Bel Canto USB Link Question?
Joined: 05/13/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 29
Thu, 07/02/2009 - 20:12 — solidsqualHi,
First, thank you for allowing me to be a part of this forum.
Second, my system is as follows:
Wyred4Sound 500W Amps
Wyred4Sound STP
Emerald Physics CS2.3 (recently traded-up from CS2)
Peachtree Nova (used as DAC)
Apple Powerbook
Now for the Question: I am presently running the signal from the powerbook to the nova via mini-toslink. This allows me to achieve the 24/96 output as the Nova does not accept 24/96 via USB. I am wondering if I would see improvement if I added a Bel Canto USB Link and connected to the Nova via SPDIF?
Thanks,
Mike
Joined: 02/02/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 24
You might. Does the Nova
You might. Does the Nova have a BNC connection? Not to worry of not, it comes with an RCA adapter. I have the Bel Canto between my MacBook and Cary 306 Pro. I preferred it to every other conversion option.
I think the benefit for your set up may be removal of the USB to the DAC more then the 24/96 capabilities. I think Bel Canto has a 30 return policy, so give it try. I can testify there is no "burn in" to worry about.....
John
[Outlet > Crystal Cable Reference Power Cords > Audio Magic Mini Stealth >] MacBook "White" (Sitting on Symposium Svelte Shelf and 3 Decouplers) > iTunes/Apple Lossless/iTouch Remote > Kimber Cable USB > Bel Canto 24/96 USB Converter > Cary 306 Pro SACD/CD/DAC > Crystal Cable Reference Connect IC >Pass Labs X1 > Crystal Cable Reference Connect IC > Bryston 28B SST Mono Blocks > Transparent MM Ultra Speaker Cables > Verity Audio Parsifal Ovations> My Ears.....ahhhhhhh
Joined: 05/13/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 29
Right now I am not using
Right now I am not using USB, just an mini-toslink cable to my Nova. This allows me to get 24/96. Also, if there is something wrong with USB, I can't see how USB to the Bel Canto to BNC is any better when the initial connection was USB.
Mike
Joined: 03/16/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 1380
Perspective...
It's a said that the very best FireWire connections are better then the best adaptive (non-ayncronous) USB connections. Howevere that doesn't mean that the Bel Canto is going to be worse than FireWire interface x.
I you consider a scare of 0-100 ... the best an adaptive USB connection can get is maybe 60 on that scale. The best a TOSLink connection is maybe 75 and the best FireWire or Async USB is 90 (there is no perfect interface currently IMO).
Okay ... so in your Nova, the USB connection only managed to get 60% of the "best" - so thats 60% of 60 - a score of 36.
The optical connection in your MacMini is similarly only of average quality so lets say that is also a 60% interface, but this time 60% of 75 - a score of 45.
On the other hand, the Bel Canto USB link is a pretty good USB interface, so we'll say it can get 85% of the possible performance - so 85% of 60 is 51.
Another alternative would be a FireWire interface such as the TC Konnect 8. This again is only average, so we'll call it another 60% interface. In this case though the potential of FireWire is much higher, so 60% of 90 gives you 54.
Now the figures I have listed are imaginary, but hopefully give you some indication of why you may> be able to get an improvement using the BelCanto USB Link, even though the TosLink from your Mac improved over the inbuilt USB of the Nova.
Eloise
Mac OSX 10.5 with iTunes (mostly ALAC) --USB--> Musical Fidelity A1008 --> B&W CDM 7NT (iPhone remote)
Joined: 05/13/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 29
Yeah that was really helpful
Yeah that was really helpful thank you. I know nothing about this stuff other than what sounds good. It really helps when the tech stuff is placed in perspective.
Mike
Joined: 02/19/2009 .:. Offline .:. Comments: 36
usb link vs toslink
To Eloise and Mike,
I like Eloise approach on % of quality. However I am not sure that Toslink should be considered as potentially better than adaptative usb.
I made a post about about differences of quality between coax, bnc, toslink, aes and Gordon Rankin answered that for him Toslink was a cheap and bad interface. For him Bnc was the best interface (apart from asynchronous usb of course).
Since the usb link output is Bnc that is something to take into account especially if your Dac has a Bnc input. The Tc Konnekt digital output are only coaxial.
Furthermore, I wrote to bel Canto and they measured a jitter three times lower with their usb link than with the current usb chip they have on the Bel Canto Dac3. So it must be quite good.
If Bel Canto has this return policy I think it is worth trying and I would be very interested by your results. Unfortunately there is no such policy at home and I could not find a usb link for test.
As far as toslink is concerned, I have made a test with a cheap usb to toslink soundcard. I tried a plastic cable and a glass cable (from real cable). The sound produced with the glass cable was impressively better. I was very surprised. I think it is also worth trying.
I also have one question for Eloise. Did you compare the sound between the usb input and the toslink input of the A1008 coming from the Mac Mini?
Laurent