How do DDCs improve audio? (Denafrips Hermes, Pi2AES, Schiit Eitr, ifi Igalvanic)
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
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Ropieee: ropieee.org/
Denafrips Hermes: www.vinshineaudio.com/product...
Pi2AES: www.pi2design.com/pi2aes.html
ifi iGalvanic: ifi-audio.com/products/nano-i...
Schiit Eitr: www.hifishark.com/search?q=sc...
SMS200 Ultra: www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/eng...
00:00 - Intro
00:55 - Devices included in video
01:48 - Data Integrity
02:30 - Electrical Noise
03:30 - Evidence of performance impact due to noise
05:30 - Jitter / Timing of data
07:28 - How can a DDC improve jitter performance?
08:28 - I2S
09:18 - Measurements of DDCs
11:42 - Measurements of I2S vs SPDIF
12:25 - Denafrips Hermes vs Pi2AES
16:38 - How audible is Jitter?
18:05 - Bad SPDIF inputs, and PLLs
19:53 - Patron thank yous
Further reading on jitter/DDCs:
www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?...
headfonics.com/what-is-jitter....
ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uplo...
www.stereophile.com/reference....
www.stereophile.com/content/c...
benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/appl... - Zábava
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@@lwwells Yes
I thought the MQA video was good then I watched this one! Bloody brilliant, science based explanation of how electrical interference has nothing to do with snake oil. As a direct result of this vid bought a usb galvanic isolator (the intona 7054), 2 decent usb cables (also sorted power supply end out too) and my god my setup has been improved to a new level! I will for sure sort patreon support! Great work
I’m so glad I have found this channel. Looking forward to the Hollow May review.
Wow, really enjoying this channel and the clear technical explanations. I'm glad to find out that my DAC has PLL for all SPDIF inputs, I was about to go researching a Pi2 AES!
The Pi2 is an amazing device.
I’m so glad I have found this channel. Looking forward to the Holo May review.
Always learn something new here, thanks for a great video!
Excellent explanation on how clocks work with USB vs SPDIF. Thanks!
This is your second video from your channel I have watched. You've earned yourself a new subscriber.
I thought by now any reasonable DAC would have it's own internal elastic buffer and just internally re-clock using it's own precision clocks. Paul Lesso wrote an AES paper about S/PDIF design 15 years ago called "A High Performance S/PDIF Receiver". A small buffer chip should be super cheap these days, and should be able to wipe out any jitter from a PC optical port. I get the impression audiophiles like to make simple problems hard.
They want excuses to buy more stuff while still claiming it is "minimal chain".
Buffer = delay = bad, I guess?
@@sanjacobs6261 Delay is bad if you are watching a movie or trying to mix tunes as a DJ, cuz the audio will arrive too late.
But if you only listen, it doesnt matter if the audio comes out a second later then it got send.
@@Wassermelonenbaum and it wouldn't even be a second, a few milliseconds would be more than sufficient.
@@gayusschwulius8490 For reclocking you usually use atleast 2 flipflops. This means that it's atleast 2 cycles of a clock worth of delay. The clock in this case has the frequency of the bitclock which is usually 44.1k*16bit*2 = 1411200bit/s. Which corresponds to 0.7microseconds of delay PER flipflop.
I'd say delay typically becomes audible in live content at about 15-25ms. You could legit use a thousand flipflops and still not hear the delay.
Dear Goldensound,
In this world where pure gold and sneak oil (EDIT : « snake ») are sometimes so difficult to tell apart, your reviews are really in a league on their own, thanks to your deep understanding, objective measurements, and explanation skills.
Very helpful.
Kudos ! And thank you so much.
It's just his accent
'sneak oil' is deadly stuff. Also Snake Oil!
@@zogzog1063
Edited. Thanks !
Very informative, thank you.
I have always intuitively done my best to stay away from pc in my audio chain as ive always supected id have electrical noise and jitter issues. Having recently started mixing and recording on pc though, i'm in need of paying attention!
I recently switched my hifi to a Naim Atom , so hopefully my dac is being supplied with an optimal signal!
One of the best explained videos on the subject. Actually, probably the clear best.
This is super helpful. Also, I just bought a May because of you, gosh darnit. So thanks.
I appreciate the actual graphs that prove what you're saying. I'm new to high-end audio, and for the most part I assume that the things that people tell me, like "this is better than this because this one costs 10x as much and it makes me feel good" is mostly subjective, but you've supplied receipts which actually puts weight behind your words.
Also: NONE of these people commenting here, nor the uploader has ever heard jitter in their lives. They do not conduct proper blind testing but just conclude things. Measurements do not lie but most people don't understand the decibel scale and the number in it. If it is below -100dB: do not bother, you will never be able to detect that in any real life scenario, yo can only catch it with measurements. In most cases we should not care what happens below -70dB but it is better to be safe and aim for a bit better than Redbook, 96dB dynamic range.
This is a great video! I just purchased the iFi iPurifier SPDIF 2, and I really enjoy it. It makes the optical audio on my PC so much better in terms of quality, and music sounds amazing. I can even play my songs on Tidal at 192 KHz. I haven't noticed much on my Xbox One, but I still use it to prevent jitter.
Great video! Very informative and i learned something new
Thanks for the amazing review. Ethernet factor is huge, and it is ignored in many digital audio reviews. I did a $200 investment in my roon Server in the basement (6 core xeon with a noisy fan) and it changed the sound all over my house not only where I had the best roon endpoint ($4000 DYI).
Fantastic informative video
this was extremely enlightening and informative
Awesome channel by the way finally someone who can measure and has an open eye for the subjective part of this hobby.
Should be good when he does the blind test with ASR. He is going to pick different dacs out. Can’t wait !
I would love to see a video just flat out on time domain vs frequency domain and what each is used to look at
6:40 for what it's worth an OCXO is still voltage-tuned (EFC) with a typical pulling range of something like 1-2e-7. The ovenized part is for short-term stability, not frequency adjustment. Essentially, quartz crystals have a characteristic curve of frequency change vs temperature change over temperature, which is very different for different "cuts" (the literal way the crystal is cut and polished). The standard is the AT cut, which is pretty much all quartz crystals you see everywhere. The AT cut crosses 0 Delta-Hz/Delta-K at around 25 °C. Which is just about perfect for normal ambient room temperatures. But the slope around that point is steep (relatively speaking, so let's say you're at 20 °C, you might be getting 5 ppm/K or so). Now the clever trick about OCXOs is that they use different cuts, often the SC cut. The SC cut has a completely different response to temperature changes; it crosses 0 at around 90 °C or so, and has a very gentle slope around this area. So OCXOs keep their crystal heated to a very _stable_ 85-95 °C, using a control loop. The attenuation of ambient temperature changes by the control loop colludes with the shallow slope of the dHz/dT to give extremely low tempcos.
The _expense_ of that is: SC cut crystals are much more expensive (tiny tiny tiny fraction of the market), OCXOs are a lot of hassle to build and even fast-stabilizing types will exhibit a pretty wild swing from turning on to becoming mildly stable (at least 15+ minutes), they have very high power consumption compared to normal oscillators (couple Watts steady-state vs. a few mW for a normal oscillator and maybe 50-100 mW for something fancy. (And some OCXOs tend to fail under repeated power cycling, like you'd do in a residential setting -- they're _absolutely not_ designed for that and _will not_ hold their specs when treated like that).
Most (all?) OCXOs have their own reference voltage which is typically ovenized as well. Sort of like bootstrapping, the reference has a tempco (selected for ~0 tempco at the elevated operating temperature, another reason these are expensive), so it would impact the temperature controller, so it's ovenized itself. It's of course stable, the tempcos of precision references are tiny to begin with.
Now the reason people went to this trouble is that for, mostly physical experiments, extremely accurate and stable clocks are a useful tool. A good OCXO achieves short-term stability better than 1e-12, that's one part per billion, or for the typical 10 MHz reference, that's less than 0.00001 Hz variation over a few seconds. (Jitter and stability are not the same thing). These are mechanically vibrating devices: Vibration creates low-level spurs. Most physical phenomena influence oscillator output, temperature is just a big one. Gravity is another; angling or rotating a quartz changes the frequency (much more than 1e-12). So for optimal performance you'd want to dampen vibrations of all frequencies. Sounds like something you could sell to audiophiles. Big fat granite rock on a bunch of thick steel rope springs.
Obviously, as you allude to at the end, the oscillator can't actually be used as a reference for anything (what's 10 MHz / 44.1 or 48 kHz?), so you're looking at a fractional-N PLL anyway, and at that point the quality of the output clock is liable to be swamped by the PLL's qualities (or lack thereof).
To be frank, a normal quartz is probably just dandy for audio, if the rest of the system design holds up. Audiophility seems to be especially liable to buzzword engineering instead of system-level engineering.
@6:35 an oven controlled VCO is exactly what it says - it is temperature controlled to optimise clock waveform & jitter performance - it is NOT an “temperature controlled” crystal, that is voltage is still used to set the crystal into its designed resonant frequency, but temperature controlled conditions, stabilise & optimise the oscillator performance😀🤓
It controls the temperature to increase long term stability. Jitter is short term deviation and thus won't be improved with OCXO's.
Very nicely done. Thank you very much 😎👍
So many thanks for pi2aes. This seems to be a real diamond.
Thanks for this review.
Really interested to hear your thoughts on the May Holo. I ended up going with an Yggy GS for only like a 1/3 or so the price, along with a Pi2AES. I still wonder how it'd compare to the Holo. I guess one perk of the Yggy is that it's upgradable, and Schiit is already working on a new analog board for it.
Looking forward to your review!
Thanks for the awesome video! I wish that at some point you'll be able to make a video about AoIP with devices that support Dante or Ravenna. I'm really interested to see if they can bring any noticeable improvement to the sound. I've been eyeing the Merging Anubis for quite some time now.
Wouldn't mind seeing a video talking about power input with regards to audio equipment: the effect clean power has on equipment, usefulness of power conditioners and UPS's, and what to actually do if mains power isn't reliable with frequent brown-outs and general inconsistencies.
It sounds like some dacs would benefit a lot from a Pi2AES, where as others (the more expensive one's presumably) would benefit less if at all. I'd love to hear your recommendations for a good bang for buck combo with the Pi2AES if you end up doing a dedicated video on that device.
You should check out the Cherry 130dB+ DAC DAC 3, which will be introduced this summer! The coax/optical SPDIF input is internally reclocked for jitter immunity. Several levels of power supply reconditioning. True balanced, DC coupled outputs, too (:
I think these problems should have been solved in the DAC. The whole reason I am considering buying an external DAC is to get rid of electrical noise. Cue the "YOU HAD ONE JOB!" meme.
Considering that analog LPs are still considered to be the ultimate experience by many high-end enthusiasts, a 60db noise floor is not a problem and a 110db one even less.
@@dingdong2103 you’re misunderstanding the problem. The issue isn’t noise floor: it’s electronic noise and jitter which are a *completely* different thing.
@@GodfreyMann What is 'electronic noise' if not the thing that rises the noise floor? And jitter is not a practical problem in reality, it's just marketing jargon: hifigo.com/blogs/guide/what-is-digital-jitter-and-how-to-avoid-jitter-dac-101-part-3
@@GodfreyMann Vinyl has wow and flutter which are the analog equivalents of time domain modulation. You won't get rid of them by going analog.
@@dingdong2103 you’re correct that ‘electronic noise’ on the analogue side rises the noise floor, but the discussion is about ‘electronic noise’ on the digital side which gives rise to jitter. It’s not a marketing jargon - the clocks are voltage sensitive components and ‘electronic noise’ can cause fluctuations in voltages in the circuit. Although tiny this can affect the quality of the square wave signal and therefore how the bits are interpreted....it can change the bits and timing.
Another thought. I loved this video because "USB noise" was one of the topics I was wondering about and I was also among the ones thinking bits are bits in a digital signal and audible noise cannot be generated on a USB connection. And you almost convinced me when mentioning the audible noise from a PC. We all know that, that noise is with us since the 90's. You can hear the mouse movement, GPU working, etc. But then I realised it's a completely different scenario, that is with the PC's builtin soundcard and a direct (jack) connection to the speakers or headphones. As soon as you have an external USB sound device, noise is gone. So I'm afraid I'm still sceptic about USB noise :) (jitter is another thing I understand that)
Thanks for this video and for the tip my curiosity gauge is right up there.
Just a question - "...the Schiit EITR is a very affordable device..." I assume you are aware that this product was discontinued about a year ago and is only available second hand? (where it commands a huge premium over the original MSRP). FWIW, the EITR was based on Schiit's older USB implementation (called Gen5) and the EITR was discontinued when Unison was introduced. Also, I agree that the Pi2AES is outstanding... I have 3 of them.
Pretty amusing to hear tho
Eitrs sometimes pop up in Schitt's b-stock page for $99 plus shipping. Schiit discontinued Wyrd as well, so I guess you have a point unless someone wants to use spdif coax connection for older DACs like me.
Dude, this is the third time in a row you make a video about the stuff that is on my mind the bigger part of the day. your now my favorite Tuber. And about MQA I got your back all the way. 2 years ago I also put a lot of time (for me) in the new sensation MQA and concluded, it's kind of scam, and your video, organized all my chaotic leftover memories about that subject, and now it is as clear as a FLAC file. Respect.
Fun fact, a 10MHz reference clock is also used for things like phase syncing lab equipment.
For us noobs, might I suggest you spare a few moments to explain you graphs better and how one is better versus the other? I kind of think I understood so thanks for the great effort and video!
Soooo I'm somewhat new to audio. My understanding of those graphs is the more lines you see randomly sticking out from a pack, the worse it is. At 13:50 you can see a line sticking up on the left graph towards the left of that graph, then just before the big spike, theres a bunch of bumpy lines sticking up from most of the other lines. Neither of those are in the right graph. Those things are the noise/jitter.
(I COULD BE WRONG.)
I'm not into audio at all. Just came here from my recommendations. But I have done some electrical engineering. The plot has frequency on the x axis and loudness on the y axis. He's sending a 12kHz sounds wave across the line which causes the giant spike at 12k. Since it's supposed to be a pure 12k signal, everywhere else on the plot should technically be at negative infinity (no sound at all). A lot of the reason it isn't at negative infinity is because of random electrical noise or jitter. Jitter causes other frequencies to spike slightly because changing the timing between points in the wave changes the slope of the sound wave and thus the apparent frequency of that wave.
I recently added a Gustard U18 to convert USB to COAX between PC and DAC. The improvement is huge! I get an immersive 3D soundstage with relaxed and sweet sound. After that I tried direct USB connection once and couldn't bare with the "digital", dry, lean sound at all.
Your explaination makes perfect sense, noise and jitter matter most between source and DAC.
BTW even USB is not really bit-perfect, as USB audio uses isochronous protocol. Unlike bulk protocl, it doesn't have error correction.
Outstanding review. Man, I wish you had a Denafrips DAC using the external clock function with the DDC for this round of review. I just ordered the Terminator-Plus DAC with the Gaia DDC and Kinki Studio EX-P7 with EX-B7's.
Why? NONE of these things are audible.
@@squidcaps4308 if you cant here a class A amp then you must be deaf
At first I also thought usb wouldn't matter, but I noticed an audible noise coming from the apple dongle on my laptop, specially when the fan was running louder and a cheap usb isolator from alliexpress was all it took to fix it in my case.
Hi @GoldenSound! Great reviews, as always. But unfortunately looks like the Pi2AES project is no longer available and they have a closed and more expensive version. So, I was wondering, with the release of the new Topping M50 which is kind of a weak streamer, can it be used as a cheap USB to IIS converter? If so, could you measure that to see how clean the signal is? Thanks!!!
First, great videos! Keep up the good work.
Question: How did you modify your pi2aes to accept a 5v psu? Do you power everything from the 5v or do you use two psus to supply the rpi and pi2aes separately? Thanks.
So what about Pi2AES SPDIF to hermes and converted to I2s, would it be even better?
Thanks for the informative video.
My friend has a bifrost 2 with unison usb. Since it’s fully isolated. Does that mean any of the devices in the video will not make any difference? Or would they still improve his setup?
I have an original sotm sms-200 and it makes a huge difference even though my dac has Galvanic isolation.
I hope at some point in the future you get to do a comparison video of the CTH and Vali 2+.
Great video. But the giant question it leaves unanswered is whether the little no-ISB Pi device that beats the Hermes is uniquely good at destroying jitter, or whether *any* transport without USB (such as my MiniDSP SHD Studio) would yield similar benefits, simply from avoiding USB.
Looking forward to your SOtM review. I am really interested in it. I would like to know how it compares to Pi2aes.
SoTM is very good and pretty much a connect-and-forget device.
Just a quick question... Would one be able to use a DDC with an audio interface? As far as I'm aware audio interfaces send and receive sound instead of just receiving it. Recordings are clean as anything but I get an awful lot of noise (especially CPU noise) at audible volume which ruins a nice album at the best of times. Curious if a DDC could fix that. Either way, excellent video : )
It'll be interesting to know if a mid-range DAC with an I2S input, like the Topping DX7 Pro, could benefit from all of this.
Well, I'll find out soon. I'm waiting for my Pi2AES Pro Shield to arrive. I'll tell you this much, the Topping DX7 Pro benefits from an op-amp upgrade. I installed a full set of SparkOS units, takes the unit up a few notches.
It helps a LOT on my Topping D70s!
And the verdict is... We have a winner! I use my DX7Pro as a DAC-Pre straight into my amp. So my take is the Pi2AES on Rpi4 running Ropieee via I2S elevates the sound quality by a decent margin. Overall the sound is even more coherent, soundstage width and depth is wider and deeper, the sound has a bit more body to it if that makes any sense, bass is more detailed, everything seems a bit more detailed, you hear more into the finer details of the music, transients and such, better decay and layering of it in more complex passages. I'd be saying these things with the Pi2AES regarding the previous upgrade, but this brings out even more. I wasn't expecting that at all because I thought I was hitting limit with what I already had. Not bad for $350 (I bought a FLiRC dongle as well).
Fantastic video, thank you. If I use the Hermes, would it still be a good idea to use the iFi iGalvanic unit too? I'm not sure if the Hermes cleans up jitter and mains noise.Thank you.
Thank you for this excellent video! Can you please create a video that shows how to change the power input on the PI2AES to 5V? Thank you! Marcin
I switched from using my gaming pc as a roon endpoint to using an allo digione signature (similar to the pi2aes from my understanding). I wasn't hearing anything obvious via the usb audio on my pc but when I switched to the RPI allo streamer the signal sounded quieter and cleaner but it definitely wasn't a huge difference. Good video though I've been really enjoying all the content on this channel
Same here. its not a huge difference but its enough for me to appreciate the digione.
Hello! First video of yours I’ve seen. It’s amazing, I’ve watched it like 3 times already haha. I bought an eitr, and as ashamed of this as I am, i must know.... how do i connect it to my modi multibit/littledot mk2? I need to know what cable to order and what not lol. Sorry for the inconvenience. But that aside, I love your content! Keep it up!!!
P.s. everything’s connected to my gaming pc.
Very much enjoyed your review. I currently use a Node (N130) via USB to Ares II DAC, do you feel adding an Iris inline would further improve the sound quality?
Question about i^2s Guido Tent ones told me that i^2s is only for internal dac use not for longer distances. And i can understand that because clock signal should as short as possible especially digital clock signals.
Designing PLL is an art...and this is the -secret- to proper digital audio reproduction.
Thank you a lot, your vids are very informative and it helps me learn a lot.
From my understanding, using SPDIF and Optical the timming is controled by the source while using USB the timming is controled by the DAC, is it correct ? What about Bluetooth ? Please help me explain what happend when we using Bluetooth to transmit the digital ? What is timmming controled by in this case ?
Thanks
I have an excellent source, auralic Aries g1 connected via aes to a Holo spring kte3.. I'm wondering if adding a ddc to use i2s would be a benefit?
Excellent video & best explanation yet of how noise and jitter can affect DACs. Also your hint at a possible review/analysis of the SoTM sMS-200 Ultra is most intriguing! I use this unit together with the SoTM tx-USB reclocker (which I guess is a type of DDC). I find the tx-USB definitely improves sound quality, but I would love to know how it does it!
Am I correct in thinking the Pi2AES is only worth having if one has an I2S input on ones DAC? Or can you also perceive a difference over TOSLink?
I’m wondering whether or not it might worth using over TOSLink with my ADI-2 Pro FS (instead of a direct USB 2.0 connection from my iMac)?
T, The SMSL DO200 is a dream to own. Best, D.
Would the Pi2AES be beneficial to a yggdrasil dac using the AES input if the yggy already has unison usb? I am feeding the yggy with a windows pc direct to unison usb and wondering if the Pi2AES would be better than the yggy’s unison usb?Thanks
Very instructive video for music HIFI enthousiasm. I move from a hifiberry digi+ to the Pi2AES The difference is quite impressive. Do you by any chance have the opportuniy to mesure difference between the 4 outpouts of the Pi2AES : BNC, SPDIF, COAX, XLR ?
Two questions about the Pi2aes.
1- How does one change inputs on the Pi2aes? I think they all run continuously and have to be changed by hand.
2- How is the sound from an external/remote hard-drive into the Pi2aes via USB,,, then output to a DAC of choice? Thanks ahead for your help.
Question - did you compare the performance of the Hermes and Pi2 AES via coax or AES SPDIF?
How did you connect your Hermes to your May via I2S? I have a Gaia and a May linked up by AES/EBU because none of the I2S pinouts on the May seem to match Denafrips' implementation.
I would like to ask... I just built a music server using a complete fanless mini itx board and case. I am using USB to the DAC. But I also have an USB asynchronous to spdif toslink and coaxial out converter. Will that adapter may help?
Very interesting video. I use a bifrost 2 over usb. Will any of the devices shown improve it's performance?
I would also like to know this.
Please clarify asynchronous usb connect and whether addressing jitter before it reaches dac is worthwhile
With the Pi2AES, does HDMI cable quality matter? If so, do you recommend one?
What power supply did you use this with? And what can you use out the box? I think linear pPSU would be needed isn't it?
Does the PLL mean that, as long as I have it in my DAC, I would be fine without needing to use I2C or Pi2AES?
Can you please do a review of the blue sound Node? But review and do measurements for how well it gets rid of noise.
Thank you !
Just watched another review on the pi2aes, which is now US$ 200 plus case plus the proprietary power supplies (and probably shipping), starts to add up for a cheap device but wondering if worth getting while you still can (already have a pie with USB). Was thinking of connecting to an SMSL D1se. Cheers
Is the I2S of the Pi2AES compatible with Denafrips DAC I2S? Also any big difference between audiophile HDMI cable compared to those for TV?
Quick question are you able to test the Pi2AES's HDMI I2S output to DAC and able to play DSD files (like 64/128/256/512) properly?
Would you recommend people invest in a better DAC first or try to fix an average DAC with a better DDC?
I'm using a Sabaj D5 in combination with my Audeze LCD-2 and active monitors+subwoofer, but I'm having an issue with crackling noises every time I for example minimise a window or playback raw footage or something like that, and I suspect it's my GPU introducing tons of noise to the USB connection. What would be the best way to fix this? The Sabaj D5 does habe I²S, but a streamer would most likely present too much delay for other stuff like gaming. I'm trying to keep stuff as budget friendly as possible... Anyone got some suggestions?
I have ordered a Pi2AES, but realized that it doesn't decode DSD, PCM only. Any Pi Hats you recommend that decode native DSD [or DoP]? Cheers!
is it not acceptable for you to transcode to hi-res PCM? Like 352/384kHz
Would it be possible to expand this discussion and include the Allo DigiOne Signature in the comparison?
Hi. I have 2 question that I can't seem the answer to anywhere.
Does this have any audible delay in the music?
Can this be used for general audio in windows and no only foobar or roon?
Thanks to anyone who can help find the answer to this
may be its better just to use DAC with connected external master clock? for example TEAC Ud-505 and CG-10M?
Great Video, I agree with using I2S, I was wondering if you have heard of IAN Canada. I found these HATS for the PI and I was thinking about using these two devices with a PI 4. 1. IAN CANADA FIFOPI Q3 ULTIMATE FIFO Reclocker Module PCM 32bit 768kHz DSD1024 DoP 2. IAN CANADA HDMIpi MKII Transmitter I2S / DSD / DoP to HDMI
a phase-locked loop is literally necessary to keep multiple signals in sync, I don't think I understand how something is supposed to properly interpret a digital signal it's receiving without one, the clocks would keep going in and out of sync.
Can anyone recommend me a guide to measuring jitter on MacOS? I’m running 4x MOTU 24IOs and would like to do some testing. Thanks
Hello,has somebody compaired the Pi2AES with the Magna Mano Mk2 with I2S? which one would you prefer without considering costs? Thank you
hI Golden sound , interesting news on the PI2AES. Have you tried a Pi4 with Ian Canada hats? The IC hats isolate and reclock the i2s signal from the pi and then out put over hbmi I2S , so no usb in the mix.
Please can you answer this. I'm not super knowledgable with the USB signal and I2S or whatever. I was thinking, could I buy that PIAES to reduce the jitter of a gaming mouse for superior aim smoothness? Or do devices like this INTP work for the audio part of the USB signal and not the full USB signal itself?
The snake oil has infected his brain.
I think he's just a data and numbers guy. That's fine. The differences he's hearing are placebo and that's okay. Good for him.
@@wabbasMEpern I agree,...unfortunately. I have been in a rock band and have listened to live performances of all kinds of music from every genre! That's why I listen to "primarily" Redbook CD's (Yup MP3 duhhhhh) through an OPPO BDP105D (which have highly regarded Sabre DAC chips{even by today's standard}) connected by balanced cables to a Violectric V281 HP, which is connected by Periapt balanced cable to CHiFiMan Arya V2 headphones! It's all about the chain folks,....the fewer and shorter the links, the less are the kinks! With no insult to the most highly underrated band extant! Ahem!
Audiophiles: Measurements don't matter, all that matters is what you hear!!
Also audiophiles: This device has a noise floor at -144 dB vs that other one that has it at -120 dB and costs 1/10, we know that it is a proven fact no human being can perceive the difference but just look at these GRAPHS!!!
In fact, any unwanted noise at -144db can still affect the sound quality when such frequencies are played, its still a delta to the "perfect" soundwave.
@@harrison00xXx of course it will affect the sound. But you will not hear the difference because you are not Superman
Nissim Trifonov ok thats also a legit argument
That's us, yes!
My thoughts exactly. There's no way in hell a human can hear a signal that is 120 dB lower than any other simultaneous sound (that is a millionth of a millionth of the energy in the main signal), even in the ideal condition when the main signal is a pure tone that does not overlap in frequency with the jitter-generated harmonics. Maybe a super low noise no-jitter-at-all DAC is useful in lab environments, but as a music consumer...
Would using a Mac m1 mini be better than a gaming PC?
Does anyone know if the pi2aes can be powered with 5v 1A ? I was thinking to use the Allo Shanti to power both the pi with the 5v 3A out and the pi2aes with the 5v 1A.
Would you recomment using Denafrips HERMES with RME adi 2 pro FS, will it make a difference ? THANKS
I plan to use pi2aes to receive audio from my windows 10 pc to play amazon music hd and jriver is that possible?
I have an Ares II, which does not have i2s. Please correct me, but if I had to take the performance a couple of notches up I’d have to buy a ddc like Iris and also a Pi2aes to experience the i2s sound?
I stream from a “Project Stream Box S2 Ultra” to my Audio GD dac. The Project Stream Box S2 Ultra has an audio USB out. So I do not use a PC. Will a DDC still benefit my setup?
I am using a laptop and usb to Ifi isub 3.0 and usb to DAC and RCA to my amplifier. Can I ask how can I benefit from the Pi2aes since there is no USB input? I really wanna get a clean signal, and upgrade to an i2s capable DAC and try the i2s interface.
WHAT! A SHITT EATER! Sorry, I had to do it! You knew it was coming. Thank you for all your AMAZING REVIEWS!!!
Do you think that any of the cheaper solutions (Schiit Eitr) would in fact degrade the audio signal? Also, do you think that the iGlavanic would perform less than its sibling iFi Nano iUSB3.0 that offers an external power supply option?