Is it time to ditch USB?

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,490
Location
Sarasota, FL
With the imminent death of DSD, the rise of MQA and the continued support for PCM, is it time to ditch the problem ridden USB cable and instead look at superior cables like AES/EBU?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'll play devil's advocate here as I'm not seeing an imminent death of DSD or any big rise of MQA. MQA has made some headway for sure, but titles available for download or streaming are very minimal from what I'm seeing.

I do agree though that we need to ditch USB. The replacement though, in my opinion, will be more digital connections made via Ethernet. I don't see the future holding a lot for AES/EBU and S/PDIF. More and more DACs are coming out with Ethernet connections and that seems to be the future. If you don't want to make the Ethernet connection via your home network, there are NAS/streamers such as Melco that provide a high quality Ethernet interface to your DAC. More people right now are using Melco for the USB output, but I see that shifting more towards Ethernet down the road.
 
Is MQA even available except for Tidal's service? I haven't followed it as I don't have interest in streaming at all. When I listen to internet radio it is generally on the bedroom receiver feeding the outdoor speakers. At one point many moons ago I had a Squeezebox Touch in the main system for internet radio and on rare occasion had it one while I was busy in the house. I can do the same with Lumin or JRiver now but that might be once or twice a year. More often than that I have an Oppo 103D in the bedroom hooked to the network where I can select probably just a bit under 50,000 music files, many in hi-rez and DSD to play over the outdoor speakers. If I find music I like, I generally just put it on a wish list somewhere to buy and get to it whenever.
 
Mike said:
With the imminent death of DSD, the rise of MQA and the continued support for PCM, is it time to ditch the problem ridden USB cable and instead look at superior cables like AES/EBU?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Imminent death of DSD? According to many it was a stillborn format and here it is 18 years later alive and kicking and refusing to die, let´s see where MQA is in 18 years time, I will not believe DSD is dead until I read a death certificate and see the corpse in the morgue with my own eyes :) When someone tells me MQA sounds better than DSD 256 I might start to worry.
Maybe it´s not time to ditch the problem ridden USB cable but to embrace better engineering in the form of iFI audio´s iGalvanic, the Uptone Audio Iso Regen, Schiit´s GEN 5 USB input or Phasure´s The Lush USB cable...although to be a contrarian, USB to SPDIF converters seem to be gaining popularity by offering better sound quality, something I haven´t had the chance to listen to yet.
 
Narayan said:
Imminent death of DSD? According to many it was a stillborn format and here it is 18 years later alive and kicking and refusing to die, let´s see where MQA is in 18 years time, I will not believe DSD is dead until I read a death certificate and see the corpse in the morgue with my own eyes :) When someone tells me MQA sounds better than DSD 256 I might start to worry.
Maybe it´s not time to ditch the problem ridden USB cable but to embrace better engineering in the form of iFI audio´s iGalvanic, the Uptone Audio Iso Regen, Schiit´s GEN 5 USB input or Phasure´s The Lush USB cable...although to be a contrarian, USB to SPDIF converters seem to be gaining popularity by offering better sound quality, something I haven´t had the chance to listen to yet.
Click to expand...
For me, USB to S/PDIF converters are completely dead. They were very popular when DACs didn't have a USB input. Now that most DACs have USB, the USB to S/PDIF converters have really gone by the wayside. I can't remember the last time I sold one.
 
jdandy said:
I ditched the USB cable when My Aurender N10 arrived. It's digital coaxial cable all the way. Fabulous performance.
Click to expand...

Smart man.

The ONLY conceivable reason to have USB is due to the requirements of DSD for data transport. As one of the early proponents of DSD, I see it's imminent demise. Sony abandoned the format and there is only small studios really keeping it alive. Very little new material and nothing new and significant.

One only need to look at the vast amount of new (and old) music being added to the MQA database each week to see which format has a future and which one is on life support.

As for sonics of MQA and DSD, this I'm sure can be debated for a long time. But to my ears, a new recording done with the MQA filters and heard by the listener in full decode (not half ass free MQA which has no core decoding and rendering), but full decode is incredible. Better than DSD, better than redbook, and a real rival for world class analog sources (turntable/R2R). Better than vinyl? I need more listening!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mike.......My DSD listening is done with SACD's played in my Esoteric K-01X. There is not enough variety in the SACD catalog to keep me excited about the format. I guess if I were a classical music enthusiast I might find the total SACD offerings of greater value, but as it stands I have approximately 60 SACD's that I enjoy. I still keep a watchful eye out for recordings I may enjoy on SACD but I am not going to consume large gigabytes of hard drive space for DSD files when I can just spin an SACD when something strikes my fancy, so no USB cable required from my N10 to the K-01X.
 
jdandy said:
Mike.......My DSD listening is done with SACD's played in my Esoteric K-01X. There is not enough variety in the SACD catalog to keep me excited about the format. I guess if I were a classical music enthusiast I might find the total SACD offerings of greater value, but as it stands I have approximately 60 SACD's that I enjoy. I still keep a watchful eye out for recordings I may enjoy on SACD but I am not going to consume large gigabytes of hard drive space for DSD files when I can just spin an SACD when something strikes my fancy, so no USB cable required from my N10 to the K-01X.
Click to expand...

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • digital storage.jpg
    digital storage.jpg
    33 KB · Views: 205
Mike said:
With the imminent death of DSD, the rise of MQA and the continued support for PCM, is it time to ditch the problem ridden USB cable and instead look at superior cables like AES/EBU?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Are AES/EBU cables problem free ?
 
Well to my ears DSD is fantastic. I see quite a few albums available, also more higher level DSD, such as Jazz at the Pawnshop 3 coming out in DSD256.

MQA has no interest to me since I do not stream. Storage, sure DSD takes more... does this matter to anyone but streamers? Seems like quite a bit is being released in SACD to me, and several new albums in DSD downloads.... new Diana Krall I downloaded in DSD128. Sounds amazing... new Lyn Stanley albums are some of the best recordings ever... released in vinyl and SACD... soon to be available in DSD128 according to Lyn...
 
I was never buying so many sacds like now.
First, I can play them with my La Fontaine equiped with VRDS neo mechanism.
But the main reason is I ripp all sacds to DSD files using Pioneer BP.
It' s true that the offer of DSD native recordings is limited but recordings transfered from master tapes to sacd are often exceptional.
I recently ordered the Esoteric set of great Opera's and cant' wait.
http://www.elusivedisc.com/4-Great-...-Import-9SACD-Box-Set/productinfo/ESOSA90089/

I do not care about MQA , use streaming by Spotify only occasionaly as a third source.
 
Agreed... got a couple Pink Floyd albums in SACD, along with several other albums not available in high res in any other manner... Supertramp, Gentle Giant, Rickie Lee, Steely Dan, Queen, Lyn Stanley, Patricia Barber, Santana, etc. Mobile Fidelity has released a ton in SACD lately....
 
Randy Myers said:
Well to my ears DSD is fantastic. I see quite a few albums available, also more higher level DSD, such as Jazz at the Pawnshop 3 coming out in DSD256.

MQA has no interest to me since I do not stream. Storage, sure DSD takes more... does this matter to anyone but streamers? Seems like quite a bit is being released in SACD to me, and several new albums in DSD downloads.... new Diana Krall I downloaded in DSD128. Sounds amazing... new Lyn Stanley albums are some of the best recordings ever... released in vinyl and SACD... soon to be available in DSD128 according to Lyn...
Click to expand...

Randy, it's great to see MOFI keeping SACD production alive. Regarding the new Diana Krall, did you mean Turn Up The Quiet or this new reissue (which is also available in MQA)?

fbb54835309807414dd3d14334e1e343.jpg
 
Mike said:
Compared to USB? Yes.
Click to expand...

No Mike, if you really think - the problem shifts to another domain with AES/EBU with all those reflections and technicalities on how to pass that clock jitter free. In fact, they cost more to implement. How many of them are true 100Ohms ? DAC's poor USB implementation has really given a bad rep to the USB interface.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top