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nige2000 wrote:

DJ le Roi wrote:I hope someone can give me advice!

I bought a new Dac, an Audio GD NFB3.

With this Dac It is possible to replace the USB input by an I2S input. I am not sure what to do.

Because I cannot afford to buy an I2S bridge for my audio pc, the choice for me is between
an audio pc with a VERY GOOD program (MQN) in combination with a GOOD connection (USB).
or
a Raspberry Pi with a GOOD program (Picoreplayer, Runeaudio, Volumio) in combination with a VERY GOOD connection (I2S).

Any thoughts on this? Who can give me advice?

the ott audio pc with usb to i2s is still substantially better than say a pi/bbb with same i2s dac
however unoptimised pcs will not out preform
pi and bbb have jittery enough i2s and is best to reclock it

which usb to i2s chip is in your dac
im too lazy to look it up:)

Thanks Nige2000. I don't know if I give the correct answer, I am not very technical.

The Audio Gd Dac has a USB-32DSD (upports Asynchronous Transfer Mode up to 384K / 32Bit ability)
I read that the Raspberry Pi doesn't provide a MCLK but that the SABRE chips used by Audio GD performs such a clock recovery.

DJ le Roi wrote:

nige2000 wrote:

DJ le Roi wrote:I hope someone can give me advice!

I bought a new Dac, an Audio GD NFB3.

With this Dac It is possible to replace the USB input by an I2S input. I am not sure what to do.

Because I cannot afford to buy an I2S bridge for my audio pc, the choice for me is between
an audio pc with a VERY GOOD program (MQN) in combination with a GOOD connection (USB).
or
a Raspberry Pi with a GOOD program (Picoreplayer, Runeaudio, Volumio) in combination with a VERY GOOD connection (I2S).

Any thoughts on this? Who can give me advice?

the ott audio pc with usb to i2s is still substantially better than say a pi/bbb with same i2s dac
however unoptimised pcs will not out preform
pi and bbb have jittery enough i2s and is best to reclock it

which usb to i2s chip is in your dac
im too lazy to look it up:)

Thanks Nige2000. I don't know if I give the correct answer, I am not very technical.

The Audio Gd Dac has a USB-32DSD (upports Asynchronous Transfer Mode up to 384K / 32Bit ability)
I read that the Raspberry Pi doesn't provide a MCLK but that the SABRE chips used by Audio GD performs such a clock recovery.

maybe it has a built in i2s reclocker?

I thought I'd do a compare of Infinity Blade SQ with MQn. Bear in mind I don't have a Haswell and am running something like MQn 8.59 having been left way behind by the versions I can't run.

I set Infinity Blade SQ to 4GB - 4GB which tells me I have 30% degradation. I get the same with 2GB - 2GB - 2GB - 2GB. I don't understand this stuff about double sided memory, my memory looks to be double sided and is 2 DIMM modules (but it seems it's not connected double sided)...the double sided option is greyed out....anyway that's all stuff beyond my pay-grade!

With the default filter and instruction settings I found IB SQ to be pleasantly warm and easy to listen to. It would though after a while frustrate me with a lack of incisiveness. It was suggested I try the Galaxy filter and SSE plus. This made the sound much more MQn-like, details levels are very similar, MQn wins in soundstaging and IB SQ wins in terms of timbre. Lot's more options to try with IB SQ, rather like changing MQn versions.

Considering I can't run the current MQn I now have something else to play with and a stake in the ground (reference) with MQn.

Clive

You made me curious, so I tried Infinity SQ with Galaxy 10 instead of Blade 10.
But on my setup this is even much worse than Blade 10 and lags far behind MQn.

Aleg wrote:Clive

You made me curious, so I tried Infinity SQ with Galaxy 10 instead of Blade 10.
But on my setup this is even much worse than Blade 10 and lags far behind MQn.

Oh well...it's interesting to hear about your experience with it. I wonder whether the two players respond differently to highly optimised and almost non-optimised PCs/Laptops. I for sure find Galaxy better with SSE plus than Blade 10 and whatever the instruction set default setting is. The resulting sound is possibly like juggling a lot of balls in the air at one time - lots of inter-relationships.

Clive wrote: Oh well...it's interesting to hear about your experience with it. I wonder whether the two players respond differently to highly optimised and almost non-optimised PCs/Laptops. I for sure find Galaxy better with SSE plus than Blade 10 and whatever the instruction set default setting is. The resulting sound is possibly like juggling a lot of balls in the air at one time - lots of inter-relationships.

These things are very subjective Clive....
If you like what you are hearing don't get caught up in what others are saying...
Convenience is under rated.

2channelaudio wrote:

Clive wrote: Oh well...it's interesting to hear about your experience with it. I wonder whether the two players respond differently to highly optimised and almost non-optimised PCs/Laptops. I for sure find Galaxy better with SSE plus than Blade 10 and whatever the instruction set default setting is. The resulting sound is possibly like juggling a lot of balls in the air at one time - lots of inter-relationships.

These things are very subjective Clive....
If you like what you are hearing don't get caught up in what others are saying...
Convenience is under rated.

I trust my ears with my system and room. I can't run Haswell versions so I'm missing out, quite a lot I suspect. I still though find my modern rim drive deck with linear tracking arm running a London Reference possesses better bass, soundstage and especially dynamics which in many ways should not be the case.

I should add that both MQn and BH run on a mostly untweaked laptop and there are aspects of the digital replay which better my vinyl.

This is interesting build:
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/03 ... elopments/

legato output stage + ess9018 Sabre + reclocker + isolator + BBB. To BBB external clock can be provided.

TioFrancotirdor wrote:This is interesting build:
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/03 ... elopments/

legato output stage + ess9018 Sabre + reclocker + isolator + BBB. To BBB external clock can be provided.

Unfortunately I have never heard a decent sounding Sabre DAC implementation.
I personally find them horrible sounding things.

IMO.... If you like your music sounding analytical, digital, completely false in the high registers, with digital glare everywhere then Sabre is an awesome choice. lol ;)

2channelaudio wrote:

TioFrancotirdor wrote:This is interesting build:
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/03 ... elopments/

legato output stage + ess9018 Sabre + reclocker + isolator + BBB. To BBB external clock can be provided.

Unfortunately I have never heard a decent sounding Sabre DAC implementation.
I personally find them horrible sounding things.

IMO.... If you like your music sounding analytical, digital, completely false in the high registers, with digital glare everywhere then Sabre is an awesome choice. lol ;)

I was concerned about that when I order my Gustard X12, but it sounds lovely, no glare at all. There's an X20 model out sometime and they have a very well received headphone amp H10, which I'm tempted by.