Ampeezy
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2012
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The USB card by Gustard is small and fits in a slot. You would just need a Torx driver to open the case and back panel to get it in. I don't know what they would charge for just the card. This card does not do DSD512, which people say is the best quality. The XMOS chip used by Gustard is not the latest and greatest, so you might want to wait. Also their outboard converter doesn't have DSD512 or the latest XMOS USB chip.
The higher performance option is an outboard box that converts from USB to I2S or SPDIF coax. These usually have better clocks with less jitter.
When a good option for getting DSD512 happens, I'll go for it then. Right now, only a few guys have hacked together their own solution with much soldering and effort, and are very pleased using HQ Player to upsample to DSD512 compared to DSD256.
I was considering the same thing, and came up with this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/172489899788
It also does up to DSD512. What do you think? and are there better options out there?