dan.dare

@bhobba, did you ever try your Off-Ramp with another PS, and if yes how was it? I'm thinking that the PS has a great influence on the clock generator, since the quartz is driving an opamp that is using the Vcc to generate the clock, so the clock will be only as good as any of the quartz or the PS. I'm also wondering if it is possible for a PS to have a greater effect on the converter than on Qute, when used together.

Technically speaking I find it incorrect to compare the SPDIF and USB jitter, because USB input is asynchronous, and SPDIF cannot be asynchronous by design. Therefore when talking about USB input jitter, we talk of the precision of the built in clock. The SPDIF clock can only be the one of the host, it is external, and it has exactly the precision of the transport device being used. If a very good CD player is used as transport then the jitter will be very good (or as bhobba said Off-Ramp or AudioPhilleo2), and if a poor computer is used on SPDIF then the jitter will be terribly bad.

Qute is not bright I dare say. It has very fine high mids and highs, the best I've heard. The low mids are somewhat shy making it a tad dark rather than warm. But not bright. About my problem it turns out I have to fix my crappy rig.

Well...I am the very happy owner of a new tiny Qute I have the following problem though: I plan to use it connected to a desktop PC via USB. I installed the driver, but everything I play sounds interrupted, as if the cable was broke and someone kept playing by bending it. I am using Winamp with default settings on Windows 7 there. I tried different usb ports and the same thing. I also installed the driver on my laptop (Lenovo, Windows 7, default Winamp settings), and there it works just fine with the same usb cable. I never had any problems with other usb devices, so I'm not sure if I can fix this with some software settings or is it the hardware. I see that everyone here uses mac for source, but I need that box on Windows for work stuff and I don't plan to have another box just for music.

Couldn't you connect the Apple Express to Qute via USB? That way your wife would just have to hit play and would trump whatever settings you have there.

I have the same dilemma of choosing between Young and QuteHD, which I plan to use via USB. I did not have the chance to test any of them yet, so I'm still collecting impressions from those who did, and this is what I got so far: - QuteHD has very good timing and low extension; it may have superior input on s/pdif than on usb, due to lower noise and higher frequency specs; - QuteHD seems to have a special treatment for 16bit/44.1KHz (redbook), which sounds very good on it; - What hifi finds QuteHD full bodied at the expense of openness; - QuteHD sounds a bit dry compared to Mytec DAC, Young sound a bit dry compared to QuteHD, but Young+Palmer sounds more liquid than QuteHD; - Young + Palmer brings deeper soundstage, more details, and more liquid sound - Young sounds a bit more disorganized in direct and very careful comparison to QuteHD; - Young sounds very airy and detailed - as does QuteHD too; - Young seems to have usb input more carefully built than s/pdif; - all of the above are subtle differences sometimes barely noticeable I repeat, none of this is my experiece, but others, and it might all change when I get the chance to listen to them. I'd like to know if any of this makes any sense to those of you who did test them.