pigfatcat

Glisse :I agree with you . I do not have the opportunity to AB compare Hugo with top DACs , like AL. I did , however , owned a Sony SCD-777ES for a long time until the optical head worn out. All along I used DIY USB cable to link my PC with Hugo , using foolbar to feed DSD to Hugo USB port . I was impressed with the resolution , but find the sound a bit harsh and digital. It's no where to the standard of SACD playback of SCD-777ES. Recently I bought a digital interface-a Gustard U12- very cheap, but which had rave review here. I connect the Gustard U12 through Nordost SPDIF cable to Hugo coaxial in. It's another story . The sound become so much more natural .Now i got the feeling back , the feeling in the good old days of Sony SCD-777Es when it was still working. I have to say , that DSD through coxial and USB on the Hugo are quite different -not heaven to earth- but the most important and ultimate bit of it-naturalness and musicality.

I am using foolbar . The Hugo Asio driver performs much better than the wasapi driver , whether DSD native or DSD converted to PCM . With the Hugo Asio driver installed , the generic foolbar asio driver does not work . On the other hand, once Hugo Asio driver is installed , the foolbar generic Asio driver does not work. I tried an no-installation version of foolbar ( runs directly from foolbar directory , no need for windows installation) . The Hugo Asio driver does not work in the no-installation version foolbar . On the other hand , the foolbar generic Asio driver works. Again , the SQ is inferior to Hugo Asio driver in the installation version foolbar . The aforesaid SQ differences are significant , much more than switching USB or SPDIF cables .

Most new competing media servers in China can directly decode DSD.iso ( but not DST) directly and send Dop either from USB or SPDIF, or even HDMI . SACD.iso are readily available in China in the quantities of 6Ts and beyond ( though there are of course copyright issues ). Oppo official versions rule out all .iso files , but unofficial firmwares available on market can allow Oppo 103/105 series to decode DVD.iso, BR.iso and DVD-A .iso from attached hard discs or SD cards. Decoding of SACD.iso on Oppo 103/105 is still not available up till now, whether official or unofficial . Streaming from NAS is another issue. I am not sure whether the UPnP protocol allow this .Chances are SACD.iso may only be restricted to hard disk attached to USB input . We'll see what Wang can come up with .

I cannot open your web link in China. Would you mind to paste the page top me ?

I found this new one in China based on XMOS with good components at less than $100 : seperate power supplies/ linear PSU AD 150 MuRata DA101C transformer /CMC816 terminals /0.5PPM TCOX. ¼«ÏÞ°æXMOSÊý×Ö½çÃæ(¶ÀÁ¢µçÔ´) ¾øÅäES9018 USBת¹âÏËͬÖá-ÌÔ±¦Íø However , it can only transmit 24/192, but not DoP . I asked and was confirmed that this is not the inherent limitation of XMOS. I guess some DIYers are already trying some XMOS solutions which can also transmit DoP in coaxial/optical .

Having read tons of talks on the digital interfaces.The really good ones are priced more than $1500 . They are not portable and are bound to be desktop stuff. Why not simply dispense with the PC altogether and adopt serious audiophile servers on your desktop ? Candidates include Auralic Aries ( with dual Femto clocks and priced at $1599, or cheaper ones like Soundware 100 Pro ($1100) with proprietary IIS to SPDIF conversion inside . These servers play everything over SPDIF or even USB . You can attached several USB HDDS of 2TBs or even 3TBs to it. They cab assess NAS , DNLA files .They are controllable by iphone , ipad or android devices . To get purist you can have QLS 660 ( $ 450) with IIS output, and can also output DoP in SPDIF , but works with SD card only . The culprit is the PC , which may cost the least in the chain , and is responsible for all the efforts that everyone have put into in the past few years to get around the USB jitter and noise problem.