Johnny

In my case the source was Macbook Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 Gb of memory not optimised for music reproduction, sw was iTunes complemented with either Pure Music or Amarra 1.2 (and also 2.1 trial). I was careful to select the correct USB output as some report different results and switched off the wireless but otherwise didn't bother much with optimising the comp. It is actually my day-to-day workhorse I type on right now. My friend also brought his Pc notebook (I think it was HP) with some of the same music I listen to regularly. He uses Foobar. Files were ripped with iTunes, error correction enabled. I must add to this that Hiface Evo really transformed the sound for the better compared to just USB out of either laptop and the first impression I've got was that its sound is good enough but on further listening it became clear that it isn't. It was kinda flat, details in your face, timber was off, emotion was off, high frequencies were agitating, it sounded sort of ....digital. I noticed you are using Weiss. I never owned it, but did hear it for a brief period on the Hi-End Munich show and thought it sounded clinical - just to give you taste of my perception of things. The rest of my system is Pathos Classic One III, SF Cremona Auditor, Goldenote and Vovox cabling.

I've owned Audio Gd Ref 7 for a couple of month now. Its USB input is not as good as its spdif inputs. Actually, it is in a different class. I haven't tried the DI-digital interface but I've got the impression from numerous reports on head-fi.org forums that it wouldn't change matters significantly. I've tried hiface and also hiface Evo with linear power supply and they just don't get there. The sound from my relatively inexpensive NAD CD spinner into DAC via coax spdif is still way better and simply musical. I did notice more detail via Evo, though. Otherwise I am quite happy with it. In my system, I compared it to apogee duet, hrt+ dac, Pathos Digit Cd player and NAD Cd player and it bettered (improved) all of them by a significant margin. It is musical, fluid and 3D sound is amusing sometimes to say the least... But am stil trying to find out the best connection with a computer/music server, which is why I bought the black beast (it is quite corpulent) after all. Looking into Bryston BDP-1 at the moment (price!).