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Need a good USB Dac - Reasonably priced - Long Run


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Everyone,

 

After much mulling and tossing about, I have ordered the Audio Note Dac 2.1 Kit with the USB board. I am very excited about this . My good buddy will put it togther for me and I am hgetting some better parts .

 

I can hardly wait the get this is my system (once the AC get better! Sucks here is the Burbs) and report to you what I think.

 

Liz

 

Powerbook G4 15 inch Aluminum, \"Fidela,\" M2tech EVO (BNC)with RF attenuator,dedicated PSU, Stereovox XV Ultra (BNC) Audio Note Dac Kit 2.1 Level B Signature Upgraded to 12AU7 tubes, ARC SP-16L Tube preamp , VAC PA100/100 Tube Amp), Vintage Tubes, Furutech ETP-80, (Alon 2 Mk2, (upgraded tweeters, Usher Woofers), Pangea Power cords, Omega Micro Active Planar PC. Signal Cable Silver Resolution ICs.

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Will Do Chris. Probably will be 1-2 months.

 

Powerbook G4 15 inch Aluminum, \"Fidela,\" M2tech EVO (BNC)with RF attenuator,dedicated PSU, Stereovox XV Ultra (BNC) Audio Note Dac Kit 2.1 Level B Signature Upgraded to 12AU7 tubes, ARC SP-16L Tube preamp , VAC PA100/100 Tube Amp), Vintage Tubes, Furutech ETP-80, (Alon 2 Mk2, (upgraded tweeters, Usher Woofers), Pangea Power cords, Omega Micro Active Planar PC. Signal Cable Silver Resolution ICs.

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  • 1 month later...

Hell All,

 

I did purchase the DAC, an Audio Note DAC Kit 2.1 Level B with upgrades. The unit needs to be built and my good buddy will do that. I found what I feel will be the best USB cable to interface the DAC and my laptop. I will have more to report on that cable once I try it.

 

For now, let me tell you about what I have found to improve the SQ in my sytem without changing main components.

 

My room and the and the "AC" here are my biggest obstacles to achieving audio bliss. I live in a suburb of the big city and the power company out here seems to not have enough AC lines to feed the area and everyoine has Air Conditioners and computers , pool filters, etc that cause noise to be on the lines and have voltage swings.

 

My room has a concrete slab with a carpert over it and I have a 7 foot drop celing. I also have a large cutout leading to the Kitchen which does not help; it hurts the bass and the lower midrange.

 

I did not listen to my audio system for at least 6 weeks so I decided to try a Furutech E-Tp80 line conditioner. Being in an audiophile club, I have access to trying stuff and demoing equpiment in my own system.

 

This line conditioner and it's power cord have allowed me to listen again. This is part 1 of my attempts to clean out the "AC" power here. The room also presents a major challenge so I have been talking with Pierre at Mapleshade for quite some time. I did pull the trigger on the Mapleshade 4 inch Maplewood plinths and 8 heavy feet. This makes a nice stand for the speakers and helps to counter some of the difficulties in the room. I felt the lower midrange was improved and also, the imaging.

 

The next phase was to borrow (again)an active crossover (Bryston 10B-S) and that is nice. I get better channel separation and imaging, transients, etc.

 

Now I want to tell all of you, esp. the skeptical people, just how good a certain power cord can be. I first heard this omega Mikeo Active Planar power cord in my system when I tried the crossover the first time. I had my doubts but when I listened to Itzhak Perlam playing violin I knew there was something special there.

 

Months later, the crossover is back in the system and the Omega Micro Power cord has replaced the Furutech Power cord (IEC) on the line conditioner. So my power amp, preamp, crossover were being conditioned by the Furutech which is using the peerless Omega Mikro cord. The sound change was not sublte. I hear a more neutral, balanced and MUSICAL sound. The two members of my club also noted this and one of who has listened to music for 50+ years really took notice.

 

The next day, I decided to use the Furutech power cord with its high qulaity Furutech connectors, OFC copper, etc and place that on my front end player and plugged that into the conditioner. The sound was improved and even in the dreaded days of August, the worse month for fidelity, the sound in my system is the most musical it has ever been.

 

The next phase will be , my laptop, and the Audio Note Dac. I have enough outlets on the Furutech left to use with the Omega Mikro cord.

 

I now own both the Furutech and Omega Mikro cord. If you are not in an audiophile club, I suggest you join one. I got the Omega Mikro cable used and the furutech for a really low price and I traded my old unused Illuminati D-60 cable.

 

The DAC will have twin input toroidal transformers to filter out noice on the both the SPDIF and USB inputs. The USB board is designed and built by Jim Hagerman, a real guru in the USB dac world along with Gordon at Wavelength.

 

I know and urge all of you to realize how significant the AC power is to your systrems and what the noise can rob you of. The Omega Mikro cord significantly lowers the noise floor (as per my ears) and it is engineered to a point way beyond my undertstandings.

 

How does this apply to this site? I will tell you that I will have to use without exception, the DAC and the laptop both plugged into the line conditioner which is being feed buy the Omega Mikro power cord.

 

I plan on using J River Media Center with the ASIO driver and I will play FLAC files. As long as I know, the Laptop and DAC will clean, AC, I know the music will sing in my system.

 

I will use the Stereovox XV2 SPDIF cable to listen to redbook CDs from my front end player. The Denon DVD 3930CI modified by Matt Anker , will play SACDs, HDCDs, DVD Audio discs, etc, using the analog outputs.

 

I will have a follow up to this when the DAC is inserted in to the system.

 

 

Liz out.......

 

Tubes Rules!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Powerbook G4 15 inch Aluminum, \"Fidela,\" M2tech EVO (BNC)with RF attenuator,dedicated PSU, Stereovox XV Ultra (BNC) Audio Note Dac Kit 2.1 Level B Signature Upgraded to 12AU7 tubes, ARC SP-16L Tube preamp , VAC PA100/100 Tube Amp), Vintage Tubes, Furutech ETP-80, (Alon 2 Mk2, (upgraded tweeters, Usher Woofers), Pangea Power cords, Omega Micro Active Planar PC. Signal Cable Silver Resolution ICs.

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Hi Liz - Thank you very much for the detailed post. I have to say it all applies to this site even though the main focus here is on computer based audio.

 

I agree that one of the most important things in an audio system is power (AC). I had a special sub-panel run to my listening room and several circuits for the components. I even had a 220 circuit run so I can try a step-down transformer if I need to. Power is very tricky though and I've had some problems with ground noise. There are opinions about every kind of configuration imaginable. I've been told to have analog on a different circuit from digital components, then told to have all the components on the same circuit because they'll have a common ground. I've heard many more configurations as well, but I've decided to just use my ears. The sound is fabulous right now.

 

Have you tried MediaMonkey and the ASIO drivers? I'm doing a lot of research with MediaMonkey right now and it looks very promising!

 

Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems AudiophileStyleStickerWhite2.0.png AudiophileStyleStickerWhite7.1.4.png

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Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for teh reply. I also hame soem ground issues yet I can live with them. I can't get a sopecial AC line, I rent an APT in a larghe home. Due the the assholes in Corporate America who sent the IT work over seas, I am haveing a hard time in my life.

 

 

 

 

Powerbook G4 15 inch Aluminum, \"Fidela,\" M2tech EVO (BNC)with RF attenuator,dedicated PSU, Stereovox XV Ultra (BNC) Audio Note Dac Kit 2.1 Level B Signature Upgraded to 12AU7 tubes, ARC SP-16L Tube preamp , VAC PA100/100 Tube Amp), Vintage Tubes, Furutech ETP-80, (Alon 2 Mk2, (upgraded tweeters, Usher Woofers), Pangea Power cords, Omega Micro Active Planar PC. Signal Cable Silver Resolution ICs.

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Hey Liz - I hear ya about all the IT jobs being sent to other parts of the world. I have many friends who have received these jobs in India and they are wonderful people. I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about as$%&^#s in corporate America. A very limited number of people see the monetary benefit of moving everything offshore.

 

Anyway, I hope this site and your music can at least provide some enjoyment and moments where you don't have to think about everything else going on :-)

 

 

Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems AudiophileStyleStickerWhite2.0.png AudiophileStyleStickerWhite7.1.4.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just got a fubar II, which sounds great connected to my whole house audio through USB, but as you suggested, using the CAT5 extender over a 25' run turns the signal to crap.

 

recommendations? can i use a USB extentsion/repeater and get the sound quality from the signal. I have to go about 25' from the PC to the media closet.

 

thanks,

 

jeff

 

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  • 4 years later...
Hey Lizard_King - Welcome to Computer Audiophile.

 

I'll start by suggesting NOT to use a USB extender. I hate to rain on your parade but I think you'll have issues if you go down that path.

I can agree with that... I get hiss and noise with one USB repeater. And the total USB cable length is 31 feet.

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I can agree with that... I get hiss and noise with one USB repeater. And the total USB cable length is 31 feet.

 

Ditto. For anything over three meters, Ethernet and wireless are both much better than USB. I have an eight-meter Audioquest Forest Ethernet cable running from my Airport to a Squeezebox Touch, and that has turned out to be an excellent solution.

Office: MacBook Pro - Audirvana Plus - Resonessence Concero - Cavailli Liquid Carbon - Sennheiser HD 800.

Travel/Portable: iPhone 7 or iPad Pro - AudioQuest Dragonfly Red - Audeze SINE or Noble Savant

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I think there becomes a diminishing return on running very long interconnects (either USB, optical, coax, etc.) vs. building another machine and pulling the audio files over the network. No data to back this up but USB is an emerging standard for audio with mixed results from every vendor. Stretching the cable lengths isn't going to help the DAC. I'd be happy to help with any networking questions.

 

Excellent comments about power, thanks. You can also completely detach from the grid if budget allows. Apparently this is what Definitive Audio does when they demo their Vox Olympian because they are in the middle of an industrial complex which causes their power to get very noisy. Pictures from this article Definitive Audio - Factory visit [English] looks like a very fun setup. :)

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