To dCS or to Sonore...To Bridge or to Rendu?

[Cooler]

Ok, to be clear, AES is standard, not doubled AES, which has dCS, sorry for misleading. 

[Cyrus]

@Cooler  You make good points.

 

Had my Denafrips Terminator offered L / R channel AES processing, I likely would have A/B'd against my USB setup. Unfortunately the very low number of (consumer oriented) DACs with L/R channel AES inputs made for another reason to walk away from the dCS NB.

 

As it stands, I will be pursuing the I2S input on the Terminator, in the future, to compare/contrast it with my USB setup.

[miguelito]

On 7/31/2017 at 9:56 PM, Cyrus said:

For those that have experience with the dCS Network Bridge, your impressions will be very helpful.

I have a dCS Rossini - basically a bridge and a DAC in one. The answer is: the bridge will be better than the mR, no question. Tune your choice to the DAC you are going to use. Bridge+Schiit, IMHO, is a bit of a mismatch. 

[barrows]

3 hours ago, Cooler said:

Few concerns about that. I dont want to have many boxes in my setup, many boxes mean many connections, many cables, many power supplies and much money spend

Totally agree on this, I use USB direct from my SRse!  I always prefer simple when reasonable/possible.

 

[Cooler]

On 2/12/2018 at 9:10 PM, Raimund Heubel said:

Simply connect a NAS drive to your router or switch and you could easily save the custom PC + uptown LPS-1 (- 2 devices).

 

And you know, you was right, now i absolutely agree with you. I eliminated my custom PC, which gave me back near $2k.

 

I connected my iMac with 2 x cisco catalyst switches, which i bought on ebay for $100 in total. One switch for the whole network and the other one is only for an audio stream. Later I will add optic connection and maybe change one switch to audiophile version.

 

Then i sold all these stupid boxes: ultrarendu, berkeley usb converter and a couple of power supplies. Yes, this chain sounded really great, no question to the SQ, but c'mon, 5 boxes just for digital source, how come i've bought all this stuff?? I was asking this question to myself every day while i was staring at my rack, full of cables and boxes.

 

I bought dCS network bridge, one solid beautiful box, which sounds on the same level as my box army. With some luck, NB seller also offered me his dCS Paganini, which is a great DAC and a great pair to my dCS NB.

 

Now my digital source contains only two boxes, simple minimalistic solution, which has stunning SQ.

And I am happy with that.

[barrows]

6 hours ago, Cooler said:

 

And you know, you was right, now i absolutely agree with you. I eliminated my custom PC, which gave me back near $2k.

 

I connected my iMac with 2 x cisco catalyst switches, which i bought on ebay for $100 in total. One switch for the whole network and the other one is only for an audio stream. Later I will add optic connection and maybe change one switch to audiophile version.

 

Then i sold all these stupid boxes: ultrarendu, berkeley usb converter and a couple of power supplies. Yes, this chain sounded really great, no question to the SQ, but c'mon, 5 boxes just for digital source, how come i've bought all this stuff?? I was asking this question to myself every day while i was staring at my rack, full of cables and boxes.

 

I bought dCS network bridge, one solid beautiful box, which sounds on the same level as my box army. With some luck, NB seller also offered me his dCS Paganini, which is a great DAC and a great pair to my dCS NB.

 

Now my digital source contains only two boxes, simple minimalistic solution, which has stunning SQ.

And I am happy with that.

Yes, same here:  Sonore Signature Rendu SE-Nordost Tyr USB cable-DAC.  With this set up I oversample everything to DSD 256 or 512 (currently with ROON) to either my ESS 9038 DAC or my (experimental) DSC-2 DAC.  Simple set up, no add ons, and incredible sound quality.

 

Of course, I do not believe the audiophile myth that SPDIF/AES is even a good format, although it can be massaged into reasonable performance with heroic engineering efforts on the receiving side (a true asynchronous SPDIF receiver, which is very very rare and difficult to develop).

[Raimund Heubel]

7 hours ago, Cooler said:

 

And you know, you was right, now i absolutely agree with you. I eliminated my custom PC, which gave me back near $2k.

 

I bought dCS network bridge, one solid beautiful box, which sounds on the same level as my box army. With some luck, NB seller also offered me his dCS Paganini, which is a great DAC and a great pair to my dCS NB.

 

Now my digital source contains only two boxes, simple minimalistic solution, which has stunning SQ.

And I am happy with that.

I am glad you found your way through this and a small and lean system you seam to really enjoy. I guess the dCS NB is a great digital audio interface/source even if not the cheapest offering in the market.

As you probably have noticed I am still using my Mac mini as a multimedia source but sound quality in combination with the artistic fidelity equipment (psu, isolator switch and DAC) remains damn good. This system although compact in size is however not as lean as yours now in terms of no. of boxes.

Artistic fidelity will soon present their 1st streamer including their patented USB connection via vibre optical cables to achieve optimal isolation. This source - I am sure - has great potential to outperform my optimized Mac mini running PureMusic. I hope I can also compare it to the NB one day, I will keep you posted and others interested.

And thanks for your reply!

[miguelito]

On 7/31/2017 at 9:56 PM, Cyrus said:

To dCS or to Sonore....To Bridge or to Rendu?

 

Current system:

 

Small Green Computer sonicTransporter AP as Roon Core

 

SOtM dCBL-CAT7 > iso-CAT6 > Black Cable > Sonore microRendu > Uptone Regen > Schiit Yggdrasil

 

mR and Regen powered by separate Uptone UltraCap LPS-1s

 

HDPlex powering sonicTransporter, LPS-1s, etc.

 

Supra CAT8 for LAN connections to the Ethernet Switch, Router, etc.

 

If the rest of the system components, power, cabling, etc. are important let me know and I will provide the details.

 

 

In usage, I am approaching 100% Tidal via Roon.

 

Note: I was in the first wave for the ISO REGEN, but had a bad board. So the ISO will replace the Regen, hopefully sometime in August. 

 

 

 

Here's what I'm asking CA members:

 

 

- I am looking to upgrade my system. 

 

- I'd like to be able to simplify the upstream bits/pieces/cables/power supplies, etc., if possible and if it results in improved performance.

 

 

 

Since I am already deeply integrated with Sonore, Uptone, and Small Green Computer (and recently SOtM),

 

-  Should I stay within the ecosystem I'm familiar with and move forward with an UltraRendu or the Signature Rendu SE or an SOtM box?

 

 

Or experiment?  

 

-  And bring in the dCS Network Bridge (LAN in) and (AES out) to the Schiit Yggdrasil. 

 

[Note: I realize that I will not be able to utilze both AES outputs from the dCS; And have fingers crossed, that the speculated future USB output is compatible with the Yggy or a future DAC]

 

 

Advantages? Disadvantages? Pros? Cons? Advice? Other stuff to consider? What would you do?

 

- For those that have experience with the dCS Network Bridge, your impressions will be very helpful.

 

- I realize that the UltraRendu and the Signature Rendu SE are brand new and soon to be released, respectively; AND that I can follow impressions of each in their threads.

 

Thanks! 

My 2c:

1- UltraRendu

2- UltraCap 1.2

3- Drop the Regen

4- USB upgrade on that Schiit

 

The NB is in a different class and I think you would not get a meaningful improvement with the Schiit you have as a DAC (sorry I cannot stop the puns, I simply can't).

 

I think this combo should be amazing.

[Cyrus]

@miguelito   My system has evolved since over a year ago. It's quite different now. You can get a feel for it in my signature. Your points are good ones, given that system. Thanks.