phusis

That stance should apply both with regard to whether an amp has little or prodigious output power in relation to a given speaker load. Most audiophiles seem to fuss about what to their mind is an excess of something; be that large speakers, high sensitivity or a large quantity of wattages at hand. At one point I used a 30W pure class-A amp with 105dB sensitive all-horn passively configured speakers, and that combo could play viscerally loud, effortless at that. Currently my setup comprises both horns and direct radiation, though of the same overall approach meaning large displacement area and high sensitivity from 97dB (tapped horn subs), 100dB (mid bass section) and 111dB (MF/HF horn section). Output power delivered, actively, to these 3 speakers segments now sits at 625W/8ohm, 1150W/4 ohm and 575W/8 ohm respectively, so a combined 2350W per channel - again, actively, which is to say no power draining passive cross-overs between the amps and drivers, and thereby taking full advantage of the power envelope at ones disposal. That's bonkers, you hear some say. Ridiculous, bragging rights, LMAO, etc. The thing is, these fully differential balanced class A/B studio amps sound excellent, and bought used are fairly priced. You think I care about having loads of power in reserve at every imaginable SPL I desire? Hell yeah, but it's not the only reason why I chose my amps. They just sound great, and since headroom is your friend that's only a bonus. As an example: the blue signal LED's on the subs and bass amps (not the MF/HF amp; it never gets to that point) don't flash up until +10W of output power is used, and even at reference volume (i.e.: viscerally loud and room filling/shaking in certain sequences) watching Blu-ray/4K UHD movies they never light up.. If a given speaker/amp(s) combo sufficiently succeeds in delivering the SPL's desired cleanly and at (relative) ease, then all could be thought of as being well. However, many don't realize what truly effortless reproduction really means and sounds like, and yet it's a vital trait that should be more widely pursued in this hobby of ours - if you ask me :)

Neither implied one or the other. If partners can find a shared element of interest here, wonderful.

It's also how one, typically a male audiophile, presents his interest as such to a new girlfriend and, possibly, upcoming wife. If you're really into it then hold your ground, show your passion and that you mean it. Invite her into this world of yours and why you thrive at it. Don't apologize, and grow a pair - seriously. Not trying to put forth any "my way or the highway"-attitude, but I know for my own part that I would respect a partner's passion, hobby and perhaps need for her "own space" - nothing else would make sense to me to accommodate her this way. Can we make our respective interests thrive under the same roof or not, and why compromise the heck out of it in an effort to meet halfway? If on the other hand people can get by with such a compromise, fine - many do - and if they can't, well, move on. What pisses me off is the thought of the immediate "you can forget about those speakers"-demeanor which we hear of quite often, not least if it was in one's own living space; someone wanting to sit on you and call the shots with no ounce of respect. Give me a break - adios. Fortunately I've never had that encounter myself. It's about how much you're into your passion and am willing to compromise or not, and how that mixes with a spouse/partner.

Well, received my ASUS Xonar AE card July 1st, and have now used its optical output for a few weeks and compared it to the balanced AES/EBU output from the Marian card. Initially the sonic difference between the two output paths was relatively distinct; balanced subjectively focused the stage more towards center and into the room, whereas optical felt slightly more "balanced" and using both stage width and depth more predominantly, if feeling a wee bit less transparent. Then I upgraded the drivers to the ASUS card (and shifted from Kernel to WASAPI output mode), and this - in junction with more playback hours under the hood - alleviated the sense of slight lack in transparency while largely maintaining the overall difference in characteristics compared to balanced output via the Marian card, to the point even where optical now appears to have a very slight upper hand in transparency/clarity. Further observations: spatial information appears a bit more precise via optical and voices are ever so slightly more clearly outlined, whereas balanced has a bit more emphasis on central to upper bass and still a smidgen more forward-sounding. I like the overall energy via balanced, but optical appears slightly more balanced and spatially informative. The optical input on my DAC/preamp accepts 24/192 files, btw., confirmed by my JRiver playback software with the input/output info and "no changes are made" message. No hiccups with 24/192 files, runs smoothly.

Spec talk aside, some see optical output as their preferred output mode sonically speaking, so I guess specs alone aren't always the whole story, but rather context as mentioned above? Not to diminish the need for "new spec" with optical..

The Wadax über-server seems to have made good use of its (new spec?) optical output, but certainly at an astronomical price and a likely crazy level of dedication.. https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/wadax-atlantis-reference-music-server

I presume "old spec" relates mostly to limited sampling rate and overall bandwidth?

Thanks for that recommendation - didn't know of the Topping D10S. Going by the last comment at the bottom of this review page it would seem though the D10S provides no improvement to speak of as a digital bridge.. https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/08/review-topping-d10s/ EDIT: my DAC/preamp has every input desired (I currently use AES/EBU), except I²S..

That's the main reason for my being interested in optical: isolation. Quite a few regard optical the lesser option compared to other S/PDIF output modes (and perhaps not least USB), but I take it that's dependent on several factors - like the prevalence of noise from the PC-source, and also incl. the specific implementation of the optical input on the DAC side of things, which vary somewhat. I may try out the ASUS Xonar AE and see how that fares with optical out, it's certainly not that expensive.

Interesting. Don't know the particulars of your music source and to which degree it's a "polluted" environment compared to my PC source, which is an important aspect I gather in judging a coax S/PDIF signal against optical.

EDIT: it would seem the Pink Faun cards don't offer optical output, which makes them kind of moot in my particular context being that optical out is the primary focus (not least with the intention to keep PC server noise from entering the DAC/preamp).

Thanks. With a point of reference like the Pink Faun mentioned I was thinking more along the line of PCIe cards with optical output from ASUS and others, like the Xonar AE. I take it what makes the most notable difference here is the clocks offered?

Does the particular PCIe card with optical output matter much, if at all in regards to the "quality" of the digital optical output?

Well, my Audiophilleo2 + PurePower combo found a new owner the other day, and I've now ordered a Marian Seraph D4 PCIe soundcard for AES/EBU digital output duties fed into my BCA DAC/preamp. According to plan it should arrive next week, so if implementation runs smoothly I'll have some first impressions ready in about a weeks time.