Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: Streamer to Dac Connection

Posted by AbeCollins on April 7, 2025 at 07:49:47:
USB is technically superior but you'll hear arguments about that mostly from really really old guys ;-)

Some streamers support legacy Optical and Coaxial output but I would say that most folks in the past 10 + years have gone with USB as the preferred interface.

HDMI on DACs and some Integrated Amps exist for two purposes. 1) For easy hookup to TV's for superior sound. The HDMI connection usually goes to the HDMI eARC port on the TV. 2) Non-standardized HDMI connectors on DACs are used for I2S which some say is superior but I'm not convinced.

I2S was never meant for outboard connections. It's fragile signal is meant for internal chip to chip signals over short distances.

"I2S, or Inter-IC Sound, is a serial communication protocol used for transmitting digital audio data between integrated circuits, specifically designed for audio applications like connecting microcontrollers to audio codecs or digital signal processors."