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Old 02-27-2007, 04:21 AM   #43 (permalink)
melomaniac
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Originally Posted by TreAdidas View Post
My thoughts as well. Anyone come up with a compelling enough reason to need to go over USB in the instance you have a computer equipped with an optical output?
hm... still depends on what you do downstream. I'm willing to bet that a nice (tubed?) USB DAC like one from wavelength is going to trounce whatever a cheaper (three-figure) DAC can do with your optical in. and all things being equal (i.e. let's set a hypothetical cost/quality inflection point for both DACs) I am further convinced that jitter is something that we ought to take seriously, even and especially in computer audio. USB has a firmer lock than many SPDIF solutions (especially if it means longer signal paths). for that reason, I own three amps that take USB input, and don't own a separate DAC anymore.
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