Yeah the SP200 is a great deal and most of us got it on sale for 260$ now its 290$ in the video he says its better than the asgard amp and all the other little schiit’s (lol) but appearently the Archel has a more natural sound. but i remember when i got mine it sounded so much better than my magni. it felt like a real amp. it has some heft to it.
But i dont know how good it is for someone new coming up now with all the new amps coming out. idk how much of a bump up from the asgard 200$ it is and the archel 180$ i really wish that guy at geshelli would give his DAC a usb connection cause that sounds like it would make a killer stack.
Exactly the reason why I have decided not to get it. The minute he gets a usb connection I will buy both his dac and the amp; but not before that happens.
Yep, I use optical also as my PC motherboard has that output. I dont need more than 24 bit 192. Also, the Topping D10 is good for USB to spdif conversion.
No, but there are specifications that have to be met in order to get USB rated/certified so to speak. That process is tough for a company like Geshelli that is basically 1 person at the moment.
He’d have to add a chip to the board, there are off the shelf parts to basically do USB audio to I2C.
The issue is the quality, the USB chips can introduce Ground noise and Electrical/Electro Magnetic Noise.
If he uses one of the common solutions, there shouldn’t be any drivers to worry about, but it would require redesigning the board and an increase in cost.
Schiit has had 6 different USB implementations for their higher end DAC’s and only post USB-5 did they recommend it over SPDIF.
I’d think most modern PC motherboards would have it.
I think Macs have it available through the headphone Jack.
Mac mini was the big audiofile streaming device until more recently.
Any sort of stand alone transport will have it.
I know you have your other thread. Have you thought about doing HDMI out -> Toslink with your audio? I’m not sure if this meets your price threshold for a converter.