[fredhammersmith]

A bit of confusion here...
I'm planning to buy either the Matrix Mini or the Eastern Electric MiniMax this fall, but both cannot be fed hires files by their USB connections. So I'll need to feed it with SPDIF
The hiface module seems to be the way to go, but... the Xonar Essence being reportedly bit-perfect now (updated drivers), does that make it a great transport? Or am I confusing two very different things?
Sorry if it has been answered elsewhere, it may be buried in the immense Xonar Essence or Hiface threads. 

 

[DaveBSC]

Bit-perfect just means that the transport isn't adding anything to the bit stream. It doesn't guarantee a "perfect" sounding transport at all. A transport could be a jittery, terrible sounding mess and still have bit-perfect output.

 

[plonter]

and the OP thought that he found a way out of it

.. sorry fredhammersmith,but we all seeking for the perfect transport.   but in the meantime,we enjoy our not-so-perfect transports which doing a very nice job.

 

[fredhammersmith]

Painful truth...
or an expensive one.

Thanks anyway.
Is there a consensus of some sort regarding the quality of the Xonar Essence  as a transport?