Schiit Eitr impression and USB-SPDIF converters discussion

[pure5152]

I have a 1-foot BJC (Belden 1694A) cable...no issues.

I'd be curious to know if your issue is reproducible...does the problem come back if you use the old cable again?

Hey riffraff! Took up your suggestion: I tried using the 2ft bjc belden cable for over an hour, and... NO DROPOUTS!

It must've not been the cable after all, and at this point I have no idea what was causing the dropout and can only speculate.

Hey, I'm just happy things are working great, and schiit sounds good. I'll take it.

EDIT: and yes, I'll say it, the 2ft bjc cable sounds better than the 1.5m $10 amazon cable I got.

 

[riffrafff]

Hey riffraff! Took up your suggestion: I tried using the 2ft bjc belden cable for over an hour, and... NO DROPOUTS!

It must've not been the cable after all, and at this point I have no idea what was causing the dropout and can only speculate.

Hey, I'm just happy things are working great, and schiit sounds good. I'll take it.

Cool. I wondered.

The way that Canare RCAP connectors are assembled, it would be fairly difficult to screw one up. Well, now you have a spare S/PDIF cable.

 

[Dan Fuentes]

I have had the Eitr for 6+ months Im guessing. I have an imac using auidirvana. On 3 occasions I would get no output, even though everything software wise was running correctly. The first time I was at a loss and it took me quite awhile to figure out. Simply disconnecting both ends of the coax and reconnecting did the trick. The next time it happened I knew what to do right away. I have had similar problems with TV, sound bar, DVR where just reconnecting HDMI cables works. I am assuming its some sort of digital handshake that has to be re-established.

 

[pure5152]

So unfortunately, the dropouts have come back...

But I've found the solution, and it's not a coax/SPDIF cable problem, and it's not even a problem with the Eitr! (doh.)

For full transparency, here's what I discovered (after a long trial/error process):

TL;DR:

1. The problem is not due to eitr/mimby/coax cables.
2. The problem was due to power strip "pollution": moving the lyr 3 to a different outlet source solved the dropouts issue.
3. Davide256 is awesome!

Here's the story:

Now, I normally have my mimby stacked on top of my lyr. For the most part, this works perfectly fine, but I'm starting to realize when I have it stacked for a _long_ time (5+ hours), the dropouts occur. I at first thought this was a problem with the mimby overheating; after all, the lyr 3 does get pretty toasty after a while. But when I tried feeding the mimby USB instead of SPDIF, the dropouts completely stop; it works just fine warm when fed USB. It's also not a problem with coax cables, because the cables were working just fine, and swapping cables that I know work doesn't change anything.

My best guess at this point is that the mimby may have issues processing the SPDIF input when it gets very warm (but seemingly does fine with USB??).

Wait... what if I switch amps? I thought I tried this before, but I didn't. So I switch to the magni 3, and guess what happens? No dropouts. It's a problem with the Lyr 3, not the eitr or the mimby... I should've posted in the Lyr, not the eitr thread. Schiit.

Then I remembered what davide256 posted (bolding by me):

Just some general thoughts

1) if your heat has kicked in, you may have static electricity issues. Make sure you have decent humidity in the room
2) power strip "polluters" are not your friend, disconnect anything on the power strip not required for audio.
3) try a different coax cable

All my schiit stuff is plugged into the same power strip. It was working for the first 5 hours today, so I thought that it was fine. But I decided to move the lyr power plug to another outlet, separate from my other audio/computer power schiit.

And it works! The dropouts stop!!

Just to double check, I reconnect the lyr in its old spot, and yep, the dropouts resume. Hurray!

...And now time to rearrange all my plugs (r/cablegore). ._.

What are the lessons learned here?

1. Don't jump to conclusions until you've tested _everything_. (e.g. with the coax cables, I neglected to a/b with the old blue jeans cable...)
2. Don't neglect power brick interference, and
3. Do pay more attention to what your peers have to say (thanks again @davide256 )

One last mystery: I don't get why the issue only happens after 5 hours the lyr is on. Maybe it's power related, as the lyr uses by far the most power out of the eitr/magni/modi?

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard! It’s strange to me, but the dropouts fixed after I replaced the cable, so I’m not sure? But yeah, whatever it is, the Eitr sounds great with no hiccups now

My woe is pops & pings & drop-offs during playback whenever our WiFi is taxed (by my wife or I working on Google For Education applications). The moment I snake a blue NAT cable to my listening nook’s laptop, sound quality improves. Tsk, our Netgear Nighthawk 7500 should be able to handle the WiFi traffic. Heh, so THIS is audio nervosa. A better piece of gear and trained ear picks up nuances & limitations of other gear. It’ll never end...
Time to pull out the aural-performance-enhancing ethanol (tonight).

 

[davide256]

So unfortunately, the dropouts have come back...

But I've found the solution, and it's not a coax/SPDIF cable problem, and it's not even a problem with the Eitr! (doh.)

For full transparency, here's what I discovered (after a long trial/error process):

TL;DR:

1. The problem is not due to eitr/mimby/coax cables.
2. The problem was due to power strip "pollution": moving the lyr 3 to a different outlet source solved the dropouts issue.
3. Davide256 is awesome!

Here's the story:

Now, I normally have my mimby stacked on top of my lyr. For the most part, this works perfectly fine, but I'm starting to realize when I have it stacked for a _long_ time (5+ hours), the dropouts occur. I at first thought this was a problem with the mimby overheating; after all, the lyr 3 does get pretty toasty after a while. But when I tried feeding the mimby USB instead of SPDIF, the dropouts completely stop; it works just fine warm when fed USB. It's also not a problem with coax cables, because the cables were working just fine, and swapping cables that I know work doesn't change anything.

My best guess at this point is that the mimby may have issues processing the SPDIF input when it gets very warm (but seemingly does fine with USB??).

Wait... what if I switch amps? I thought I tried this before, but I didn't. So I switch to the magni 3, and guess what happens? No dropouts. It's a problem with the Lyr 3, not the eitr or the mimby... I should've posted in the Lyr, not the eitr thread. Schiit.

Then I remembered what davide256 posted (bolding by me):


All my schiit stuff is plugged into the same power strip. It was working for the first 5 hours today, so I thought that it was fine. But I decided to move the lyr power plug to another outlet, separate from my other audio/computer power schiit.

And it works! The dropouts stop!!

Just to double check, I reconnect the lyr in its old spot, and yep, the dropouts resume. Hurray!

...And now time to rearrange all my plugs (r/cablegore). ._.

What are the lessons learned here?

1. Don't jump to conclusions until you've tested _everything_. (e.g. with the coax cables, I neglected to a/b with the old blue jeans cable...)
2. Don't neglect power brick interference, and
3. Do pay more attention to what your peers have to say (thanks again @davide256 )

One last mystery: I don't get why the issue only happens after 5 hours the lyr is on. Maybe it's power related, as the lyr uses by far the most power out of the eitr/magni/modi?

Glad it worked out.
If the problem only occurs after 5 hours, and disappears when you remove the load of the Lyr current draw, I'd wonder if the wall outlet was corroded/poor wiring connection, causing it to heat up?

 

[mttbsh]

Much earlier in this thread someone suggested that the AES input to the Schiit Yggdrasil DAC is easily the best. I'd like to try it. Does any one know if a SPDIF to AES cable such as this one would work between my Eitr and my Yggdrasil DAC? (essentially I'd be going from USB to SPDIF (via Eitr) to AES!)

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GoldXLRMRCA06--mogami-gold-xlrm-rca-06?mrkgcl=28&mrkgadid=3247037240&rkg_id=0&product_id=GoldXLRMRCA06&campaigntype=shopping&campaign=aaShopping - Core - DJ / Electronic&adgroup=DJ / Electronic - DJ Accessories&placement=google&adpos=1o2&creative=226299461186&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu7XE1-O03gIVgsVkCh2fxw2aEAQYAiABEgK7L_D_BwE

 

[davide256]

It's an engineering kluge to connect dissimilar components. Stick with good coax to coax. If you want better sound here's whats percolating recently on Computer Audiophile for a better USB option. I can attest that the Lush 2 with its weird shield grounding solution made
a worthwhile improvement vs the Uptone Audio USPCB for the $239 cost and I'm a cheapskate when it comes to cables.. it has to make an easily heard improvement for me to be happy spending more than $100 on a cable.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...tion-experiences/?tab=comments#comment-863307

 

[mttbsh]

Thanks for your reply. I did a bit of reading on the Lush 2, some great testimonials out there.

Are you suggesting that sound improvements could be gained by ditching the Eitr and just going straight from my Sonore Microrendu to my Yggy with the Lush 2?

 

[davide256]

Thanks for your reply. I did a bit of reading on the Lush 2, some great testimonials out there.

Are you suggesting that sound improvements could be gained by ditching the Eitr and just going straight from my Sonore Microrendu to my Yggy with the Lush 2?

The Lush2 is just a good USB cable that should help you hear more out of whatever you are connecting to the Schiit USB Gen 5 board. Having the USB Gen 5 board integrated inside the Yggy DAC should be superior for sound to having external Eitr. The coax cable between
it and DAC is a choke point, forces you to buy a good coax cable ($$$) when that money could buy you more gear. I bought the AQ Eagle Eye I have several years ago because asynch USB converters were changing too fast, making built in converters obsolete within 12-18 months,
but DAC tech appears to have leveled out; the arms race now seems to be in digital source tech.

 

[mttbsh]

The thing is, my Yggdrasil is 3 years old and doesn't have the Gen 5 board, that's why I continue to use the Eitr.

I remembered that I have an extra pair of Zenwave D4 interconnects lying around - these are extremely good cables ($$$). I replaced my Wiwires coax with one of the D4s and heard immediate improvement in resolution, weight and clarity. I wasn't sure that one could use an interconnect in place of a coax, but it works perfectly and makes a big improvement. As you said, the coax was the choke point. I'm pretty sure what I'm hearing now is at least as good as having the Gen 5 board in the Yggy. Thank you again for your help!

Matt

 

[ScubaMan2017]

It seems like an interesting experiment to for under $200 and it would definitely streamline your stack. I’m shocked at the improvement in SQ the EITR added to my main stero rig with a MackBook Pro and I’d love to hear how it compares to a $1500 reclocker.

So to "cut to the chase" your experience is the Eitr sounds good with quality source but not so good when the source is sub par? Cause for some of us mp3 is a curse word

Mp3 is not problem per se, quality of streaming suffers because of limited bandwidth problems of many internet stations. It's just that Eitr doesn't handle this situation well.

The issue with Eitr is similar to any other separate USB/SPDIF converter. You have double digital cabling. Asynchronous Isochronous USB transfer (UAC1 or UAC2) is lossy, it's hungry for a quality USB cable. S/PDIF is jittery protocol. So you'll introduce both some loss and some jitter, which can be minimized by using good digital cables (with S/PDIF coax length of cable is in stake as well). I think this is prerequisite to real improvements in sound, otherwise you just introduce too much additional issues which can negate its benefits.

With some coax cables, Eitr combo was not the winner.

I've used only quality quality USB cables proven through listening comparations to me, so there were no issues from that side. However I've never previously used coax so I'm still in the process of finding a good coax cable. But with S/PDIF it's more complex. With USB it's simple, shorter is better. With S/PDIF, you need a certain minimum cable length to allow rise time cycle to finish, but preferrably not much longer than this. And rise time specifications are different from (transmitter) device to device, and often they're not published. I'd love to know Eitr's rise time specification. Currently I've been using a 40 cm coax, but I should further experiment with lengths between this and 1m length to determine if this is a good length, or I need more length for less jitter.

I’m running the same setup. Very pleased with it.

Exact same setup here as well. I don't think I can go back to straight USB (running from my cheapo Chromebook 11 anyways).
I am using one of those 3ft Monoprice coaxial cables with "fancy connectors":

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023603&p_id=21679&seq=1&format=2

The cable itself (with the fabric covering) is about twice the thickness of the PYST RCA cables, and the connectors themselves are huge (about 1.25" long). Quite a nice cable for $4.

The only issue i've found is that the coaxial input on the Mimby seems to be more 'free-floating' than any of the RCA jacks and flexes around quite a bit if there is tension from the coax cable, etc. I doubt it is actually doing any damage, but something to keep in mind if you end up having a large plug hanging off the end of it.
The output side from the Eitr, however, seems much more solid and less prone to any movement.

I’m hellbent on replacing my elderly Lenovo T400 with a $400-500 chromebook (as the device feeding my ModiMB). I need to decide whether an EITR is worth importing into Canada or not. I understand my audio flow (see below) is as-good-as-it’s-going-to-get. The Asus Chromebook 15 (?) looks promising. Do these models have “noisy” USB?

Helpful thread btw. Thanks, eh.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Thank you very much indeed for the kind and very helpful advice. I was clearly trivializing the all issue. It is so much more complex that i thought.
Actually i am quite lost now. This usb thing is a nightmare. I will focus on sound and try to get some soundstage. Usually soundstage is a very challenging thing to get with digital. And strong bass too.

@ginetto61 ... what did you end up setting up?

 

[ginetto61]

@ginetto61 ... what did you end up setting up?

Hi ! i stopped a little the process having moved to a new and minimal flat. Today i am listening to a SMSL DP3 network player wave files from a hard disk with a cheap but nice ISK HP2011.

Speaking of usb converters the best sound i got in the past was from a Dell Pc > Gustard U12 > aes/ebu cable > Apogee Rosetta 200. I could have lived with that all considered.
But i have other things to try out like a Yellowtec PUC2 and a Gustard x20 dac i also own.
Regards,
gino

 

[PunchLine]

Hi ! i stopped a little the process having moved to a new and minimal flat. Today i am listening to a SMSL DP3 network player wave files from a hard disk with a cheap but nice ISK HP2011.

Speaking of usb converters the best sound i got in the past was from a Dell Pc > Gustard U12 > aes/ebu cable > Apogee Rosetta 200. I could have lived with that all considered.
But i have other things to try out like a Yellowtec PUC2 and a Gustard x20 dac i also own.
Regards,
gino

Can that S.M.L.S stream off SoundCloud?