USB DACs with 24/192 via USB

I think I made an incorrect statement in my last post. I said the EA Turbo (Off-ramp) can only support 2 sample rates. I think this is wrong. Perhaps only the EA Pace Car can only support 2 sample rates?

Hi Blindjim, you're right, there are only a few sources of 24/192 recordings now, such as www.2L.no. But there will be more.

Also, I'm in the camp that you get lower jitter from a PC server by using USB/Firewire/Ethernet out of the PC compared to a digital signal that comes out of an internal sound card.

So, I'm trying to avoid spending big $ on a high-end DAC that only supports 48 or 96KHz via USB, because I see it as a white elephant in a year or two.

I suppose if someone like Empirical Audio had a Turbo-3 that did 24/192, then my problem would be solved; and I could let it convert the 24/192 USB to AES for any DAC that takes a 24/192 AES input. But it would be cleaner and cheaper to just plug the USB 24/192 cable directly into the DAC.

Blindjim, I see where your external soundcard would be better than an internal one. This sounds like a good solution. And I agree that a 24/192 DAC may only be able to receive 24/96 signals or less via particular inputs. The buyer has to look at the product specs to make sure the DAC can receive the higher sample rates via USB, or that its even a true 24/192 DAC.

For example, the new Emmlabs DAC2 is a 24/96 DAC, but it can only receive 24/48 via USB -- I would love to buy this DAC for its sound but it's a non-starter for me because it can't even receive 24/96 via USB.

The other background fact here is that my PC server is 60 feet away from my audio rig. I run a 30 meter fiber optic USB cable between PC and rig. This only goes up to 24/96. I suppose I could also run a 60 foot AES cable for 24/192 files, as you suggested; or put an external sound card at the end of that 30 meter USB cable and then feed 24/192 AES from the sound card into the DAC. But best case would be only a 30 meter USB cable that does 24/192 (no sound card or USB-to-digital converter).

There are DACs out there that take a 24/196 USB input, such as the Emu 404 DAC. I'm looking for a higher-quality DAC, such as an Emmlabs or whatever, that can do this. That way, one cable that does it all and great sound.

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Paul, I'm sure your setup sounds amazing, and you are right that some of us, including me, are too hung up on the technology... With 24/192, you might have vinyl... ;)

Jax2, interesting summary of the article. You've definitely got my interest and I will download a PDF copy. I'm not married to USB and would consider other options. I believe Opticis makes a 30 meter fiber optic Firewire cable that I could run from PC to DAC. The Weiss dacs look interesting for this.

I just noticed the Berkeley dac may have an HDMI interface in the future. This is cool (for me at least) for a few reasons: 1) I already have a 30m HDMI cable run, and 2) if the jitter is OK, then HDMI would be "perfect" because HDMI supports 24/192, DSD, and Blu-Ray (I can sense the eye rolls; Blu-Ray trickling in guys; just listened to my Neal Young box set last night on the Blu-Ray player).

Restock hit the nail on the head. It's not just souncard versus USB. If you feed a wordclock signal from the dac to the soundcard, you get better results than just sound card alone. Also, there a different ways to do USB - asynchronous, isochronous, different drivers, etc. And not all USB implementations are created equal. That's why other companies are now licensing Empirical Audio's technology for their USB implementations. A few years ago, there was a movement away from sound cards with AES and no wordclock feedback toward asynchronous USB because you could get lower jitter.

Without owning one, it seems that Playback Designs and the new Emm Labs DAC2 eliminate the problem of which type of signal to use by doing whatever they do to correct the signal after it reaches the DAC. Now, is the result better if you use a less jittery USB signal compared to AES signal that comes off a noisy PC internal sound card? I don't know.

Thanks for all the input. I've decided to go with the Playback Designs MPD-5 DAC. They claim "no jitter" on any input, which hopefully solves my original issue of how to get 24/192 from PC to DAC with the least amountof jitter. This hopefully removes the need to go with USB/Firewire or a USB/Firewire converter out of the PC. After I get the DAC, I'll compare at 24/96: 1) Lynx soundcard with an AES cable, 2) USB into my Empirical Audio Turbo USB-to-AES converter, and 3) USB straight into the DAC. Should be interesting... Also, looking forward to trying 24/192, which was the original target.

Restock, I've read conflicting info on whether it does 48 or 96 via USB. I would assume that their web site is correct. If it only does 48, then I'll do the comparisons at 48, or 44.1.

In any event, I agree that I'll need to use AES from the Lynx card for 24/192. My hope here is to use only the Lynx card with one AES cable for all signals. This seems like an easy, clean solution -- no need for multiple cables from the PC or pricey converters -- and the AES cable will support all sample rates.

I had considered using a different DAC with a Weiss Firewire converter or multiple Empirical Audio Turbo USB converters (each EA converter can only support 2 sample rates, such as 44.1 and 24/96). But after you add up the price for these converters plus a 30m optical firewire/USB cable, you might as well go with a DAC that has analogue jitter reduction (allegedly same low jitter on any digital input), like the Playback Designs.