Did We Overhype USB Audio And Overlook Possible Pitfalls?

[bogi]

USB allows to utilize high quality software upsampling on PC and allows to send high rate PCM or DSD data to DAC. That's currently not possible with other standard computer interfaces. I mean >= 352.8/384k and >= DSD128 rates. As it is known, sending high rate digital data to DAC allows to bypass significant part of lower quality digital processing in delta-sigma DAC chips. To get better sound, investment to SW solution like HQPlayer can be much more effective than investment to DAC. We all already own home computers with much more processing power than is the power of typical DAC chip.

 

Chris, I read you tried many DACs with many different digital inputs and talked to many people. But ... Did you and people you talked with ever try well tuned HQPlayer type of solution with suitable DACs and with improved USB transport? Did they try and compare these solutions with others by listening or by measurements? Maybe people on this forum are trying things or have more shared experience with SW upsampling and USB related topics than some people you talked with. Maybe enthusiasts on forums like this are more free and open to experiment and search than people from music business.

 

Improving USB transport brings positive sonic results also without things like SW upsampling. Similarly, SW upsampling and SW delta sigma modulation can bring improved sonic results also without tweaking USB transport. But these 2 areas of improvement are often used by the same people. Real time SW upsampling and SW delta-sigma modulation simply require those "USB cables and solutions", which are topic of this thread.

 

Both areas (software and USB) are in development. The solutions people are trying and using on this forum currently don't seem to be for everybody. They are still in development and therefore they are used by enthusiasts, who participate on improvements by testing, comparing, providing feedback to developers. Often also by combining things which were never tried before. We are more likely able to use products which are in progress and solutions which are not perfectly convenient, but already bring interesting sonic results. The work to make these solutions more convenient to use is ongoing. It will take yet some time. I mean that's the main reason why outside of forums like this these solutions are less known and less popular.

[bogi]

but it is known that actual transmission errors (barring a particularly bad implementation) are statistically not significant, what IS the basis of criticism for USB in audio exactly?

 

Maybe not basis of criticism, but the reason?

 

USB can be troublesome because of the noise from PC itself but that almost never translates to errors in packet transmission. What happens most times is the manufacture of the DAC has problems dealing with noise that can come via the USB bus and makes it's way into their DAC. It's how they deal with that noise is what makes the USB implementation work better for some DAC over others.

[bogi]

As far as I know coax is PCM only, DSD would need to transcode to PCM and I end up playing DSD from the mini DAC section.

 

You can transfer DSD64 via S/PDIF coax or optical or AES as soon as you use DoP. I tried it on this chain:

PC - [uSB] - Gustard U10 - [coax] - Gustard DAC-X10.

Display of my DAC showed DSD64 with coax input. I found a photo I made that time ... But S/PDIF allows max DSD64 DoP, no chance to use higher DSD bitrates.