Hi Friends,
Over the few months I had tried to experiment with USB sound. In some cases it was bright and in some cases it was fine. I also did USB to SPDIF and tried.
Somehow I still preferred my original chain of SPDIF. Though USB had some good points, it was still missing the natural & lush mid-range of my spdif.
I see many FMs have tried by changing the source, adding reclockers, regenerator, DDC (digital to digital convertor) etc in the chain and had better experience. What I understand is if
we have a normal USB chain in our system (without reclocker, regenerator etc), it does not sound good, the reasons being mentioned as jitter due to packet loss, changes in packet timings etc which can be caused by electrical interference, impure power supply etc. I somehow am not able to grasp it. The reason is USB has become a matured technology over these years and the creators of USB standards and the electrical and elecronics technology around it, would have definitely considered it. The chips are so fast today that packet timings cannot be an issue. I also don't think that in USB packets are getting lost. I may be wrong but i think when we try to use any DDC (digital to digital convertor) or anything that purifies USB and we find that it sounds better, the reason for that might not be that it is reducing jitter and improving the packets timing etc. Just like jriver, foobar and many music players have their own sound signature even though each claims to be bit-perfect, similarly a DDC interceps the signal and via some sonic algorithms alters the final digital data, which modifies the sound and it might sound more different and better to us.
I know my understanding may not be correct since I have not tried these higher end things in my chain. However I would be happy to 'hear' if someone can post sound from their system which is BEFORE adding these reclockers/regenrators/DDC vs AFTER. Thanks
Amit.
Over the few months I had tried to experiment with USB sound. In some cases it was bright and in some cases it was fine. I also did USB to SPDIF and tried.
Somehow I still preferred my original chain of SPDIF. Though USB had some good points, it was still missing the natural & lush mid-range of my spdif.
I see many FMs have tried by changing the source, adding reclockers, regenerator, DDC (digital to digital convertor) etc in the chain and had better experience. What I understand is if
we have a normal USB chain in our system (without reclocker, regenerator etc), it does not sound good, the reasons being mentioned as jitter due to packet loss, changes in packet timings etc which can be caused by electrical interference, impure power supply etc. I somehow am not able to grasp it. The reason is USB has become a matured technology over these years and the creators of USB standards and the electrical and elecronics technology around it, would have definitely considered it. The chips are so fast today that packet timings cannot be an issue. I also don't think that in USB packets are getting lost. I may be wrong but i think when we try to use any DDC (digital to digital convertor) or anything that purifies USB and we find that it sounds better, the reason for that might not be that it is reducing jitter and improving the packets timing etc. Just like jriver, foobar and many music players have their own sound signature even though each claims to be bit-perfect, similarly a DDC interceps the signal and via some sonic algorithms alters the final digital data, which modifies the sound and it might sound more different and better to us.
I know my understanding may not be correct since I have not tried these higher end things in my chain. However I would be happy to 'hear' if someone can post sound from their system which is BEFORE adding these reclockers/regenrators/DDC vs AFTER. Thanks
Amit.