[Mad Lust Envy]

This may be a completely idiotic question, so bear with me...

I'm using an NFB 5 which has USB, Optical, and Digital Coaxial inputs.

My PC has an optical out, and a USB (obviously), but no digital coax.

Question is, woud I gain a benefit of the my DAC receiving the signal through it's digital coax even if it was taken from an optical, or would just running straight off optical be better?

My DAC chip is DIR9001 which supposedly has low jitter, but isn't digital coaxial jitter free? I'm not certain how any of that works, so I was wondering...

was looking at getting another of these...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=2948&seq=1&format=2

Had one before, but I lost it. I was using it for my old Mixamp which only had one optical, and digital coax, and I had two sources, both with optical outs. As far as for that use, it worked perfectly. Just not sure if it'd be beneficial for audiophile use.

And yes, I know about something like the V Link which turns USB to digital coaxial, but that's too pricey.

AFAIK, the converter just converts digital to digital, and I certainly didn't notice any difference when I used it before.

 

[firev1]

From a technical standpoint you do add jitter(interface jitter) but since its the NFB dac, it probably doesn't matter anyway. If you are concerned though you can find a way to take the SPDIF input away from the optical converter and wire it to a diy cable which will go straight into the DAC.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Not quite understanding you. I already hooked up the PC to my NFB5 via both USB and Optical, but I was willing to do this method if I would gain any benefit of using the Digital Coaxial input on my NFB5.

I honestly can't tell the difference between the USB and optical's sound, other than the optical just being a smidge louder...

 

[JRG1990]

I heard usb was the best because of the way it's transfers data, but optical is immune to intereference, I don't think it matters which 1 you choose both have there advantages.

 

[kn19h7]

adding one more reclock process into the chain don't really sound like good idea to me..
anyway, my guess only orz

 

[zhenya]

I like optical because of the electrical isolation it provides.

 

[firev1]

Quote:

Not quite understanding you. I already hooked up the PC to my NFB5 via both USB and Optical, but I was willing to do this method if I would gain any benefit of using the Digital Coaxial input on my NFB5.
I honestly can't tell the difference between the USB and optical's sound, other than the optical just being a smidge louder...

 
There is a way to get SPDIF output by moving around some wires in the TOSLINK converter unit but it will take a bit of trouble with probably little benefit given the fact that it is the NFB 5 after all.
 
Optical has no EMI interference but is limited in distance because of material absorption and word clock issues on the transmitting interface. Jitter attenuation otherwise is more on the DAC side method which I highly doubt the NFB 5 would use any, safe for WM8805 which ironically does NF lol(on the digital domain though).  

 

[JRG1990]

Quote:

Jitter attenuation otherwise is more on the DAC side method which I highly doubt the NFB 5 would use any, safe for WM8805 which ironically does NF lol(on the digital domain though).  

According to there site "[size=x-small]Its sound characteristic is neutral and detail but slight smooth" [/size]lol

 

[firev1]

Quote:

According to there site "[size=x-small]Its sound characteristic is neutral and detail but slight smooth" [/size]lol

I got to hear a friend's one for a while so I had impressions and its NOT neutral(could be filters but whatever).

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Sound like exactly what they state. Neutral with some treble smoothing. Bass and mids don't seem tipped in any direction.

BTW, I don't use the WM8805 chip, I have the DIR9001 which is considered superior and has lower jitter.

 

[firev1]

In any case, I think both the Toslink and usb input should be equivalent but you should not bother with using the usb to spdif converter.

 

[JRG1990]

The filter most commonly used in dacs is the brickwall filter which simply cuts out all frequences above 22khz which are inaudiable anyway, the nfb 5 must use a filter that starts to roll of the treble in the audiable range, or it could be something else that makes it sound coloured I wouldn't be surprised if the audio gd dac's measure horribly like there op amps.

 

[Sardonyx]

Quote:

This may be a completely idiotic question, so bear with me...
I'm using an NFB 5 which has USB, Optical, and Digital Coaxial inputs.
My PC has an optical out, and a USB (obviously), but no digital coax.
Question is, woud I gain a benefit of the my DAC receiving the signal through it's digital coax even if it was taken from an optical, or would just running straight off optical be better?
My DAC chip is DIR9001 which supposedly has low jitter, but isn't digital coaxial jitter free? I'm not certain how any of that works, so I was wondering...
was looking at getting another of these...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=2948&seq=1&format=2
Had one before, but I lost it. I was using it for my old Mixamp which only had one optical, and digital coax, and I had two sources, both with optical outs. As far as for that use, it worked perfectly. Just not sure if it'd be beneficial for audiophile use.
And yes, I know about something like the V Link which turns USB to digital coaxial, but that's too pricey.
AFAIK, the converter just converts digital to digital, and I certainly didn't notice any difference when I used it before.

That monoprice box does externally the same thing the NFB-5 does internally.  There is a Photocell, and a handful of other components, to convert light pulses into electricial pulses that go to the DAC.  It could only improve the sound if the NFB-5 optical receiver was horribly implemented, which other owners would have noticed by now.  I guess if you needed a long cable run, you could use a short optical to the converter, then a long coax to your dac. Otherwise it's just a cheap way of matching inputs & outputs.  If you don't like toslink, you have to eliminate the optical transmitter.  That is, either get a new sound card with coax output, or stick with USB. 
 
Besides, the converter has an AC power supply.  You know the rules - can't have audiophile sound without an "audiophile"  $$  PSU.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I think I'd probably do best to wait for a V Link and get some true audiophile conversion.

That or could match my Audio-GD stuff with the Audio GD Digital Interface...