Article: Audiophile Style Products of the Decade

[Raimund Heubel]

On 12/19/2019 at 5:12 PM, Matias said:

I agree: a single box with SFP input (optical or ethernet) with outputs to I2S, AES/EBU and BNC SPDIF would be awesome.

Why not consequently have ethernet or optical input and optical output as you can see below and here in order to best possible isolate the digital data stream before it enters the DAC?

I have already moved on...

[Raimund Heubel]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Very few DACs have optical input that isn't Toslink. I have the EMM Labs DV2 and NS1. I can connect the NS1 to the DAC via optical. It's pretty cool. But, if people don't like the few DACs with optical, it doesn't make sense to use a DAC they don't like just because it has optical. 

Chris,

as you can see in the 1st picture both the „arfi-stream“ renderer on top as well as the „artiflex“ DAC below have multiple non-optical outputs respective inputs a customer can choose from when ordering such devices from the company „artistic fidelity“.

From my meanwhile years of experience in using these devices I can however say I sound wise clearly prefer the optical I/O over SPDIF, AES/EBU or USB. Only the ethernet RJ45 format - if properly implemented - comes close.

But if customers want Toslink I/Os they can have them, for me there is no turning back.

[Raimund Heubel]

On 12/21/2019 at 1:20 AM, hopkins said:

 

The one mentioned by Raimund Heubel, PSAudio I believe, and ECDesigns (the only one I am familiar with). Could be others. 

The German company 'artistic fidelity' applies USB-to-optical conversion since 2015 when they introduced their first DDC device -  the 'afi-usb' - which uses 3 fibre optical cables to convert the USB data stream into a digital non-Toslink optical signal.

Since then they perfected the optical interface to what they now call 'arfi-link' which in my eyes is the best way to connect their renderers 'arfi-stream' to their DACs.