Schiit Eitr impression and USB-SPDIF converters discussion
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:39 PM Post #723 of 1,112
Sounds like you are doing Tidal, Spotify or some other streaming service. If your video streaming is good, then your audio will be as good as it can be with the gear you have. However
Windows is frustrating for audio quality, you may find over time that you want better for a USB audio source

Thanks so much David for responding.

Just to give a run down on what I'm looking to achieve: Right now I have no computer audio, only listening to CD. What I will be doing first off is listening to my WAV audio files that I have on my external hard drive which the eltr will help me achieve, for right now I need this digital converter to access my integrated's onboard DAC via coax for it does not have usb. Then I want to purchase and implement a monitor via hdmi to access internet videos. And then finally, to download Foobar or purchase JRiver to stream audio files.

1. You stated, "However Windows is frustrating for audio quality, you may find over time that you want better for a USB audio source" Would you clarify this for me (I'm a bit green) so that I can fully understand your meaning?

2. You also stated, "If your video streaming is good, then your audio will be as good as it can be with the gear you have." Are you saying here that when I get my music player of choice operating, that if it streams let's say video of any sort eg. music videos at a certain level of quality, then the audio part will be as equal in quality?

Yes, I'll be running Windows 10. I hope not to have too many headaches with this operating system and the eltr. I was once running Foobar 2000 with my WAV files by means of a Singster F1 and had no problems in this area.

Thanks again,
 
Apr 15, 2018 at 2:32 PM Post #724 of 1,112
The only output it has is coax, the possible options a DAC can accept also include AES, BNC, I2S and Toslink. If your DAC sounds better using an option other than
coax, the Eitr may not be your best choice

Gotcha, thanks.

An Yggy is on my h/w roadmap, so someday I'll need to figure out if there's a reasonably feasible way to route more of my signals through AES, but for now the EITR and its uni-choice of coax output works. (Although having to physically switch the coax cable on the back of my Bimby, when I change from listening to computer-served music to listening to actual CDs via an OPPO player, is a bit of a nuisance.) But that day is not imminent. The EITR is very good at what it does.
 
Apr 15, 2018 at 3:18 PM Post #725 of 1,112
Thanks so much David for responding.

Just to give a run down on what I'm looking to achieve: Right now I have no computer audio, only listening to CD. What I will be doing first off is listening to my WAV audio files that I have on my external hard drive which the eltr will help me achieve, for right now I need this digital converter to access my integrated's onboard DAC via coax for it does not have usb. Then I want to purchase and implement a monitor via hdmi to access internet videos. And then finally, to download Foobar or purchase JRiver to stream audio files.

1. You stated, "However Windows is frustrating for audio quality, you may find over time that you want better for a USB audio source" Would you clarify this for me (I'm a bit green) so that I can fully understand your meaning?

2. You also stated, "If your video streaming is good, then your audio will be as good as it can be with the gear you have." Are you saying here that when I get my music player of choice operating, that if it streams let's say video of any sort eg. music videos at a certain level of quality, then the audio part will be as equal in quality?

Yes, I'll be running Windows 10. I hope not to have too many headaches with this operating system and the eltr. I was once running Foobar 2000 with my WAV files by means of a Singster F1 and had no problems in this area.

Thanks again,
1) Windows isn't a great OS for audio sound quality. It takes a lot of tweaking to get the same quality out of a Windows machine that you can get off the shelf with a Mac. At a minimum you should use an OS tweaker
like Fidelizer if you want to tame the resource management issues in Windows that cause clocking degradation for USB output.

2. Video streaming requires more bandwidth than audio. If your video streams reliably at high resolution, your audio will be no challenge for PCM bit rates... DSD streaming is where things get interesting/higher bandwidth approaching video bit rates. In general cities have better internet/less jitter than rural areas.

I use 5g wifi all the time streaming from my server to remote renderer, no issues. 2.4g works also but can misbehave at 192/24.

Highly recommend you use a tagged format for ripped media. Wav doesn't natively store metadata which will make using your library a PITA. It was no fun 2 years ago reripping my library from wav to flac so that it worked well with media servers.
 
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Apr 15, 2018 at 4:49 PM Post #726 of 1,112
1) Windows isn't a great OS for audio sound quality. It takes a lot of tweaking to get the same quality out of a Windows machine that you can get off the shelf with a Mac. At a minimum you should use an OS tweaker
like Fidelizer if you want to tame the resource management issues in Windows that cause clocking degradation for USB output.

2. Video streaming requires more bandwidth than audio. If your video streams reliably at high resolution, your audio will be no challenge for PCM bit rates... DSD streaming is where things get interesting/higher bandwidth approaching video bit rates. In general cities have better internet/less jitter than rural areas.

I use 5g wifi all the time streaming from my server to remote renderer, no issues. 2.4g works also but can misbehave at 192/24.

Highly recommend you use a tagged format for ripped media. Wav doesn't natively store metadata which will make using your library a PITA. It was no fun 2 years ago reripping my library from wav to flac so that it worked well with media servers.

Thanks David:

1. For the simple setup that I am aiming at - windows laptop>eltr>onboard amp DAC>loudspeakers, is there another converter that would do the job just as well as the eltr without the possible difficulties, or is it my best answer for the price. I do remember, in this thread, some having issues with the eltr's implementation into their system.

2. Why did you have to re-rip your collection from WAV? Could you not have converted them from WAV to Flac? Just curious because that is what I did with my collection. I ripped to WAV and then immediately converted to Flac so that I had both formats. I'm probably missing something here.

Thanks,
 
Apr 15, 2018 at 5:16 PM Post #727 of 1,112
1) Windows isn't a great OS for audio sound quality. It takes a lot of tweaking to get the same quality out of a Windows machine that you can get off the shelf with a Mac. At a minimum you should use an OS tweaker
like Fidelizer if you want to tame the resource management issues in Windows that cause clocking degradation for USB output.
I find this statement strange. For an external DAC one would want bit-perfect audio - basically a stream of data sent from your file to the DAC. In this case, it is better if the operation system, be it Windows, iOS, Linux etc., had nothing to do with it at all, in terms of processing the stream. In this case, less or no tweaking is better. In Windows simply use ASIO or WASAPI in exclusive mode and Windows will be irrelevant to the audio quality.
 
Apr 16, 2018 at 5:13 PM Post #730 of 1,112
tagging... there is no standard for wav and streaming server applications couldn't find my wav files without manual intervention. I found the batch conversion process with dbPoweramp to take longer than reripping. I also wanted to be sure that the tagging was done as correctly as possible.
 
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Apr 19, 2018 at 9:47 AM Post #732 of 1,112
Hey Guys - About a week back I had asked if the Eitr might be able to fix a ground loop issue that I was having with my PC when using usb. The response was that it might possibly help, but that there were other solutions. I had emailed Schiit too asking if it might help the problem, and they painstakingly would not give a definitive answer. I bit the bullet anyway and purchased the Eitr because I thought it might work and it HAS FIXED MY GROUND LOOP ISSUE! Very exciting stuff. The Eitr might not solve every ground loop issue out there, but it solved mine.

And it sounds fantastic. I can't really give a good comparison, because I recently upgraded a few components in my system, but I couldn't be happier with my set up and the Eitr's performance.
 
Apr 19, 2018 at 9:58 AM Post #733 of 1,112
tagging is essential. It's a pain to do afterwards so do it right the first time. Btw my favourite DDC is still the Puc2Lite anyone familiar with this converter?

I was using the PUC2 Lite with a USB Disruptor power supply for over a year going into my Yggy. Good DDC, but the Eitr is better. The sound became clearer and tone increased (thickened), which is quite the trick to have both happen. We aren't talking night and day, but it was instantly apparent.

I converted my RCA coax to BNC, then to a Neutrik AES transformer to keep the Yggy input the same.
 
Apr 20, 2018 at 12:57 PM Post #734 of 1,112
Any one get the EITR to work at 176 kHz sampling rate? Mine will not. I have tried native 176 files and upsampling 88 files and neither work. All other frequencies work fine, including 88. I realize 176 is not a common frequency but it's the default DSD to PCM conversion.
 
Apr 20, 2018 at 1:46 PM Post #735 of 1,112
Any one get the EITR to work at 176 kHz sampling rate? Mine will not. I have tried native 176 files and upsampling 88 files and neither work. All other frequencies work fine, including 88. I realize 176 is not a common frequency but it's the default DSD to PCM conversion.

I have all the early Rolling Stones and two Stevie Ray Vaughn in 24/176. They all play fine through the Eitr.
 

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