For $500, should I buy an USB or regular DAC?

[Ymer]

The title pretty much says it all. For 500, can I get more performance out of a regular DAC or an USB one?

Thanks!

 

[Gautama]

Standalone DAC. You're paying extra for the usb functionality

 

[vcoheda]

i'm not sure i understand your question. USB is just an option on a DAC. It has no bearing on the DAC itself. If your question is whether to buy a DAC with or with USB input, then the answer is where do you listen to your music, what do you intend to connect the DAC to. If your computer, get a DAC with a USB; if not, then no need for one, i suppose.

 

[mrarroyo]

The Paradisea + has coaxial, optical, and usb input options.

 

[Ymer]

Hmmmm, I thought my question was pretty clear...

What I mean is: with $500, can I buy a better regular standalone DAC (optical/toslink) or an USB DAC?

I could buy the Meier Opera, but I don't think that would be the wisest solution.

I'm going to live with my notebook as my only source of music for one year, so I need a decent DAC to use with it: either through USB or bit-perfect optical out.

So there

 

[FallenAngel]

SPDIF, Optical and USB are simply input interfaces. Multiple stage DACS (all dacs that take multiple input signals and some single input dacs but have a split solution) take the input signal, convert into I2S by the receiver and send it to the DAC to convert into analog audio.

Now that we have the theory covered, just go with the interface most convenient for you as the input. No input is really better / worse than another, just look at what you plan to use and choose.

If you know you'll be using the dac for your cd/dvd player, it most likely doesn't have USB output, so go with something that supports it supports.
If your primary source will be computer, go with whatever is easier for you.

Of course, it's a no brainer if both your other sources (pc and cd player) have optical ouput, just get a dac that takes optical input.

 

[KrooLism]

USB is for convenience only. I have USB option on the M902 but USB cannot sample greater than 48000. I upsample my computer music to 96khz and use the S/PDIF out on the 1212M

But if I had a laptop and I'm always on the go, USB would definitely be a very convenient option.

 

[KrooLism]

Footnote: Not sure about other DACs but the USB doesn't sound as good on the M902 than the other digi in options.

 

[FallenAngel]

I could never understand the reasoning behind taking a CD that's 16bit / 44.1kHz and resampling it to 24bit/192kHz before processing. You're not adding any more quality by resampling it, you're just adding another layer of processing.

Yes, oversampilng will give your filter a bit of an easier time calculating part-values, but you also have to consider that the filter is doing a very funky computation converting 44.1kHz sample rate into 96kHz, it has to work with a multiple of 2.176870748299319727891156462585 wich gives more room for error and flaky results.

Perhaps, I'm a purist, but if it was written to the media at 44.1kHz, I like to play it back at 44.1kHz

Of course my view is only true for standard CD audio. SACD and DVD Audio is a different story altogether

 

[rb67]

With that amount of money, I would get a USB>SPDIF adapter + normal stand alone DAC. This allows you to, obviously, use your computer, but it also gives you flexibility should you want to use a non-computer source with your DAC.

 

[Ahriman4891]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KrooLism /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have USB option on the M902 but USB cannot sample greater than 48000. . . . Not sure about other DACs but the USB doesn't sound as good on the M902 than the other digi in options.

I guess the implementation of USB on M902 is not the best, then. E-MU 0404USB easily accepts 24 bit 192 KHz over USB. Its S/PDIF inuputs, however, are limited to 96 KHz.

 

[ericlikeseatin]

variety is the spice of life...as they say. i would go with a dac that has both or at the very least, just an optical connection, for the sole reason that usb functionality only ties you down to using your computer as a source. and i dont know about you, but my computers go obsolete every couple of years but my music does not. in a couple of years, who knows...maybe USB will go the way of the parallel port.