I have added this Cocktail X45 to the list as well…
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I don’t get it: you ask for best cost no object, ignore Linn products but add entry level Cocktail stuff?
Dan, It’s hard to interpret a person’s facial expressions or emotional intentions via the interweb. The Cocktail Audio product I was looking at is the X45, which is about 6k, so I would hardly call that entry level, although I am familiar that Cocktail does produce products at lower prices.
I have not ignored Linn, I had ruled it out earlier based on a few things, like maxing out PCM at 192, supporting less than half of the streaming services of the others, restricted outputs like no USB or BNC, but plenty of XLR and HDMI (not running this in an AV system,) not supporting MQA, being Roon tested but not Roon Ready, dynamic range two orders of magnitude lower than the Lumin, and it’s about half the price, etc.
Thank you, I stand corrected
Can I suggest being careful and talking to analog hardware designers about the issues arising with USB and Ethernet implementation. They tend to understand the issues better. USB reclockers like the Innuos Phoenix make a large difference in the sound of the USB output (detail, clarity, lower noise) of the appropriate Innuos servers and the only thing they do is reclock the signal.
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How do you know? Have you subjected them to standardized tests and compared the results with those of digital hardware designers? Really, the sheer quantity of unsubstantiated claims on this list is phenomenal. Not to mention that I would think digital hardware designers would logically be more expert than analog hardware designers in this realm.
Or is it just that you’ve heard this from someone who is an analog hardware designer and wants to sell you an expensive piece of hardware, like, oh, I don’t know, Innuous?
Let’s get some data into this discussion, not just rumors of rumors of marketing-speak.
If that’s actually the case, which I have to say I doubt, why would anyone buy a reclocker from Innuous? If they knew what they were doing, the USB output from the Innuous server wouldn’t need re-clocking, right?
For under $15K this will be hard to beat IMO - the latest Signature Rendu SE is the best streamer I’ve heard my system by a long way. Optical makes a huge difference for me.
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I wasn’t drawing a distinction between analog and digital hardware designers, But keep in mind that digital signals are all biphase analog signals. Many problems affecting them, e.g. EMI, additive noise, timing jitter, distortions manifesting as jitter, are standard problems of analog signals.
I used the Innuos as an example because I’ve heard it. There are numerous other USB reclockers around.
This is one example from a designer postulating a source for some of the jitter on USB cables. It’s from an Irish audio company. It is not definitive on the subject, and tries to explain why some distortions are difficult to measure. https://www.ciunas.biz/audio-usb.
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I agree. What USB cable are you using and which USB cables have you tried? I’m currently using a YFS Reference USB Cable but I’ve tried several:
Curious USB Cable
KingRex U-Art(S)
Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7
Mad Scientist Black Magic
I use a Wireworld Platinum 7 USB.
Before moving to the WW I had a random ~$100 AQ and the upgrade provided by the WW was more than I expected.
You prefer the YFS over the WW I assume?
Yes, I found the YFS and KingRex cable to be the best so far and they sound very similar. I was not impressed or happy with the performance of the WW or Curious cables. I had connectivity issues with the Black Magic cable. I’d like to try the Sablon Audio Panatela or the Verastarr Nemesis USB cables if I can find them on the used market.
Again, this is a guy who has product to sell advancing a theory about why you should buy his product. There are no measurements or other evidence, just some unsubstantiated reports of subjective “improvements” by an unknown number of unnamed subjects, who may not even exist. This means nothing.
I’m not trying to deny there are analog signal issues with USB. Of course there are, that’s how the signal is transmitted. What I’m saying is that they don’t matter. The USB signalling mechanism is designed by analog engineers to get the bits from one end to the other, and quite well-specified. If you build to the spec, the analog issues don’t affect the transmission of bits. They have no effect.
Now if one has bad hardware (and I distrust high-priced hardware in general, because it simply isn’t as well tested as consumer market hardware), one may have hardware that’s not built to spec. For instance, if one has some $10,000 DAC one bought 15 years ago and one has become sentimentally attached to, maybe the designer of that DAC didn’t put as much care into the USB input as they would now. But the problem here is crappy hardware, not electrical interference.
I gave in and bought the Trinnov Altitude 16. It is simply the finest and most musical piece of gear I have owned in almost 50 years of buying overpriced electronics. Even my wife commented on the utter discernible difference and total ease with which it portrays music.
Considering this piece with the power supply. Can you share more?
You can read my review here:
Also here the question about the DS-10:
With roon “only” until DSD 64 is possible?
I believe it will handle up to DSD512, according to the Gold Note website, however, I didn’t try DSD.
No on the website, you’ll see:
DSD64 and PCM 24/192 on USB-A/LAN/WLAN, DSD512 and PCM 32/768 on USB-B) --> only DSD 64 and PCM 192/24 over the network.
But the Roon integration can be different and so I’ve asked you.
What can you set in Roon for maximal supported PCM?
I tested it recently at home, and it doesn’t do DSD through Roon at all. And from locally attached hard drive it can only do DSD64.
In my opinion, just another halfbaked product with decent audio quality.
(If i don’t mix things up, it does manage DSD64 as a UPNP renderer though)