Dual AES or BNC converters

[Quest]

So I bought a Chord QBD76 and am looking for a way to get 24/192 out of it. What I need is dual aes or bnc to get this done.. or 3rd alternative of optical.

 

Items I shortlisted for dual aes were:

- Weiss INT202

- RME Hammerfall card

- Lynx card

 

Anyone have any other items I can add to the list?

 

I was very keen with the Weiss INT202, except I tried the Weiss Minerva for spdif out previously, and it still imparted the 'Weiss sound' to the spdif. I'm not sure if the INT202 is the same but am not inclined towards it due to this reason.. any comments?

 

[Elprior]

Hi Quest,

 

I've been posting my findings with the int202 here :

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Int202-test-surprising-results

 

A little wrap-up :

It works fine, especially the dual-aes and the bit transparency features.

On one of my pc, purposedly underclocked, I had issue with cpu consumption under windows 7 along with 2 different firewire chipsets.

On the sound basis, it made really no difference with a supposedly inferior sounding interface (belcanto usb link) with my dac (that's the sad part, really).

 

Hth,

Elp

 

[manisandher]

"Anyone have any other items I can add to the list?"

 

Well, there's the Weiss AFI1 as well. This has wordclock I/O, which the INT202 doesn't offer, and also has more signal I/Os (which I don't actually use).

 

Is there a 'Weiss sound'? I'm not sure. But generally, the AFI1 sounds brighter than the RME AES-32. Depending on the rest of the system (computer HW, SW, digital cables, etc), this may or may not be welcome. I'm currently embarking on changing the switching power supply in the AFI1 to a linear one with a decent regulator. The motivation here doesn't really stem from there being something wrong with the AFI1's sound. Rather, it's because I don't want its switching supply sending noise back into the power line. We'll see if this ~$300 cost makes an audible improvement.

 

Mani.

 

[Quest]

The Weiss sound to me is a little 'creamy' if I were to put a word to it. Perhaps the INT202 is more transparent than the Minerva for output, but who knows..

 

mani, any reason you are still holding onto the AFI1 since you already own the RME AES-32 which is supposedly an excellent card by all accounts?

 

[manisandher]

The main reason I'd like to hang on to the Weiss is because it has its own dedicated power supply, whereas the RME draws its power from the PCI bus. I just want to experiment and see if ultimately this might give the Weiss an advantage. As it stands, with its stock switch-mode power supply, I don't think it does. But I'll be upgrading its supply in the next few weeks and will see if this makes a difference.

 

I have a very simple procedure for testing the transparency of my computer. Firstly, I listen to vinyl routed simply through my ADC->DAC chain (i.e. no computer involvement whatsoever). I then listen to the same vinyl routed through the ADC->computer->DAC chain. If the digital cables, AES interface and computer are totally transparent, then there should be no difference in the sound between these two chains. In the past, I've believed that I've managed to configure things so that there is indeed no difference. However, as my system has continued to improve (e.g. using battery power for the ADC/DAC), I've found that a gap has emerged and has progressively widened. The ADC->DAC chain now sounds significantly better than any ADC->computer->DAC chain I've tried.

 

If the RME and Weiss interfaces turn out to be the culprits, I'll consider something like the Mykerinos card.

 

Mani.

 

[Quest]

That's the same reason why I'd want to pursue a Weiss INT202 rather than RME card.. unfortunately none of them can output dual AES for 44.1, but that's a separate issue.

 

Since you find the AFI1 and RME to be comparable in transparency, I'd take that as a vote of confidence for the Weiss.

 

Of course, if I give up on dual AES, there are a lot more products I can look at.. the Chord also works on 24/192 via optical which makes the m2tech evo an option. I just am not so taken by optical, is all.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Quest - Why are you interested in dual AES for 44.1 content? I'm just curious :~)

 

[Quest]

Hi Chris, the Chord is able to take dual AES/BNC for 44.1, which allows you to keep the same mode on at all times if you are switching between 44.1 and 96/192 material.

 

The issue with the Chord DAC (and I think this was highlighted in another thread), is that it may not be that 'clever' to switch mode easily from single to dual AES so manual intervention may be required. Am not sure if this is true for my QBD76 but it is for the 64. Always good to be safe.

 

In theory as well, isolating the LR signals should provide better SQ. Either way, I would also like consistent performance for my audio in either case.

 

I guess this is a quirk of getting a device like the Chord which has their own ideas of how to implement 24/192.. toslink certainly seems to be the easiest way out. Have you any experience in this area?

 

[Quest]

I digged some more into this topic.

 

INT202 and Chord combination at the moment is not seamless simply because INT202 does not completely defeat a line which is not used in 44.1 and 96 resolutions in dual mode (so the DAC may think it is still in dual mode when it isn't). However, I believe Weiss is making a firmware fix which will resolve this.

 

Having such updates does boost my confidence in the product, apart from SQ gains which will be subjective, as not many of us will be able to compare the different units.