Originally Posted by
WESTLOWER
confused..I thought the delivery of the file up to the conversion, was of far less importance. Maybe i'm wrong.
I was led to believe that a good source file (red book or above) delivered to a quality USB / Spdif converter
and then fed to a well built and well chosen component based DAC was what really mattered?
I suppose it depends on what the control software is doing to the file pre delivery to the USB / Spdif converter.
Personally I want the software to do as little as possible and deliver the whole file unmolested.
Are we now saying that different OS on the delivery computers have different sounds? I can't understand that!
Are we not bypassing the sound cards in the computers by using the kit down the chain?
I believe a great deal is down to timing issues (see Tom's Mutec reclocker). I had my DAC USB board replaced/upgraded and there was a noticeable improvement in microdetail coming through due to the DAC USB having better timing (or rather taking charge of the timing vs. what the timing the computer has).
I also noticed an improvement (not night/day) when I upgraded the lastleg of the ethernet link to a SoTM ethernet cable. Still can't figure out why the improvement but I guess the signal was less molested.
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)