Got mine now for a couple of days and i'm loving it. What a nice little piece of hardware. Listening to some Billie Holiday Recording from 1957 as i write.
Via USB, because then both devces are galvanically isolated on either side. I use I2S on the DAC for my CD-Transport.
Depends on dac. I prefer usb, because it uses dacs clock and has less jitter. I hear good things about aes, but have not used it.
I've tried both AES and USB and couldn't hear any difference. I've decided to sell my AES cable and keep it connected via USB in order to use the clock in the Z10 DAC. If you have a source higher than 192k, then stick with USB.
The Z10 has a FPGA to "Refine the Clock" over I2S, what ever this means in the marketing brochure. A FPGA can contain many things as this is a custom chip, it may use the OCXO or the good mood from the listener, who knows, this is nowhere documented.
Not sure this helps, but what I do............ I have everything except optical going from my T8 to my LAIV µDDC, AES, USB, I2S, and Coax. The µDDC feeds my µDAC via I2S. I can then pick any of the 4 from my µDDC to go to the µDAC and experiment. And I have more to do to pick a winner, but in general I find them all pretty close
that"s because no matter what, and how, you take out of the t8, it gets re-routed and re-clocked to i2s by the µDDC...
Well I believe that is the idea ! NO ? I also believe there is an option on the clocking that can be picked on the µDDC, but have not got into that. But even before I put the µDDC in, any differences bewteen the options on the µDAC were marginal. You might feel oned is better or worse that the other, but it is not earth shattering.
You are almost right. 1. the differences are so subtle (if there at all), that the human hearing fails to detect them 2. the clocking has a different aspect to it: with synchronous connections like i2s, s/pdif (both optical and wire-coaxial) and the like, send the clock along with the audio signals on the same wire. Although modernly speaking this is no more kind of a big source of problems, the one wire exposed to interference (EMI / RFI etc) exposes a very weak point of failure: possible disruptions in the clock signal; along with the distortion- of the signals. With asynchronous connections, such as USB UAC2, you don't suffer such problems because: a) the data is fetched at the source by the DAC when-it-sees-fit, and if its checksum is invalid due to interference, it is fetched again b) such data is thens internally re-clocked before being used (that is, converted to analog, as we are talking about a DAC) Although not important (as in non-hearable) USB also accepts higher sample rates than s/pdif. Long story short: if you can, always go USB HTH Cheers, Al.
Great, thanks for the replies. I manage the hard drives with a Mac mini, and the signal goes via USB to the DAC on my Devialet Expert 440. For now, I won't be using the T8's USB output. So, back to my initial question: Which connection to the DAC is better, AES/EBU or S/PDIF coaxial RCA? Thanks and best regards to all.
I've used AES/EBU, Coax, and optical at some point or another. I don't hear any discernable difference between them. Currently, I have my T8 connected to my Z10 using a Audioquest Carbon USB cable. While this utilizes the clock of the DAC, I don't hear any significant improvement over using the clock in the T8. To me, they sound audibly transparent. Everyone has their own personal opinion on this subject. You just have to experiment and use what sounds best to you. I'm in my senior years now and my hearing isn't as good as it was 40 years ago.
Hi Macnet427, Excellent topic I am also approximately about the same as yourself. from viewing your profile, yes time certainly gos bye quickly, I’m absolutely somewhat very surprised that my overall hearing to be quite normal within our particular age range, I found about the same as yourself, with the exception of the use of USB cable i am certainly not,Using or employing anything special of greater importance or significance . I found a very old common USB cable that’s is countless years old from an old desk top tower setup of several years ago , the usb cable ics most likely worth about 5 or 10 dollars, at this time I still have not looked into something of better quality of cable , however sonically speaking , this particular hook up sounds extremely Good vey satisfying, in its use, yes it absolutely does make me wonder, when I use a friends somewhat high Dollar USB in its place, I can honestly say I absolutely do not here any differences, and neither does he, we can speak of differences in materials, I find a bit interesting But the fact remains what for, as I state back in answer of his statement in technical issues and differences, However I’ll stay with the old found PC / USB cable , at present When use spdif coax with Kimber ADGL , I have had for many countless years, and still available upon request, sonically speaking in use with the DMP A8 and others Again wonderful sonics , other than a small amount of what seems to sound a little more fuller or, more of a thicker or heavier version in overall sound or Sonics, this seems most prominent when playing back were the use of incorporating CDs, using different players and transports, I have not performed the following equation. I may be wrong, but I would believe this may be somewhat the same within the use of any source, but I am unable to confirm that at this time, Witch we all agreed most times, using a hub type of controller that allows intstand switcheing for A & B comparisons instantly by way of remote control, in performing such we are sitting in the exact same spot in comparison, instantaneously back-and-forth, which allows to instantaneously and sonically reveal even the smallest change or deviations if our old ears are able and still capable of showing / hearing any differences within a compatible range naturally within certain circumstances, however I absolutely agree with your statement. You must sit back take your time. Try to use the same material. I’d repetitiously repeat it until it becomes somewhat monotonous, I have found this also play a major role in different types of music as well as when you compare classical to classic rock the USB connection at times did Sonically portray I would say a little bit of hardness and sound not grainy, but a little more upfront, also I believe in another big factor or factors would be your listening room within itself, the naturally, your SPEAKERS, your personal preferences and someone down the line and standing, but again you certainly have summed it up in your post statement. It all depends on the individual then moves on to the remainder of the AUDIO reproduction system as stayed in above, it can be somewhat confusing at times with deviations differences, etc. that theoretically seemed to be of no great importance or where underlying differences may differ. This is most definitely without question a personal preference for each and every individuals personal taste in preferences in decision of opinion, Please have a nice week and enjoy the upcoming weekend. Don’t forget the music, * NOTE/ we have somewhat of a quite younger audio individual in what I would call Our particular little audio group at present looking into the following issues within the use of USB, myself idk ? I’ll wait for him He did have some very good success in the past using a very inexpensive,Re-clocker , Make or model ,idk perhaps a SMSL ?/ Pic he sent to me
Anyone else have problems with Radio Paradise constantly dropping out for 10-15 seconds? Meaning I'll be listening and it will go silent for 10-15 seconds. I look on the app and even on there, there is no album art for 10-15 seconds. Then it starts playing again. I thought it might be a WIFI issue so I connected it using ethernet and it's happening more often. I listen to Radio Paradise in my car also and it never drops out so I doubt it's an issue on their side.
