ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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I enjoyed reading your review on the Simaudio 100D and 300D converters. I am planning on following your advice and getting a 100D, especially after I was made aware of Simaudio’s current exchange program. In review of the 300D, you mentioned that USB may not be the best input source for it. I wonder if you have looked further into this subject. After checking in other sites, I find that the Moon uses adaptive USB while some companies like the Wavelength uses asynchronous type. I just wonder if you have a chance to check the Wavelength Brick, which is similar in price to the 300D, as well as the Proton which is around $900. There are also product like the Musical Fidelity V-Link that provides a asynchronous connector to SPDIF. My CD player just died and I have decided not to replace it. The way things are going, the computer is a lot more efficient in producing good and convenient music reproduction. I wonder if you can devote a bit more time and sections to develop more in this area. Its been a pleasure reading your magazine in the last number of years. Robert Choi EDMONTON, AB Several companies are now adopting asynchronous USB connection, Robert, and oddly that includes Simaudio itself. The low-cost 100D has an asynchronous USB circuit, thus presumably sidestepping a major source of jitter. The more expensive 300D does not, simply because it is of slightly older design. However it is still limited to 16 bits, as are the USB circuits in a number of other converters. To the best of our knowledge, opening USB to higher definition would require developing drivers for the many computer platforms in circulation, with 8 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine Free Advice 270 rue Victoria Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4H 2J6 uhfmail@uhfmag.com of course ongoing support. There are actually third-party drivers available, but they don’t always do what is claimed. We now consider USB to be a mere convenience, to be used when no other interface is available, rather than as a first choice. We will, however, be doing further testing, and in any case we expect to review more converters in the issues ahead. Years ago, pre children, when I had more time and seemingly more budget, I used to read your fine publication with the hopes of building a great sound system within my snack bracket. In fact, I purchased a pair of 3a MM’s back then, based upon your stellar review, and I’ve enjoyed them every day! I’m looking to purchase speakers that would form the beginnings of a home theatre system. In my search I was exposed to a brand that was unfamiliar to me — ELAC, specifically, the 207A model. I was impressed enough to race home and try to find out more about this German company. I was disappointed to discover there isn’t a lot on line other than a few (very positive) reviews and their spec sheets. While I realize that “beauty is in the ear of the beholder,” I was wondering if you could share any perspective that you or your team may have on these speakers. Mark Augustin RICHMOND HILL, ON Mark, we’re also impressed with ELAC speakers, and in fact an ELAC speaker was featured on the cover of UHF No. 89. ELAC is one of a very few companies to use a variation on the Heil tweeter, whose superiority over the usual dome tweeter has long seemed evident to us. Though early Heil loudspeakers had bottom ends that couldn’t match the top, ELAC has nicely balanced the spectrum. The speakers may be difficult to find, because ELAC has since dropped its Canadian distributor, Tri-Cell. It had announced plans to distribute directly from its headquarters in Kiel, Germany, but wiser heads prevailed, and a new North American distributor has since been named. I have a question I hope you can help me with. It refers to something I vaguely remember (I think) you commented on a long time ago, possibly in the Free Advice column. I have a five-channel amp (ATI 1505), where the LED on the power switch, when turned on, randomly and constantly flickers. It drives me nuts! I’ve searched through back issues but can’t find it. I’m (almost) certain I read about this somewhere in UHF. Do you recall? Jim Chiga NEW WESTMINSTER, BC We do recall talking about flickering pilot lights, Jim, though we don’t remember in which issue (it would indeed have been in the Free Advice section). These problematic lights are neon bulbs, not LED’s, and we have never seen one that didn’t start to flicker within six months of going into service. If you want to try a little experiment, train a flashlight beam on the flickering neon…and it will cease flickering! Turn the flashlight off, however, and it will flicker again. We’ve seen attempts to explain this odd phenomenon scientifically, but we can’t say we found them convincing. We are told that a radioactive source can also keep a neon bulb from flickering, but judiciously-applied black electrical tape is both cheaper and safer! An audiophile friend of mine was kind enough to give me a 1 TB drive with a nice collection of high-quality music files that he ripped himself. To access his music conveniently, he utilizes an oldermodel Squeezebox (pre-Logitech-era) that he sent away to be modified to “up” the sound quality. I’m looking at configuring a similar setup. I’ve been trying to determine whether to go Squeezebox or SONOS. It looks like the Touch’s DAC is superior to
the original models — true? I can’t afford to buy an external DAC right now (I will sometime in near future), and from what I read, the Squeezebox Touch’s internal DAC is more than adequate for my listening needs. All I want at this point is a means to access music wirelessly and do justice to the quality of the files when connected directly to my amplifier/speakers. Music quality is of higher importance to me than is ease-of-use as I am accustomed to frigging with technology. Are you in a position to comment on where those two products are right now? Am I correct in my observation (mostly from Googling) that the Touch is the superior player in terms of music quality at this stage? John Allen KENSINGTON, PEI We have reviewed the Squeezebox, John, the one from — as you say — pre- Logitech days, and we generally liked it. Its built-in converter is not truly audiophile quality, but it wasn’t too shabby. And the screen on the Touch is a lot nicer and more informative than the two-line screen on the original. The Sonos Zoneplayer 90, which is the one we presume you’re looking at, is about $100 more than the Squeezebox Touch, and has no display at all. True, you can get an app for an iPhone, iPad or Android device for control, but if you already use one of these devices there is a simpler solution. Get Apple’s $99 Airport Express. It has an optical output for an outboard DAC, which is the way we use it, but it has its own DAC as well, which will see you through until you can upgrade. It can be remote-controlled by the same portable devices. I’m using a 2009 Mac Mini and a Burson Audio Ha-160D DAC. The Burson accepts either RCA coaxial or USB for digital inputs. My music is stored on an external USB drive. I’ve read on a few websites that using the USB input and running an external USB drive together is not a good idea. So it seems I have a few options: 1. Scrap the external USB drive and put the music on the main drive and use USB. 2. Get an external Firewire drive for music storage and use USB. 3. Find a decent optical- to-coaxial converter (if one exists). This is not all cut and dried. Apparently, it’s not recommended to have your music stored on the internal drive, and then USB digital inputs on the DAC’s seem to be frowned upon as well. Ken Justice DAUPHIN, MB You could be right that a USB music drive and a USB cable to your digital-toanalog converter are a bad mix, Ken, but we don’t consider USB to be a desirable link anyway. At one time it was, but that was because computer devices offered no other options. Computers still don’t commonly sport coaxial digital outputs, and perhaps it’s just as well, because the coax lead makes a nice pipeline for system noise between your computer and your music system. That leaves optical, and in our tests it is superior to USB. We have found a pretty good optical cable, and the mini-TOSLINK adapter that lets us connect to the tiny digital outputs found Coming up in issue No. 92 of Small but potent loudspeakers. Inexpensive digital-to-analog converters. Pushing the envelope on computer music. Fresh reports from CES and T.H.E.Show in Vegas And much, much more! ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 9
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