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Sonicweld/Cryo-Parts Diverter 96/24 USB to SPDIF Review - Page 2

post #16 of 310
9/17/09 at 10:53am
Scooter.

I think Currawang said it supports up to 24/192.
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post #17 of 310
9/18/09 at 1:06am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Mantas View Post
Tooooo expensive, but if you have some extra $ and like nice looking stuff, then its ok.
80% of price is payed for case, but it looks great!
I will go with musiland, becouse the price/performance is unbeatable!

Nice toy, congrats
It's not a toy and I guarantee the price is not all in the case. The designer owns his own CNC equipment for making the speakers he sells, and aluminum billet stock is not that expensive. He sticks it in the machine, programs it, and out comes a fancy case with a little work. The price is due to the fact that it was not easy to design, trivial to assemble, or simple to bring to market. It does sound really great 2 days in. The Musiland is also not mac compatible. I wouldn't buy one of these unless it is only making up 20% of the price of your system or less.

@Currawong
I can't test it with 96/24 as I need to swap out my digital filter in the DAC8 for one that supports 96/24. Supposedly the smoothest sounding filter is one that doesn't support 96/24. I don't really care that much but for many people the 96/24 over USB is a selling point. Most of my DVD-A is not 96/24, what little I do have, at least for stereo.

Also, the digital receiver in the AudioGD's as well as the PCM1704UK chip in the Ref1/DAC8 can only handle up to 96/24. Me personally, I think most of the "gains" from 96/24 are that the discs are just a cleanly mastered copy to begin with, independent of the extra hertz.
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post #18 of 310
9/21/09 at 11:33am
Thanks for correction, Scooter. I thought I read at 24/96 in audio-gd website, but wasn't sure what's the fact.
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post #19 of 310
9/21/09 at 6:03pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm 99% certain the Ref1 is 96/24.
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post #20 of 310
9/21/09 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scootermafia View Post
Me personally, I think most of the "gains" from 96/24 are that the discs are just a cleanly mastered copy to begin with, independent of the extra hertz.
This has been discussed by people with knowledge on the issue in the science forum and I have come to the conclusion also that there is no benefit in hearing a record in higher bitrate. The recording might be of better quality but the higher bit rate doesn't make it sound better. As for the higher frequencies, I'm not even sure that a record in 96kHz sounds better than a 48kHz one.

For example, I have both the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack in 24bits/96kHz and 16bits/48kHz in FLAC format and I can't make any audible differences between the two when played with my setup.

Therefore, I still think that it is useless to pay 500$ more to have a USB transport that can take 24bits/96kHz.
Also, my motherboard has an S/PDIF RCA coax output and I'll keep using it since the Realtek ALC889A audio controler of my motherboard is capable of outputing a bit perfect digital signal to an external DAC.
I am however thinking of asking someone to swap this RCA output with a BNC one.
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post #21 of 310
9/21/09 at 7:11pm
The Ref 1 is 24/96, because that's all the PCM1704 chips can handle.

There was a big thread about 24/96 where someone basically explained using mathematics that the only benefit of the higher bit-rate was a lower noise floor. However, some people seem to feel that upsampling results in a better sound. Playing with an up-sampler here (the Ref 3) there's a small, subtle difference. If I have Mac OS X do the up-sampling, there is no difference I can detect reliably.

I wish I could just toss a $k at the Diverter, as I wouldn't mind having 24/96 USB again, but I don't have a huge library of high-res music.
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post #22 of 310
9/22/09 at 10:44am
There are a lot of things that are being discussed, but none of them are at 100% agreement.

1. bit perfect is bit perfect regardless of SC used.
2. Jitter doesn't matter since most DACs reclocks.
3. Software that outputs bit perfect all sound the same. (Amarra discussion).

Out of these 3, I noticed that either #3 is wrong or Amarra is NOT outputting the bit perfect. If they are indeed output bit perfect, then iTune is not.. Because I do hear a difference.

In that regard, I do believe #2 is also at fault. Because, if the jitter is resolved by DAC, why am I hearing a difference between software used which both outputs the bit perfect?

So, I do see the point in upgrading the transport. The question is at what cost makes sense and if there is other alternative with similar performance for cheaper...
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post #23 of 310
9/22/09 at 12:19pm
Back on topic:

This thing really bothers me. Other then the ultra uber chassis, what does the Diverter have that something like a $75 Musiland Monitor OI USD does not? I don't think its asynchronous USB (which would really help with jitter). It would be more comparable at 24/192 (even if you state that doesn't matter, what am I paying more for then?). 117 random parts doesn't really convince me, it needs to be honestly compared to justify a more the $900 difference with less functionality.
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post #24 of 310
9/22/09 at 2:50pm
x2

Punk.
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post #25 of 310
9/22/09 at 5:50pm
I'd actually be surprised if the Musiland doesn't sound better than this thing.
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post #26 of 310
9/22/09 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by n3rdling View Post
I'd actually be surprised if the Musiland doesn't sound better than this thing.
Have to disagree with this one. All the Diverter has to do to sound better than the Musiland is to not have random pops + speedups.
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post #27 of 310
9/23/09 at 4:48am
Thread Starter 
Well, nobody knows the circuit. You can speculate all you want, all I'm going to say is that it substantially improved my setup and made my HD800s much more pleasant to listen to. How they did this, is anyone's guess.
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post #28 of 310
9/23/09 at 9:03am
some1x for the vast majority that isnt an issue. Very few have had usb issues.

Also, m2tech.biz
Is releasing a converter that doesnt have usb do clocking and has no usb cord to cut down on cable diff's and has a Linux/Mac driver coming out end of the month when the item goes public. very interesting.
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post #29 of 310
9/23/09 at 11:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by scootermafia View Post
Well, nobody knows the circuit. You can speculate all you want, all I'm going to say is that it substantially improved my setup and made my HD800s much more pleasant to listen to. How they did this, is anyone's guess.
I wish the companies are more upfront about these technologies. If they aren't selling marketing BS and snake oils, they should advertise on how and what they have in their product.
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post #30 of 310
9/23/09 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by some1x View Post
Have to disagree with this one. All the Diverter has to do to sound better than the Musiland is to not have random pops + speedups.
I have found absolutely no reports at all in that matter and have searched. How does a bitperfect or non-bitperfect USB transport create random speed-ups?

I can see stutters or pops possibly with bad drivers or computer software problems though I haven't heard reports of this. That sounds outrageous. Whats your information source there?

Quote:
Originally Posted by scootermafia View Post
Well, nobody knows the circuit. You can speculate all you want, all I'm going to say is that it substantially improved my setup and made my HD800s much more pleasant to listen to. How they did this, is anyone's guess.
Perhaps an internal intelligent chip.

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