[cladisch]

I have a PC with optical output. Would it sound better with E1 through optical-in or USB?

 
With S/PDIF, the receiving device has to synchronize to the sender's clock (which gets harder the more jitter you have).
With USB, the PC synchronizes to the E1's clock.
 

optical seems to have better transfer rate

S/PDIF: 12 Mbit/s (at 192 kHz)
USB 1.x: 12 Mbit/s
USB 2.0: 480 Mbit/s
 
(S/PDIF is designed to transport nothing but the audio stream.)

 

[psysword]

hi there, im new here,,,and am waiting for my Asus to come on in...im currently in new delhi and its been a pain getting a hold of the E1...im placing the order tom and fingers crossed get it in a month from taiwan...i heard your chatter and ive learnt much from it...GET THE E1!....sure am...now getting to all the fancy stuff like op amps and swapping ill do that later on....so a quick thanks to all of you and Keep Talking! P.s anywhere i can learn how to swap an amp, just pull and plug,,,and how do you ID the op=amps and not pull the wrong amps...
and how do you know which op-amp does what? that sounds real complicated....anyways here is to music....
 
saif

 

[Zybane]

Quote:

Thanks! But I assume that if you want to use only your headphones, you can just turn down the volume (via E1's knob) of the speakers and they will be dead silent, right? For example, my current amp outputs sound even if the volume knob is turned down to the lowest setting.

Yes just turn down one volume and it will be dead silent. 
 


Quote:

Ok, this is probably a dumb question:
I have a PC with optical output. Would it sound better with E1 through optical-in or USB?
 
I was thinking of using optical because optical seems to have better transfer rate, but everyone seems to be using USB. I am confused...
 
Another dumb question:
If I use optical, do I still need to go through those updates?

USB 2.0 has plenty of bandwidth to handle any sampling rate. USB on the E1 works perfect, no reason to use anything else. Zero jitter and stellar sound.  
 

 

[morfeeus]

Not true.............actually the coaxial SPDIF digital input from a DAC , if utilized, can be superior than USB. There is a  relatively new product that exceeds the sound quality of USB. Its a converter that is placed between the USB output of your PC and your DAC SPDIF input. There are a few audio manufacturers that produce them like.....Musical Fidelity's V-Links II, Stello U3, and Berkeley Audio Design's Alpha USB to mention a few. Prices range from $ 200. to $ 1700.
 
The USB input was never intended to be a high resolution digital audio output. It was the rapid growth of computer based music systems that caused the high end  industry to re-engineer the standard to meet the growing demands of high quality music requirements, Because of the contributions of high end designers ,today's best USB interfaces are light years beyond the basic improvements.
 
I would just like to mention that  another level of higher audio quality sound from the Essence One  is possible, depending upon your personal audio system investment and audio playback quality preferences, these USB / SPDIF converters may or may not be everyone's desire to acquire for more $$$$. Thou it is an option. Just to inform you.....

 

[ROBSCIX]

I would say it depends on what is being compared.  It is not really just a simple A is better then B question.

 

[firev1]

Quote:

Not true.............actually the coaxial SPDIF digital input from a DAC , if utilized, can be superior than USB. There is a  relatively new product that exceeds the sound quality of USB. Its a converter that is placed between the USB output of your PC and your DAC SPDIF input. There are a few audio manufacturers that produce them like.....Musical Fidelity's V-Links II, Stello U3, and Berkeley Audio Design's Alpha USB to mention a few. Prices range from $ 200. to $ 1700.

That is not true! If anything, USB standard is the way to go. There maybe in fact, degrading of audio quality over a few metres and USB does not have that sort of problem. In fact, if anything, adding a new interface between the USB and DAC, may degrade quality. Sound quality over a certain protocol is more dependent on DAC jitter reduction than interface.
 
PS: LOL everyone denying each other

 

[morfeeus]

USB is by far the most popular and simplified way to run a connection to a DAC. Although simple in practice, the USB audibly degrades the signal passing through it.  Even in the higher design implementations. As mentioned , USB  was never designed for audio, it is a"packetized data" format in which data are split up into discrete chunks, wrapped up with information about those chunks,transmitted and then put back together at the receiving end. This is is sharp contrast with the continuous bitstream of digital audio formats such as SPDIF.
 
Nothing to do with length of transmission. Regardless, by no means each USB / SPDIF converter on its own won't accomplish a state of the art, all out assault without non compromising sound quality. Its just another way of eliminating problems of the USB interface.

 

[firev1]

Quote:

USB is by far the most popular and simplified way to run a connection to a DAC. Although simple in practice, the USB audibly degrades the signal passing through it.  Even in the higher design implementations. As mentioned , USB  was never designed for audio, it is a"packetized data" format in which data are split up into discrete chunks, wrapped up with information about those chunks,transmitted and then put back together at the receiving end. This is is sharp contrast with the continuous bitstream of digital audio formats such as SPDIF.
 
Nothing to do with length of transmission. Regardless, by no means each USB / SPDIF converter on its own won't accomplish a state of the art, all out assault without non compromising sound quality. Its just another way of eliminating problems of the USB interface.

Proof? USB does not degrade signal, problems associated with USB comes from lack of proper implementation of the USB interface but in the years we have seen a fair share of high quality DACs with very good USB implementation for low jitter. The so called "packetized data" and bitstream argument about SQ is moot with proper usb jitter isolation. I know that USB has its fair share of problems, but running a converter makes less sense(and potentially adding jitter) than just buying a high quality USB DAC with good jitter reduction.  Just because something isn't specifically designed for audio does not mean it does any worse in it.
 
 

 

[dynamics]

Will the sound quality degrade if I hooked up E1 through the STX optical out?

 

[firev1]

Quote:

Will the sound quality degrade if I hooked up E1 through the STX optical out?

In theory, yes.

 

[leeperry]

 

USB is by far the most popular and simplified way to run a connection to a DAC. Although simple in practice, the USB audibly degrades the signal passing through it. [..] Its just another way of eliminating problems of the USB interface.

Another problem is that you cannot isolate hi-speed USB 2.0, OTOH any serious coax middle-man does it out of the box...so the computer noise doesn't get its way into the DAC

 

[gkl]

Quote:

Yes just turn down one volume and it will be dead silent. 
 

USB 2.0 has plenty of bandwidth to handle any sampling rate. USB on the E1 works perfect, no reason to use anything else. Zero jitter and stellar sound.  
 

Sounds perfect, exactly what I'm looking for. Will order it asap.
 

 

[Zybane]

 

 
[size=12pt]Uh, I am sorry I completely disagree with everything you have said. USB being a digital signal, it has nothing to do with "high resolution audio output". It is all about bandwidth. The only way you would lose any of the signal is if the bandwidth limit is reached, which doesn't even come close to happening with USB 2.0. Plus the E1 has jitter reduction as it's timing is sync'd with the PC. 100% of the information that the PC sends out is received by the E1 in bit-perfect mode, so the audio signal cannot get any better. Especially on a device like the E1 that has the USB connection done really well. [/size]
 
[size=12pt]And somehow going from USB to SPDIF which has lower bandwidth is suppose to be better? If your not getting any jitter, there is absolutely no benefit to SPDIF. Your still outputting in USB and you are introducing another component that could lead to timing and signal loss problems in your audio chain. The only reason USB-SPDIF converts exist is so that people with USB outputs can play their music on devices like receivers that ONLY have SPDIF inputs. [/size]
[size=12pt]So long as you don't get any jitter which the E1 doesn't, USB output is 100% perfect. It is only very poor USB audio equipment that would benefit from a SPDIF converter, not the E1. Most of those articles you read saying SPDIF is "better" than USB are ancient and used inferior equipment. I'd wager starting with USB at the PC and then changing to SPDIF midway with some piece of electronics mid-stream would make the sound worse. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]Most USB audio uses Synchronous Data Transfer mode to adjust the internal clock to compensate different data transfer rates between PCs and USB audio devices. But the jitter is worse if the transfer rate is different between a PC and the audio device. To avoid this issue, the ASUS Xonar Essence One supports Asynchronous Data Transfer mode. This mechanism feedbacks the buffer status to the system, and the system is based on buffer status to adjust to the speed of the data transfer, which leads to a low amount of jitter in the Xonar Essence One down to an insignificant level. A USB-SPDIF converter is good for synchronous data devices but not asynchronous like the E1.  [/size]
Quote:

Not true.............actually the coaxial SPDIF digital input from a DAC , if utilized, can be superior than USB. There is a  relatively new product that exceeds the sound quality of USB. Its a converter that is placed between the USB output of your PC and your DAC SPDIF input. There are a few audio manufacturers that produce them like.....Musical Fidelity's V-Links II, Stello U3, and Berkeley Audio Design's Alpha USB to mention a few. Prices range from $ 200. to $ 1700.
 
The USB input was never intended to be a high resolution digital audio output. It was the rapid growth of computer based music systems that caused the high end  industry to re-engineer the standard to meet the growing demands of high quality music requirements, Because of the contributions of high end designers ,today's best USB interfaces are light years beyond the basic improvements.
 
I would just like to mention that  another level of higher audio quality sound from the Essence One  is possible, depending upon your personal audio system investment and audio playback quality preferences, these USB / SPDIF converters may or may not be everyone's desire to acquire for more $$$$. Thou it is an option. Just to inform you.....

 

 

[GChiu]

Wow, many schools of thoughts... I have lots to learn...
 
Since the E1 requires only USB 1.1 or higher, would bandwidth still matter as cladisch mentioned that the S/PDIF and USB1.x has the same bandwidth?
 
Also, I noticed USB ports are different... I have external powered hub, on-board USB 2.0, on-board USB 3.0, and front panel USB ports, and not all devices work well on all ports. That's actually my key concern with the USB...
 
And... I can't get the bit perfect light to on with Win 7 on either USD or TOSLINK... I am streaming from Amazon cloud...

 

[morfeeus]

After reading reviews in a couple of high end magazines...................reading  about what the reviewer is hearing has made me a believer ..................
Here is one review I could find online of the $500. STELLO U3 USB/SPDIF CONVERTER.......
 
http://www.aprilmusic.com/eng/bbs/bbsView.php?id=47&page=1&code=bbs_industry
 
Found another.....this one being the $169. MUSICAL FIDELITY V-LINK II
 
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Musical-Fidelity-M1DAC-M1HPA-and-V-Link-Async-USB-Converter-Review