit operates only on one of the two coaxial inputs.) To my surprise, the improvement was mainly in the low frequencies, which I conjecture is due to the elimination of the random LF jitter components that you can often see as "skirts" around tones in my jitter measurements for Stereophile.

As one who primarily streams S/PDIF digital output from my Squeezebox Touch, I'm really curious to learn more about this. If the coax connectior impedance issue is really legit, then why haven't we heard more about it? In my case, I'm using a Blue Jeans digital coax with BNC connection into a Benchmark DAC1, and am now wondering if that's really why DLNA streaming via my Oppo BDP-95 sounds better than my Touch/Benchmark combo. I assumed it was the Oppo's 32-bit Sabre DAC chip, but perhaps it's coax cable issues feeding my Benchmark.

 

[Audiophiliac]

On a side note to this thread, we recently tried some Audioquest USB cables in a small system we have in the corner of our showroom lobby. It consists of ML Ascents (consignment items), powered by a Vincent hybrid integrated amp, fed by a laptop connected via USB to a Peachtree DAC-iT. We replaced the existing Transparent USB with the AQ one and we were astonished at how obvious and drastic the differences were. To be fair, the Transparent cable was a $100 cable and the AQ was $300. But I was surprised by the results of our very casual comparison.

As popular as "computer audio" is becoming, there are still as many variables that can make or break a system as there were before. Maybe even more. You have computer hardware, software, media formats, sample rates, upsampling, DACs, cables, converters, etc...etc...and I see by some of the photos from RMAF courtesy of Tim, that there are chunks of 2x4 that can make your computer sound better.

Fun stuff for sure. I am a huge fan of computer audio. I have been storing and listening to my music collection from my PC for 10 years or more. Exciting times are here and ahead.

 

[gordonmenninger]

On a side note to this thread, we recently tried some Audioquest USB cables in a small system we have in the corner of our showroom lobby. It consists of ML Ascents (consignment items), powered by a Vincent hybrid integrated amp, fed by a laptop connected via USB to a Peachtree DAC-iT. We replaced the existing Transparent USB with the AQ one and we were astonished at how obvious and drastic the differences were. To be fair, the Transparent cable was a $100 cable and the AQ was $300. But I was surprised by the results of our very casual comparison.

As popular as "computer audio" is becoming, there are still as many variables that can make or break a system as there were before. Maybe even more. You have computer hardware, software, media formats, sample rates, upsampling, DACs, cables, converters, etc...etc...and I see by some of the photos from RMAF courtesy of Tim, that there are chunks of 2x4 that can make your computer sound better.

Fun stuff for sure. I am a huge fan of computer audio. I have been storing and listening to my music collection from my PC for 10 years or more. Exciting times are here and ahead.

That sounds pretty complicated what you are doing with the pc audio, but I am glad it works out for you! Just curious, have you ever considered streaming music with something like a Squeezebox? I am using one with excellent results as well! Happy listening!

 

[Audiophiliac]

That sounds pretty complicated what you are doing with the pc audio, but I am glad it works out for you! Just curious, have you ever considered streaming music with something like a Squeezebox? I am using one with excellent results as well! Happy listening!

It is not complicated at all. Laptop plugs into audio system via USB. How much easier could it be?

We have SONOS set up in the store as well. And we can do Airplay with the iTunes stuff. We are putting together a display specifically geared towards computer audio and all the options available for consumers....both high end "audiophile" types, and people who just want it simple and practical.

I was messing around the other day with a UPnP app on my phone and was able to send audio from any source on the network that was a DLNA server to any other device on the network that was a DLNA renderer. I was controlling and streaming music from the laptop to Denon and Integra AV receivers, Panasonic plasma displays, SONOS zone players, bluray players, etc....all controlled from my android device. It was kind of fun.