PS Audio USB DAC w/ Parasound Pre+Amp

[kfr01]

Just thought I'd report on some favorable synergy going on in my system (especially since things have been rather dead around here).

I picked up this new USB DAC with balanced outputs:

http://www.psaudio.com/products/digital_link_iii.asp

So, my electronics chain is now:

PC -> USB -> PS Audio DAC -> XLR -> Parasound P3 -> XLR -> Parasound HCA3500.

My system sounds better than it ever has...

[mattburk]

Nice dac, I plan on picking one up too.Tell us more......

[bhuskins]

Media Design carries PS Audio too...support your forum sponsor please :-) (25% off is standard on PS Audio)

[kfr01]

Brent --- reeeealllly? I did not know that. I suppose clicking on your link would have told me the same. You sell the PS Audio cables too, I assume..?

Anyway. Subjective qualities aside, this PS Audio dac is the only serious ~$1k 192k upsampling USB dac w/ balanced outputs I know of.

The installation and use couldn't be easier. No drivers are required, it works just like a truly plug-in-play soundcard.

The synergy with my parasound stuff - wow. I'll spare the rest of you too much Friday night wine and music induced subjective prose, but I'll only say that there's more foot tapping here than there's been in a long time; and that's not just the wine talking. :-)

[Chris D]

Sweet, man... going audiophile, though, is it really worth using ripped files as sources?

[bhuskins]

It is if you're playing waves...

[kfr01]

Or FLAC. Chris, there's nothing inferior about ripped sources. The damage comes when (a) people don't know how to rip properly or (b) they use a lossy compression format.

Properly ripped and compressed using a good lossless format, the resulting audio stream is no different from that coming off your cd player or a wave. Bit for bit, the same.

In fact, using a good ripping software, properly setup, there is actually a -smaller- chance of errors -during- playback compared to optical disk playback (read errors, disk errors, timing errors, etc.).

With ripped files, all of these optical read issues have been taken care of during the file ripping process, well before playback.

[bhuskins]

yep...

[r100gs]

Or FLAC. Chris, there's nothing inferior about ripped sources. The damage comes when (a) people don't know how to rip properly or (b) they use a lossy compression format.

Properly ripped and compressed using a good lossless format, the resulting audio stream is no different from that coming off your cd player or a wave. Bit for bit, the same.

In fact, using a good ripping software, properly setup, there is actually a -smaller- chance of errors -during- playback compared to optical disk playback (read errors, disk errors, timing errors, etc.).

With ripped files, all of these optical read issues have been taken care of during the file ripping process, well before playback.

Karl, Is there any freeware you would suggest for lossless burning? I've been using WMP lossless, but it will only play on my car stereo. My reference player at home will not play it.

[kfr01]

Rip with Exact Audio Copy (freeware) in secure mode, use accurate rip to verify you have no errors. Find a tutorial on the web for this. There are many.

Encode from WAV to FLAC. (Free lossless audio compression format.) A quick google search will also yield this result. Again, this software is free and includes zero cumbersome DRM "features."

When you burn to CD, extract back to wave from FLAC and burn the wave, use an error checked mode to burn.

Using this method, your rips and your burned copies should be bit-perfect to the original disk.

If you do not have a means of playing FLAC, I suggest looking into the PS Audio DAC and a FLAC plugin for either Winamp or Foobar 2000.

Alternatively, it is possible to leave everything in wav format. The biggest downside is the lack of tagging features and disk space. Since disk space is cheap as dirt these days, the only downside is lack of tagging features. Consistent file naming and the EAC's auto-creation of folders and playlists can be a great work-around here.

Good luck!