Recent content by Vincent Kars

Unfortunately we don't listen to philosophies, we listen to implementations. Just like we don't listen to marketing blurb. But if you believe in the philosophy (or the marketing blurb), you sure will hear the tremendous difference.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/grimm-mu1.14241/#post-1943234

I fully agree, a PC can be configured to do a better job. However, can you bypass the re-sampler of the DAC? Can you defeat the filter of the DAC? If not, where's the beef?

Most DAC's are over- or up-sampling. My veteran Benchmark DAC1 run internally at 126 kHz. Cambridge advertises one of their DAC's to upsample to 382. Don't see how things improve by being up-sampled on the PC first and than being re-sampled again by the DAC.

Never heard of bit-trimming. To the best of my knowledge: 16 / 24 bit audio is converted to float DSP (like volume control) is performed Dither added (necessary in case of 16 bit) Converted back to integer as audio protocols like S/PDIF or UAC1/2 expect integers. Likewise DAC's expect integers...

In general the gain is fixed. Headphone amps sometimes comes with a low/high gain. The low one to be used for IEM's as they often have a high sensitivity.

This has nothing to do with class D. All power amps runs at a fixed gain (25 dB most of the time). Volume control is done by the pre-amp.

What you need is some decent EQ. Very common in the headphone world, a bit rare in the speaker world as speakers don't have that substantial difference in frequency response as common in the headphone world. Use any source you have, PC, mobile and try some EQ...

A true catalog of blind test should be written in braille.

Any reason to resample? The media player I use plays everything at its native sample rate.

You might have a look at the specs of your streamer. Most of the time their Ethernet port runs at 100 Mbps. CAT5e supports up to 1000 Mbps.

I don't mind spending $500 on a nice looking box but I do object to spending $ 14 .99 / month for the privilege to use it. Wonder if one can easily repurpose the box when you cancel your subscription.

No, it can convert to a file as well https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD#:~:text=JRiver%20Media%20Center%20can%20convert,click%20%3E%20Library%20Tools%20%3E%20Convert%20Format

A big advantage of exclusive mode is that the media player has a exclusive lock on the audio device. No more email notifications at full blast in the middle of a string quartet! It provides automatic sample rate switching as well.

Be prepared to have a delay of approximately 150 ms when using Bluetooth. If you are sensitive to lip sync, it will bother you. APTX-LL (low latency) is best for watching TV You might have a look at https://avantree.com/prolink-ps5-bluetooth-adapter-receiver-for-headphones