What are the new asynch USB converter contenders for 2014?

[prot]

I've been told, 'Meridian Audio' is going to launch a newly DAC with their latest technology "MQA".

 

 

Regards,

 

Saw that ... too early to say anything conclusive but that MQA thing surely has all the signs of audio snakeoil: big publicity, big claims, almost no tech details ... we'll see

[semaj]

Saw that ... too early to say anything conclusive but that MQA thing surely has all the signs of audio snakeoil: big publicity, big claims, almost no tech details ... we'll see

 

One of their processing feature "Dual Tile XMOS DSP with 16 cores and 1000 MIPS".

 

Regards,

[prot]

One of their processing feature "Dual Tile XMOS DSP with 16 cores and 1000 MIPS".

 

Regards,

 

That is the kind of 'impressive' gibberish that all those so called hifi vendors post ... sounds like some sort of wow feature ... in reality it is usually just meaningless marketing bla. And it means precisely nothing in tech or soundQ terms. Of course YMMV

[davide256]

Received my Gustard U12 a couple of days ago. Amazingly fast delivery considering it was coming to the UK from (or via) Hong Kong. There was about a week delay in getting a tracking number, and I was fully expecting at least further few weeks for delivery. It came the following day!

 

First impressions are of a very nice looking and well built unit.

 

The plain brown box (hand-written Chinese symbol on the outer, and a small unlabelled mini CD-rom inside) was a slight surprise - would have expected Chinese retail packaging, and maybe a manual or some paperwork. But nothing. It was well protected for shipping though and there was a mains lead, 3 pin (Chinese or Hong Kong?), and a UK adapter. No other cables. Not that I expected anything, its just to note how it arrived.

 

I had requested 230V, and after reading some comments here I meant to open it and check it had been set correctly, but I forgot and just powered it up. All was well, and nothing blew up. (I later opened it just to confirm out of paranoia, and it was indeed set to 230V. Was also nicely built and very 'clean' design inside.)

 

I couldn't actually connect it up initially as it came so fast I hasn't ordered any cables yet. When I plugged in no display came on and so I wasn't sure if it was working - in fact the unit is powered but unless theres an input the frequency window doesn't display anything. A small LED for power might be a nice addition.

 

While Christmas shopping I grabbed a couple of emergency cables, and gave it a quick test.

Except I couldn't because I was so rushed I ended up getting a USB 3 cable, not realising that the connector was a different shape, and a coax rather than rca digital! So that was a bit of a downer.

 

A day later and a rummage in the storage, I find a USB 2 cable, and a freebie yellow RCA-RCA from an old camcorder or something. So I could at least test it.

 

The Mac recognised it instantly, no drivers or settings required, and Audirvana shows that it can handle the full range of frequencies. I'd recently been using Toslink out of the mac, so I can see the range is now extended. It also lights up straight away with 44.1.

 

I'll save the comments on SQ until I've had a proper comparison.

 

On first play I honestly couldn't say it was a 'better' sound from the Hugo via the U12 rather than direct from the Mac. If anything the sound is more muted and less detailed. Of course, even if you don't believe high end cables make a difference, you'd be hard pushed not to think a free cable that feels like the insulation's 1mm thick and has very lose plugs might not be detrimental to the sound...

 

So, I revert to toslink out of the U12, as I have a cable and at least I can leave it powered on to settle down. Does it sound better than toslink out of the Mac? Again, I don't think so on first listen.

 

But that was never the point of this exercise really. The point was to get RCA spdif into the Hugo, which many users say is its best input, and one I can't do from the Mac direct.

 

RCA coax now ordered from Mark Grant - seemed like a sensible place to start thanks to some advice form here and elsewhere. Once I have the cable and have had a listen, I'll report back in the New Year with findings.

 

Happy Christmas!

 

USB cables can be frustrating but the Supra usb 2.0 cable is a safe bet if you want a starting point. Most inexpensive USB cables have me covering my ears in disappointment.

[semaj]

USB cables can be frustrating but the Supra usb 2.0 cable is a safe bet if you want a starting point. Most inexpensive USB cables have me covering my ears in disappointment.

 

I had the same trouble when I was installing the U12. A good quality USB cable is quite dear, could Airplay supersede USB cable?

 

Regards,

[lmitche]

My rig uses a $109 Corning 10 meter optical USB cable between a SOTM SMS-100 and the Gustard U12. A male USB a to USB b male hard adapter is inserted into the female end of the Corning cable. This means the optical to electrical signal conversion is happening within an inch or two of the Gustard USB receiver.

 

My USB cable search is over.

[dayneger]

My rig uses a $109 Corning 10 meter optical USB cable between a SOTM SMS-100 and the Gustard U12. A male USB a to USB b male hard adapter is inserted into the female end of the Corning cable. This means the optical to electrical signal conversion is happening within an inch or two of the Gustard USB receiver.

 

Could you comment on how the Corning cable performs compared to other USB cables you've tried in that configuration? And are you happy with how the SMS-100, Corning USB and U12 sound together?

 

For full disclosure, I work for Corning and know the team that developed this active optical USB cable. The reason I'm asking is that I'm considering putting that exact chain together for my personal system and I'm very curious to hear what your experience has been. In other words, I'm neither promoting nor making claims about the cable... I'm just wondering how well it plays with the SOtM and Gustard.

 

Thanks!

 

Dayne

[lmitche]

Could you comment on how the Corning cable performs compared to other USB cables you've tried in that configuration? And are you happy with how the SMS-100, Corning USB and U12 sound together?

 

For full disclosure, I work for Corning and know the team that developed this active optical USB cable. The reason I'm asking is that I'm considering putting that exact chain together for my personal system and I'm very curious to hear what your experience has been. In other words, I'm neither promoting nor making claims about the cable... I'm just wondering how well it plays with the SOtM and Gustard.

 

Thanks!

 

Dayne

 

Hi Dayne,

 

Yes, I am using the 10 meter Corning USB cable. I am very pleased with the sound quality. The setup is SOTM SMS-100>J5Create USB hub powered by the KECES 116> Corning USB Cable on the HUB CDP port>Gustard > Grover Huffman AES/EBU cable>Auralic Vega Dac. It's ugly, but it sounds great.

 

Prior to the Corning cable I was using the stock USB cable that came with the DAC. I later upgraded to the well known Belkin Gold printer cable. This inexpensive cable was better than the stock cable. However, it still produced digital hash, with tubby bass and metallic highs. Imaging was good with a large 2d sound stage and a little 3d bas relief.

 

Enter the Corning cable. My initial experiments are documented here:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/galvanic-universal-serial-bus-industry-standard-cables-connectors-and-communications-protocols-between-computers-and-electronic-devices-isolation-22048/index4.html

 

Update: with the Gustard, I was able to eliminate the second USB 3 hub. The Auralic Vega will not play without the hub attached, but the Gustard USB receiver does not need it. With the Gustard, sound quality is amazingly clear across the spectrum, with greatly improved detail, and clarity in highs and lows. The improvement in depth is just stunning and something I have never experienced before, completely immersive. Pace and rhythm is wonderfully musical.

 

It is tough to attribute this improvement as there are a lot of variables here. The Gustard eliminated the need for the second hub and that is likely to be a contributing factor to the improved SQ. With the hard adapter placed directly into the female end of the Corning cable, the electro-optical conversion happens an inch behind the USB chip in the Gustard. In the spirit of "the best cable is no cable" I conjecture this is a partial contributor to the improvement.

 

But then there is the Gustard itself, with it's latest generation USB receiver and re-clocking capabilities. I took the Gustard to a friend's home for a demo. On his system we could observe a similar improvement in depth and clarity, but not at the same level of improvement as with my system. This was demo was with a Synergistic Research USB cable. He has ordered a Gustard.

 

Throughout all these experiments changes made to devices on either end of the Corning cable yield incremental improvement, so the Corning cable has yet to become a bottleneck to improved sound quality. When I can find the time, I'll drop the Belkin Gold cable in as a substitute and let you know what I hear.

[davide256]

My rig uses a $109 Corning 10 meter optical USB cable between a SOTM SMS-100 and the Gustard U12. A male USB a to USB b male hard adapter is inserted into the female end of the Corning cable. This means the optical to electrical signal conversion is happening within an inch or two of the Gustard USB receiver.

 

My USB cable search is over.

?? Isn't the optical out from sources an obsolete optic standard that can't perform. Convince me that source optic hardware is better now than it was in 2000, not an off the shelf component

[lmitche]

?? Isn't the optical out from sources an obsolete optic standard that can't perform. Convince me that source optic hardware is better now than it was in 2000, not an off the shelf component

 

There is no optical source or receiver connection here. This is not a ToshLink cable.

 

Both ends of the Corning USB cable are standard USB 3.0 connections. The electro-optical and optical electrical conversion happens internally and is done inside the connectors at both ends of the fiber cable. I am no fiber expert, but this seems SOTA to me.

[dayneger]

Yes, I am using the 10 meter Corning USB cable. I am very pleased with the sound quality. The setup is SOTM SMS-100>J5Create USB hub powered by the KECES 116> Corning USB Cable on the HUB CDP port>Gustard > Grover Huffman AES/EBU cable>Auralic Vega Dac. It's ugly, but it sounds great.

 

Thanks for your update about your system! The Gustard U20 sounds like a really interesting piece to explore, especially at its price point. Would you say having the U20 in the path reduces the importance of the upstream tweaks (e.g., ethernet isolators, LPS on NAS, etc)? I haven't (yet) lost all hope that I'll be able to limit most of my effort to what happens right in front of the DAC. :-)

 

Both ends of the Corning USB cable are standard USB 3.0 connections. The electro-optical and optical electrical conversion happens internally and is done inside the connectors at both ends of the fiber cable.

 

That's exactly right. This is an active optical USB extender with a standard USB Type A male plug at the host end and a standard USB Type A female receptacle at the device end. Basically, inside each plug there's a VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) lensed into a glass multimode fiber for the sending lane and a photodiode that reads the light from the receiving lane fiber, plus the other bits and pieces for handling the USB interface and driving said VCSELs and photodiodes.

[lmitche]

Thanks for your update about your system! The Gustard U20 sounds like a really interesting piece to explore, especially at its price point. Would you say having the U20 in the path reduces the importance of the upstream tweaks (e.g., ethernet isolators, LPS on NAS, etc)? I haven't (yet) lost all hope that I'll be able to limit most of my effort to what happens right in front of the DAC. :-)

 

Dayne,

 

For me, it is tough to know if the Gustard reduces the importance of upstream components. It was the last piece I added to my system, and I would need to de-tweak the upstream components to test your hypothesis. However, it is a garbage-in, garbage world in digital audio, so missing or damaged bits cannot be fixed by the Gustard.

[dayneger]

It was the last piece I added to my system, and I would need to de-tweak the upstream components to test your hypothesis.

 

As far as I'm concerned detweakification is highly underrated when it comes to audio! ;-)

 

Yet, however interesting it might be to systematically remove different aspects of your upstream optimizations to judge their respective SQ impacts in the context of downstream isolation and reclocking, I can completely understand why you'd rather spend your time simply enjoying wonderful music...

[WhiteNoise]

MHDT Labs Pagoda.

 

It's killer.

[davide256]

There is no optical source or receiver connection here. This is not a ToshLink cable.

 

Both ends of the Corning USB cable are standard USB 3.0 connections. The electro-optical and optical electrical conversion happens internally and is done inside the connectors at both ends of the fiber cable. I am no fiber expert, but this seems SOTA to me.

 

I don't see how this is useful. All of my audio connections require USB with A and B connector ends

[lmitche]

I don't see how this is useful. All of my audio connections require USB with A and B connector ends

 

The Corning cable is setup as an extension cable with USB 3 A male to USB 3 A female connections. A USB 2 A male to USB 2 B male hard adapter is required to allow connection the DAC.

 

Here is a an example for less than $5.

 

http://www.amazon.com/HDE%C2%AE-USB-Type-Male-Adapter/dp/B002B9AR8I