I’m afraid of USB!

[AnotherSpin]

On 11/26/2020 at 12:07 AM, Martin Herløv Andersen said:

Before this turns into a real phobia I need some reassurance that USB is totally safe and not harmful in any way (-:

 

Let me explain. I am thinking about buying the Innous Zenith Mk3. It only has USB out. So what's the problem?

It started with me looking into USB cables and many of them are crazy expensive, then I read about how much better it will sound with the innuos phoenixusb reclocker.

So I started to think that USB is an inferior connection, that needs a lot of equipment to sound right.

And because the USB connection is asynchronous then the fancy phoenixusb reclocker will “only” deliver a clean USB signal to the DAC, but the DAC has to use its own internal clock.

 

Today I use S/PDIF and I never read about a S/PDIF enhancement devices.

 

So is USB safe and maybe a better connection type than S/PDIF?

 

It seems to me that the transmission of sound through an optical cable with the well suited DAC can produce more satisfactory sound than using the usb format. 

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, sandyk said:

 Unless you need DSD etc. , well implemented Coax SPDIF will easily outperform USB  unless you spend a lot more on expensive aftermarket USB cables, Iso Regens with low noise PSUs . etc..

USB is also greatly affected by capacitance to mains earth, which is why a battery sourced supply for Regens etc. may further improve on an external low noise Linear PSU.

 By well implemented Coax SPDIF, I mean the use of isolation transformers at both ends, which cheaper implementations do not normally  have, or a good internal soundcard with Coax SPDIF out . The much more expensive Glass Toslink cables will also outperform normal Toslink cables.

Even my old Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3 has good quality internal SPDIF transformers, whereas many more recent DACs have been hobbled by  the "Beancounters" 

 

 

That was funny. Did I ever said this?

 

[AnotherSpin]

5 hours ago, bobflood said:

Sorry to say this, but this whole thread seems silly to me. SPDIF is 40 year old tech that was put on early CD players for testing purposes at a time when there were no stand alone DACs. It has so many limitations that it is near useless in this day of high rate up-sampling and the clock signal is co-mingled with the program material. USB while not perfect is far superior and much more versatile. It is fairly easy using any number of available products to correct any shortcomings it has.

The development of audio is going in a strange way. Solid state technology was aimed to sound as good as a previous one based on tubes. Compact discs supposedly sounded no worse than vinyl LPs. Now, streaming should deliver the sound on par with  previous formats. And so on. We put ourselves to sleep with dreams of progress, but In a strange way, we give up the best in favor of the worst, and then try to bring the worst to the acceptable level. Well, this is not just about audio.

[AnotherSpin]

8 hours ago, sandyk said:

I have yet to hear Toslink sound as good  as a quality Coax SPDIF cable where isolation transformers are used for the Coax connection at both ends and 75 ohm BNC connectors are used at both  ends as well .