Pharmaboy
Headphoneus Supremus
There's a longstanding pattern, on Head-Fi and other sites, where discussions of "which digital input works best" degenerate into quasi-physics & electronics debates. Usually somebody asserts some variation on, "Bits are bits. No sound differences are possible," then it's off to the races.
I prefer to talk about the admittedly subjective experience of how different digital inputs sound to me. Here are my experiences:
True, I'm limited to 24/96 by using the S/PDIF converter, but that doesn't matter to me (at least, not yet).
So in conclusion, I have extablished to my own satisfaction, empirically, that coax out of an S/PDIF converter sounds better than USB (this has held true across 4 different DACs).
That's enough for me...coax is all I use now.
I prefer to talk about the admittedly subjective experience of how different digital inputs sound to me. Here are my experiences:
- After running computer speakers off the output of PC sound cards for ~10 years and putting up with indifferent, noisy sound, I finally get my 1st standalone DAC about 10 years ago (Stello DA100). It was a big step up in overall sound, though far short of the quality I'd heard in the past w/vinyl and/or tape (analog) sources.
- Somewhat unusually for the that time, Stello admitted that the USB input (and associated circuitry) were not optimal for best sound. They advised users to use the toslink/optical or digital coax inputs for best sound. That prompted me to buy my 1st S/PDIF convertor, the 24/96 Musical Fidelity V-Link. And damned if Stello wasn't right--toslink/digital definitely sounded better than USB (I compared them at some length). The differences were subtle, but all in the direction I wanted to go (ie, less glare, less obviously "digital" repro of upper midrange & treble, and a bit more realism in bass).
- Eventually I replaced the Stello with a nice sounding, inexpensive unit from Peachtree Audio (DAC iTx). It's USB input was vastly better than the Stello's, but again, toslink/optical sounded slightly better.
- I started reading that coax sounded even better than optical, at least in some cases. So I got an inexpensive BJ coax cable and checked. They were right--coax did sound better to me. Slight gains in warmth, dimensional quality/soundstaging, etc.
- ~2 years ago I got my first pair of headphones (Fidelio X2's), and was able to hear these small input differences even more clearly by HP.
- 1 year ago I got my first R2 R (non delta-sigma) DAC, the Audio GD NOS 19, and that was a sonic revelation to me...easily the least "digital" digital sound I ever heard. This 2016 unit had the latest/greated Audio GD USB input card, so of course I compared USB to toslilnk/optical and coax. Again, coax sounded somewhat better.
- About 9 months ago I upgraded the V-Link to the 24/192 version, which only outputs coax, no optical. Around that time I got a (for me) pricey coax cable that some in Head-Fi strongly recommended, the Oyaide R510. Wow--another revelation. The already good coax sound took a distinct jump in quality.
- Since then I got the Audio GD DAC-19, their oversampling-capable R2 R design. It has an even newer USB input implementation. Again I tested USB vs coax inputs' sound, and it was no contest.
True, I'm limited to 24/96 by using the S/PDIF converter, but that doesn't matter to me (at least, not yet).
So in conclusion, I have extablished to my own satisfaction, empirically, that coax out of an S/PDIF converter sounds better than USB (this has held true across 4 different DACs).
That's enough for me...coax is all I use now.