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RE: How to get the best out of a USB Dac?

I am listening to a thin client Lexcom Neo which cost $50 running XP drastically reduced. An 8G SLC SSD on a DOM format (which simply plugs into the IDE slot and runs the OS), with a 500G SSD containing music, sata connected with 3 in of cable. When playing 384k files, the setup uses 72 MB of Ram.

The PC runs all kinds of uncompressed music files up to 384k and DFF or DSF into a W4S DSDSE. It consumes less than 10W and runs non-stop. The case looks like a $1000 machine and sounds as good as any other 4 core music PC that I have built and 'optimised' to my ears.

What you need to get the best out of a USB DAC are:

1. Good Chipset such as Amanero or XMOS with isolation built in and run by a very low noise power supply.

2. Very good USB cable.

3. Very careful setting of the Player and Sound Control Panel settings.

4. Mains power supply isolation of analog and digital parts; the machine being run from a low noise dc power supply and the DAC being run from a regenerator.


In my case, there is minimal buffer, minimal usb latency and absolutely no frills such as song graphics, remotes or anything like that. I am happy just setting a playlist with music files attached to names only. The Display and Mouse are disconnected once a playlist sequence has been set. The ability to alter phase in the analog chain is very beneficial.

The above benefits are additive, with incremental improvements. The replay phase affects some music titles very significantly and can be identified more easily by have a mono button as well as the phase button (snetral imaging on mono)


Edits: 02/23/14
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