reguarding USB to SPIDIFF converters-----

soundfreak1

recommendations appreciated. would love to keep 200 dollars or less. how does the music fidility music. V-link stack up? and is it worth. And needed to go to 196 considering the 4x price? any other options as far as brands ,models ect appreciate it.

thsmith

dont worry about 192k, not worth the additional cost and availabilty is low.

H9 or falconcry will most likely weigh in on your converter question.

FTGV

A couple of questions.
1.) What DAC are you using?If it's an older legacy DAC then it will likely be limited to 16bit 44.1/48k so no need for hi rez(24bit/96/192k)capability.

2.)Does your PC's soundcard have an SPDIF coaxial digital output?If so give it a try first before springing for a USB-SPDIF adaptor.You might find the results more than satisfactory.IMO unless you opt for an asynch capable device USB is not inherently superior to SPDIF.

soundfreak1

Dac is a adcom gda 700. No SPDIFF .

BlueFox

This is what you need, but you need to increase your price; Berkeley Audio's Alpha USB. These guys are the Shunyata of digital. Very high-end performance at 'low' prices.

http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/products.html

While I love my Bryston DAC, I am really getting the urge to upgrade to the Alpha DAC.

IRLRaceFan

I have an Audio-gd Digital Interface.
It's a little more than $100 over your target (new), if you throw in the external power supply, upgraded clock, & get the "A" version that also takes a coax input, but it works great (I'm really happy with it).

soundfreak1

getting off said a little bit. I'm open to other equipment ideas bentley somewhere near the budget I've spoken up I'm not spending. 4 grand 5 grander 6 grander whatever. I have the dac i have. Looking at about 200. For converter. How does the m. Fedility stack up in that price range.

falconcry72

The Musical Fidelity V-Link offers a very high level of performance for the money. It's an excellent piece.

The new V-LinkII looks better, but the original works just as well, and it's now on clearance for 119 at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Fidelity-MFVLINK-V-Link/dp/B004PH03GU


I use the Audio GD Digital interface that IRL mentioned. It's better than the V-Link, especially with the external power supply, but with the external power supply, upgraded clock, and international shipping, I think it ended up costing 270.

Also, the Audio GD Digital interface can't process 88.2/176.4khz signals.


If I were you, I'd get the V-Link.

falconcry72

IRLRaceFan wrote: »

I have an Audio-gd Digital Interface.
It's a little more than $100 over your target (new), if you throw in the external power supply, upgraded clock, & get the "A" version that also takes a coax input, but it works great (I'm really happy with it).

Hey IRL, I was just looking at your sig.... so, how do you have your DI connected to your DAC2? Have you compared using the DI vs. going USB straight to the DAC2? If so, what differences did you notice? If not, do it, and let me know!:biggrin:

falconcry72

BlueFox wrote: »

This is what you need, but you need to increase your price; Berkeley Audio's Alpha USB. These guys are the Shunyata of digital. Very high-end performance at 'low' prices.

http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/products.html

While I love my Bryston DAC, I am really getting the urge to upgrade to the Alpha DAC.

That Berkley piece has my interest piqued.


So, BlueFox, are you running USB straight to the Bryston BDA? If so, I'd be interested to hear what you thought about adding an asynchronous USB > SPDIF converter in front of it. I've heard that the BDA is really awesome, but that its USB input is not perfect. Throw an Audio GD Digital Interface, or even a V-Link, in there and see what happens.

IRLRaceFan

falconcry72 wrote: »

Hey IRL, I was just looking at your sig.... so, how do you have your DI connected to your DAC2? Have you compared using the DI vs. going USB straight to the DAC2? If so, what differences did you notice? If not, do it, and let me know!:biggrin:

I just got the DAC-2 on Friday, so I've only used it with the DI. So far I'm really happy with it and W4S says it will get better in the 1st 100Hrs (takes ~200Hrs for total "break-in").
I'll run MAC Mini --> DAC-2 later this week & report back.

One other thing to note about the Audio-gd DI:
I have my original Windows (XP) machine ~25ft away from my rig. My Cambridge DacMagic struggled with the cable length (Blue Jean coax from my sound card), but with the DI it worked fine.
The MAC is also new, so I still have the Windows machine in use and the DI gives me the option to switch between the two computers without using of the of the other inputs on my DAC (at this point I don't know how the DAC-2 will play with the long coax cable length).
.

falconcry72

IRLRaceFan wrote: »

I just got the DAC-2 on Friday, so I've only used it with the DI. So far I'm really happy with it and W4S says it will get better in the 1st 100Hrs (takes ~200Hrs for total "break-in").
I'll run MAC Mini --> DAC-2 later this week & report back.

One other thing to note about the Audio-gd DI:
I have my original Windows (XP) machine ~25ft away from my rig. My Cambridge DacMagic struggled with the cable length (Blue Jean coax from my sound card), but with the DI it worked fine.
The MAC is also new, so I still have the Windows machine in use and the DI gives me the option to switch between the two computers without using of the of the other inputs on my DAC (at this point I don't know how the DAC-2 will play with the long coax cable length).
.

Cool, congrats on the DAC-2.:biggrin:

I still want to compare the DAC-2, and the Bryston BDA mentioned above, to my Audio GD NFB-7.


I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions on the USB > DI > DAC2 vs. USB > DAC2 once your break-in is done.

IRLRaceFan

falconcry72 wrote: »

I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions on the USB > DI > DAC2 vs. USB > DAC2 once your break-in is done.

I finally got around to trying this and it didn't take long to decide I prefer to use USB > DI > DAC2 over USB > DAC2.
USB with the W4S is not bad for standard files, but it seemed to struggle with high rez files (especially 192-kHz). Almost like it couldn't keep up or something.

I used the W4S USB cable that comes with the DAC2, between the computer (MAC) and DAC2, and a regular USB cable between the computer & the DI. So in theory, the USB > DAC2 should have the advantage (if there was any) from a cable perspective, although I know it's not W4S's top of the line USB cable.

The Audio-gd DI is still one of my favorite audio purchases so far. I would really like to compare the NFB-7 to the DAC2...

falconcry72

IRLRaceFan wrote: »

I finally got around to trying this and it didn't take long to decide I prefer to use USB > DI > DAC2 over USB > DAC2.
USB with the W4S is not bad for standard files, but it seemed to struggle with high rez files (especially 192-kHz). Almost like it couldn't keep up or something.

I used the W4S USB cable that comes with the DAC2, between the computer (MAC) and DAC2, and a regular USB cable between the computer & the DI. So in theory, the USB > DAC2 should have the advantage (if there was any) from a cable perspective, although I know it's not W4S's top of the line USB cable.

The Audio-gd DI is still one of my favorite audio purchases so far. I would really like to compare the NFB-7 to the DAC2...

Thanks for the update! It's good to hear that the DI does so well compared to the DAC-2's internal method... I always thought this thing sounded good...

I would also like to compare the NFB-7 to the DAC-2... and the Bryston BDA. The NFB-7 is the best DAC I've heard, but I've only compared it to a small handful of competitors.

dhart86

Stan,
your inbox if full
If your interested I may be able to sell you my MF V-Link for $90 or may consider trading for the seimen tubes/cash let me know if your interested
Darren

soundfreak1

Made some room
thanks