Best DAC from $1500 to $2500 (or so) Can anything beat the Eastern Electric Minimax? - Page 14

Well the Metrum is in, cold but singing none the less, and even this cold like seriously cold 54 in a mailbox all day cold it impressive.  Its also really sensitive to input.  On any other DAC I've had hearing the difference between 24/192 and 24/44 was note taking double take hard.  On the Metrum is drastic.  Going to run 24/96 for now since 24/192 wouldn't lock and the Windows 7 driver doesn't have 24/176 or 16/176 for that matter.

Anyone know for certain of any USB>SPDIF adapter that has 24/176 and 24/88 as a selectable output in Windows 7 64bit?

Audiophilleo? I measured the FR of the Octave with CD quality and high-res material and the roll-off above 10 kHz changes drastically with high-res material. You also effect the same as oversampling using high-res, so the distortion is considerably lower.

The Vlink 192 does it without drivers but I'm not sure about the 64-bit part.

Can you two post this so I can see it?

This is my laptop, not desktop but the idea is the same... no 24/176 or 24/88 option.

I never bother with anything over 16/44 in shared mode. In WASAPI exclusive that setting is ignored anyway.

Stumbled across the example I was thinking of..

http://www.stereophile.com/content/rme-digi968-pro-computer-soundcard-measurements

Long story short... that coax measurement is of a card WITH transformer decoupling.

In other news... the SPDIF on my PC... junk.  Putting my old X-Fi back in, which has a dedicated 48K clock, made a drastic difference in the result.  Even without A/B its much smoother, less edgy.  Colour me 'damn jitter matters' ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solude 

Stumbled across the example I was thinking of..

 

http://www.stereophile.com/content/rme-digi968-pro-computer-soundcard-measurements

 

Long story short... that coax measurement is of a card WITH transformer decoupling.

 

In other news... the SPDIF on my PC... junk.  Putting my old X-Fi back in, which has a dedicated 48K clock, made a drastic difference in the result.  Even without A/B its much smoother, less edgy.  Colour me 'damn jitter matters' ;)

I was into this scene a couple years back. If you feel the X-Fi is good as a transport, wait till you hear the proper ones like the Off-ramp, Berkeley Alpha, JKMK3, Audiphilleo...totally different league. When I was playing around with transports, I distinctly remember them making a larger difference than changing DACs at the time. (But, this really depends on what's the limiting factor in the chain).

No doubt, pulled the X-Fi for experiment reasons.  Think I bought that thing back in 07 to replace a 1212m.  Now I have my eye on the Juli@ XTe if I can find one.  Dedicated 44 and 48 clocks, still toslink friendly but support all the way to 24/192 including 88, 176 and isolated coax if I want to try it.  Otherwise I guess I jump the XMOS bandwagon with the M2Tech HiFace2, Anedio U2, Stello U3.  All of which look to be the XMOS reference design with the difference being parts selection.

My preference would be to find an internal card to avoid jumping through interfaces.

I run toslink from my Titanium HD card to my Anedio, seems to function really well - can't imagine that changing transport could make any difference. The sound quality is pretty much perfect - as good as anything I've ever heard out of anything.

Some people don't like toslink but I reckon it's really good if it's working properly since it's optical and you negate any kind of ground/interference issues.

Creative really needs to stop their 48K death march.  They at least support 44K samples now but how much could it possibly cost to have both 44 and 48 clocks.  Granted they are hardly alone ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoEars 

I run toslink from my Titanium HD card to my Anedio, seems to function really well - can't imagine that changing transport could make any difference. The sound quality is pretty much perfect - as good as anything I've ever heard out of anything.

 

Some people don't like toslink but I reckon it's really good if it's working properly since it's optical and you negate any kind of ground/interference issues.

You'd be surprised. Cutting the direct electrical connection to a PC sound card is better than the alternative, but toslink is hardly ideal at anything. Asynchronous mode USB with galvanic isolation > sound cards. ANY of them, other than maybe the Mykerinos.

I am really liking this Nad M51.

It's odd isn't it.  The NAD is really a one trick pony but so far most agree its a really good trick.  But its still just a plain jane DAC with a poor supply, old school filter and meh analog stage.  But the upsampling to PWM seems to hide that really well.  Go figure :D  Stereophile pretty much bowed down to it as the best DAC they have ever measured, but because of the normal FIR it has pre and post ring like the Benchmark before it.  Come to think of it, that's pretty much what it is, a reimagined Benchmark DAC1 with 2012 tech.  Wonder how much better it might be with a real power supply and not a wallwart that happens to be in the main case ;)

The only other dac I had was the W4S dac2 and I just sold it because of the preference to the Nad. They sound nothing a like. The W4S sounds like it is severely lacking sound stage in comparison to the Nad. For me this is a real problem for listening with headphones. The music does not meld as well and have a big background so I was left feeling like the music was more predominant on one Chanel or the other. The W4S also has a sharper treble. This made me wonder how much better is it than what comes out of my ipod. The Nad has at least demonstrated to me that there is something to Dac's. If it is not the most honest and true sound it is definitely a very pleasing one. The only negative about the sound I think so far is it seems a little bit of an overall  dull or mellow in the mid-bass / mid-range area compared to the W4S but that may because the Nad has much more bass in general. The Nad also has depth that is something new to me. I can't tell you how happy I am to see the W4S go. Good riddance!

That might be my next stop if the Metrum gets stomped by the W4S.