[theveterans]

Indeed I do blame my PC, but I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of other computers/OS's/USB fixing solutions any time soon, the DX80 is a great workaround for me.

I just wish that performance out of a regular windows PC was better. This isn't Schiit's fault at all. It's disappointing how crappy it sounds without having to do a bunch of extra stuff and using different software.

Lucky me that my PC is dead silent.

 

[sludgeogre]

Lucky me that my PC is dead silent.

Reveal your secrets to me.

 

[theveterans]

  Reveal your secrets to me.

 
Surface Pro 3 -> Surface dock's USB port (the USB power is isolated from Surface Pro 3 I believe) -> Wyred 4 Sound USB to SPDIF coax converter -> Bifrost Multibit (Schiit's C-media USB module does not work seamlessly with Windows 10 and Surface Pro 3 so I had to use a USB to SPDIF which has its own ASIO drivers that works perfectly)

 

[MWSVette]

  Reveal your secrets to me.

Surface Pro 2 > Schiit Wyrd > Bimby.  No Noise.  C-media Drivers loaded.  No problems...

 

[sludgeogre]

   
Surface Pro 3 -> Surface dock's USB port (the USB power is isolated from Surface Pro 3 I believe) -> Wyred 4 Sound USB to SPDIF coax converter -> Bifrost Multibit (Schiit's C-media USB module does not work seamlessly with Windows 10 and Surface Pro 3 so I had to use a USB to SPDIF which has its own ASIO drivers that works perfectly)

Nice. I really want to do SPDIF from a HiFiBerry some day.
 

 
Surface Pro 2 > Schiit Wyrd > Bimby.  No Noise.  C-media Drivers loaded.  No problems...

Interesting, I wonder if the Surface had a particularly well done USB implementation. I'm using a home built PC, an HP laptop, or an HP desktop at work and all of them sound noisy to some degree. The dock for the laptop does not remove any of the noise, nor does adding the Wyrd to any of them.
 
I have been leaving my gear on constantly now, and I wonder if that has helped at all, so maybe I should try out the laptop again and see how it works.

 

[Charente]

   
... -> Wyred 4 Sound USB to SPDIF coax converter -> Bifrost Multibit 

 
I notice that many people use the W4S USB/SPDIF converter. In many ways I prefer the sound of an SPDIF source and have been looking for ways to improve what I currently use.
 
I came across this product in France (Armature Hecate)... for circa $200, USB powered with galv isolation on power & digital...it looks good quality on paper...
http://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/appareils-hifi-interfaces-digitales/armature-hecate-interface-xmos-xcore-208-usb-spdif-asynchrone-p-11412.html
 
...but can't find any specs of the W4S unit to compare.
 
Does anyone have any thoughts ?

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

   
for circa $200, USB powered with galv isolation on power & digital...
 
Does anyone have any thoughts ?

Mike is on the record excoriating so-called galvanic isolation as being meaningless marketing speak. 

 

[Charente]

  Mike is on the record excoriating so-called galvanic isolation as being meaningless marketing speak. 

 
Ah, yes...In my defense, I was quoting the supplier !... do we have an acceptable way of describing this phenomenon

 

[theveterans]

Mike is on the record excoriating so-called galvanic isolation as being meaningless marketing speak. 

As long as it doesn't hurt sound quality then I see it as a bonus. It might be useful if there's a lot of RFI and EMI in your area.

 

[theveterans]

I notice that many people use the W4S USB/SPDIF converter. In many ways I prefer the sound of an SPDIF source and have been looking for ways to improve what I currently use.

I came across this product in France (Armature Hecate)... for circa $200, USB powered with galv isolation on power & digital...it looks good quality on paper...
http://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/appareils-hifi-interfaces-digitales/armature-hecate-interface-xmos-xcore-208-usb-spdif-asynchrone-p-11412.html

...but can't find any specs of the W4S unit to compare.

Does anyone have any thoughts ?

I find the W4S drivers to be very reliable and allows for 3 DACs at the same time so you can A/B them. As for the sound, coax sounds slightly fuller and livelier than USB, but IMO I think it's the ASIO drivers that makes the sound incredible. Without it, it's very hard to tell the difference between Schiit's C-media. I don't have a Mac so I can't say how it performs there.

 

[Charente]

I find the W4S drivers to be very reliable and allows for 3 DACs at the same time so you can A/B them. As for the sound, coax sounds slightly fuller and livelier than USB, but IMO I think it's the ASIO drivers that makes the sound incredible. Without it, it's very hard to tell the difference between Schiit's C-media. I don't have a Mac so I can't say how it performs there.

 
My thought is to use the Armature Hecate USB/SPDIF converter from a dedicated MacMini, using Audirvana+ with the same music I have located on a NAS. I already have a good UBS solution via microRendu but sometimes I personally prefer the SPDIF coax 'sound' for certain genres, e.g. Jazz

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

 

Quote:

As long as it doesn't hurt sound quality then I see it as a bonus. It might be useful if there's a lot of RFI and EMI in your area.

I'll quote the Steve Jobs of digital audio directly:
 

 
Now, I admit I am a product of ancient engineering school, but I was taught that if a circuit out and in are not free of mutual electrostatic and electromagnetic energy they ain't isolated.  High dv/dt emfs routinely found in "Galvanically Isolated" USB signals can jump right across where they aren't desired.  Kinda like the made with white meat (thanks Jase) descriptor on chicken nuggets from a famous purveyor of burgers.  White maggot meat?  Or were some white parts from segmented creatures with compound eyes placed on the machine with the Nugget pressings from softened bone?  Galvanically Isolated - like a rubber made from screen door material.
 

 
 

   
Galvanic is an adjectivoid (Something which resembles an adjective but really deescribes nothing) in any use other than describing the use of zinc plating of steel trash cans or rain gutters.  An empty suit descriptor which has morphed into a buzzword/bulletpoint with neither buzz nor meaning.

 
I stand amazed at the frequency of its use. 

 

   
 
[snip]
Galvanic isolation as an adjectivoid. That is, it sound like it describes something; it describes nothing. It does not specify if it is isolated at DC, AC, what frequencies, etc. etc. A waste of written/spoken space. Kinda like marketing an antivenin without any spec on which snake, scorpion, or spider for which it is effective.
 
Further, even if it is isolated at DC and all AC frequencies, it is useless as a model to predict interference in USB inputs. There are also electrostatic and electromagnetic modes of isolation, which no one ever specifies. Our lab performance has the former in greater than one kilovolt and the latter in the high nanoamp region.
 

 

[earnmyturns]

I find the W4S drivers to be very reliable and allows for 3 DACs at the same time so you can A/B them. As for the sound, coax sounds slightly fuller and livelier than USB, but IMO I think it's the ASIO drivers that makes the sound incredible. Without it, it's very hard to tell the difference between Schiit's C-media. I don't have a Mac so I can't say how it performs there.

It also has an external power supply, which one could replace by something fancier if desired. The Hecate linked to by @Charente gets its power from the USB source.

 

[thefitz]

You can definitely hear the benefits of galvanic isolation when you use $100+ USB cables and $300+ headphone cables. Those three items always "open up the mids" and get rid of whatever nagging issue a headphone is famous for, no matter what the issue is - I'm talking taming the HD800's 6kHz spike AND adding clarity to an LCD-3!

 

[Charente]

  It also has an external power supply, which one could replace by something fancier if desired. The Hecate linked to by @Charente gets its power from the USB source.

 
Yes, I was concerned about that...so, would the 'isolation' that they have designed into the Hercate product not mitigate the problem of USB power ?..or, would a powered converter ALWAYS prove to be a better approach, given attention to a decent power supply. I have just taken delivery of the Uptone LPS-1 for my microRendu, and the improvement was quite significant in my setup....just down to the power supply in the same way.