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At that point, I decided to stop the search for the ultimate USB/SPDIF converter. After trying 14 different designs from all price points, I simply felt that there is nothing that could surprise me anymore. As it later turned out - I was wrong !
LEGENDARY SOUND EXPERIENCE FROM KLIPSCH AND THX - The Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Speaker System pairs the legendary sound of Klipsch audio with the revolutionary THX experience, filling the room with incredible sound for gaming, movies, or music Note all these spectra are with a Hann window for the best resolution of noise and distortion. The absolute level of the tones varies slightly with frequency using the Hann window. For flat frequency response, you want a Flat Top window, but you trade resolution. The first spectra should show 20mVRMS or -34dBV but shows 18.9mVRMS instead. I marked the correct values of the amplitude on all the spectra plots correcting for the Hann window. Note the full scale signal (0dBF) is 6dBV (2VRMS). When I use a -40dBFS digital signal, which is 1/100 the voltage level, output drops to 20mVRMS (-34dBV). This is the 6dB difference from the digital signal in dBFS and the voltage output in dBVAs you can see from the shorted noise floor the QA401 has at least an 8dB margin below the D10. The noise floor is at least at -117dBV A-weighted if the USB line power is good (spec RMS noise from 20 to 20 kHz is -115dBV). Since the QA401 can accept signal up to 12dBV (4VMS) the total SNR it can measure is 129dB although I lost 6dB of that since the D10 only puts out 2VRMS. Again the QA401 performance would be much better with line power and mono ADCs. Like Godot, I am waiting for Quantasylum to show up with one but it never comes. SMALL HIFI BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS】Small bookshelf speakers with HiFi sound quality. SW208 adopts standard bookshelf speaker system design, i.e. direct/reflective speaker system. Can be placed at will, can easily create a rich stereo sense and strong sound pressure. Well-designed premium finish wood structure and surface, elegant appearance and fashionable. The other is the Berkeley. Sorry couldn't rank it as high as you did - very good - but only third on my list behind the Wavelength and Off-Ramp (OR) although it was so close to the Wavelength you could reasonably call it a tie. That said though I have been told with direct mode in Audirvana the Berkeley pulls ahead and even the AP2 is excruciatingly close to the OR.
The Halide Bridge convertor has a standard USB plug at one end, and a giant phono plug at the other, that plugs into a normal S/PDIF electrical input. Inside the plug lies the convertor. As seen from pure measurement point of view, there was no case where USB was worst than S/PDIF. Indeed the reverse was true in that S/PDIF was noisier in some DACs. So the default assumption that somehow S/PDIF has some advantage over USB is simply false. This convertor presented a slightly bigger soundstage than the others, and seemed to be fuller to the point of shouting the music at me! It seemed to be louder than the other convertors which seems impossible given the job it’s doing. It certainly is a forceful communicator!
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After a cursory survey of the different adapters concerned, I was immediately drawn to this unusual audio piece. It is literally a cable, with the electronics built into the cable – the S/PDIF end. It takes it’s power from the USB on the laptop, but can be cleverly upgraded by providing dedicated power.
For the full-scale SNR, we subtract the digital signal level (-60 dBFS) from the SNR. We are playing with logarithms here since dB is on a log scale. Subtract logarithms and you do division. Note I am using the digital signal level (dBFS) not the output voltage level (dBV). The result is: The S/PDIF Bridge was awarded the coveted "class A" recommended component status from Stereophile magazine.
I have the MF V192. So far it's the only one I've tried. How much better in % would you say the Audio GD is.
The SNR reads -15.5 dB. I marked it on the spectrum. You can also see this signal has an amplitude of 632nVRMS correcting for the Hann window error. Note this signal is so tiny it is in nano volts. It is that small at -130dBFS. The signal is below the integrated noise floor (115.5dB calculated above) but the FFT processing gain makes it visible along with lowering the noise floor of the spectrum analyzer (I have an article on this coming up soon). We use the same procedure we used for Figure 7 to get the full-scale SNR by subtracting the signal level (-130 dBFS) from the SNR at that level (-14.5 dB) and once again get 115.5 dB SNR. The QA401 has the test SNR in the presence of a signal. As discussed above we can get the SNR of the DAC with a signal still present so we can see any effect the signal might have on the noise floor. Figure 7 shows what happens when I put it to work.
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Let’s see what that the D10 performance looks like. Figure 6 is a 1 kHz signal at -40dBFS. The sampling rate is 48k samples/sec. I too have had the opportunity to compare many of the converters you did with an extra one - the Wavelength. I think most of you know my opinion on this. But just in case, I believe USB to be a superior and more "correct" interface for audio. Problem with S/PDIF is that it makes the source the "master," forcing the DAC to chase its timing. This means that if the source S/PDIF signal is not very clean, it can impact target DAC performance. Fortunately over the years S/PDIF interface has been perfected a lot and even in low cost implementation it can be excellent. In the Mozart Prague opening, I’m aware of an issue in the Snow Maiden dance, of a looser bass operating – a bit splashy.
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