Bricasti M1 DAC vs PS Audio Direct Stream DAC
Your best source would be an Antipodes Linux-based server driving an Off-Ramp USB converter powered by a Dynamo Hynes-based power supply and then S/PDIF to your DAC using my BNC-BNC cable. Replaces the built-in USB interface with a really good one. The source is really more important than the DAC. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Fsmith - The Off-Ramp 5 should work fine with your USB cable, and it will likely improve on the USB interface in the Bricasti to boot. OR5 can be upgraded later to Off-Ramp 6 or Interchange Ethernet interface. Both big upgrades. If you want Off-Ramp to sound the very best, it needs the Dynamo power supply option and my BNC-BNC coax cable option with RCA adapters. This cable is a true giant-killer at $250.00. These can be added later if you only want to get your feet wet. 30-day money-back, less shipping. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Fsmith wrote: "Not sure it is quite there yet in the uber competitive lower upper class of to name just a few Lampi, Berkeley, Meitner, Bricasti, MSB, dCS and it looks as if the DirectStream has poked its heard into there as well into this prestigious group." It is there. It has beaten all of these in reviews and shootouts. Read these: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1398132150&&&/Absolute-top-tier-DAC-for-standard-res-R http://dagogo.com/empirical-audio-overdrive-se-usb-dacpredac-review http://www.audiostream.com/content/empirical-audio-overdrive-se-usb-dacpre "Correct me if I am wrong but I would assume any improvement I make in the transport area will provide benefits to any / all of the above mentioned DACS. With this group mentioned above do you really think their USB implementation is not good enough and really needs an off ramp?" Yes and Yes. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
This is the problem you get when there is a lot of margin in a product so the Distributor and Dealer get a big cut. They can do big discounts and still make money. I don't have this problem. If my Overdrive SE was sold through dealers, it would cost north of $15K. Unlikely that any of my stuff will ever even be sold through online magazines. Direct selling is a great advantage for the buyer. Used Overdrives go for around $5500 and the new price is $6400. People have to get used to the fact that I don't generally discount. Once the have the product they realize what a great value it is and don't expect discounts from me anymore. I have a different business model and I'm sticking to it. I don't give a rip how other companies do it. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Fsmith - I doubt if you will find any server or PCI card that will beat a well-designed USB interface. You are better off to get an Antipodes server and use USB from it. This actually beats most PC and Mac. If you want to lower the jitter of the USB interface in the Bricasti, use an Off-Ramp, Dynamo supply and my BNC-BNC coax cable. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Eliminate most of the wired Ethernet issues by simply earth-grounding the DC common of your router. Tie the DC common to the ground pin of the IEC connector, either inside the LPS you are using, or by using an external wire to the third hole in the AC outlet. The Sboost is a good choice because it has fast regulation but I don't think it is earth-grounded. Another thing you can do to help is to add a EMO EN-70e isolator in the Ethernet cable. I do both of the above. Works like a charm. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
FS - It can be fairly easy if you order a LPS supply from one of the small vendors. You can request that they connect the earth ground from the power IEC to the DC common that is on circuit board and the DC connector. If you have a 2-prong plug on your supply, like a Sbooster, then you may have to make a 4-foot wire with a banana plug on one end and the other end must connect to the "ring" on the DC connector. You can connect this usually by removing with a knife a short length of the insulation on the DC cord and then solder to the shield. The banana plug can go into the ground hole of an outlet. BTW, what is happening here is the leakage that usually occurs across the Ethernet interface transformer is reduced significantly, resulting in better SQ. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
My point is that no matter how good a job the DAC does in cleaning up the signal it receives, and no matter how good the design of the DAC may be, signals and noise don’t necessarily just affect or entirely follow only their intended pathway. And the waveform characteristics and the noise characteristics of the signal that enters the DAC will affect how and if RF energy present in that signal may to at least a small degree find its way via unintended pathways to unintended circuit points "downstream" of the ethernet interface and the internal reclocker you referred to. Very true, however I would avoid the term "RF". Its mostly what is referred to as "conducted" interference. In the case of Ethernet, it is leakage across the transformer interface. In most cases RFI is a result of ground-loops. If you have wired Ethernet to your DAC and you are using a cheap Chinese LPS or a Sbooster, make sure that the DC common is tied to the earth ground one way or another. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Steve N why can’t I just place a cheater plug on my LPS for the grounding? If you ground the LPS to the router do you also have to ground the LPS to the switch as well? Cheater plugs usually bring the power cord ground to a lug or to a wire. What we want to do here is connect the outlet hole ground to the DC common of the DC connector to the router, the outer ring usually. You only need to ground the device that connects to your DAC, either the router or the switch. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
fsmithjack - If you are still using Jriver 19 to play local files, you can do a lot better. I use the free combination of Linn Kinsky/Minimserver/BubbleUPnP and it beats Roon, Twonky and Jriver by a mile. If you want to give this a try, I can give you more details. First download all three apps. I use it with my UPnP Ethernet renderer, the Interchange: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=156409.0 This renderer delivers 10psec of jitter at the end of a 4 foot coax cable. BTW, the Interchange outputs I2S on HDMI connector, compatible with PSAudio. Also, you are correct that USB is fundamentally flawed, however if you add this device, it is very close to the best Ethernet renderer (assuming that you are using good USB cables like Wireworld Platinum and a good quality XMOS isolated USB interface): https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1 Steve N. Empirical Audio |
I would be interested in trying new software but if I had to go back to a windows based server to do I’m not sure it be an improvement. The three apps run on Mac, Windows and Linux. Incidentally, both my mini PC and the sonicTransporter and the ZENeth all use the same super low power required Celeron J1800 processor which has all the power needed for these Audio serving tasks but with nice low power, low noise. The lower the power better as long as it can perform it’s Music file serving task. My windows based mini PC would run hot - real hot and amazingly the sonicTransporter runs unreal cool. Almost can’t tell it on. When using Ethernet, it should not matter what power is used on the computer, in fact it should not matter what computer is used. The more important thing is to optimize the playback app and the router/switch and associated cabling after the router/switch. I have done a lot of experimentation here and found the following to be optimum: 1) AQVOX Ethernet switch 2) 0.5m Wireworld platinum cable from router/switch to isolator 3) EMO EN-70e isolator 4) 2.0m Wireworld platinum cable from isolator to Ethernet interface on DAC It must be done in this order for best signal integrity and lowest jitter result. Does this software you speak of need to be run of a PC in a set up like mine?
Your setup is fine. Versions for Linux, Windows and Mac are available for free. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
