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

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Hands, Oct 11, 2015.

  1. zolkis

    zolkis Acquaintance

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    Measure sound quality against sound quality, as in the post above. Sorry for the sloppy term.
     
  2. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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    It's ok. I see you are from Finland. "Measure" implies there is objective data being recorded - like checking for THD, IMD, signal-to-noise ratio, etc. with an audio analyzer. What you are talking about are your subjective impressions and how you hear the differences between components.
    I will still read your impressions, but I got excited for a moment thinking you were measuring jitter on CD transports or something.
     
  3. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    My concern with the Aune stuff is that they listed jitter in the nanosecond range. Maybe it was a particular test they ran, some other issue, or a weird typo in their site or measurement software, but it still didn't inspire confidence.
     
  4. TheIceman93

    TheIceman93 El pato-zorro

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    Its really frustrating how few options there are for for digital transports, even fewer if you are looking for SD card support. How hard can it be? SD card slot, LPS, reasonably sized screen with good UI, and for Christ's sake, please give us gapless playback. I haven't been able to find anything with all that for under $1K.

    Soundware D200 comes closest but no gapless playback which is beyond frustrating.
    The Tascam DA-3000 is another option but it only supports WAV and DSD playback.
     
  5. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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    I suspect you know but the "why" is economies of scale. Units with SD cards are either pro, and unconcerned with playback of lossy formats, detailed metadata, and playback at all, or they are super niche Chi-Fi cobbling together components from whatever suppliers they can get a hold of. I understand the frustration but it just ain't a priority for most.
     
  6. TheIceman93

    TheIceman93 El pato-zorro

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    I know its not a priority for most but it should be. USB is a dead end. There should be more options for people looking to separate their computer from their hifi rig.
     
  7. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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    Sonically, perhaps, but loading and navigating SD cards on the playback device seems like a deader end as far as adoption. But that is against the spirit of the thread and enthusiasts exploring the best sound. Just sayin. I get it; I bought a big laserdisc transport a few months ago. Carry on
     
  8. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    First, you'd want the D100 over the 200. I think if you contact their rep directly on HF, you may be able to get the TOTAL femto model for less than $1K. But even the base model is good. Second, if you rip your CD as one big FLAC or WAV file and use a cuesheet, gapless works perfectly.
     
  9. zolkis

    zolkis Acquaintance

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    Thanks, this is very useful. What's your take on the M1 Pro (Esther) vs D100? It uses femto clocks as well, and when coax out is used, it's a very minimal solution. We don't know much about the PSU quality, at least the D100 PSU can be DIY-upgraded if someone goes there.
     
  10. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Never heard an M1.
     
  11. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Have you considered a Squeezebox Touch? I've considered using mine with the USB-out to a DDC and Coax, or AES if I had a Yggdrasil. Right now I just use the USB out to a Regen Amber into my Hegel - the Regen really improved things for me.
     
  12. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    M1Pro was good feeding coax to an external dac/amp, but I found it lackluster with the headphone out. The interface and speed were quite good at least. Sonically better than the Aune and Shanling daps I tried, but not as good as the Questyle QP1R (but the Questyle interface is spotty, and the wheel is laughably bad).
     
  13. Vanheim

    Vanheim Acquaintance

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  14. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    @Vanheim It might be good. On paper it all looks OK. I do have concerns about units that act as a transport and DAC and would prefer a focused solution, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything is compromises.

    What worries me is they keep listing the jitter in nanosecond levels. I want to believe that can't be right, but nanosecond level jitter would be absurdly high. A good transport will be in the low picosecond range or even femtosecond.
     
  15. landroni

    landroni Friend

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    I seem to recall someone... ahem... @baldr... having some strong opinions on femto-second clocks... ;)

     
  16. Daveheart

    Daveheart Friend

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    IIRC his gripe is with "Femto Clock" and not clocks that happen to have jitter measurements in fs.
     
  17. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Point being that anyone listing their gear with nanosecond-level jitter has me concerned even if that's not an accurate specification. I really can't believe it would be in nanoseconds.
     
  18. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I did not really spend any time worrying about the quality of a digital transport except that I avoided USB and was paying some attention to the galvanic isolation on output. Never bothered to compare directly any players. But recently my Bryston BDP-2 BNC connector needed replacement and, because of COVID, I was unable to use it for a month, instead using RPi 3 Digi+ Pro , and Eitr on my desktop. And I liked it, could not hear anything wrong and started thinking about selling BDP-2.

    When I got it back, I replaced Digi+ Pro with BDP-2 in my RME- ADI-2 DAC plus Adam A7X setup. Well I am not thinking about selling it anymore. BDP-2 came with upgraded audio board, new version of what is called “Bryston BDP Audio Device—BUC Board.” The “BUC” acronym means Bryston USB Converter, the same technology they use in BUC-1 converter.
    And I could hear the difference right away.
    1. I like the A7X setup but there are two things I am still tweaking: a slightly metallic sound of a ribbon tweeter, and the subs crossover without, for now, being able to high-pass the monitors. The bass sounds at times less articulated than I would like and even a bit boomy in the 50Hz-100Hz. I was able to improve that with the EQ and subwoofer setup but still hear it from time to time.
      With BDP-2 I get better treble: With BDP2 I was able to bring the A7X tweeter gain up 1dB and still the treble was a bit smoother and ear friendly than before.
      And better bass: I can hear the bass crosover overlap but but it is just more the question of amplification not distortion. That was very noticeable. Now there is less difference between EQ on and off, and I can just make bass a bit better by reducing the subwoofer volume
    2. For the first time I can hear the difference between digital filters of the RME ADI-2 DAC. Not sure which one I prefer but definitely hear the difference between SD Sharp and SD Slow.
    With everything else the same in the chain, DBP-2 makes audible difference. Having said that but I am still not convinced that a digital player is the place where I should spend my money. Considering 95% or 90% price difference between Digi+ Pro, or Pi2AES, and Bryston BDP-2, I would probably get a better system going with Pi2AES and upgrading monitors.
     
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Femto is better than pico. Personally I prefer zepto clock. Most important is that we don't fall for the kleptoclock
     
  20. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    My nymphoclock is insatiable put puts out "good sound", that is a bit upper mid forward...piercing even...
     

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