What model is the 12v SMPS referred to? Thanks

Lighten up dude!

I suggest you take a long vacation, and your system will certainly sound much better when you get back :)

  Well, experimenting is fun and interesting, but when you start claiming that 100 hours of burn-in on a USB stick makes the music sound better, it does warrant some serious questioning and tend to discredit the rest - IMO...   Enjoy...

Maybe try cloud storage as well and see if you hear a difference ?

  Well generally you would have the reverse setup with the PC interfacing to the DAC with the least tasks (no data retrieval, and minimum data conversion). Granted, the Startech is basically just a hub.   Maybe that is the issue with your previous experience with USB: trying to run everything...

Have you used a 2 pc solution? I would think in that case the use of SSD versus HD versus USB for music storage would be of less consequence.

I use the ethernet adapter and it works well. No changes in SQ noted.

You can get it here: http://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/adaptateurs-divers/cable-adaptateur-usbb-pour-alimentation-externe-usba-p-8389.html They have different variants.

There is a Ultimo development board advertised on the Audinate web - I have inquired about it but have not received an answer yet. It has I2S outputs, so that could be an interesting solution as well, for those of us that have I2S inputs. I am currently using the F-1 XMOS card's I2S output, and...

You can get an adapter to do that. They are cheap, if you don't feel like making one yourself.

Sorry, I meant outputting 4 channels, not two, from a PC, which can only be done via a dedicated sound card. I thought maybe this was possible via the virtual sound card. Will look into it.

Yes but the are software crossover solutions available. The question is whether you can output two channel audio through a Dante network from a PC.

Can't you send two channels through the network?

I use a DSP processor to do active crossover. Is it possible to implement that with Dante directly on the PC side and output two channels, so I could get rid of my DSP?

Here is a 600 $ Dante to AES box: http://www.atterotech.com/products/dante-aes-o/

I wonder if a RedNet AM2 could be modded to extract a digital (i2s) signal. Those units retail at 400$

Thanks for the link. Nice review...

Best dollar spent in years, by far...

It's a shame the source has yet to get reviewed as an "audiophile" equipment and only gets press from "pro equipment" reviewers.

Being able to discern a difference between a bad DAC (the emotiva) and a better one adds no credibility to this comparison.

+1 interested in impressions driving speakers as weml

I assume you are using it through the USB input. Is there any preferable connection (USB vs. SPDIF ) ?   Thanks,

Wondering what people think of the SPDIF versus USB connection. Using a Squeezebox touch, I tend to prefer the SPDIF connection than the USB (using enhanced digital output)... The manual states that USB provides highest quality, but I assume there are a number of parameters in play...

Both PC and CD can sound very good, so it all depends on your setup. I would say it is probably cheaper to get very good sound out of a CD player than out of a computer, at this point in time, but I am sure some would disagree...   This link should give you a fairly good idea of what can be...