A lot of "better" DACs have better clocks, galvanic isolation, walled off power, toroidal transformers, etc. And they sound better too!
Clean up, filtered ethernet is key too.
Just Get A Better DAC?
I see that many of you are adding clocks, DDCs and whatever other boxes for better digital. To those of you who have done this, do you think it would have been a better investment to just buy a better dac? I realize that it may be financially easier to add pieces one at a time, but I was wondering what those who have done it think. Plus, less boxes and cables, which is a blessing, IMO. I guess this would also apply to those putting boxes in front of their streamers.
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@chayro Great question, upgrade a DAC vs DDC to get away from USB. My opinion is get away from USB. I have an Innuos Statement Nextgen with both USB and Ethernet output. The Ethernet is hands down superior even with a FTA Sinope USB Cable. I sent my Lampizator Goldengate back to Poland for upgrades including the new USB board, the S/PDIF is still superior with a relatively inexpensive BNC cable. I am trying a Network Acoustics AES next week and expect it to be even better. To get from the Statements Ethernet output to BNC input on the Goldengate I convert the Ethernet to Fiber with a Sonore OpticalModule then convert the Fiber to USB with a Sonore SignatureRendu then the USB to BNC with an Antipodes S20 and then BNC to the Goldengate DAC. It is easily better than direct USB from the Statement to the Goldengate. I have tried the USB from the Statement to the Antipodes DDC and it is inferior to the Ethernet chain. The Statement is touted to have a very good USB and the new USB on the Lampizator is supposed to be much better than their old USB, but neither can beat Ethernet out or BNC input. I have used I2S with mixed results, it was worse than USB in one system and better in another. Like USB there are both good and bad implementations. I found the IS2 cable really mattered and spent more on it than the Iris DDC I used to use, but overall was never really satisfied with the sound of the I2S set up on the Iris. I regret never trying the S/PDIF on the Iris to the TerminatorPlus DAC. I am happy with my set up now but if and when I need to change I will audition a direct Ethernet between Streamer and DAC.
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Of the many DAC's we tested, The USB connection was always inferior sounding compared to the other inputs (i2s, AES, coax and optical). The i2s input seems to be slightly better on some DAC's. If you have a streamer that only outputs USB I would recommend a good DDC to convert the USB to ether i2s or one of the other outputs. A good DDC will strip, rebuild the clock and clean up the power from the noisy USB output. This makes quite a large improvement in sound quality. Jitter and noise is your enemy here when using USB. If your streamer outputs i2s, AES, optical or coax I would use one of them (Most likely no need for a DDC). If you want to output higher resolutions of 384 kHz / 2x – 4x DSD or higher you would need to use the i2s as the other outputs only support up to 192 kHz and 1x DSD.
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You might consider a DAC that is not designed around reclockers at all--use the money to upgrade to a DAC that already has a great master clocker. Years back, I had a high end (at that time) Denafrips then added a DDC reclocker and it was a sonic improvement--in that environment. I evolved away from that setup with a clearly more refined Lampizator (no need for reclocker) and now with SW1X. The price tag for the upper SW1X models may be prohibitive but they make some excellent models in their lower-tier DACS. These are designed specifically to not need any "enhancements" or signal shapers. If considering them, be sure to make sure you have a streamer that blends well with SPDIF connections. Here is their philosophy about reclocking: https://sw1xad.co.uk/technology_post/why-re-clocking-of-sw1x-dacs-is-a-bad-idea/ |
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