I have decided to keep the usb link, actually I decided this in the first 10 mins, but I have been procrastinating this post because I am lazy and hate typing. I am going to keep this short. John Stronczer is right, everything sounds better, and mp3's are listenable now.
I played my "test" playlist, which is a bunch of songs I have heard thousands of times at least. Each has a specifically notable quality, ie. chimes, deep bass note, background noises, breathing etc. I don't usually listen through the whole song, but sometimes I get caught up. I am very, very familiar with these songs. As I played "test" I took notes, at the end I had nine pages of sticky notes, with many repetitious comments.
Most noticeably was deeper more defined bass, the tracks with deep bass had many more layers and were much more guttural, not a subtle difference.
Secondly there was more detail and extension ( I guess that's kind of the same thing?) in the highs, on tracks where the performers are talking and/or breathing, supposedly off mic, I could here much more of their talking and breathing. On a Sonny Rollins track, I used to think he was just blowing quieter at certain parts of the song, now I could tell he was leaning back/ away from the mic, and to his left!
By the third song, I started to notice the presentation was moved forward a bit as the vocals on the first few songs were closer, more full and had more in room presence, but as the playlist progressed, I noticed some instruments to be placed further back in the soundstage. On one track that I have heard at least 1000 times, the trumpets sounded like they were about 6-10 back from where they were normally in the illusionary soundstage, and 12 inches to the left on the back wall in the real world, considering my speakers are only 8 feet apart that's a pretty big improvement. So , deeper and wider soundstage. That's good right? Also please note that this listening was done in a speakers set-up, not with headphones. Speakers are generally my preference for listening, but I am also waiting on tubes for my headphone amp right now.
There was also more detail in the midrange with vocals sounding more involving and breathy, there was more air around the voices, a more natural tone and improved decay, also the timbre was better for violins and piano. Violins sounded like wood, and the piano sounded like a piano. I have three violin players in the family and two cello players, I played piano for a while, now guitar, my mom and sister still play piano, I think my sister finished the royal conservatory, anyways, my point is that I have been around these instruments a lot, and for a long time, and on some of the well recorded tracks it sounded just right. Very real.
Before the link, I noticed at higher levels sometimes things could sound a bit stressed on certain recordings, as I have a relatively new, lowish powered tube amp, I alway thought that was just a limitation of the amplification, but with the link in the chain, it was basically gone. I use a close mic'd violin track, and trumpet and drum tracks, and a certain vocal track for this test, and a human whistle track, they were much, much smoother at the higher volume levels. no etch.
Another thing I noticed, and this one may be a bit harder to articulate, was that all the sounds in a given track seemed much more coherent with the link, the separation and air and depth of each instrument was still there, but they seemed to bounce off each other a bit, not smear together, but it was like the mic was picking up the directional change of the sound bouncing off of, or going around the other instruments, the sounds of one instrument playing off the sounds from another. For example, on one song in particular the sound from the guitar would come from the right side of the stage and then I could hear the sound of the pick coming from the left side, and I could never really figure out what was happening, it didn't quite fit together, coherently.....maybe the it was improved timing or prat ( never really understood that term ), maybe improved timing, but I have heard this song many , many times, and when I listened to it the first time with the link, I let out a big ahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, now I get it, and they were one in the same, and I lit a single candle.
I don't know how much credit to give the usb link and how much to give the spdif implementation on the dac3, but overall everything had a more real life sound to it, a warmer more natural tone, but more detailed at the same time. The instruments seemed to take up more volume/3 dimensional space on the soundstage, music filled the room more and was bigger, more encapsulating.
The last thing I would like to note is that I can return this, I have about 25 more days to play with it. I am not going to. I would pay more for it. While I was quite happy with the sound from the usb input of the dac3, I could never go back, but that's how this hobby is isn't it. If you are in the same situation I was in, playing music from your computer to a dac3 via the usb, get one of these. The differences may not be as noticeable with another dac, with a different usb implementation, but they could also be more drastic.
I'm going to bed now.
Macbook pro
Bel Canto Dac3
Bel Canto USB Link
Jolida 502brc
Spendor sp 1/2e speakers.
