Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › transit vs. 0404 usb vs. other sub-$200 usb options digital output quality
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

transit vs. 0404 usb vs. other sub-$200 usb options digital output quality

post #1 of 6
10/26/07 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
I tried searching for this information, but could not find anything specific. Does anybody know or have an opinion of whether there would be a difference in digital output quality between the transit and the 0404 usb? I primarily work with my laptop so I need a usb rather than pci card. I use pretty good dacs and would like to make sure that I can send high quality digital. I currently have an old phillips aurillium, but that resamples to 48. It seems that the 0404 should have better digital quality than the transit, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience or educated guesses as to whether there would be much difference. I don't really need any of the other features for either card, so I am primarily interested in digital output quality.
Reply
post #2 of 6
10/26/07 at 4:43pm
I would like to hear about this as well.
Reply
post #3 of 6
10/28/07 at 7:32pm
Thread Starter 
bump for any thoughts or link to thread with info
Reply
post #4 of 6
10/28/07 at 9:46pm
What sort of digital output do you want?

The Transit can provide optical only as far as I know; the 0404 USB provides coax and optical.

The 0404 USB should have the edge as it transfers the data stream in block mode and then reclocks it out of a buffer.

And you might be quite surprised at the quality of the DAC section in the 0404 USB. I just picked up a Marantz SA8001 and have been comparing it to my 0404 USB with my CK2III and HD600's.......running FLAC>Foobar 0.8.3 via ASIO>0404 USB versus the CD's in the Marantz.

Right now, if the Marantz scores a 94, I'd give the 0404 USB an 89. That's a $200 MSRP USB recording device up against a $999 MSRP CD/SACD player.

UPDATE: See my conclusions after carefully matching levels here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...03&postcount=1

The results might surprise a lot of people.
Reply
post #5 of 6
10/30/07 at 3:43am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to save up for a bit.
Reply
post #6 of 6
10/30/07 at 5:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sejarzo View Post
What sort of digital output do you want?

The Transit can provide optical only as far as I know; the 0404 USB provides coax and optical.

The 0404 USB should have the edge as it transfers the data stream in block mode and then reclocks it out of a buffer.

And you might be quite surprised at the quality of the DAC section in the 0404 USB. I just picked up a Marantz SA8001 and have been comparing it to my 0404 USB with my CK2III and HD600's.......running FLAC>Foobar 0.8.3 via ASIO>0404 USB versus the CD's in the Marantz.

Right now, if the Marantz scores a 94, I'd give the 0404 USB an 89. That's a $200 MSRP USB recording device up against a $999 MSRP CD/SACD player.
In our experiment the E-MU sounded better than the DENON DCD-685.
The Setup was:
Denon -> DIY Tube AMP -> DIY Bookshelfs w/ Seas speakers.
Denon -> Optical -> E-MU -> Tube AMP -> DIY Bookshelfs w/ Seas speakers.

I couldn't try it out with my setup but the difference was clear through that setup, so i think with headphones it would be even bigger.

I Hope this helps
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › transit vs. 0404 usb vs. other sub-$200 usb options digital output quality