I use a Bryston Buc-1 Usb converter. It provides Spdif-rca (the one I use), BNC and AESBU outputs. I actually bought 6 it months or so before I bought the Gumby. After much research, I saw the merits of doing the conversion from USB outside of the DAC box. I also use a YFS Referenced data only USB cable to as I don't need the 5v feed from the computer.. I think this combination provides as clean a digital source as I can generate. The Bryston is kind of pricey (I managerd to find a used one on Audiogon in excellent condition), but there are numerous good converters you can consider. However, I would strong recommend that you look at converters that have their own power supply and don't use the 5v from the computer to power the usb converter. You can find a reasonably current list at this link at the Well Tempered Computer.
You can never go wrong with Bryston gear. I'm a little biased. A dear friend of mine is one of their main designers. Just for full disclosure. Fully agree on the separate power. USB power is often quite dirty. That's why I use a Wyrd on my USB audio to get the cleanest power possible.
The Gen 2 USB on all current Bifrost and Gungnirs is exceptionally good. Any improvements with Wyrd, Regen, or Jitterbug are purely source dependent. I use Wyrd with my Bifrost and noticed some improvement. The USB implementation in thse DACs is far better than many USB-SPDIF converters out there. I use USB with my Bryston BDP instead of BNC SPDIF. I found it performed just as well. It measures very well too. I believe there are some measurements floating around on this forum somewhere.
From Schiit site: "This new USB input card for Bifrost and Gungnir improves USB performance across the board, and allows you to enjoy music encoded in 24/176.4. Featuring the C-Media CM6631A receiver and additional isolation and filtering, the Gen 2 USB input outperforms external USB-SPDIF converters that cost several times as much."
Far better than many but not all. The Bryston Buc-1 is the usb impementation from the Bryston BDP's in a separate box. That's why your unit performs so well.
Far better than many but not all. The Bryston Buc-1 is the usb impementation from the Bryston BDP's in a separate box. That's why your unit performs so well.
Yup. Unfortunately I only have one and use with my Yggy. The Bifrost has to deal with my 7 year old mac as a source. The wyrd helps a lot, even with the system optimizations that Audirvana makes while performing playback.
The Gen 2 USB on all current Bifrost and Gungnirs is exceptionally good. Any improvements with Wyrd, Regen, or Jitterbug are purely source dependent. I use Wyrd with my Bifrost and noticed some improvement. The USB implementation in thse DACs is far better than many USB-SPDIF converters out there. I use USB with my Bryston BDP instead of BNC SPDIF. I found it performed just as well. It measures very well too. I believe there are some measurements floating around on this forum somewhere.
From Schiit site: "This new USB input card for Bifrost and Gungnir improves USB performance across the board, and allows you to enjoy music encoded in 24/176.4. Featuring the C-Media CM6631A receiver and additional isolation and filtering, the Gen 2 USB input outperforms external USB-SPDIF converters that cost several times as much."
I completely agree on the USB tweakers being source dependent. With my 2009 imac the Regen makes a huge improvement with my Gungnir.
With my Auralic Aries,not so much.
I was puzzled by your description, as I could not conceive of any reason why a digital bit-perfect could be improved by source software settings (hardware improvements to reduce jitter or RF interference are another matter). So I checked the Audionirvana Plus 2.2 manual to understand those settings, as I don't use Audionirvana.
(I stream from a NAS via UPnP and dedicated Linux/MPD-based USB renderers, here's a typical setting for the USB driver
Bel Canto uLink Bel Canto uLinkUSB Audio 2.0 at usb-orion-ehci.0-1.3, high spee : USB Audio Playback: Status: Stop Interface 1 Altset 1 Format: S32_LE Channels: 2 Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC) Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000 Data packet interval: 125 us
)
Audionirvana's Integer Mode 1 bypasses the higher levels of OS/X's Core Audio, which do signal processing intended for lower quality USB audio systems. But the rest of the settings are for the digital filter used in rate conversion, and I don't understand why your USB chain would need rate conversion at all, as the Gungnir can handle the rates/bit depths in your experiments. I wonder if there's some problem in the rate negotiation between Audionirvana+ OS/X and the Gungnir.
I really have to say that I am troubled about this; I mean, several people, who didn't know that I am playing with the parameters, asked what I had changed... I see that the file is 16bit/44.1khz, but Audirvana plays it as 24bit. Does it mean Audirvana changes the bit depth according to the abilities of the DAC? Is there iZotope involved as well?
I really have to say that I am troubled about this; I mean, several people, who didn't know that I am playing with the parameters, asked what I had changed... I see that the file is 16bit/44.1khz, but Audirvana plays it as 24bit. Does it mean Audirvana changes the bit depth according to the abilities of the DAC? Is there iZotope involved as well?
I won't be back to my Mac for another day or so. PM me and I can take some screenshots of my settings and send to you. Maybe it will help. The way mine is setup is sending precisely to the DAC what the file contains.
I completely agree on the USB tweakers being source dependent. With my 2009 imac the Regen makes a huge improvement with my Gungnir.
With my Auralic Aries,not so much.
Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding of the super combo burrito filter in the multibit Schiit DACs is that this filter does it's magic for anything less than 24/192. For 24/192 files, the super combo burrito filter is not engaged and the multibit DAC passes this file unchanged or should I say, without the close form upsampled calculations.
Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding of the super combo burrito filter in the multibit Schiit DACs is that this filter does it's magic for anything less than 24/192. For 24/192 files, the super combo burrito filter is not engaged and the multibit DAC passes this file unchanged or should I say, without the close form upsampled calculations.
GMB gives a much more neutral and revealing nature. BMB is slightly (I mean a tad) more of warm/euphonic presentation. I can't compare directly but I have an Yggy running balanced (mostly) and a BMB. It GMB still has 19 versus 16 bits so higher res recordings will resolve better. It also has higher oversampling rate than BMB. Short answer, it depends.
edit - GMB should still be more resolving in single ended than the BMB.
The way the megaburrito filter works iis that it converts all 16 bit 44.1/48 files to 352.8/384 19 bit hi-res files of its own. The reason it sounds the way it does is because our filter is better than the filter used to convert up16 bit 44.1/48 to hi-res. Native 96K and 192K hi-res files will still benefit from the megaburrito filter.
Are you looking for consensus, or just anyone who has heard both to chime in?
I bought GMB, and listened to it single-ended. I upgraded my Bifrost to BMB, placed it into the same music system as the GMB was, and sold it. GMB wins to my ears.
BMB, GMB, and YGGY are all very musical. I would not call any of these DAC analytical. They are all resolving yet moving, human and passionate - you feel the music. It takes much effort to start thinking about the music in an analytical way.
I am looking for consensus among those who have extensive listening time with the BMB and GMB, especially with RCA (SE) output only. Which do they prefer? Cost is not an issue. XLR/balanced output not an issue.
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