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Can someone take a look at my setup

post #1 of 4
12/17/10 at 3:38am
Thread Starter 

So right now I'm working with Laptop -> random $20 USB-optical converter -> Zero DAC via optical -> DT880's.

 

It looks very likely I'll be adding some tubes in the future, but before I proceed, I wanted to know if my USB-to-optical is bottlenecking my rig?  I don't know much about how this all works so I'm not sure if there is any potential quality lost with a crappy converter, or if it's all the same.

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post #2 of 4
12/17/10 at 4:11am

Yea that cheap converter would be a bottleneck and may cause jitter, you need something like a proper usb dac/soundcard with optical out, you could try these http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx , http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html .

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post #3 of 4
12/17/10 at 7:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRG1990 View Post

Yea that cheap converter would be a bottleneck and may cause jitter, you need something like a proper usb dac/soundcard with optical out, you could try these http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx , http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html .


It's very questionable if these devices would decrease jitter and if these tiny amounts of jitter are actually audible..

 


Quote:
Originally Posted by i_love_hina View Post

It looks very likely I'll be adding some tubes in the future, but before I proceed, I wanted to know if my USB-to-optical is bottlenecking my rig?

 

Tubes will bottleneck sound quality more than any random USB-to-optical converter. wink.gif


Edited by xnor - 12/17/10 at 7:21am
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post #4 of 4
12/17/10 at 7:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by xnor View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JRG1990 View Post

Yea that cheap converter would be a bottleneck and may cause jitter, you need something like a proper usb dac/soundcard with optical out, you could try these http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx , http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html .


It's very questionable if these devices would decrease jitter and if these tiny amounts of jitter are actually audible..

 


Quote:
Originally Posted by i_love_hina View Post

It looks very likely I'll be adding some tubes in the future, but before I proceed, I wanted to know if my USB-to-optical is bottlenecking my rig?

 

Tubes will bottleneck sound quality more than any random USB-to-optical converter. wink.gif

 

The devices i listed will be better made, better quality products than the $20 converter . LoL the tubes would be a bottleneck for me aswell compared to a $20 converter aswell.

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