Article: CAPS Twenty | Part One

[bbosler]

With all of the RF concerns you might want to look at Audiowise products as that is the focus of most of what he offers. In my dealings with Dan he has been very easy to engage and eager to address whatever concerns you have.

 https://audiowise-canada.myshopify.com/

 

Concerning the question about outputs other than USB and the recommendations of Lynx or RME PCI cards... does anybody have any experience with them or recommendations for a BNC SpDIF 2 channel output? I see a lot of options and varieties so hard to dig through them. Ideally one that accepts a word clock.

 

finally, regarding HDplex. His supplies seem to offer a lot for the $$ but there are numerous posts that complain about reliability, admittedly mostly older posts.  Hopefully that is either a thing of the past or was not really an issue in the first place, never the less it would be nice to hear from any of you who have recent experience with them

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

[bbosler]

7 hours ago, Confused said:

 it is just a that that I find the Devialet sounds best when fed via AES/EBU, so in my case that is what my perfect end point would have.  I'd also like to be able to utilise my Mutec REF10.  S

 

I am doing this with a pro audio interface. Doesn't avoid USB but sounds really good. In my case an Antelope Audio Eclipse 384. Feed it with USB and it will output the digital stream over toslink, SpDIF, and AES. They  use the phrase de-jittered outputs. I use the SpDIF. It has a very excellent internal clock for the digital outputs that will follow the rate on the USB input so you don't have to manually change the rate every time the song rate changes. It also accepts your  10MHz reference clock. It was a $7000 interface before being discontinued. You can find them for around $2500. It looks like their Pure 2 and Amari will do the same. I assume others but ones that accept the Mutec are limited. 

https://en.antelopeaudio.com/products/eclipse-384/

 

As a bonus it has excellent ADC and DAC sections and if used as a DAC has a built in preamp with analog, relay controlled volume. The headphone out can drive high efficiency speakers directly like Ray-Dude is doing in the Extreme thread with his DAVE (as am I)..

 

to avoid USB you could get a DCS bridge that accepts a network connection and use a word clock like an Antelope Trinity that accepts a 10 MHz reference.. shameless plug as I have a trinity for sale. But overall  more $$ than the first option.

 

yea , I know, kind of defeats the purpose of the CAPS, but I need to get USB to the Antelope anyway as I digitize my vinyl with it and Pure Vinyl software

 

 

[bbosler]

I think I get this, it is an endpoint to deliver higher rate DSD than other endpoints currently available commercially. Or just a fun project to build a Roon or HQplayer  endpoint if one feels these sort of projects are fun.

 

If correct, that leave the one question for me I don't see addressed.. sound quality.

 

As a confirmed skeptic about how much a device like this is capable of changing the sound from my DAC when it delivers the same digital data all other devices like this deliver, it seems like a huge leap of faith to invest the $3K or so it takes to put together the full blown version without at least some comment about sound quality.

 

And I get the viewpoint that "if you don't believe in it then just move one," but since this whole site is devoted to maximizing sound quality and chatting about how to do that, it seems like a huge omission not to talk about it.

 

 

[bbosler]

On 6/30/2020 at 11:47 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

I can hear some people banging their keyboards and screaming at their screens asking for a simple statement about sound quality.

 

Well, perhaps some, but I was just kinda curious 🐱

 

Am I correct to say that any computer that can run the HQplayer NAA software is capable of delivering the high rate DSD over USB like this one? I understand that commenting on the infinite combinations of hardware is impossible, just wondering if there is something special about this combination that makes it unique for the purpose.

 

Since HQplayer will run within Roon, will it also deliver DSD at these rates?

 

again, just curious