Okay, my experiment is concluded; I’ve returned the T8.
After three weeks of listening via two ports and four cables—AudioQuest Firebird 48 and Revelation Audio Labs I2S (generously lent to me by a forum member) for I2S, oldish Shunyata Venom and AudioQuest Coffee for USB—I’ve unavoidably concluded that the 512’s internal streamer, on my system, is superior to the T8. The T8 sounds very, very good, but the 512’s streamer is just better.
Air around instruments via the 512 blooms in a large, ephemeral cloud, and while air is certainly present in the T8’s rendering, it’s somewhat collapsed in comparison. Transient peaks are snappy with the T8, but the 512’s streamer raises those peaks and presents them with greater power. Non-studio, non-multitracked music is just so more exciting and engaging to listen to via the 512’s streamer. You can’t help but notice it in the head-nodding and foot-tapping.
I couldn’t say why this is the case. Is it because no cable is better than any cable? Are the femto clocks in the T8 misaligned with those in the 512? I don’t know, but the proof is in the comparative listening. My long-suffering wife retreated to our home-theater room again and again and slid the door shut, tired of listening to the same snippet played again and again and … well, you know what I mean.
— Chris