Bigfish's Quest for a DAC to lead into Computer Audio

[mdconnelly]

Ah - pride of ownership!  I do luv my DAC1000!  (thank you, Shane!)

My life is way overloaded for the next couple weeks, but I'd welcome a chance for another G2G sometime after that if possible.    Cheinonen, I may have met you at Shane's - not sure.  If it was the G2G I'm thinking of, I was the one that brought that silly thick Pangea power cord (hah - that sucker didn't pan out well

FWIW - I am really enjoying my SB Touch of late.  As I stated in another post here somewhere - the digital IC I'm using (Black Cat Veloce) made quite a nice improvement over a few other digital ICs I had been using.

[Carlman]

Welcome to AN, Chris!

I haven't heard from Bill but if all goes well I should have the new Eastern Electric DAC in stock form sometime soon... and then if Wayne at Bolder finishes his mods, I'll have that to compare... but that's likely a couple months away too.

The Oracle is the reigning champ by popular vote.. but not mine.   I still like and prefer the sound of the non oversampling DAC's.. However, that might change if some of these new DAC's do it better than years past... Looking forward to some comparisons when the gear starts showing up...

-C

[mdconnelly]

Carl - I know you're not bad-mouthing my sweet DAC! 

Seriously, I've never known any component, speaker or wire that was best for all and everything is somewhat system & room dependent.   I do love the sound of the DAC1000 (but also prefer it in bypass rather that upsampling).  For me, its strength is its flexibility and ability to also function as a equally excellent sounding analog preamp.  Of course, I also think that the MSRP of the Oracle DAC1000 puts it in prohibitive territory that has a whole lot of very good competition. 

With that said, given that mine is the one Shane had to rescue from his living room river and have it rebuilt, it has proven to be a great bang-for-the-buck (but funny, I still occasionally hear water running when nothing is playing) 

[cheinonen]

A couple months away would be good timing for me.  That'll give me a while to use the DAC-2 and see what I think of it, then I can bring it over and compare it to the other DAC's that people have.  It will certainly make the task of drawing comparisons for the review much easier.

[Regg]

I've been using a Metric Halo ULN-2 with a Powerbook G4 via firewire, and so far this has been my most satisfying setup since I first began investigating computer audio devices for use in my main system. I've used RME in the past with a machine I built, which wasn't bad. None of the USB DACs I've heard with the Windoze audio stack were really convincing enough for me to go that route, but I suppose I haven't heard the best that interface has to offer either.

If I have the chance I'd like to compare the ULN-2 with other DACs being used for computer audio these days. One thing to mention is that Metric Halo's stuff is Mac only, which may be a deal breaker for some people. The MH software also has a bit of a learning curve, since it is a 'pro-audio' type of interface for routing your signal path to the devices, but since I'm using this unit strictly for playback I only need to open up the MH control panel with the playback software and start playing. Simple is good for me.

[rollo]

 Welcome Regg. Nice to have you here at AN. MAC kills Windows for music. The Firewire connection is superior to USB. IS2 even better.


charles

[Regg]

Thanks, Charles. Nice to see you in this neck of the woods.

I haven't had the opportunity to hear the benefits of a true I2S connection, but it certainly makes good sense. I need to get out more.

[tmazz]

I used the I2S connection between my Audio Alchemy DTI & DDE. Even with the cheap stock cable the results were better than with a far more expensive s/pdif cable.
The downside (there always is one) is that maximum length of an I2S cable is much less than an s/pdif cable thereby limiting your flexibility in equipment placement. (The Audio Alchemy stock cable was less than a foot long.)

[Carlman]

How does the PC know to send i2s over USB?  Is it the device's driver that loads on the PC?  I know i2s is different than USB but my own DAC has i2s but uses a USB cable.  Most others I've seen are the same.

For people like me who don't know much about i2s:

I2S Bus (IIS, or I2S) is a serial bus designed for digital audio devices. The I2S design handles audio data separately from clock signals. An I2S bus design consists of three serial bus lines: a line with two time-division multiplexing (TDM) data channels [SD], a word select line [WS], and a clock line [SCK].
Data is transmitted two's complement, MSB first. Data sent from the transmitter may be synchronized with either the high-to-low or low-to-high transition of the clock [SCK], but the receiver latches the data on the leading edge of the clock. The word select line [WS] indicates which channel is being transmitted; Channel 1 WS = 0, or channel 2 WS = 0. The I2S Bus uses standard TTL logic levels. Typical clock [SCK] frequency is 2.5MHz, maximum clock speed is 3.125MHz. The WS line is sent one clock before the data is sent.

One chip in the I2S Bus system generates a Master clock, while all other devices derive their internal clocks from this reference. Standard clock rates include: 32KHz, 44.1KHz, or 48KHz [or multiples of these]. Data may be sent MSB first or LSB first. The word length is adjustable up to 28 bits. Synchronization with the data words may also be set to either the rising or falling edge of the clock. The Master drives SCK, and WS. Either the Transmitter, Receiver, or Controller may be the Master. The I2S bus turns up on Stereo CODEC's, DAC's or micro-processors. The I2S Bus was developed by Philips in 1986 as a 3-wire bus.

Source: http://www.interfacebus.com/I2S_Interface_Bus.html

[cheinonen]

FYI the DAC-2 from Wyred4Sound should arrive this Thursday (though I'm out of town until Friday), so I'll get a chance to get that hooked up over the weekend I imagine, and then give it a run-through later in the week (they're also sending me one of their STI integrated amps, which I really want to hear).

[Bigfish8]

FYI the DAC-2 from Wyred4Sound should arrive this Thursday (though I'm out of town until Friday), so I'll get a chance to get that hooked up over the weekend I imagine, and then give it a run-through later in the week (they're also sending me one of their STI integrated amps, which I really want to hear).

I certianly look forward to reading your comments about the DAC-2.  The DAC-2 was one of the units I really wanted to hear/compare in my system but I ran out of waiting patience for the units to ship.  I know they have been shipping units for a couple of weeks now and the folks that have received them must be really happy listening to music.  I don't think I have seen any chat about it yet!

Ken

[Face]

The DAC-2 sounds wonderful, I'm listening to one now.  Huge dynamics, very open, huge soundstage, and a tight low end.