[rb2013]

  Interesting.  I just got one of these - http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=USB-TERMvirtualkey58150000virtualkey992-USB-TERM - to scope the +5V out from my MacBook Pro with different cables of different length, to see what goes on and to see what exactly the Wyrd does and how well it cleans it up.  I'll be checking it open (floating) and with 220k, 2.2k, and 5V/500mA = 10ohm loads for each cable.  Both spectrally and with a DMM for voltage.  My hypothesis is that a "good" audio-grade USB cable has relatively high impedance in the +5V/gnd and the voltage will drop under load, making it unsuitable for powering, but fine for a high-Z reference input (like XMOS parts seem to want it for) - and, so, intrinsically choked.  In general, if the noise goes down with load without affecting the voltage too badly, shunting may be an option.  I may also add noise generation to see what impact it really has and what's audible.
 
This of course is completely different from AC noise.  Also, a computer could be extremely noisy internally yet have a clean USB out, if designed to that end.

That should be interesting.  Will you try different lengths as well? Say 1m vs 1.5 m, etc...
 
I use these on my dedicated pc media servers - Zen 400 pc ps.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104035
 
I tried this SOtM tX-UBS PCI card - but had issues with the pc recognizing it.  Sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't.
 
http://www.sotm.sonore.us/SOtM3.html
 

 

[sandab]

  That should be interesting.  Will you try different lengths as well? Say 1m vs 1.5 m, etc...
 

I'll use the random assortment of cables I have, plus a dedicated (inexpensive) Ghent Audio U01 cable.  The first step is to see if there's any difference at all, or if they all just transparently pass on whatever is in the computer.  At some point I'll probably buy a better cable, like an AQ Carbon or something.  But if a $3 cable and a $30 one produce exactly the same I might not be inclined to try a $300 one.

 

[rb2013]

I'll use the random assortment of cables I have, plus a dedicated (inexpensive) Ghent Audio U01 cable.  The first step is to see if there's any difference at all, or if they all just transparently pass on whatever is in the computer.  At some point I'll probably buy a better cable, like an AQ Carbon or something.  But if a $3 cable and a $30 one produce exactly the same I might not be inclined to try a $300 one.

I've heard differences in each cable I've tried. The worst the Cardas Clear (blue), the best the Synergistic Research Tesla USB.

 

[Jamiee]

+1
 
I've run the gamut of WireWorld USB cables, Blueberry Hill Audio cables, Belken Cables, plus a smattering of various others for good measure...  I finally settled on the Light Harmonic Lightspeed (split version) as my absolute favorite.  It took well over 200hrs to fully break in, but the wait was worth it!
 
Funny enough one of my favorite all-around cables is the Belken Gold Series USB.  It's easily one of the cheapest at around $15 (or less) for 6ft. length but it has this ability to compete with or even beat cables I've heard at up to 20x it's price.
 
While the Gold does a lot of things reasonably well, the Lightspeed is on a different level (it should be considering the cost difference!).
The Lightspeed is extremely neutral (almost to a fault) but never falls off the edge.  It is the type of cable that can grow with ones system.  The better the front-end electronics get, the better the cable gets.
It's not a limiting factor in any way and is the only cable I've heard to date - in my system - that doesn't sound like it imparts a particular sound signature.
 
I also really enjoyed the the Blueberry Hill Figaro USB cable.  This is a cable that tonally shares a lot with the Light Harmonic Lightspeed but comes across with a very slightly warmer presentation overall.  It's too bad that I've had timing related errors with this particular cable that have manifested in the occasional pop & crackle during playback.  I still have the cable and will at some point need to re-visit it as I'd like to see if I can solve the timing issue. It is after all a very good sounding cable.

 

[rb2013]

  +1
 
I've run the gamut of WireWorld USB cables, Blueberry Hill Audio cables, Belken Cables, plus a smattering of various others for good measure...  I finally settled on the Light Harmonic Lightspeed (split version) as my absolute favorite.  It took well over 200hrs to fully break in, but the wait was worth it!
 
Funny enough one of my favorite all-around cables is the Belken Gold Series USB.  It's easily one of the cheapest at around $15 (or less) for 6ft. length but it has this ability to compete with or even beat cables I've heard at up to 20x it's price.
 
While the Gold does a lot of things reasonably well, the Lightspeed is on a different level (it should be considering the cost difference!).
The Lightspeed is extremely neutral (almost to a fault) but never falls off the edge.  It is the type of cable that can grow with ones system.  The better the front-end electronics get, the better the cable gets.
It's not a limiting factor in any way and is the only cable I've heard to date - in my system - that doesn't sound like it imparts a particular sound signature.
 
I also really enjoyed the the Blueberry Hill Figaro USB cable.  This is a cable that tonally shares a lot with the Light Harmonic Lightspeed but comes across with a very slightly warmer presentation overall.  It's too bad that I've had timing related errors with this particular cable that have manifested in the occasional pop & crackle during playback.  I still have the cable and will at some point need to re-visit it as I'd like to see if I can solve the timing issue. It is after all a very good sounding cable.

+1  I'll have to try the Lightspeed. I also have a Silnote Poseidon on my other system - it's very good.
 
I've been tempted to try the Chord USB SilverPlus - it is very reasonably priced and has received great reviews in the UK hifi mags.
 

Hi-fi News OUTSTANDING PRODUCT June 2013 - Chord USB SilverPlus

 SUPER STEREO

In the event, the overwhelmingly positive reaction of our panel (on three separate occasions) put SilverPlus top-of-the heap in the sanely-priced category. This is an extremely open-sounding cable – fresh, effusive and bubbling with detail without sounding forced, bright or in-your-face. The atmosphere of The Eagles’ live ‘Hotel California’ was extremely realistic. ‘Did you hear that guy whistling way back there?’, remarked one listener admiringly.

Chord’s cable did the very same thing with Oscar Peterson’s trio, creating a huge image without blowing the perspective of the piano, percussion and strings out of proportion.  In tonal balance, SilverPlus is a match for Kimber’s Cu but brings with it a greater sense of spaciousness and transparency. Percussion has fantastic sparkle, a vivid life without a hint of brashness. And The Beatles’ remasters?  No longer a ‘period’ piece, this sounded like it was recorded yesterday."

 
 
From Hi-fi News OUTSTANDING PRODUCT July 2014 - Chord Signature USB Tuned ARAY review:

Vocals had a
wonderfully breathy quality too, but
was this necessarily the best ‘in the
round’ USB cable
we’d heard?  
 
Returning to
Chord’s own USB
SilverPlus (last year’s
winner) suggested
not, for this latter
cable – still a
current item at just
£55/1.5m – was arguably better
integrated still, detailed, insightful
and inherently musical. The USB
standard has not changed and, quite
frankly, neither has our choice of
favourite USB cable.

http://www.chord.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/HFN_USB-Cable-GT_Chord-Co.pdf
 
 
http://www.thecableco.com/Product/Silver-Plus-USB
 
http://www.chord.co.uk/about-the-chord-company/awards/
 
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer-based-media/chord-usb-silverplus

 

[Padawan38]

Hello

I'm very interested into the U12 but eBay resellers say Linux is not taken in charge.
I plan to use Daphile or Vortexbox or other Linux based OS as player ,
Does anyone has any experience Regarding this point ?

Thank you very much
Rgds

 

[rb2013]

Hello

I'm very interested into the U12 but eBay resellers say Linux is not taken in charge.
I plan to use Daphile or Vortexbox or other Linux based OS as player ,
Does anyone has any experience Regarding this point ?

Thank you very much
Rgds

This should answer your question - it looks like yes.  I'm not a Linux user so no expert.
 

  From mid-2010 on both OSX and Linux supports USB audio class 2 natively.
If the DAC is USB audio class 2 compliant it will play up to 32/384 on these systems without the need to install additional drivers.

http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_DAC_Async.htm
 

 Native DSD is only currently available on Windows platforms using the foobar SACD plugin and the Thesycon (ASIO) driver. For DSD playback on other platforms (OSX, iDevice, Linux, Android..) please use DoP (DSD over PCM).

http://www.xcore.com/questions/2673/how-setup-native-dsd-playback-mfa-board

 

[ryssen]

Got my U12 today,but I get a "jittery" timefault sound with pops,trumphets sound like they had wahwa pedals.
I used the drivers that came on the cd.
Whats wrong?

 

[Wynnytsky]

Ryssen:
 
I used the CD as well, and I'm using ASIO.  Download Deferred-Procedure-Call Latency Checker v1.3 (dpclat.exe) to confirm your well into the green.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/AudioTools/TroubleShooting.htm
 
Before messing with your player's software, try a different USB cable.  I used to get some messed up issues using a silver usb cable from lavricable, and when I tried it with the Gustard U10 it was way worse -- a steady tick! tick! tick!.  I hear 1.5 meters is supposed to be the ideal length.
 
Determine which methods exhibit the jitter: DS,KS,ASIO,WASAPI
Let us know your player and we can start comparing parameters (buffer, bit depth, dsp plugins, etc)
 

Chodi is using HQPlayer and says it's the best for DSD playback
http://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html
(avail on linux)
I wish someone could explain why DSD files sound so good when played back with VLC (a video player!) into my PCM DAC.  I tried JRiver 19 with a Lampizator 5 [set to it's DSD input] and I thought it sounded worse than playing a FLAC version of the same track.  I still download SACDs like there's no tomorrow, but I'm not upgrading my DAC because I *presume* Dirac performs it's magic in a PCM domain.

 

[ryssen]

"Determine which methods exhibit the jitter: DS,KS,ASIO,WASAPI"
 
They are all the same about 4-600us with some tops of 1700us.
I tried different USB cables.
My player is JR mediacenter but tried foobar as well it´s all the same
tried different buffer setting to,I still get those pops and glitches.....

 

[Chodi]

  "Determine which methods exhibit the jitter: DS,KS,ASIO,WASAPI"
 
They are all the same about 4-600us with some tops of 1700us.
I tried different USB cables.
My player is JR mediacenter but tried foobar as well it´s all the same
tried different buffer setting to,I still get those pops and glitches.....

If you want help you are going to have to be specific about what dac you are using and information about the rest of your system. We would also need information about your computer setup. The problems you describe are usually resource related. More often computer related problems. Are you only playing redbook or are you trying to play dsd? Are you doing any upsampling or conversion on the fly? We need to know much more to really help.

 

[Wynnytsky]

wow those numbers are scary
What's your processor utilization during playback?
My i7 gives me an absolute maximum of 177us during 16/44 playback in JRiver20 and 227us during 24/192
That's with the CPU fluctuating between 0% to 2% with me remoted in via logmein from work.
 
And does your DAC have it's own USB input?  No pops with that?

 

[rb2013]

"Determine which methods exhibit the jitter: DS,KS,ASIO,WASAPI"

They are all the same about 4-600us with some tops of 1700us.
I tried different USB cables.
My player is JR mediacenter but tried foobar as well it´s all the same
tried different buffer setting to,I still get those pops and glitches.....

Try increasing your buffer size. I use 7800ms in Foobar.

Be sure you are using a USB 2.0 socket on your PC, on mine some are 2.0 some are 1.0. What type of pc are you using?
Be sure to copy the ASIO dll to the Foobar components directory from the Thesycon directory.
Have you tried the WaveIO ASIO drivers?
Also uninstall all other USB and/or ASIO drivers and reinstall the Gustard drivers. You may be getting some driver conflicts.

Good luck!

 

[rb2013]

Ordered a Chord USB SilverPlus 1.5m from cable company. $125 - can't beat that. Will see how it compares to the SR Tesla.

 

[Jamiee]

Ordered a Chord USB SilverPlus 1.5m from cable company. $125 - can't beat that. Will see how it compares to the SR Tesla.

 
Just ordered the same cable from usedcables.com for $89.00 + $14.50 Shipping to Canada.
Nice thing is that it won't need much break-in time considering it's a previously used cable, so it'll be a fairly quick comparison to the LightSpeed.