Well, I have read some of those explanations, and can understand them somewhat in the abstract, but there are parts that still don't make too much sense to me, but maybe it is because I have no electric engineering expertise. Thanks for making the effort, though. I really appreciate it.
Okay, to prevent us from talking past each other, let's temporarily shelf the technical jargon about analogue signals, ones and zeros, perfect bits, electrical noises, and other such technicalities, and let's get to what is really getting my goat now, in plain lay man's jargon:
First the good, the bright, and the beautiful : I am enjoying the sonic impact of the Gen 5 usb on my yggy a lot--much, much, more than the Eitr with the Yggy, because the Eitr was making my Yggy click erratically and sometimes frequently--to almost distracting and annoying levels, during music playback, but also--more annoyingly--even when no music was playing... The USB 5 has no such "clicking" effect on the Yggy, so I can savor all its sonic blessings without any interferences, and those sonic blessings are far from negligible. The Yggy has been on for about 5 days now since it returned from the update service, and I like a lot of what I have heard so far...
Now for the confusing part... Both you and
@earnmyturns seem to explain the main advantage of the Gen 5 USB as that of blocking electrical/analogue noises, providing "isolation" and allowing perfects bits/digitial ones and zeroes to pass through, or to be be converted by the Yggy to analogue signals... What I am not sure about is how that explains the idea according to which "nothing" which comes before Eitr/USB Gen 5 matters to the overall sound quality (that is if that, is indeed, what the claim means)... It is precisely that supposedly indifferent "nothing", which remains murky to me , and is getting my goat...
Incidentally, today, I made one small modification on the down stream side of the Yggy, and the difference in the overall sq was immediately noticeable, and palpable : I just replaced the energizing Meanwell SMPS power supply feeding the LPS-1 which in turn powers my ultrarendu with a Teradak 30W 9v power supply, and BOOM!, what do I get in the sound coming out of my Yggy and 2-channel system : better detail retrieval, better definition, better decay, blacker background (even though the ultrarendu's background sounded already black with the LPS-1, to the point where I didn't suspect it could possibly get any blacker)... In fact the music is sounding even better resolved than before, with finer details which sounded relatively recessed previously coming to the fore, better dynamics, and the entire frequency spectrum sounding more "holographic" and 3d... Mind you, this is a sonic difference one can reproduce simply by alternating the power supply units energizing the LPS-1 between the stock Meanwell SMPS and the Teradak 30W 9V linear power supply.... Without having tried it, I am sure one can detect another difference, were one to replace the LPS-1 itself feeding the Ultrarendu with the Meanwell SMPS, or the Oyaide Belden Starquad DC cable connecting the LPS-1 to the Ultrarendu with the stock DC cable that came with the LPS-1... These are not mere placebo delusional impressions, they can be demoed and repeated by simply swapping cables and or power supply units, and those demonstrable differences are what is not clear to me in the claim that nothing coming before the USB 5 or Eitr matters, in terms of the overall SQ results... That clalim may be about "perfect bits," ones and zeros, and the blocking of electrical noise, and isolation, but maybe those are not enough to explain everything about sound quality and its changes? Or maybe the USB 5/Eitr are coming up short and the claim "USB solved" was a bit premature? I do not know... I am not an expert, I I just know that there are still changes on the downstream side of the Eitr/Gen 5 usb that make noticeable differences in what one hears...
With all that said, I appreciate the effort you have made to explain things to me... Thanks.
