With I2s, make sure to use the shortest hdmi cable possible, the length is more important than the cable material.

i am pretty happy with my Topping D10S. i am huge fan of schiit but I made an A/B testing between Modi3 and D10S, and Topping was a clear winner for both me and my friend (disappointed owner of the schiit).

@@gilgalaad80 I love my Topping D50S but recently experience serious issues with Coax input. Signals won't lock. Topping is aware but it is out of warranty so I have to send it back on a slow boat to China... Probably not with it.. SIGH...

Ethernet -> LS60 works really well

NO I2S compatibility issues between I2S out into the I2S in for DSD playback ???

Brandon... I appreciate this... I'll look into singxer - Do you know how I can find the device Paul was referring to? Googling "The Matrix" has its own inherent drawbacks...

Been asking Paul to cover this topic for at least 3 years... He probably just does not know.... Of course, the easy answer is use everything PSAudio... But it's always nice to have options. I continue to wait....

These Chinese DAC manufacturers - Denafrips and Musician Audio out of the same plant - have adjustable I2S outputs to match the DAC input. That is especially helpful unless and until the pinout is standardized among manufacturers.

The DAC 200 has I2S?! Not mine…

Could you provide a link to that North Carolina U study please? Thanks😃

@Stéphane Cocquereaumont because you and the original poster don't have highly resolving systems (Mid-fi gear) and have not experienced hearing a difference in sound... That's the fact...I have two systems, one high resolution worth $50k... The other a vintage late 70s system... The $50k system sounds different with every type of cable I throw at it.. USB, i2s (HDMI), power and speaker cables... The 70s mid-fi system, zero change... Sorry try again

@@SantanKGhey1234 I’m using a smsl su-9pro and it has the first chip of it’s class and it works very well can also hit 135db or 130db I forget

@@SantanKGhey1234 System "resolution" has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the only signal being passed through a USB cable is digital packets of information. Both the sending device and the receiving device are totally unaffected by noise on the transmitting cable. The receiving device controls the timing of the packets so there is no disparity between the digital clocks in the devices, thereby eliminating jitter over the USB cable. The only reason your "highly resolving" system sounds better is because your wallet is much lighter and therefore your body is more capable of feeling the sound waves.

@@JonAnderhub lol

@Stéphane Cocquereaumont lol... You are a fool... Keep listening to your lo-fi system

Came here to ask how you can have electrical interference in a digital signal. That doesn't make any sense. The data either arrives or it doesn't. Once it is analog, that is a totally different story.

@Douglas Blake I always tell people that noise in a digital signal is like looking at a blurry word you can still read. Yeah, the noise is there, but the signal itself is unaffected because the information still arrives in perfect form.

Storage size of disc probably limits it to 64

@@geddylee501 Good point.... maybe...

You can bypass that limitation when you stream your DSD audio instead of playing back from disc. It is quite easy to rip discs these days. The only question is whether you prefer playing back from the physical format or not. Edit: Oh and my answer applies to your 2nd question as well. SACD is limited to DSD64, but files can go up to DSD1024.

The devices I've seen with I2s allow you to change the pin out in the options.

@@G3rain1 Yes, that is being the norm as more manufactures adopt I²S.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p76lddaV0quzcac.html

​@Stéphane Cocquereaumont "What you experienced is 100% placebo effect. Hard to swallow maybe, but this is true." You made that up. You have zero knowledge of what I experienced. Tell me: Which cables have I done listening tests with? Which stereo equipment did I use for my listening tests? You do not know, and yet you claim to know that I experienced. You can claim the placebo effect. You can also claim that I was hypnotized, or I was dreaming, or I was exposed to hallucinatory rays from Mars. You, Stéphane Cocquereaumont, do not know what you are talking about.

@Stéphane Cocquereaumont it's unbelievable how many people claiming such a difference will never agree to make a double blind test... :)

Sorry to burst your bubble there, but packets don't arrive in unison. USB is not a steady data stream connection. It's sent in chunks. Watch any file transfer over USB and you'll see significant fluctuations in data transmission. But all that data is literally encoded digitally. There is no compression for transmission via USB. It sends the entire file. There is no basis for this argument in physics.

@@Douglas_Blake excellent cause thats the way it is and it sounds great...🙂

@@Douglas_Blake Actually.....I have my setup with 4 DACs.....a Topping E30....which is the main.....a Fiio BT30 for receiving wireless streaming from my LG G8x cel phone via LDAC code....an OriGen G2 and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi.....All of them via USB (except the Fiio BT30) to my Laptop and then via Optical to the Topping E30 for then send the analog signal to the amp thru RCA cables.....For me is a Playground to switch between units and compare ...🙂

The best connection overall IS i2s

@@SantanKGhey1234 eh, there is no reason that is true, digitally speaking.

High quality dac? Like Topping? 😂

@HD OM 20 years ago digital connections already existed and only morons using built-in DAC of a CD player while the dumbest of them buy expensive players with better DAC - smart people skip it

@HD OM you clown can't even distinct between DAC/ADC nor CD versus reording technology versus player

You mean like USB?

How does cable impedance factor in? Would you also say SPDIF is a better cable than AES3, the latter of which has a 110 ohm impedance? I was with you up to that last sentence.

SPDIF with RCA's is 75 Ohm and AES/EBU over XLR is 110 ohm.

@@charlienyc1 I'm not a digital engineer so I don't know why 75Ohms is best. Its just the agreed standard that all manufacturers use when designing their equipment. The standard impedance on a coaxial cable is 75Ohm. Unfortunately, RCA and XLR connectors are not designed for digital application and cannot achieve 75Ohm. This is the reason RCA implement 50Ohm impedance, which could generate noises due to impedance mismatch. BNC is preferred because it implements 75Ohm for both cables and connectors, maintaining itself true to the standard.

@@davidfairchild1640 Yes, like USB, however as Paul said that's a two way connection that's so noisy he even recommended wifi instead which isn't much better.

I saw their gear at the last Axpona and was impressed by the build quality and I /O options. I did not hear it, however.

and a pretty decent one too

Actually it stands for Theorie und Anwendung.

I have a “dissolving” audio system. It takes HiRes audio files and dissolves them into crap..😀

@@davidfromamerica1871 perfect resolution signal-->Mid fi low quality system--> low resolution sound

I spent $10000 on cables and my system sounds so much better. I have a Wind-up Gramophone and placing the cables next to the winding handle has made a huge improvement. 😊

@@geoff37s38 😁

True, but most entry motherboards no longer carry the connector, not even the pins on the board nevermind the toslink connector. Also, we need new optical interface to carry audio signals that can carry a huge bandwidth increase compared to spdif. It's perfectly possible, but the audio industry does not seem the least bit interested in doing it.

ummhhh... maybe it's best for feeding DACs via computers, but generally optical S/PDIF (=Toslink) is weaker compared to SPDIF Coax or USB.

@@medonk12rs If you think of noise from your computer as 5v noise and house GND. then spdif optical are the best Since you don't get this via optical. Optical up to max 10 meters, but preferably as short as possible?

@@ford1546 Don't know about max viable cable lengths. But -- in my humble experience with only a limited number of Computer/Streamer/DAC combinations, optical was not once the best choise. Typically from worse to better sound quality the order I got was Optical SPDIF -- Coax SPDIF -- USB. Note that also via USB there can be differences, depending on the feeding device (Computer or - much better: dedicated high quality steamer) and the USB cable quality. Unfortunately Paul is right -- again -- about USB cable quality.

Usually related to SACD transports... for PSAudio SACD transport, it looks like HDMI but it is NOT HDMI in the classic sense in High Def Audio/VIDEO on TVs / BluRay Players.. Some I2S implementation uses what looks like network connection (RJ45) but again, it is NOT meant to local area network connectivity but for I2S signals. It is confusing.

@@ptg01 Right. I2S. But I'm wondering about the specific product he mentioned which I think is the Matrix X-SPDIF.

That sounds like the one.

I use Ethernet out of my Nucleus, like many owners - the USB is used for the external backup SSD in my case And, a Nucleus is a PC, an intel NUC in a party dress

You watch a lot of the same videos I watch..😎🤗👍 Except Mori. Everyone ❤️’s Mori, on and off the stage. Japan’s darling 😍 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bKp2ZKVpsr--m4k.html

But why should that matter?

@@ZeusTheTornado idk it's Cardas man. I like it's sound much better than when compared to my Audioquest Diamond which I sold. I had a trial period and just preferred the Cardas.

@@LuxAudio389 To me that's crazy, I bought a certified USB cable from the Thomson brand for 4 or 5 euros and I don't plan to buy anything else, it's short and thick enough for me to be comfortable with it, to me with USB and optical cables are bits in bits out. I'd have to see substantial a series of measurements that show expensive/better cables are worth it, and I must say that so far I've only seen measurements that show the contrary

I wish Paul would cover this topic... I2S and it's caveats in playing DSD layer of an SACD and mixing / matching brands... Been asking for..... 3 years.. Maybe he does not know ????

@@ptg01 There is a lot of variables of the audio chain there , some USB inputs on some DACs are done well and difference from I2S link will not be as dramatic .

@@kdomster9141 Understood but since he is touting I2S, would be nice for him to cover I2S and it's caveats.

@@ptg01 i thought he did , how clock and data are split and send separately from output to input and not squeezed together to be later separated in SPDIF ... I hope there was a quality CD transport for around 700usd offering i2s as so many folks have large CD collections and CD will come back like vinyl just did ....

You are hallucinating, if you own quality amp or gear , 150usd power cord can make nice difference over China made stock power cord made from scrap copper and worth 1.99usd

@@kdomster9141 And cows can fly

@@ZeusTheTornado Pigs too !!!!

@@ZeusTheTornadoCows don't but ignorance can .😉

@@kdomster9141 Agreed. What is it that they say? A fool and his money will always part?

@Stéphane Cocquereaumont He is a charlatan.

but you should not mention Amir here, since Paul hates science that prevents snake oil selling :)

"Amir at audio science review found that cables make no significant difference." Amir is not a scientist. Amir refuses to confirm his conclusions, by way of performing listening tests on high-end stereos. Since you can hear a dramatic difference in cables, and Amir insists that you cannot, then either Amir is lying or incompetent. It is not about all of the testing that Amir has done, and done correclty. Rather, it is about the testing that Amir has not done; that Amir refuses to do. If your car's brakes are not working too good, and your mechanic shows you that he tested "X", "Y", and "Z", and all is well, do you just drive away satisfied? Of course not. You know that you have an issue with your brakes. So you go elsewhere, and have an honest, competent mechanic test your brakes, and you discover that it is your car's master cylinder that needs to be replaced. So all of the tests from mechanic #1 were true. But it is the test that mechanic #1 never did that mattered. The stereo is the lab equipment. Your ears are part of the lab. Your ears can hear things that nothing in Amir's lab can measure. I am not talking about wishful thinking, or imagining hearing differences. I am talking about slap-in-the-face differences, that a person deaf in one ear could hear. Between Amir implying that he is a scientist, when he is not a scientist, as well as refusing to perform a proper listening test, Amir is not to be trusted.

@@NoEgg4u I find a fatal flaw in your otherwise correct statements: "Your ears are part of the lab." This CAN be true under the correct testing environment, but no audiophile that i know does it the proper way. I don't know if Amir is a scientist or not, but I am pretty sure I am. And to me, if you can't objectively or statistcally measure a thing, that thing does not exists. There is no "slap-in-the-face difference that a person deaf could hear" in a KZfaq comment that matters. But this is just my opinion, of course, and I am not here to change anyone's mind. Anyway, many people forget that music is just about passion and happiness. If a 2k dollars usb cable makes you happier and you enjoy your listening more, good for you, it's well spent money.

@@gilgalaad80 Problem is your ego cannot accept that more money buys better things. You can watch movies on a phone and be happy but watching in the cinema is of different level. Its same as with hifi.

@@NoEgg4u Amir is an engineer and a much better engineer than Paul. I've lost count of how many times pearl gets it wrong. If cables made a difference there would be a trial is that shows that. Because you can't point to one it means you're just trying to sell snake oil.

Which cables have you tested with, to reach your conclusion that Paul is wrong about USB cables influencing the sound quality? Please list all of the components on the stereo you used to test various USB cables, that were the basis for your conclusion that Paul is wrong.

@@NoEgg4u Paul said a few years ago , that USB cable Signature from JCAT " was sent from heaven " Now he is quiet about that. I have it and it is awsome cable for the price ( but it is not cheap )

@@NoEgg4u I personally have a recording studio where I record 16 channels of audio over USB at 32bit 96 KHz audio with no issues with noise or jitter. However, for a more detailed analysis here is testing for you: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p76lddaV0quzcac.html

@@JonAnderhub "I personally have a recording studio where I record 16 channels of audio over USB at 32bit 96 KHz audio with no issues with noise or jitter." Anyone with a laptop and any number of mixing software applications has a recording studio. I never thought that I had jitter, until I replaced my mass produced USB cable with an Audioquest USB cable. The improvement was a religious experience (well, not quite -- but it was amazing). It is like being in a room and not noticing a sound, until that sound goes away. You then take notice. Once you minimize jitter, you will then recognize when you have it. Jitter is not a buzz or a noise that an untrained ear will hear. Jitter makes the music less spacious. But if your music already sounds spacious, and instruments / voices sound very good, you think that you do not have jitter. Then you find a way to minimize the jitter, and the instruments have bite, and texture, unlike anything you have yet to experience. If you do not use gear that is designed to minimize jitter, then you have jitter. I still have jitter. But I had quite a lot more, prior to using a quality USB cable. If you heard my stereo, you would say "What jitter?". I know that I have some, because I have heard my same stereo, in the store, with a transport designed to eliminate jitter (well, jitter can not be 100% eliminated). That transport is out of my reach. I am happy with what I have. I would be happier with that stand-alone transport.

@@JonAnderhub Bravo! I love it when people in the industry call out BS. Just waiting on pErHaPs to throw shade on your recording studio 🤣

Who know its a scam? You dont know shit. You must have a soundbar and think its hifi.

@@papapapaw look at one of Paul's fanboys. You must be the guy that bought $5,000 interconnect cables. Now you feel you have to swear and lash out because you know you got ripped off.

To many arrogant engineers. Dont quit your day job.