USB DACs with 24/192 via USB

There's a great article about this in the current Absolute Sound and the limitations of USB audio. But the BelCanto USB interface, that then is meant to go from the USB interface into a DAC, improves the sound tremendously. I don't have one, since I don't use USB as an output, but a guy in our audio society did a test using it and there was a huge difference. He used the BelCanto USB interface from a MacMini into a BelCanto DACIII and the differece with and without it was incredible.

A great article that was severely flawed by the absence of Gordon Rankin's Asynchronous USB interface. This is what most of us wanted to hear about, and TAS dropped the ball.

Regards,

A great article that was severely flawed by the absence of Gordon Rankin's Asynchronous USB interface. This is what most of us wanted to hear about, and TAS dropped the ball.

Agreed; Rankin's technology should have been included. I wish they'd also included Empirical Audio's Pace Car, which I've heard make a significant improvement in computer>DAC interface. It seemed like a pretty small sampling they decided to include given that it is a pretty strong movement in audio trends.

Answering question of the original poster: - No, today there is no DAC that can receive a 24/192 input via USB.

Vast majority of them is limited to 16/48. The best DACs which can accept 24/96 are that of Gordon Rankin and Charles Heston who uses Rankin's technology.

For the record, Ayre stated that they hope to have 24/192 on their USB DAC by the end of this year...but I doubt

Good Luck
Rafael

I'm pretty sure the Weiss Minerva Firewire DAC can support that sample rate via Firewire. I think the USB bus runs at 12mhz which limits throughput to 44.1K or redbook. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.