Respect my avatar

Oh dear. This video is so troublesome to me, because it seems like such a let down compared to your usual fund of knowledge. Worse, its spirit breaks the usual ethic I admire you for-namely eschewing the manipulative marketing strategies of certain manufacturers. Starting in many ways with the brands you champion in this video, I’ll leave that there. Can we take a bit of a broader, pragmatic view of what one truly needs to address the digital to analog conversion process in our audio setups? Because if we started with another, less costly DAC in the first place, we’d have to revisit wholesale what the true utility of a DDC is. Let’s start by staying in the digital realm, because that’s where we are. We have a signal path to attend to. And despite all of the complexities you addressed in this lecture, the only practical purpose a DDC fundamentally serves is to solve compatibility issues when connecting digital audio sources and DACs. If we start with a great measuring, SOTA modern DAC (which for the last five years at least would be a delta sigma DAC, period, full stop), they would have a USB input, as would the vast majority of signal sources in the past decade. If we don’t have either of those options, we may need a DDC-but either way, adding one to their signal path would have NO impact on “sound quality” at all. I believe you know this already for sure, but as we’ve chosen to stay in the digital realm, we should recall that digital audio is not sound, and “bit perfect” is a silly marketing term, not an audio science term. Also “timing” to input receivers with modern DACs has been handily resolved by buffers-and especially with asynchronous USB connections (and delta sigma DACs), the DACs clock is the master (as you pointed out). That’s why USB has been adopted as the reference, most practical standard for high end, super high resolution digital audio streams, and IIS has remained a superfluous expense we tolerate due to the marketing manipulations of PS Audio (their reasoning is based on another epic scam involving circumventing Sony’s SACD DRM rights, but that’s a topic for another time and place). That is also why informed, sensible people who care about the money they work hard for don’t bother anymore with the antiquated R2R ladder DACs you discuss in this video. They are technologically inferior, obsolete, yet paradoxically more expensive-and unless they include a killer integrated amplifier, they’re literally stuffing cash in the furnace. Absolutely, the DACs you reference here sound great-but they don’t sound any more or less great than a $300 SMSL option with an ES9038pro or a $400 refurbished Topping d90 with an AK4499. Going back to the digital domain, the only “sound” that emerges from the back end of a DAC is the sound of the original master, varying only by the degree of noise, distortion and dynamic range that comes with. And the newest (meaning, in computational technology terms, the most advanced) inexpensive DACs out there right now all vary way beyond the capacity of the human ear. Which means that buying all those resistors is the equivalent of buying a hand-built computer tower from 10 years ago at exponentially higher prices (in the case of the eight year old DAVE, 20-30 times higher), just because the one sheet uses a lot of super cool sounding, atomic age terms that promise to lift those veils once and for all. Seriously-the idea of spending extra cash for a DDC to fuss with IIS, only to solve the problems with expensive Denafrips or Holo May rip offs, instead of just buying a far superior, far cheaper and better-measuring DS DAC with a USB input is to me absurd. The DAC in 2022 should be the least expensive component in an audiophile setup. See, although they sound really wicked cool and esoteric, we don’t need fancy phase lock loop systems in this modern era because the processes they perform don’t change the outcome, if the goal is listening to music, instead of measuring computational ephemera. Progress, in the form of AKM and ESS, has solved all these issues for us. The “jitter” you’re wringing your hands over is indeed inaudible-even for “expert ears” such as yours, it’s true. Your thesis here sounds erudite enough, but to me it amounts to an orgy of misapplying analog audio terms to ones and zeros. I truly admire your efforts. But I feel an obligation to advocate for the dignity of others’ hard-earned cash. I’m sorry for using this tired cliche, but this vid is simply peddling a bevy of unnecessary snake oil. And please, do take note of the contradiction in your headline for this vid-one could argue that it’s a bit disingenuous to bait clicks by signaling better sound quality to be had, and then disclaiming three minutes in that the discussion is not about what is “audible”. Please go back to sticking to what’s audible. The wallets of all your followers will be so much better served if you do. After all, the money they’ll save from not spending four to five figures on a futzy DAC and a DDC to solve its connector problems can be set aside for their headphones-where the quality of construction and design truly has been demonstrably proven to make a difference. Peace…

I thought the MQA video was good then I watched this one! Bloody brilliant, science based explanation of how electrical interference has nothing to do with snake oil. As a direct result of this vid bought a usb galvanic isolator (the intona 7054), 2 decent usb cables (also sorted power supply end out too) and my god my setup has been improved to a new level! I will for sure sort patreon support! Great work

Dear Goldensound, In this world where pure gold and sneak oil (EDIT : « snake ») are sometimes so difficult to tell apart, your reviews are really in a league on their own, thanks to your deep understanding, objective measurements, and explanation skills. Very helpful. Kudos ! And thank you so much.

I thought by now any reasonable DAC would have it's own internal elastic buffer and just internally re-clock using it's own precision clocks. Paul Lesso wrote an AES paper about S/PDIF design 15 years ago called "A High Performance S/PDIF Receiver". A small buffer chip should be super cheap these days, and should be able to wipe out any jitter from a PC optical port. I get the impression audiophiles like to make simple problems hard.

I’m so glad I have found this channel. Looking forward to the Hollow May review.

6:40 for what it's worth an OCXO is still voltage-tuned (EFC) with a typical pulling range of something like 1-2e-7. The ovenized part is for short-term stability, not frequency adjustment. Essentially, quartz crystals have a characteristic curve of frequency change vs temperature change over temperature, which is very different for different "cuts" (the literal way the crystal is cut and polished). The standard is the AT cut, which is pretty much all quartz crystals you see everywhere. The AT cut crosses 0 Delta-Hz/Delta-K at around 25 °C. Which is just about perfect for normal ambient room temperatures. But the slope around that point is steep (relatively speaking, so let's say you're at 20 °C, you might be getting 5 ppm/K or so). Now the clever trick about OCXOs is that they use different cuts, often the SC cut. The SC cut has a completely different response to temperature changes; it crosses 0 at around 90 °C or so, and has a very gentle slope around this area. So OCXOs keep their crystal heated to a very _stable_ 85-95 °C, using a control loop. The attenuation of ambient temperature changes by the control loop colludes with the shallow slope of the dHz/dT to give extremely low tempcos. The _expense_ of that is: SC cut crystals are much more expensive (tiny tiny tiny fraction of the market), OCXOs are a lot of hassle to build and even fast-stabilizing types will exhibit a pretty wild swing from turning on to becoming mildly stable (at least 15+ minutes), they have very high power consumption compared to normal oscillators (couple Watts steady-state vs. a few mW for a normal oscillator and maybe 50-100 mW for something fancy. (And some OCXOs tend to fail under repeated power cycling, like you'd do in a residential setting -- they're _absolutely not_ designed for that and _will not_ hold their specs when treated like that). Most (all?) OCXOs have their own reference voltage which is typically ovenized as well. Sort of like bootstrapping, the reference has a tempco (selected for ~0 tempco at the elevated operating temperature, another reason these are expensive), so it would impact the temperature controller, so it's ovenized itself. It's of course stable, the tempcos of precision references are tiny to begin with. Now the reason people went to this trouble is that for, mostly physical experiments, extremely accurate and stable clocks are a useful tool. A good OCXO achieves short-term stability better than 1e-12, that's one part per billion, or for the typical 10 MHz reference, that's less than 0.00001 Hz variation over a few seconds. (Jitter and stability are not the same thing). These are mechanically vibrating devices: Vibration creates low-level spurs. Most physical phenomena influence oscillator output, temperature is just a big one. Gravity is another; angling or rotating a quartz changes the frequency (much more than 1e-12). So for optimal performance you'd want to dampen vibrations of all frequencies. Sounds like something you could sell to audiophiles. Big fat granite rock on a bunch of thick steel rope springs. Obviously, as you allude to at the end, the oscillator can't actually be used as a reference for anything (what's 10 MHz / 44.1 or 48 kHz?), so you're looking at a fractional-N PLL anyway, and at that point the quality of the output clock is liable to be swamped by the PLL's qualities (or lack thereof). To be frank, a normal quartz is probably just dandy for audio, if the rest of the system design holds up. Audiophility seems to be especially liable to buzzword engineering instead of system-level engineering.

@6:35 an oven controlled VCO is exactly what it says - it is temperature controlled to optimise clock waveform & jitter performance - it is NOT an “temperature controlled” crystal, that is voltage is still used to set the crystal into its designed resonant frequency, but temperature controlled conditions, stabilise & optimise the oscillator performance😀🤓

Excellent explanation on how clocks work with USB vs SPDIF. Thanks!

Audiophiles: Measurements don't matter, all that matters is what you hear!! Also audiophiles: This device has a noise floor at -144 dB vs that other one that has it at -120 dB and costs 1/10, we know that it is a proven fact no human being can perceive the difference but just look at these GRAPHS!!!

I appreciate the actual graphs that prove what you're saying. I'm new to high-end audio, and for the most part I assume that the things that people tell me, like "this is better than this because this one costs 10x as much and it makes me feel good" is mostly subjective, but you've supplied receipts which actually puts weight behind your words.

I think these problems should have been solved in the DAC. The whole reason I am considering buying an external DAC is to get rid of electrical noise. Cue the "YOU HAD ONE JOB!" meme.

For us noobs, might I suggest you spare a few moments to explain you graphs better and how one is better versus the other? I kind of think I understood so thanks for the great effort and video!

Great video! Very informative and i learned something new

Just a question - "...the Schiit EITR is a very affordable device..." I assume you are aware that this product was discontinued about a year ago and is only available second hand? (where it commands a huge premium over the original MSRP). FWIW, the EITR was based on Schiit's older USB implementation (called Gen5) and the EITR was discontinued when Unison was introduced. Also, I agree that the Pi2AES is outstanding... I have 3 of them.

Dude, this is the third time in a row you make a video about the stuff that is on my mind the bigger part of the day. your now my favorite Tuber. And about MQA I got your back all the way. 2 years ago I also put a lot of time (for me) in the new sensation MQA and concluded, it's kind of scam, and your video, organized all my chaotic leftover memories about that subject, and now it is as clear as a FLAC file. Respect.

>'Not claiming any level of audibility' >Makes a whole video on why ddc's make an audible difference... Pick one.

I’m so glad I have found this channel. Looking forward to the Holo May review.

Wow, really enjoying this channel and the clear technical explanations. I'm glad to find out that my DAC has PLL for all SPDIF inputs, I was about to go researching a Pi2 AES!

The snake oil has infected his brain.

I would love to see a video just flat out on time domain vs frequency domain and what each is used to look at

Awesome channel by the way finally someone who can measure and has an open eye for the subjective part of this hobby.

This is your second video from your channel I have watched. You've earned yourself a new subscriber.

I appreciate that you've presented actual measurements, but this seems like a solution in search of a problem. These DDCs seem to be all about second guessing the internal design of the DAC you paid good money for. A high quality DAC should already have its own isolated power supply and isolate any electrical noise coming in from the USB. It should also already have a high quality clock which is the only place you need to worry about jitter. If you just use the USB input, there is no jitter from external sources so no need to spend more money to try and minimize it. Just buy a good DAC in the first place.

Always learn something new here, thanks for a great video!

Outstanding review. Man, I wish you had a Denafrips DAC using the external clock function with the DDC for this round of review. I just ordered the Terminator-Plus DAC with the Gaia DDC and Kinki Studio EX-P7 with EX-B7's.

I do not often see videos which are pure and utter nonsense. But this one is. The spdif and the usb interfaces have error detection integrated. They will not deliver an invalid data stream to the DAC. Noise on a data line can cause problems but usually you recognize that by drops in the audio presentation or by connectivity rejection (no sound - full stop) and not by noise on the analogue side. Since the cable length and quality is good these days, you usually have however not problems or drops.

One of the best explained videos on the subject. Actually, probably the clear best.

It'll be interesting to know if a mid-range DAC with an I2S input, like the Topping DX7 Pro, could benefit from all of this.

Thanks for the amazing review. Ethernet factor is huge, and it is ignored in many digital audio reviews. I did a $200 investment in my roon Server in the basement (6 core xeon with a noisy fan) and it changed the sound all over my house not only where I had the best roon endpoint ($4000 DYI).

This is super helpful. Also, I just bought a May because of you, gosh darnit. So thanks.

Love the little fun fact about the creator of USB audio thinking it sounds like doo-doo haha

It matters if your DAC is not able to remove interface jitter and electrical noise on the incoming signal. Why not simply get a properly designed and built DAC? This is the same as buying power conditioners - you only need conditioning if you have an audio component that can’t deal with regular noisy power. You also should use an asynchronous DAC - which decouples master clock from the crystal clock in the DAC. Basically you only need extra stuff if the components you have are sub-optimal to begin with.

It sounds like some dacs would benefit a lot from a Pi2AES, where as others (the more expensive one's presumably) would benefit less if at all. I'd love to hear your recommendations for a good bang for buck combo with the Pi2AES if you end up doing a dedicated video on that device.

At first I also thought usb wouldn't matter, but I noticed an audible noise coming from the apple dongle on my laptop, specially when the fan was running louder and a cheap usb isolator from alliexpress was all it took to fix it in my case.

Wouldn't mind seeing a video talking about power input with regards to audio equipment: the effect clean power has on equipment, usefulness of power conditioners and UPS's, and what to actually do if mains power isn't reliable with frequent brown-outs and general inconsistencies.

We need a hidden camera inside Schiit HQ when they are naming their products. They know.

I recently added a Gustard U18 to convert USB to COAX between PC and DAC. The improvement is huge! I get an immersive 3D soundstage with relaxed and sweet sound. After that I tried direct USB connection once and couldn't bare with the "digital", dry, lean sound at all. Your explaination makes perfect sense, noise and jitter matter most between source and DAC. BTW even USB is not really bit-perfect, as USB audio uses isochronous protocol. Unlike bulk protocl, it doesn't have error correction.

a phase-locked loop is literally necessary to keep multiple signals in sync, I don't think I understand how something is supposed to properly interpret a digital signal it's receiving without one, the clocks would keep going in and out of sync.

-120db noise from jitter is NOT EXTEREMELY audible at all!!, in fact your amp background hiss more audible more snake oil audiophoolery, would like you see your "golden ears" detect jitter in a blind test where you really have no clue which is which

Designing PLL is an art...and this is the -secret- to proper digital audio reproduction.

You should do a vid on MQA

So what about Pi2AES SPDIF to hermes and converted to I2s, would it be even better?

I switched from using my gaming pc as a roon endpoint to using an allo digione signature (similar to the pi2aes from my understanding). I wasn't hearing anything obvious via the usb audio on my pc but when I switched to the RPI allo streamer the signal sounded quieter and cleaner but it definitely wasn't a huge difference. Good video though I've been really enjoying all the content on this channel

Fun fact, a 10MHz reference clock is also used for things like phase syncing lab equipment.

If at all possible, you should beg, borrow or steal an EtherREGEN along with a quality external master clock, such as an AfterDark Giesemann or a Mutec. I've added both to my Pi2AES along with quality LPSs. My listening experience has been transformed for the better. I've never heard such 3-dimensionality, fluidity, realistic dynamics, sweet resonant decays, etc.

This is a great video! I just purchased the iFi iPurifier SPDIF 2, and I really enjoy it. It makes the optical audio on my PC so much better in terms of quality, and music sounds amazing. I can even play my songs on Tidal at 192 KHz. I haven't noticed much on my Xbox One, but I still use it to prevent jitter.

I have a pi2AES which I run into a RME ADI-2 Pro and then to my Genelec speakers. The sound is glorious. I first used SPIDF but then switched to AES which to me sounded better. I do not know why it sounds better, but it does. More bass control and overall cleaner sound. I have not experimented with i2S yet. My conclusion is that the pi2AES can be used in a chain to produce the highest quality audio. As a side note, the RME ADI-2 Pro is a match made in heaven for Genelec speakers as it can be used for AES or XLR output, thus making it possible to send both digital and analog to the speakers. For example I stream Qobuz and play vinyl from my TT through it. This is perfect for me because I love both digital and analog and can’t live without both.

You should check out the Cherry 130dB+ DAC DAC 3, which will be introduced this summer! The coax/optical SPDIF input is internally reclocked for jitter immunity. Several levels of power supply reconditioning. True balanced, DC coupled outputs, too (:

Since you are basically the only one to do this kind of things on KZfaq (and thanks a lot to do so!), I think you should take more time to explain what you present. This is some really really interesting and in-depth information, it deserves longer videos, or more videos. Something I don't understand: why should we need a device that clean the signal from the source to send it to the DAC if you can have that in the DAC itself? Shouldn't it be a requirement for any DAC to basically reclock what's coming from the USB and isolate from the voltage coming from the USB?

Fantastic informative video

Errr, my guy you don't need studies to find out how audible something at -100 dB is.

this was extremely enlightening and informative

do any of the ddc's add any audio delay, ex if you want to watch videos?

Another thought. I loved this video because "USB noise" was one of the topics I was wondering about and I was also among the ones thinking bits are bits in a digital signal and audible noise cannot be generated on a USB connection. And you almost convinced me when mentioning the audible noise from a PC. We all know that, that noise is with us since the 90's. You can hear the mouse movement, GPU working, etc. But then I realised it's a completely different scenario, that is with the PC's builtin soundcard and a direct (jack) connection to the speakers or headphones. As soon as you have an external USB sound device, noise is gone. So I'm afraid I'm still sceptic about USB noise :) (jitter is another thing I understand that)

Your channel is a fucking goldmine holy shit!

Great video! I hope you know you just opened a can worms with the ASR number crunching crowd.

Really interested to hear your thoughts on the May Holo. I ended up going with an Yggy GS for only like a 1/3 or so the price, along with a Pi2AES. I still wonder how it'd compare to the Holo. I guess one perk of the Yggy is that it's upgradable, and Schiit is already working on a new analog board for it. Looking forward to your review!

So many thanks for pi2aes. This seems to be a real diamond.

Very nicely done. Thank you very much 😎👍

Would be interesting to see how a Nobsound Douk Audio U2 USB Converter compares.

Hi @GoldenSound! Great reviews, as always. But unfortunately looks like the Pi2AES project is no longer available and they have a closed and more expensive version. So, I was wondering, with the release of the new Topping M50 which is kind of a weak streamer, can it be used as a cheap USB to IIS converter? If so, could you measure that to see how clean the signal is? Thanks!!!

Just some "personal" perspective from my experience as a software developer for real time embedded systems and deep interest in electronics. (not professional in electronic tho) I'll only talk about those three topic you start with, over usb, some applies to other protocol, but I don't know them in detail and I'm not going to read pages of specifications for a youtube comment. The TLDR is just to say, normally, you shouldn't have to care about those three issue in a "just enough" designed modern usb device, even more one who cares about those well known issues and tells customer they're some kind of high end devices, dac, or anything else. Data integrity Being digital doesn't mean you can't have data corruption, for instance if you communicate over serial without any specific protocol, or a protocol that doesn't integrate some form of data integrity mechanism, you can have data corruption and no fix for it. That being said, the usb protocol specs specify a mechanism for that. A CRC is sent to ensure the integrity of the received data and if the check failed, the data are re-transmited. (to make it shortà That means, for any device compliant with the usb specifications, it's not possible, on the transport, to corrupt data and not notice it and fix the situation, it's by design. So no need for extra middle man. So, being "bit perfect" and "not altering data", I don't understand the take. A usb hub does it, nothing special. But I don't understand what the point is, so I just mention, to anyone worried about this, usb, by itself, protect against data corruption on the line. If you worry about that, use usb, and you'll be fine, by design. Electrical noise You mention using optical link as solution to decouple two electronic circuit. That's way more on point than it seems and is in fact quite... "original', that any "high end" dac doesn't do it. The solution is called optocouplers, it's used everywhere, even in low end electronic, it's cheap, and it does just that perfectly. The fact you have to introduce middle man to solve that issue for expensive units is a shame. Also, optocouplers main interest, outside of the noise, is mostly security concerns, and it should be used in scenario with interconnection to any other unknown circuit. For instance, you certainly don't want to blow your expensive device by linking it to a faulty one that might send huge spikes to yours. If you design something like a dac, being proactive about those situations shouldn't even be questioned, even more for expensive equipment where you should do anything possible to protect it from the outside world at the benefit of the customer and your brand image. At the same time, solving noise propagation issue through data or ground lines. Imho, any dac, even low end, should do it. And to be honest, it's a solution found in a lot of studio equipment, and you don't have to go high end for it. So blame the dac manufacturer for not doing their job. Jitter It was a real issue for instance with spdif and the reason was... mostly a "bad" design we don't rely on anymore. Also there's different type of jitter with different sources and different solutions. The way you represent what jitter introduce as a problem doesn't match the general design of todays dac, dac aren't clocked by the input protocol clock anymore (and if they are, it's on their own and they decided to go the wrong way, maybe buy something else... who easily solve the problem) But, usb has a well known workaround. The main solution to solve almost all jitter issues is to use asynchronous mode. Jitter will be small to the point it's humanly not noticeable anymore and, if you really want to solve that picosecond problem, just introducing a buffer or related, audiophile dacs, imho, can do it, I wouldn't mind it a all as a client, but might be wrong. The fact this problem is still present really makes me wonder: are they using 20 years old design that just "get better over time" but don't do re-design that would solve the issues ? Once again, it's the dac manufacturer fault, it's a design issue, it's a known problem, with known or even integrated solutions, if problem persist, maybe go back to your R&D and fix it before requesting any substantial amount of money from your clients. Paying a middle man device to fix those three issues, at least over usb, until you are like using an old dac you really love, shouldn't even be a thing. Shouldn't even be mentioned on modern hardware, not even as a selling point. It's something people sometimes say about dac to say every dac is the same, I don't have opinion I want to share on that topic, but for those three issue, if you have a modern dac that features them, I would consider them "by design broken dac", any mention of those issue on something I plan to buy would make me totally never ever go toward that manufacturer again. To me, those issue, on new hardware, shows a total lack of dedications and I really hope I get this video wrong and it's about fixing old gear issues. At least for usb, don't know for the rest, but wouldn't be surprised there's solutions too and modern hardware shouldn't rely on middle man.

Thanks for this video and for the tip my curiosity gauge is right up there.

Got my Pi2AES yesterday and am so impressed with the SQ compared to a regular Pi3 on USB. AES sounded much better but going to i2s was a night and day change. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention Golden!

I'm considering buying a sub $1000 DDC and have 4 candidates, but am open to other suggestions. Candidates are 1) Gustard U18 2) Singxer SU-6 3) Denafrips Iris 4) Topping U90 In stock form, which puts out the cleanest IIS signal?

The pi2AES with I2s output is no longer available. The manufacturer now only offers I2s output with their $600 Mercury streamer. However, production has halted due to a supplier issue with the case manufacturer. According to the website, the PCB board for the Mercury may have to be fully reconfigured to fit another case. Translated, it might be quite some time before the Mercury Streamer is back in production. At this point, it looks like I'll be forced to look at other options for the foreseeable future.

Love to see the Comments. Nice video, keep up the good work.

Great video. But the giant question it leaves unanswered is whether the little no-ISB Pi device that beats the Hermes is uniquely good at destroying jitter, or whether *any* transport without USB (such as my MiniDSP SHD Studio) would yield similar benefits, simply from avoiding USB.

2 years later. I am now using a pi2aes 2.0, with a 850€ linear PSU that powers both the board and the Chord Qtest, with files stored on the SD card, optical out, with real glass cable, and music sounds more liquid, it has more shape somehow. I did a test: same setup, same files, external usb ssd storage vs internal storage on sd card, and turns out, it does sound a little bit better when there is no usb in the chain. Same dac, same input, same output on pi2aes, the only usb was the usb storage and impacted the music. I don’t know why, but from now on there will be no usb in my system

Has anyone found how to stream all of PC audio to one of these? I heard Zeos in his review mention it was possible but I havent seen how people do it. TIA

Just a quick question... Would one be able to use a DDC with an audio interface? As far as I'm aware audio interfaces send and receive sound instead of just receiving it. Recordings are clean as anything but I get an awful lot of noise (especially CPU noise) at audible volume which ruins a nice album at the best of times. Curious if a DDC could fix that. Either way, excellent video : )

I gave up explaining how jitter can be CRITICAL to your music a while back. Took me a while and a lot of experiments to learn a lot of. Spending time trying to pass that knowledge to people who are not receptive is a horrible way to waste your time. I would recommend giving Lavry Engineering DA10 and similiar DAC a try with their "crystal lock" feature enabled... See how wrong engineering can go when they confused clock drift with jitter. Their tight PLL sounds great tho. Another thing i find suspect is Analog Device's ASRC that claims to eliminate jitter by running signal through SRC, but i suspect it is just blending the good and bad part of the signal into a inseparable mixture.

I have ordered a Pi2AES, but realized that it doesn't decode DSD, PCM only. Any Pi Hats you recommend that decode native DSD [or DoP]? Cheers!

Very informative review, I like the measurement addition! You keep mentioning the Pi2AES price as the full price of the streamer but adding a Raspberry Pi and a good power supply is a must, so the total price will be around 600 $. Great job anyway!

Two questions about the Pi2aes. 1- How does one change inputs on the Pi2aes? I think they all run continuously and have to be changed by hand. 2- How is the sound from an external/remote hard-drive into the Pi2aes via USB,,, then output to a DAC of choice? Thanks ahead for your help.

Very informative, thank you. I have always intuitively done my best to stay away from pc in my audio chain as ive always supected id have electrical noise and jitter issues. Having recently started mixing and recording on pc though, i'm in need of paying attention! I recently switched my hifi to a Naim Atom , so hopefully my dac is being supplied with an optimal signal!

The Jitter explanation is partially incorrect. Samples representing a bandwidth limited signal, will only ever have 1 possible waveform. No matter how bad the jitter, the sinewave after the output filter of a DAC will NEVER have slopes like shown at 5:43. The mathematics behind it do not work that way. Ovenized Oscillators are also voltage controlled, just that with a controlled temperature, the oscillator is more stable.

Thanks for the awesome video! I wish that at some point you'll be able to make a video about AoIP with devices that support Dante or Ravenna. I'm really interested to see if they can bring any noticeable improvement to the sound. I've been eyeing the Merging Anubis for quite some time now.

As an IT tech since 1986...USB is pure shait!

T, The SMSL DO200 is a dream to own. Best, D.

And this is why Unison is so powerful. Or at the very least, so impactful.

Hi..appreciate if you can make Pi2AES assemble video and software installation needed to be used via smartphone

Audio snake oil. Baffles the brain.

Hi, love your videos and the kind of information you present! Thank you! Regarding jitter I have to say that in any network stack that kind of error should eventually get corrected before passing on to the next layer up in the chain. I have been working in the IT industry for over 25 years and although jitter is a well known problem in networks it can usually be corrected and it is. Also taking into account that any audio speed nowadays is nothing comparing to the gigabit capacities we have in current networks I am not sure if it should really affect audio chains because the inherent speed is really slow compared to anything else we do with computers. Anyway just wanted to add to the debate and hopefully somebody more knowledgeable can correct us all in the near future! Keep up the excellent content!

Looking forward to your SOtM review. I am really interested in it. I would like to know how it compares to Pi2aes.

Am I correct in thinking the Pi2AES is only worth having if one has an I2S input on ones DAC? Or can you also perceive a difference over TOSLink? I’m wondering whether or not it might worth using over TOSLink with my ADI-2 Pro FS (instead of a direct USB 2.0 connection from my iMac)?

Too bad, the HAT is not $150 but $250, so with Pi and case and a decent power supply we are looking at $400.

WHAT! A SHITT EATER! Sorry, I had to do it! You knew it was coming. Thank you for all your AMAZING REVIEWS!!!

Anyone coming to this in 2023/24, the Pi2aes was unavailable for some time but has now been replaced with the Pi2AES 2.0.

Interesting vid, I recently tested 3 different DACS against each other I compared the AudioEngine D1, the DAC built into my Yamaha A-S301, and the DAC in a $110 CD player from 2001 and after volume matching I couldn't tell a difference. I've yet to try a DDC but if my ears can't tell a difference between the DACs I doubt a DDC would make much of a difference for me but I would be willing to try one out.

Amazing video man I learned so much thank you !

They actually called their product a schit eater?

Have you ever done a blind test where someone blindfolded you and randomly swapped cables

Would you recomment using Denafrips HERMES with RME adi 2 pro FS, will it make a difference ? THANKS

Thanks for this review.

Thank you for this video and what are your thoughts on a Chord Dave by itself vs adding a M-Scaler > to a Chord Dave? Did you measure them when you add them both? Curious

Would it be possible to expand this discussion and include the Allo DigiOne Signature in the comparison?

Just come across your interesting vid. Is the Innuos PhoenixUSB a type of DDC? It only has USB in/out connections, and seems to be extracted from their top-tier Statement server/streamer. I have one on loan, connected between my ZENith Mk.3 and Benchmark DAC3 B, and it makes a clearly audible improvement. But I'm now wondering if I should investigate a cheaper DDC, if it might work just as well...?

Great video, illuminating. Did you have the chance to compare sonically the Pi2 v2 and the Holo Red, using any of the digital output ? Thanks