kbkaran

Interesting, I had a Mutec and still have Bel Canto ULink, but I dont think it made a difference feeding via BNC vs USB. So I am going straight to my 2Qute, but with a Audioquest Jitterbug and a Ifi iUSB in the chain. I am also waiting on the sidelines for the move to Qutest. The micro-usb for the power is something I am not fond of. I will try the hybrid sampling now (I have set my JRiver set now to max out to 352 of 392K). Anyways, the native vs 352K, the native seems relaxed but less resolved. It is a very subtle difference, it could all be in my mind.

I think some posters are under the impression that when we say - galvanic isolation - there is only one, theoretically perfect way to implement it. This is usually not the case, other ways to put it - performance varies on implementation approach. This goes for eg. DACs too - convert digital to analog - we know how to convert a binary number to decimal value .. so we think that is all there to it. Long ago, I was banking on the asynchronous USB to free us from some upstream issues (cable, computer etc) But unfortunately still no, every thing in the chain seems to make a difference. Anyways, back to the topic, I have a 2Qute and I got into this thread to see whether there is some benefit to upgrade to Qutest. So far, my chain looks like - JRiver/Fidelizer/Win 10 -> Audioquest Jitterbug -> Wireworld Ultraviolet -> Ifi IUSB 30 -> Oyaide Class S -> 2Qute + Ifi IPower supply -> Preamp. I am not sure the USB cables make much difference but the ifi IUSB does. Also, the iPower Supply to the 2Qute did make a difference. Like the other poster, I am not so fond of the micro USB port on the Qutest for power supply.

Thanks for the response. I have been on this jitter thing for the past 20 years (even following John Swenson's ideas for the long or so). I do agree that the USB source should be good (but what happened to asynchronous usb which was supposed to be delink the pc from the equation ?). The fact Fidelizer made a difference means asynch USB is not providing its benefits. It is just not the group loop or noise. 2qute or Qutest supposed to have good regulation but I bet after-market power supplies will make a difference (in my case, the ifi ipower difference in 2Qute was so very obvious). Would love to hear people's experiences on this front. So what I can deduce from your assertion (especially with reference to *Rendu) is that the USB source can be optimized both for electrical and timing characteristics. May be my Mutec helps on this front (I got it to help with my TACT amplifier which did not have a USB input). I was planning to sell it and am now feeling it may be worthwhile to keep it even with a USB DAC in the picture.

I am still running a 2Cute and it looks like it's coax input is better than USB when it is feed from a Mutec MC3+USB (with BNC). I have ifi usb isolator and jitterbug as well. But the Mutec clearly wins. Also, Fidelizer improves the sound of JRiver from my windows 10 laptop. So I am very skeptical about the Qutest USB being "perfect" and included switching power supply being "good". Earlier I was actually running USB into the 2Cute because of all the talk about it being perfect. I am really surprised (and disappointed) that the USB input is not cutting it. USB sounds little harsh and soundstage clarity is not there (compared to Mutec). Does anybody have any experience like this ? Or am I preferring a harsher sound from the Mutec.

I will try tonight on my windows PC. BTW, how did you make it run on single core ? I also feel making JRiver, which apparently is multi-threaded, run on single core will surely cause hiccups.

Are you checking this on Windows or MAC ? What tool ? If it is another core/thread that is 100% loaded then it is ok. From a sound quality point of view the writing thread should respond to IO from the device right away, way within the max limits allowed. May be that 1/10 CPU is not good enough that way. At work, depending on the query/processing (IO vs CPU) we use compressed or uncompressed data.

@Skeptic - looks like you want people/JRiver to accept your design idea of keeping data compressed in memory. As somebody who has programmed with uncompressed/compressed data on disk/memory my take is - the performance benefits can only conclusively be told with a benchmark. In the case of audio, this memory playback itself, is a very, "esoteric" feature. It may or may not have effects on sound quality. DSD/High-Res is used mainly by audiophiles and not mainstream customers. I am pretty sure JRiver will handle well without memory playback. If you have memory playback turned on you are an audiophile and now we are in a different discussion. I am with Paul on this. It is highly likely with the current CPU powers, a single thread de-compressing and playing back the data may lose the 'supposed' advantages of memory playback.

Thanks Matt, this was a misunderstanding. I thought if I could change the volume using the speaker icon in the system tray JRiver did not get exclusive access to the Bel Canto WASAPI device. But it does have. Other sounds are not playing (eg. youtube) and the speaker icon is the Bel Canto uLink device actually. So actually I think I am good. Audiophiles are a paranoid bunch, I guess :-)

I recently got JRiver MC20. I still have some config issues. On Windows 7, the master volume still seems to control the volume when output to my bel Canto uLink. "Disable Volume" does not seem to do it. Is there any other knob to tweak for this ?

Not just DSD even for PCM. But then again I convert DSD to PCM so I can feed it to my digital TACT.

I think I could notice a SQ difference in favor of JRiver vs foobar in my limited testing. I am pretty sensitive to jitter (as I also run a pure-digital setup with TACT Digital Int. amps) and I can tell JRiver sounds a little bit more sharper with less fuzz than foobar.

Cool.. Thanks .. interior painting going on in the house. will try it out after the dust settles down (literally)

Hi Folks, please welcome me to the MC brother/sister hood :-) I just retired my Squeezebox and have pressed a i7 ASUS laptop into service with MC 19. Mainly because I have a ifi iUSB and a bel Canto uLink and so can experiment. But pl. humor me.. Initially I thought the SQ was not as good as the Squeezebox and after playing with different output devices and fidelizer, this morning fidelizer+WASASP (with no event) sounded good I think. Let me know what other low hanging fruits are there before I get to power supply, CAPS and other crazy stuff. (BTW, I still cannot seem to control the output rate of DSDs .. it seems to pick 192Khz because that is what I set as the max for anything more than 192Khz)

Right .. the ground reference is very important, Maybe you can try plugging all the components into one condtioner/power socket array. It should be ok to put the iUSB wallwart also there, atleast temporarily to debug the problem. Another possible issue might be the DAC is drawing more current from the USB lines than what the iUSB can deliver (for eg. in my case iUSB cannot feed my squeezebox touch. I dont know how in ifi docs and others manage to do this). Re: tubes - I guess some people feel there is too much attack and too little decay in the digital world. Tubes can help in both situations (personally I am not sure tubes are high-fidelity). The attack/decay is also very noticeable when amplifying the vibrating stylus of an LP. To me LP sounds more 'real'. But then again it probably is not the actual recorded sound but a 'replay' of the original instruments (all my own arm-chair philosophising). I dont think the iUSB has any digital circuits to correct jitter. Probably just buffering. Mainly it substitutes the USB's DC lines with a cleaner one.

hmm.. I dont know about the iPurifier but the iUSB cannot for sure make things worse. Oh.. try not isolating the ground. In my case, that was causing adverse effects. BTW, I think this is either jitter or some noise injection issue. iPurifier based on my reading it basically removes any DC component in the data lines. Are you sure the change in sound is bad ? Increase the volume than you are normally accustomed to and see if you can hear more details. You are probably already aware, with jitter, say for example, you pass a 5KHz tone in, you would get harmonics/sidebands. Getting rid of them 'quietens' the system which some times can be mistaken for lack of detail/life etc ( noisy club == fun , quite home == boring :-) )