Digital Transports - USB Solutions, CD and SD Players, DAPs, and More!

My Mutec 1.2 review should be up on my blog tomorrow. The net is................. it is a winner!

 

You need your blog in your sig. I keep having to find it from posts!

 

I'm out hunting for a digital interface. The few I've listened to were very very very far from a good cd transport. The best I've heard to my hears is a Micromega duo CD, not far from a teac VRDS.
Is there something out that is nearly close to this quality in your esperience?
BTW thanks for the info above @bixby and @Luckbad .

 

@Hands
Aside BNC, how would you rank the performance of the connections from Mutec or digital server to DAC among AES(3-pin XLR), Coax, TOS, and USB? Thanks.

 

Thanks, @Hands. If I ever get a Mutec MC-1.2, then I should use AES between it and my VEGA. The latter does not take BNC.

 

I have not killed anybody (yet), nor would I do for an advice I don't agree on (see my Gungnir Multibit thread as evidence)
I totally agree on usb fuzziness, I never thought of it but after hearing dacs with their usb Vs a (ime) good cd transport that became evident to me and my friends. Spatiality is another tremendous difference.

I'd really like to try a wonderful network player but after some use of a marantz hooked up to a dac I decided that it was not the way I enjoyed controlling my music. Thus a solution like the d100 (as wonderful as it may be) is not an option for me. Nor do I intend to burn CDs of my whole library. I want that quality and possibly from my PC.

I'm not familiar with it, but my friends speak highly of the theta data so I guess it is in the same league of what I've heard.
Truth is don't want to spend the money required by a mutec 3+usb (999 euro).
I was willing to spend some 300\400ish euro and the puc lite 2 or the mutec 1.2 were viable options at this price target.
There would also be cheap chinese alternatives like gustard u12 or breeze du-u8, or the dxio pro3a (currently not available anywhere). But after hearing the gustard I felt hugely disappointed so I decided not to go too cheap.Have you heard any worthy cheap interface?

From your post I understand that the mutec is somehow better than the typical usb implementation but still not close to a good cd transport (which is not cheaper than a mutec anyway), though still good value for money.
I might have to assess better my priorities.

 

Damn, now I can't be part of this cheap chinese interfaces frenzy. Too bad

Yep, I know the d100 is not only a network player, but since most network player play from usb or sdcard or sata I didn't bother to mention it. I use 2 PCs (a media server and a media client\player), I am at ease with network protocols. It's the concept of use itself that I'm not comfortable: going through my library through a super small screen (no vga\hdmi\etc.. output), no possibility to write a code to organize the view of my albums, and the remote thing (I prefer a multimedia keyboard). On a PC It is just easier to find quickly an album or a song amidst th 4000+ albums I have. Plus as far I read in their site there is no mention of a smartphone\tablet app (which btw is a less painful way to browse a library IMHO).
I heard lynx cards are very valid, unfortunately I will not know how much in the immediate future, a little out of range for me:
http://www.thomann.de/it/search_dir.html?oa=pra&sw=lynx pcie

Since thomann has a return policy I guess I could try the mutec 1.2 and return it if it proves unworthy. If a second hand unit doesn't come up on sale in the near future, ça va sans dire.

 

Anyone with experience with the Audiobyte Hydra Z? It seems to have a killer feature set with DSD, I2S, femto clock with clock output and optional power base.

I wish someone would make one of these transports with a SDIF-3 output. So annoying.

 

I have heard it in a system that I visit often. Very nice and the Bryston was also nice in that system. Both had a slightly different presentation, but I think it all depends on what else you have in your system. The system I heard it in had no good power conditioning and had more usb interconnects than I would like (ifi stuff), so not sure how all that affected things.

 

A pcie AES/EBU card runs around $700, and the top end Mutec and Berkeley kit is a grand...and still seemingly benefits from more defuckification.

I can't escape the feeling USB is either hopeless vs other interfaces or at a point the additional device in the USB chain is just causing coloration on top of an already essentially accurate stream.

The audiophilio has an indicator that the stream is bit perfect...would be interesting to test with one at the end of a USB chain to see what devices before it do ti that indicator. Assuming it is accurate if course.

 

Give it another few years and the pro audio side of things will probably be all ethernet/avb/etc.

 

Ethernet is, in my view, the way to go. Reliable data transmission with error checking and retransmission. It is actually not so much about sound, as it is about ticking the boxes called things which could go wrong. Ethernet error-checks; ethernet is (Ithink, and it is for safety reasons) galvanically isolated. Ethernet is vaaastly faster than anything music could possibly require (errmmm... so is USB, actually, but hey)

What's more, ethernet has plenty of cable types for people to argue about. There can even be a subset who hunt out thin-ethernet coax cable and fittings for their vintage sound.

Ethernet has got everything. I may appear to be taking the piss here, but I'm serious: it ticks my boxes! It does everything and the gear is produced in huge quantities so it is cheap --- but don't worry, the hifi companies will soon change that (have a feeling one or two might be trying already).

(Now... where did I put those coax connectors I used to keep at the back of my drawer? Whatdyamean, can't get the NICs for it anymore? Damn! I shall just have to install fibre!)



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I think you' ve heard about this:
http://www.merging.com/products/networked-audio

It's getting high praises from people who tried it.

 

I too have experienced this more or less consistently, regardless of output source device. Is a shame especially since the Playstation3 (and PS4) lack coaxial out.

 

That does look promising. A bit spendy, still, but nice to see the technology moving that way.