The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Well damn.

So my Chromecast that I use to stream my Plex flac files was getting worse with little drops here an there making the listening experience a pain. I was bored and had time on my hands so I downloaded the Denafrips USB driver to my Surface, set up and connected a random 2.0 USB cable to the Denafrips and started streaming away.

I thought the wireless stream sounded good, well damn, what a difference the USB connection made, it's jaw dropping honestly. Of course, no drops either. I'm really thinking of just using the cable to my listening spot, but it's gonna take a slightly longer cable, about 9'.

I grabbed a good quality USB cable that's 9.8', it was the smallest run I could go with that would reach that was the next length after 6'. We'll see if we have any sound quality degradation, I think I'm in that grey area for length.

All that said, I'm truly surprised at the sound difference, while going untethered with the Chromecast was convenient, I'll stay with the leash if that new run works just as well.
 
AnthonyI said:
Well damn.

So my Chromecast that I use to stream my Plex flac files was getting worse with little drops here an there making the listening experience a pain. I was bored and had time on my hands so I downloaded the Denafrips USB driver to my Surface, set up and connected a random 2.0 USB cable to the Denafrips and started streaming away.

I thought the wireless stream sounded good, well damn, what a difference the USB connection made, it's jaw dropping honestly. Of course, no drops either. I'm really thinking of just using the cable to my listening spot, but it's gonna take a slightly longer cable, about 9'.

I grabbed a good quality USB cable that's 9.8', it was the smallest run I could go with that would reach that was the next length after 6'. We'll see if we have any sound quality degradation, I think I'm in that grey area for length.

All that said, I'm truly surprised at the sound difference, while going untethered with the Chromecast was convenient, I'll stay with the leash if that new run works just as well.
Click to expand...
I use a USB connection for my Denafrips too. It sounds excellent
 
AnthonyI said:
Well damn.

So my Chromecast that I use to stream my Plex flac files was getting worse with little drops here an there making the listening experience a pain. I was bored and had time on my hands so I downloaded the Denafrips USB driver to my Surface, set up and connected a random 2.0 USB cable to the Denafrips and started streaming away.

I thought the wireless stream sounded good, well damn, what a difference the USB connection made, it's jaw dropping honestly. Of course, no drops either. I'm really thinking of just using the cable to my listening spot, but it's gonna take a slightly longer cable, about 9'.

I grabbed a good quality USB cable that's 9.8', it was the smallest run I could go with that would reach that was the next length after 6'. We'll see if we have any sound quality degradation, I think I'm in that grey area for length.

All that said, I'm truly surprised at the sound difference, while going untethered with the Chromecast was convenient, I'll stay with the leash if that new run works just as well.
Click to expand...
Regarding length, you should be fine. If you do experience dropouts, Tripp Lite sells an active USB cable with a signal booster in the middle. Mine is 25 feet long and works like a charm on my DAC.

Edit: When I checked, a passive USB 2.0 cable should be good, by standard, up to 16 feet.
 
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Eversolo DMP-A8 DAC vs Geshelli J2S Socketed w/ Sparkos Op Amps.

TLDR: The winner is Roon!

The DMP-A8 and the J2S have the same AKM 4499 chip in them so I decided to test and see if I could hear a difference between the 2 DAC implementations. The setup included an Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra amp (really good), Buchardt s400 MkII speakers (awesome), the J2S and iFi Zen Stream, and the DMP-A8.

The J2S was connected to the DMP-A8 XLR inputs. Streams were provided by Qobuz via Roon through the Zen Stream via USB. On the DMP-A8 streams were via Qobuz in the Eversolo app and Qobuz via Roon to the DMP-A8.

I listened to lots of tracks over the weekend and determined that the streams from Roon had the biggest impact on sound. I initially was testing the Zen Stream/J2S combo against the DMP-A8 and its native app. In this combo the J2S was the clear winner in terms if clarity, soundstage and depth. Music from the DMP-A8 sounded good, but dry and less dynamic and engaging. I could have probably tweaked this with the DSP but…

My initial conclusion had me questioning the DMP-A8 DAC implementation and whether it was worth keeping the unit in my stack. This changed when I streamed Roon to the DMP-A8. The differences in sound disappeared with Roon. I listened to my test playlist again switching between the 2 setups and could not hear any difference between them. The DMP-A8 is staying as is Roon.

I’ll finish by saying the AKM 4499 DAC chip implementation in the DMP-A8 and J2S are winners. I have yet to try an R2R DAC in my system, but for now I’m very happy on the DAC front.
 
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mindhead1 said:
Eversolo DMP-A8 DAC vs Geshelli J2S Socketed w/ Sparkos Op Amps.

TLDR: The winner is Roon!

The DMP-A8 and the J2S have the same AKM 4499 chip in them so I decided to test and see if I could hear a difference between the 2 DAC implementations. The setup included an Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra amp (really good), Buchardt s400 MkII speakers (awesome), the J2S and iFi Zen Stream, and the DMP-A8.

The J2S was connected to the DMP-A8 XLR inputs. Streams were provided by Qobuz via Roon through the Zen Stream via USB. On the DMP-A8 streams were via Qobuz in the Eversolo app and Qobuz via Roon to the DMP-A8.

I listened to lots of tracks over the weekend and determined that the streams from Roon had the biggest impact on sound. I initially was testing the Zen Stream/J2S combo against the DMP-A8 and its native app. In this combo the J2S was the clear winner in terms if clarity, soundstage and depth. Music from the DMP-A8 sounded good, but dry and less dynamic and engaging. I could have probably tweaked this with the DSP but…

My initial conclusion had me questioning the DMP-A8 DAC implementation and whether it was worth keeping the unit in my stack. This changed when I streamed Roon to the DMP-A8. The differences in sound disappeared with Roon. I listened to my test playlist again switching between the 2 setups and could not hear any difference between them. The DMP-A8 is staying as is Roon.

I’ll finish by saying the AKM 4499 DAC chip implementation in the DMP-A8 and J2S are winners. I have yet to try an R2R DAC in my system, but for now I’m very happy on the DAC front.
Click to expand...
I’m a big fan of Roon. Ended up doing the lifetime membership a few years ago and no looking back.
 
Anyone else's Roon just decide to not play using the Play button? I can bring up albums but it is stuck on something I listened to last week and won't move to the next song. I've tried shutting down the app on my Mac but it doesn't do a single thing.
 
mdmost said:
Anyone else's Roon just decide to not play using the Play button? I can bring up albums but it is stuck on something I listened to last week and won't move to the next song. I've tried shutting down the app on my Mac but it doesn't do a single thing.
Click to expand...
hmm mine seems to work!
 
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