The process is lossless.
It’s all about the clock, and the cleanliness of the ground.
Whatever takes the USB signal has to clock out the SPDIF signal, and human hearing is very sensitive to jitter.
If this were not the case Schiit wouldn’t have gone through 5 different USB implementations before they got to Unison.
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And I’m thinking they won’t stop there. It’s good but I’m still liking the XLR in my Yggy more.
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You’re using XLR instead of USB…? Or?
Yeah, for music in my desk I feed XLR through a Pi2AES. I used USB only when I switch to computer audio for watching YouTube and such.
Oy, looks complicated to set up. You can use it wired? Or only wifi?
Both actually as the Pi can be set up either way. It’s not too complicated and there’s always geeky guys like me and a dozen other folks that would gladly guide folks through a build. Not to litter the thread here but if you’re interested in some light reading.
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So I got my Douk U2 Pro in the system, powered by my 5V phone charger; PC(Windows 7!) → Douk (coax) → BF2 (bal out) → G111 (SE out) → Erupt. It sounds bloody magical. Now my Mojo sounds congested and muddy!!! Everything sounds basically real now. Fantastic detail, separation, dynamic range, extension, refinement, bass impact, space, everything. This is “hear things you’ve never heard before” territory, even off my measly Erupt. 
It sounds like a totally new headphone. This only reinforces my stance(and observations) that a DAC makes much more difference(s) than the amp. I am even getting MORE power out of the amp, now, too… Too much power. D: You can hear reverb/echo/etc mix effects so clearly.
I need to know how a Qutest/Hugo 2/TT 2 compares to BF2.
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That thing looks pretty good for the price, I told you that it’s got a decent looking clock to clean up the noisy signal from your PC. If you use a better power supply, even one of the iFi $50 dollars ones it will clean up even more.
Bet if you try it with your Chord you’ll see that it cleans that up pretty well too.
iPower($69), iPower X($99), iPower Elite($299)? Do we know what the ‘cleanliness’ rating of each is…? I actually can’t even tell if the ends of these will fit the Douk.
Yeah, I used Mojo with the same coax & optical from the Douk as the BF2 gets, and it sounds muddy & congested compared to BF2. I don’t think I am getting a better signal from USB with Mojo, but I need to test it again to be sure. I think Mojo has hit its limit =p
Good to hear, the $69 dollar one will be the sweet spot for your chain. They come with adapters to fit everything you’ll come across.
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The only differences I see are “1uV”, “~1uV”, and “<1uV”.
Went for the iPower2, “~1uV”.
B2 is the best DAC for $ to performance. They’re are better DACs I’ve heard for sure, but for the dollars I think it’s impossible to beat. Next step up is Pontus Denafrips. YMMV.
There is more to it with SMPS than just noise on the output, but there is no point in plugging a $300 PSU into a <$60 device.
Where do you find out what the more is? To know what I really need here. The iPower2 I ordered is “~1uV”. I really hear no noise or hum or distortion with the included power cord + phone charger, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.
It’s a $60 device, the iPower is fine.
Power supplies aren’t going to make $60 device into a $500 device, so don’t overspend on one.
Clean power can improve things, but you need to spend commensurately.
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You’re fine with what you got. The power supplies get better, I actually did buy one of the $300 ifi units a while back but it would be crazy like @Polygonhell says to use that for a $50 device. It’s very much a diminishing return.
I guarantee you that if you stay in the hobby, you’ll use that power supply for many other things in the future! Actually since you got the 5v one you can use them on a Pi as well when you begin tinkering with them.
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I guess it’s not wise to buy any of them, for any price, unless actual performance stats can be shown. Amir says this about iPower devices - “My previous tests have shown their products to be ineffective.” But I know you can see jitter improvment results with the Galvanic Isolator thingy, at least, but that’s not a power cleaning device.
I found this test from early 2017. iPower 9V:
1A = 10.31uV (0.15uV audio band).
2A = 12.22uV (0.15uV audio band).
(Apparently extremely good VS the competition…)
Amir doesn’t listen to the things he’s reviewing, he’s actually made speaker recommendations based on measurements without any listening impressions. I find that amusing.
Let your ears be the judge. Listen to what you got for a week and after that, install your new adapter.
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Those ripple numbers don’t mean much of anything unless a bandwidth is provided along with them (and they are expressed as Vrms and Vpp).
A graph for each PSU providing “ripple mV @% load” would have been minimum, not just “look, number”.
FFT-spectrum (≈ frequency response) is also wanted since it could be well outside the audible spectrum.
The next problem is that below 25-ish mV (depending on how noisy your area is EMI wise), without some big attention to detail on the measurement side (= knowing your shit), the numbers are completely worthless.
This here, this here is BAD:
And this is worse:
Video explaining how to do it right:
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This is in tents lol. So who do we send our iPowers to for testing? You?