In Reply to: USB DACs: who's out there? posted by Crimson on August 31, 2006 at 15:29:04:
are using USB input as me-too marketing tool first, sound quality second. What's the point of taking the USB stream, just to convert it right back to spdif, then feed the spdif to their usual spdif input receiver?The new Bel Canto DAC 3, PS Audio DAC, and just about any "USB DAC" mentioned fall into this category.
True USB-to-I2S DAC's are very few: Wavelength, Scott Nixon, and DDDac Mk II are all I can think of off top of my head.
There's a one-man company called Storm that will be introducing a Storm D02A DAC, which will use TDA1543 x16 architecture, sporting USB-to-spdif input as well as true BNC digital input and word clock output, all powered from Li battery. Can't really recommend it to anybody yet b/c the company has been very slow and has been having some problems, but I have one on pre-order.
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Follow Ups
- It's kind of annoying that manufacturers - Jon L 16:57:47 09/01/06 (8)
- Something I've learned.... - triodesteve 18:43:31 09/01/06 (7)
- Now you've done it...use Lava Lamps for better sound - Scrith 11:45:26 09/04/06 (0)
- We'll see - Jon L 09:28:45 09/02/06 (4)
- But can you get a Storm? - triodesteve 20:30:10 09/02/06 (2)
- Link to storm audio? - prpixel 07:21:06 09/03/06 (0)
- So, how does it sound? - prpixel 07:14:52 09/03/06 (0)
- Agreed. - prpixel 09:41:03 09/02/06 (0)
- Re: Something I've learned.... - Dawnrazor 20:06:16 09/01/06 (0)