"The State of USB Audio" - Page 2

I was reading the comments,seem to make more sense and are valuable.

USB audio is a very fast development technology an article 1 year old is to much, things have change very much, usb isolator, reclockers, async transmition etc. etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budley007 

I've always considered TAS more "analog fare" than anything else. So this "Digital Edition" surprised me with several articles/reviews concerning digital equipment and technology I find mentioned here at Head-Fi on a regular basis.

Actually these days TAS has changed their focus quite a bit towards the digital side. They still cover analog, but not nearly to the extent that Stereophile does. It was an interesting article, but unfortunately pretty much already obsolete due to the equipment being used. The Bel Canto converter is hardly "state of the art" USB these days. It's too bad that Wavelength didn't want to send their equipment, I'm not sure why not as they would've smashed the Bryston or any of the other DACs limited to 16/48 to bits. The statement "there is no Firewire DAC" is also just plain false, as Daniel Weiss helpfully pointed out in the comments.

Is 16/48 adaptive USB crap compared to coax? Yeah, but we already knew that. How do the Ayre, Weiss Minerva or DAC202, or one of the top Wavelength tube DACs compare to traditional transports and S/Pdif DACs? That would've been infinitely more useful information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budley007 


Unfortunately, this article is in the current issue of TAS. You'd either have to purchase a copy at the local news stand or buy a single issue PDF, ($4.99), direct from their website. That being said, we probably won't get as much discussion/interest in this thread as I'd hoped.

I will mention that the equipment used is as follows:

desktop PC w/Windows 2000 and soundcard
 

Windows 2000?!? Really?
 

That article is over a year old and based on 'audiophile' grade DACs (i.e. cheap CD players split into several flash boxes). No wonder S/PDIF 'wins'. It's what Cds used.

Note that the Focusrire Saffire gets a thumbs up from Mr Shill. He thinks it's because it runs via Firewire but it's not. It's because of the superior design using up to date components. All Focusrite new offerings are now USB 2.0. As are those from the most respected manufacturers - RME, MOTU, E-MU etc. 

How do I know? Well for one thing my MOTU Ultralite offers USB 2.0, Firewire & (if you insist) S/PDIF. Firewire and USB sound identical. 

The author of the article lost me when he insisted that the more money you spend on a USB cable equates to a significantly better signal quality. The best you can say about his remarks is that they are his opinion and he is entitled to it. At least he doesn't attempt to queer the pitch by claiming to have carried out any meaningful real world tests or that his opinion is any more creditable than that of a tone deaf stickleback.

If I remember correctly, the major reason for Wavelength & Ayre to pull out was because of the testing method. Taffel just wanted to plug in the DAC and listen. They insisted on a minimal bit of configuring. Logical, if you accept Win defaults your USB DAC is treated as a pair of desktop speakers instead of full range, etc.

As they didn’t come to an agreement they pulled out because they, quit rightly, expected disaster.  

This is pretty common today, reviewers at one hand knowing nothing about computer based audio at the other hand feeling the pressure, using a computer as a source instead of a CDP is gaining momentum, embark on the computer audio way and making all the typically newbie errors in the process.

I expect al lot more highly amusing reviews to come.

I've read that USB isn't good for audio, but I haven't had any problems with my USB DAC/AMP. . .