Best investment to upgrade my digital chain?

[botrytis]

7 hours ago, kurb1980 said:

Go fiber then you can keep your ether ditch all the other components.  Get a better psu for your chord.  Try something like opticalRendu that would paire well with ether use the SFP modules to connect the two.  That should maximize what you already got and remove all the extra components in your chain.

 

So, you want the OP to get more noise not less? I have tried all what you have said and sold it all, because it makes the noise worse not better. 

[botrytis]

I knew a group in MI, who was known for DBT - the Southeast Michigan Woofer and Tweeter Marching Society - or SMOOTUMS for short (don't know how that acronym came to be). They always tested systems this way. They did many, SPDIF vs USB - and the conclusion was SPDIF is way noisier than USB - they hated USB also.

 

I attribute this to how SPDIF has not basically changed since ~1985 (somewhere around there), when it was introduced while USB has been updated constantly.  I attribute this to Philip/SONY SPDIF development versus a cooperative industry group working on USB.

 

YMMW

[botrytis]

18 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

SPDIF can be noisier than USB (based on many measurement reviews) but if they also hated USB so what do they use? lol

 

Most of them were die hard Vinyl addicts - many are in their 80-90's if still alive. It has been a few years (2018 was the last time I saw them).

[botrytis]

2 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

It does not make much sense to me. If they were die hard vinyl addicts, why would they care about USB to a point they hate it? lol

 

They were trying to be objectivists. Not your responsibility to understand. It is what they did EVERY meeting.