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According to this review, their new USB DAC supports asynchronous mode. Is this similar to the way Ayre and Wavelength have implemented their USB inputs?
http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/ultraaudio.com/equipment/arc_dac7.htm
... ARC’s Dave Gordon told me that the DAC7 operates in "asynchronous mode"; i.e., a clock within the DAC controls the transfer rate of the digital signal. In a typical system, the timing of the digital-signal transfer rate is dictated by the computer, in what’s called adaptive mode. A USB connection via a computer is not ideal for this task, partly because of the number of functions a computer’s processor is required to simultaneously perform. When the processor in the computer is overtaxed, the digital stream ostensibly suffers, and the timing of the audio delivery won’t be perfect.
From what Gordon told me, the benefit of an asynchronous-mode DAC is less digital jitter (i.e., fewer timing errors within the digital stream itself), which, on paper, should result in better sound. ARC goes this one better, however: Once the digital data are inside the DAC7, they’re buffered (stored in memory), then re-clocked by an ultra-accurate second clock, before being fed to the DAC itself...
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