order of components in digital audio chain

[harry sunquist]

Hey! Great resource, thanks, all, for supporting it. Very positive/helpful/science-based (rational objectivity seeming scarcer every day). Submitted for your consideration:

1. Given I value dynamic compression and eq. for 95% of my listening, I use a Behringer DEQ-2496. (Yeah it’s old, and the analog is reputed to be crap, but I’m not aware of much else {beyond a pricey mini-dsp} that delivers comparable utility, and also believe 24/96 is adequate for earthlings.) From my PC, this requires a usb-to-toslink/spdif optical device to feed the DEQ, then from the DEQ, toslink/spdif optical-to-DAC. Therefore, on each end of the DAC I have a Topping D10s (with Topping’s drivers), and Schiit Modi 3 (not plus). Question: which ordering would would be better, and why; Topping-DEQ-Modi or Modi-DEQ-Topping? (Finally, I do use Equalizer APO, but again, like having high-quality compression in the chain, and am not aware of anything that does system-wide compression like EqAPO does system-wide EQ.)
2. Is it reasonable to believe there’s no effective utility difference between a crappy/plastic TOSlink cable and a fancy one?

Thanks!

 

[Jimbob54]

Hey! Great resource, thanks, all, for supporting it. Very positive/helpful/science-based (rational objectivity seeming scarcer every day). Submitted for your consideration:

1. Given I value dynamic compression and eq. for 95% of my listening, I use a Behringer DEQ-2496. (Yeah it’s old, and the analog is reputed to be crap, but I’m not aware of much else {beyond a pricey mini-dsp} that delivers comparable utility, and also believe 24/96 is adequate for earthlings.) From my PC, this requires a usb-to-toslink/spdif optical device to feed the DEQ, then from the DEQ, toslink/spdif optical-to-DAC. Therefore, on each end of the DAC I have a Topping D10s (with Topping’s drivers), and Schiit Modi 3 (not plus). Question: which ordering would would be better, and why; Topping-DEQ-Modi or Modi-DEQ-Topping? (Finally, I do use Equalizer APO, but again, like having high-quality compression in the chain, and am not aware of anything that does system-wide compression like EqAPO does system-wide EQ.)
2. Is it reasonable to believe there’s no effective utility difference between a crappy/plastic TOSlink cable and a fancy one?

Thanks!

Im missing something. How would Modi- DEQ- Topping work? No digital outputs on Modi 3?

 

[harry sunquist]

...HAH! Right you are! No frickin' digital outputs. (Well there's an oversight.)
That said, I am still curious if anyone knows of anything offering OS-based, system-wide dynamic control
(...plus the crappy/good optical cable question.)

 

[Jimbob54]

...HAH! Right you are! No frickin' digital outputs. (Well there's an oversight.)
That said, I am still curious if anyone knows of anything offering OS-based, system-wide dynamic control
(...plus the crappy/good optical cable question.)

Cant answer the former- optical cable type shouldnt matter. If you dont hear any obvious issue with it (indicating something broken) - and indeed doesnt in my (purely subjective) experience.

 

[AnalogSteph]

A D10s seems rather oversized as a mere USB --> Toslink converter (you used to get optional slot brackets for SPDIF out, and better boards would even have it built-in), but it is what it is. How is the volume controlled?

The sad part is that the DEQ2496 can actually do better than the Modi 3 once modified, and then is roughly in the D10s ballpark:
Behringermods before/after
It almost seems to me that the output S/N of 117.5 dB (@3.5 V / +13 dBu out) may be unweighted over a 20 kHz bandwidth, which would be about 119.8 dB(A) worth of dynamic range. That's basically datasheet level performance for the AK4393, and a -105 dB THD at 1 kHz rather better than that (spec is 120 dB(A) and 100 dB, respectively). (If levels are at least halfway dialed in, this could easily serve as a preamp replacement, but I don't know how much the DEQ's UI lends itself to that. Otherwise another DAC of similar performance with a more prominent volume control may be preferable.)

That said, the mod probably isn't worth it if you don't actually have a use for balanced outputs.

I wonder what the next iteration of these units will use in terms of DAC, stocks of the AK4393 seem to have run out. They already had to replace the AK5393 with a CS5381 in 2017. My best guess would be CS4398, a long-time popular part of similar performance that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and should remain available for the foreseeable future.