Mutec USB Interfaces: MC-1.2 & MC-3+ Smart Clock USB

I'm sticking with PC -> ? for now because of convenience. I use my computer all the time and don't want an inferior (in my opinion) user interface to listen to music through.

 

Until you read that a lot of Aries owners prefer it's USB output to the others. The Aries is just a low power computer running Linux just like nearly 100% of the other streamers out there. The Aries is relatively cheap for the reason you mention though. But....do you sell you Regen now or put it between the Aries and your DAC lol. Because that would be something I would try lol.

 

As I understand it you can use the Aries as a J River zone. So just install J River on a separate computer, let it find the Aries on the network and then use one of J Rivers fantastic remotes like J Remote. I think you can stream to it with lots of different software other than J River too.

 

That's cool. I'm also not convinced that wireless is a good transport, though. Wireless wreaks havoc on tubes, and I have tubes all over my setup. It's also prone to packet loss, which just sounds like a completely different problem to tackle.

 

Exactly what I think, I enjoy too much a pc as a user interface though I think there's something wrong with a GP PC for audio purpose.

I may be offtopic but but since this is the trend... Speaking about small computer with linux I heard good feedback about small linux machine. I'm gonna try a raspberry pi2 plus hifiberry digi+ i2s->spdif interface + low noise lpsu via UPnP.

Any owner of mutec interface has had a chance to compare a low power linux machine Vs mutec DDC as a transport?
@Hands I understand that your experience with the D100 is wonderful, does it work as a renderer via UPnP?

 

Also, the Schiit multibit Dacs all sound better through AES/Ebu or Spdif coax, and were designed that way, so certain solutions such as the lower end Aurender or Sonores that output only USB don't work as well, sound wise. If the Aurilic sounds better through the USB, then that makes it a mismatch as well. To be fair, there are dacs where the designers say that USB will sound better.

 

Just something that sounds good enough that I'm not switching from file to file. Depth, accuracy, soundstage, lack of digital grit, midrange clarity. The mutec Is a great device, and I'm sure it will make my setup sound better, but when will it end? Audio sticks, LPS, Berkeley usb, lol. @Hands Idea is the way to go too, I think for sit down on speaker rigs, for me. Or, spin vinyl like Marv. Off topic, sorry.

 

Just a noob question, any reason why the mutecs clocks "only" go up to 192? Im just curious.

 

Because there aren't any 384khz music files on the planet? The mutecs only needs to go up to 192k because it's the highest sample rate for digital media. Even the Yggdrasil only accepts up to 192k signals and then upsamples/double the signal to 384k using Schiit's DSP.

EDIT: So I just found out there are 384khz files. However, they are even less popular than DSD, which already makes up less than 1% of the digital media market.

 

Yes i know they are rare, i was just purely curious since the not-so-recommend interfaces say 384, is that just upsampling ? Thanks @Ash1412.

 

Maybe they actually use 384k clocks, which are useless anyways since no one listens to 384k music. It's like Schiit said, better to focus on making the stuff that most people listen to (44.1 to 192k) sound better than try to support esoteric formats. The most important spec here is clock accuracy, which Mutecs seem to really excel at.

 

352/384Khz PCM (DXD) is used as an intermediate format for DSD editing. You can't edit a 1 bit signal so Merging decided to up the sample rate to help keep the excellent DSD time domain performance intact.

 

So basically useless in consumer audio playback then.

 

And i agree 100% with Schiit in that regard, just find it bad that so many that aren't that knowlegeable (like myself in some subjects) get into the numbers without trully understanding their meaning.

 

Another reason is that most of the outputs on the Mutec cap out at 192k.

 

Sure, there is barely any native music in 384KHz, but if there was support for 352/384KHz on Mutec and Yggdrasil, you would be able to skip Schiit's internal superburrito filter and use other filters, like the ones that are present in SoX and pro-audio EQ/DSP/etc.

 

I think perhaps the real reason is that these are largely targeted at pro audio, and they don't use that format.

That said, there is DSD conversion support in the 3+ USB (verified that it does work), so it seems capable of providing crazy output bandwidth when called on.

I recommend emailing them and asking about 384kHz support. Perhaps it could be included in a firmware update or in a future audiophile-targeted product that doesn't have most of the other features of the 3+ USB.

 

I agree with that, I can't get used to using the Lightening iPad interface for the Aries and using Linn Kinsky & Kazoo is very buggy. iTunes with all it's shortcomings is still a pretty intuitive interface, though they really screwed up the usability about 4 years ago! Perhaps I could try jriver….

Really??? I hadn't heard that. I thought the whole point of using an Aries is to use NAS and get the f**k away from USB.

I remember reading that one user in particular insisted that wireless sounded better w/the Aries than wired or USB HD… Go figure. Regarding wi-fi...Is it the 802.11 protocols specifically, or the 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz that is a problem with tubes? There's so much radio activity everywhere these days, I wonder if there's any data on how tubes react…

Yeah, Mike has some pretty humorous posts regarding USB...