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Re: Connect DAC direct via USB or Optical?

Posted by Jim F. (A) on December 30, 2006 at 07:29:32

In Reply to: Re: Connect DAC direct via USB or Optical? posted by Jim F. on December 30, 2006 at 07:04:03:

> [Should I] send optical digital out from [USB interface]
> to optical in of DAC. . .

If you go with S/PDIF optical, then depending on the DAC you choose,
you might want to pick up a jitter filter. Your choices are
constrained by the sample rate you intend to send to the DAC.
44.1 is easy -- just pick up a used Audio Alchemy DTI v 2.0
on Audiogon. 96 is harder -- you'll have to look for
a Monarchy DIP 24/96 **without** the upsampler, or
an Assemblage D2D-1 (whose upsampling is defeatable).
192 may be impossible (I think Peter Madnick's Alchemy2
once had a 192-capable jitter filter planned, but they
seem to have dropped it; and in any case nobody does 192
S/PDIF **optical**).

Take S/PDIF **coax** out from the jitter filter into your DAC.

An outboard jitter filter may be unnecessary if you pick
a DAC with bullet-proof jitter filtering of its own
(the Camelot Uther comes to mind, but there may be
others).

A DAC with an inboard ASRC chip can also probably do without
the jitter filtering (the new PS Audio Link III is an up-to-date
example of such a DAC, with a TI/Burr-Brown SRC4192 ASRC
chip; the Bel Canto DACs 1 and 2 used earlier ASRC chips
(the CS8420 and the AD1896, respectively).

**If** you believe a straight USB DAC is inherently more immune to
jitter than a DAC with an S/PDIF interface (and this is a
controversial subject) -- and I suppose USB DACs **might** be if
they employ internal buffering ahead of the DAC chip
(but then DACs with S/PDIF interfaces can have internal buffering
too; e.g., the Chord DAC64 -- then you might consider a USB
DAC on the basis of sound quality alone. But USB superiority
in this regard seems to be far from a given. And, as you
intimate, you'll be opening a can of worms with respect to
drivers, etc.

BTW, the new PS Audio Link III **has** a USB input in addition
to the usual S/PDIF ones.

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