| Originally Posted by Mik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Async USB is intuitively very appealing to me. None of the dacs you mentioned offer that unfortunately. At Audio Asylum, I asked Charles Hansen from Ayre about the differences between the QB-9 and Ayre's C-5xeMP disc player and this was his reply: "The QB-9 has a fully discrete analog stage, as does the C-5xe MP. They both have identical minimum-phase digital filters, switchable on the rear panel. The PCB material is better performance than the CX-7e MP, but I'm not really sure how it compares with the board material in the C-5xe MP. It should be close, but we haven't done a careful listening evaluation to be sure. The capacitors are a mix -- some are the polystyrenes we use in the C-5xe MP and others are the polypropylenes we use in the CX-7e MP. There is only one stage of voltage regulation, the same as the CX-7e MP. All three sound pretty darned amazing. The new QB-9 is better in some ways than the C-5xe, but not quite overall. But it is less than half the price (assuming you have a computer already)." And this is what I was told by the Canadian dealer I contacted: "Fully Balanced. Zero negative loop feedback. one hundred percent discrete analog circuit. Equi-lock circuit derived from the MX-R and KX-R. Asynchronous USB digital interface. Ayre's exclusive MP digital filtering system. fully regulated analog power supply." The C-5xe has gotten a lot of praise from various people. If the QB-9 can deliver the same performance from the convenience of a computer, that's why I'm interested in it. I wish there was an easy way to audition these things. Anyone here had a chance to listen to one yet? |
| Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif Of course they will say that but let's get back to the mother Earth. Wavelength, when their DACs have moved to the top echelon of high performers? If it can get to DAC10, DAC-1, Stello level that would be a great achievement already, but if it can't get to the level of one of the higher end DACs I mentioned in my previous reply for twice of their price, where it leaves it at? In a couple of month there will be a flood of asynchronous USB/SPDIF converters for the fraction of that price, I know at least two manufacturers who is actively working on this right now. Isn't it wiser to get best you can get non-USB DAC and pair it with whatever becomes available for USB? Trends UD-10.1 is one nice budget solution you can get today, tomorrow I'll grab something better (?) from headamp, audio-gd, or whoever else and would still enjoy my Chord DAC64. |
| Originally Posted by Mik /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is an Ayre dac not a Wavelength dac. As far as I know Wavelength only provided the async usb code and Ayre did the rest. Theoretically, while an async USB to SPDIF converter should have lower jitter than existing converters, you'll lose the supposed benefit of driving the whole digital chain from a clock in the dac. In that case, there will be separate clocks in the usb/spdif converter and the dac and you won't be able to attain the low jitter performance of having one clock in the dac controlling the usb digital audio stream. I'm currently using a Trends UD-10.1 converter to my Cambridge 840C in my speaker setup. The performance is audibly inferior to playing a CD directly in the 840C. The most likely explanation as to why there is this difference is a difference in jitter levels. I much prefer to use my computer to listen to music than my cd player and I'm trying to find a way to match, or possibly exceed, the performance of my cd player from my computer. I'm not convinced that using a usb to spdif converter will ever be the solution. I agree waiting to see what alternatives appear is a good idea, but from everything I've read about dacs over the last year, I really feel like an async usb dac has the best chance of matching a cd player's performance. Possibly Audio-gd or some other high value electronics designer will also eventually come out with a superior, and cheaper, async usb dac. Benchmark is also announcing a new dac shortly. Maybe it will do async usb as well. Do you know of any other companies that are working on an async usb dac? |
| Originally Posted by Mik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you know of any other companies that are working on an async usb dac? |
| The USB receiver buffers the data. Then a local clock (physical) times out the samples to I2S. I believe the USB receiver architecture does have to allow some feedback from the data packets, but the buffer in the USB chip we use, and the firmware design is such that the jitter remains extremely low, at least when running on my computer, and the sound on 24/96 files is very, very good. BTW, this is an entirely different USB receiver than what we use in the DL-III, and the sonic performance is in a whole different category. |
| Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif Of course they will say that but let's get back to the mother Earth. Wavelength, when their DACs have moved to the top echelon of high performers? If it can get to DAC10, DAC-1, Stello level that would be a great achievement already, but if it can't get to the level of one of the higher end DACs I mentioned in my previous reply for twice of their price, where it leaves it at? In a couple of month there will be a flood of asynchronous USB/SPDIF converters for the fraction of that price, I know at least two manufacturers who is actively working on this right now. Isn't it wiser to get best you can get non-USB DAC and pair it with whatever becomes available for USB? Trends UD-10.1 is one nice budget solution you can get today, tomorrow I'll grab something better (?) from headamp, audio-gd, or whoever else and would still enjoy my Chord DAC64. |
| Originally Posted by Mik /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is an Ayre dac not a Wavelength dac. As far as I know Wavelength only provided the async usb code and Ayre did the rest. Theoretically, while an async USB to SPDIF converter should have lower jitter than existing converters, you'll lose the supposed benefit of driving the whole digital chain from a clock in the dac. In that case, there will be separate clocks in the usb/spdif converter and the dac and you won't be able to attain the low jitter performance of having one clock in the dac controlling the usb digital audio stream. I'm currently using a Trends UD-10.1 converter to my Cambridge 840C in my speaker setup. The performance is audibly inferior to playing a CD directly in the 840C. The most likely explanation as to why there is this difference is a difference in jitter levels. I much prefer to use my computer to listen to music than my cd player and I'm trying to find a way to match, or possibly exceed, the performance of my cd player from my computer. I'm not convinced that using a usb to spdif converter will ever be the solution. I agree waiting to see what alternatives appear is a good idea, but from everything I've read about dacs over the last year, I really feel like an async usb dac has the best chance of matching a cd player's performance. Possibly Audio-gd or some other high value electronics designer will also eventually come out with a superior, and cheaper, async usb dac. Benchmark is also announcing a new dac shortly. Maybe it will do async usb as well. Do you know of any other companies that are working on an async usb dac? |
| Originally Posted by auee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Which companies are working on true asynchronous converters? When are these products going to be released to the market? I think the only companies who are now selling components withe asynchronous USB conversion are Ayre, Wavelength and dCS. I would like to see many more develop this technology for USB playback. |
| Originally Posted by StateRadioFan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Try using the USB audio driver from USB 2 Audio - the low latency experience I noticed a big improvement over the generic windows driver (tighter bass, smoother highs) in the Trends unit with my system. You will get a beep every 30 seconds unless you buy a license but its worth a test and/or purchase. Especially if you are going to hold onto the Trends for awhile. |
| Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif AudioGd, Headamp and Empirical Audio. |
| Originally Posted by gregeas /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you referring to the Pico DAC, or does Justin have something else in the works? |
