Tír Na HiFi

No problem, Modest, I just thought you were falling for the old trap of "well if this is good a costlier product will be even better"! It's possible the Arcam is better, I haven't heard one! Have a look here http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Arcam-rDac

jkeny wrote:No problem, Modest, I just thought you were falling for the old trap of "well if this is good a costlier product will be even better"! It's possible the Arcam is better, I haven't heard one! Have a look here http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Arcam-rDac

Thanks jkeny I already read all info about it on the net including your posted site :)

Going the hi-res route is probably the way of the future. However, few of those who own a DAC will have hi-res capabilities - the vast majority of those currently out there will max out at 16-48...


Then there's the software side - still, there are relatively small numbers of hi-res recordings available. There are vinyl rips available on the web for download - and indeed some of these sound very good. But you are very much dependant on the setup the ripper uses. Then on top of that, there's probably as much in a-to-d as there is in d-to-a!! So until the major labels start to release in hi-res, the status quo will remain I reckon.

So where am I going with this ramble----- well while the hiface, modded or not, and the r-dac etc all offer the ability to stream hi-res over USB, their real worth will be how they sound with regular ole rips of redbook CD. That is what most of us have, that's what most of us will continue to have for a considerable time yet.

It seems to me (and I am not an engineer) that for a long time audio over USB was down to one of 2 chips by TI. It seems that a nice byproduct of the EEs figuring how to get USB drivers written to allow the hi-res transfer is that the audio quality jumped a lot. And that it jumped not just for hires but for regular res as well.

Fran

im very envious ken..i havent a clue what anybody is talking about but i really want to go this route at some point...

Hi Frank, you're welcome to roar across the country to hear it. The JKHiface is superb but the real killer addition is the attenuator which lifts the music to a new level. Placed between the JKHiface or the transport and the dac the effect is immediately obvious.
Regards,
KM

Excellent Ken, do you consider the sound high-end territory now?

As Ivor said, I should be selling these things for a helluva lot more. It could be upsetting the natural order of things with this price/performance ratio - challenging the elitism of the high-end audiophile world :)

Hi John, I reckon the Hiface and attenuator have lifted the sound quality of my system to a much higher level. I'd like to hear how they stand up to comparison with expensive high end transports and cd players costing into the thousands of euro. The low cost and high performance of the Hiface calls into question the value of expensive front end items such as this cable , for example , http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl? ... 1287666510 costing $1690 secondhand $2800 new. I wonder how this would perform against my cable/attenuator.
Looks like the key piece of equipment to have is a good quality dac capable of 24bit /high sampling frequency .

Yes, Ken, I too would be interested in that comparison -
- high-end transport/cdP Vs JKHiface &
- "high-end" SPDIF cable Vs standard SPDIF cable + attenuator -

maybe somebody here would like to volunteer - I will supply the Hiface & attenuators & standard Canare SPDIF cable!

More interesting info: To hear that Viynal proved better musically than CD when reproduced via a P.C. is very good news to me. maybe my decision to leave CD aside could be the right decision as it's the digital files that are true to the original recordings. Just to add my Digital amp with built in USB is burning in nicely, but I now have an additional project in hand, which is to try a valve amp with integrated USB port. (ideally a valve amp with an SPDIF in if I can find one) Looking forward to read any comments, cheers guy's syd.

Ken ,you don't have to compare with expensive high end transports and cd players costing
thousands of euro, better find who have Squeezebo Transporter or Linn Akurate DS even Linn sneaky and then compare :)