USB Nervosa Thread Decrapifiers, pro interfaces, and bears oh my

In this case, optical actually measures like crap. It will 9/10 be worse than USB out of an MBP even with schiit gen 2 USB.

 

Usually, I can't find the CD that I want, so I just plug in whatever laptop I have on hand to the Gungnir Multibit USB. Done.

 

Thread title changed and first post updated with instructions for new people.

If Whitney were here we'd see something like this posted:

 

I thought you were trolling, but the advice in the first post is sensible and should be followed before embarking on the USB defuckifier journey. I've been concerned about noobs reading this thread and getting the wrong idea. Hopefully the advice will put things in proper context.

Also should probably include the costs of moving to vinyl. Lots of hidden costs.

 

I edited the first post to be more clear about the move to vinyl.

 

ZD-

You beat me to the punch this morning with much of the above, as us fellow longtime SBAFers were commenting privately that this thread was taken over by ComputerAudiophile dillweeds attempting to over complicate USB chains to gain techno-style-nerd points while mixing differences together in hopes it suited their ears.
plugging in 3 AQ Jitterbugs to make a Dragonfly sound "great"? bugger off.

Commentary to the 3 paragraphs above:
1. thanks for renaming the thread. and for technical commentary that OS X USB is crap, hence why us Mac folk went to a Mutec after a Regen, etc.
that being said, the level of time (not technical effort) to move to mpd from OS X+Audirvana is not worth it. maybe when changing hardware next.

2. have no doubt Regen can make certain chains sounds worse, speakers and cans (and rigs) differ.
just like Regen can (and did for me) make crappy OS X usb chains sound a bit better for minimal cost.

3. yes, different = not universally better for everyone. the more complicated the chain of widgets the combinations of tweeks simply becomes stoopid.
at present have settled on Mutec for mac USB --> SPDIForAES conversion (Gungnir Multibit,Yggdrasil)
likely that will change in a year. or less. komputers, xmos, etc changes come fast.

 

We just don't want to see people do dumb stuff like PPA -> Regen -> Mutec -> Bifrost Multibit when they could have just gotten a better DAC to begin with. You know somewhere down the line, that's going to happen, if it hasn't already. We are all crazy enough, and sometimes a SuperBAF reality check is a good thing.

 

I want to be clear that my suggestions of going to vinyl in this thread were not serious. Vinyl is a pain in the ass and a money pit. It's a path that should only be embarked upon if you have a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of patience, don't mind tinkering with mechanical things - and have given it careful consideration. I stopped playing records after my first child was born in 2005 and it took me 10 years of careful consideration to get back into it. That is back in it, not newly into it.

But the point of what I was trying to make is that if you are going to go full retard into USB audio nervosa, spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on trying to fix USB, then you may as well go completely FULL RETARD into vinyl where even the small adjustments to VTF makes a bigger difference than having a Regen in the digital chain. In other words, don't go full retard.

 

I hadn't even considered that. So important.

Public service announcement: USB defuckification is like the Lohb strap for Audezes--make sure you love your POS, non-unicorn, treble remedial, 5lb vice of a headphone before you decide to make it more comfortable.

That being said: The irony of the vinyl argument to me is that the entire turntable is basically a defuckifier. The cart and the arm do the conversion and tracking, but the turntable controls timing and undue external influence on the signal. I know that I'm pushing the analogy hard here, but the irony is there. It's true that the potential performance ceiling for vinyl is higher overall and that little changes make more of a difference--like adding a turntable mat for example--but that "more" is also totally relative. (Also, account for diminishing returns when thinking of that performance ceiling.)

There's never going to be a turntable mat vs. defuckifier comparison ever, because that makes no sense.

More is relative because: if I feel like an analog sex priest, ritually lighting incense, de-ionizing my records, and blessing it with sidelong affectionate glances before I effect full BDSM mode and reprimand the wax with weights, edge clamps and an anti-static tickling brush, well is that more or less nervosa than going human caterpillar with defuckifiers to find the optimal shit in-shit out arrangement? I guess it might depend on what I've decided to invest in and why. (Not that I condone human caterpillar chaining, just yet)

One of the most important things I learnt about dipping into vinyl is that digital fits my overall needs better (I have films and games going through my chain too--not just music--also one of the reasons a D100 will never work for me, but something that offers a bit of USB and S/P-DIF decrapification for the right price might).

Another PSA: I think we need to dial back the assumption that all defuckifiers do good things to the signal, i.e. that they all reduce jitter and don't add any distortion. I liked the way an article @philipmorgan linked to earlier this week in a profile post characterized it, some of these things provide an "aesthetic" decrapification. The article linked to in the original first post here showed that sometimes there's added jitter and distortion (regen). So if you're new to all this, consider, do you want to get a better DAC like @zerodeefex said in the new first post, or do you want to start researching Lohb straps for your Audeze of a DAC?

This message paid for and brought to you by Lohb straps.

 

You know that the two of us are basically on the same wavelength here. If only everyone could see our random late night text discussions on these topics, hah.

Once my kids are 10+, I'll probably jump into vinyl seriously. It'll be uncool again and I can buy up hipsters' collections for 10 cents a record again.

 

Let's wait until Adam gets married and decides he wants to buy a house. He has a ton of good records, all of them I expect to be in much better shape than mine.