USB DACs with 24/192 via USB

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.

Bel Canto offers a 24/96 USB Link $495. I use the Bel Canto Dac3 vis USB and plan on adding the 24/96 Link when I start using higher resolution recordings.

I read that series of articles too. I think it would have been better to bring
more reviewers in on that series, as all the articles about the negative aspects
of USB conversion came from one author. And as has been mentioned, if
you're going to make sweeping statements about USB DACs, bring
Wavelength into the discussion. There are some who believe a PC into a
Wavelength Cosecant trumps just about any other 16/44.1 playback.

One other thing that piqued my interest, though, was the Focusrite Saffire.
While its list price is the same as the Bel Canto, it can do many more things,
the Firewire-to-SP/DIF sounds even better than USB-to-SP/DIF, and the
Saffire's street price is $350 at any music store chain. The LE version goes for
$299.

I have a MacBook with a Firewire output, so if I decide to up the sound quality
of my iTunes on it, I'll probably go with the Saffire to extract the digital
stream from the computer. Less money, better sound. What's not to like?