Tidal HifI SQ question

With a longer USB cable you can put a powered hub (with good power) near the DAC and that will isolate the DAC from the worst of a longer cable before that.

Or you can get a Corning 3.Optical USB cable (which can crazy long, e.g. 50m (165ft.)) Tho the data is on optical connections the power connection is thru very skinny wire. But since the data doesn’t pollute the power, there’s less of a problem than you might think with the power connection.

Thank you, but I do not have an optical out of my macbook. I will look at the hub. Is the sound going to be noticably better than a cat7 from router?

T

The Corning 3.Optical cable is a normal cable but uses glass for the data.

Whether one DAC input sounds better than another is very dependent on the system, the cables in question, other sources of interference in the room, etc.

The hub will make a small but probably noticeable difference, whether this puts USB ahead of the Bridge input definitely is system dependent.

Pick the style of interface that best meets your needs, and then optimize that. Personally, my listening habits don’t get along with user interfaces available for DLNA devices (e.g. the Bridge) so I really don’t care how the Bridge sounds. Other’s much prefer using the Bridge from their phones, etc. and have no need of USB, S/PDIF, etc.

Nevermind, I looked up the cable, that would work.

But still should there be an improvement with the direct connection vs the Cat7? If the answer is yes, I will go for the powered Hub.

Thank you,

TD

Well I use a 1.5m USB cable, because I don’t own a DAC with Ethernet connection. I also have a separate computer that I only use for music, running JRiver, Vinyl Studio, and Tidal. I use a 3ft Tera Grand Premium CAT-7 Double Shielded 10 Gigabit 600MHz Ethernet Cable from my router to a Toshiba Satellite Laptop with a 1Tb hard drive with 8Gb of ram.
If finances allowed I would buy a dedicated player.

Mr. Ted,

I am having a hell of a time finding a USB Hub that has a USB B-Male out, which I would need for the DSJR, or even a Bmale to Bmale USB Cable which I could also use.

Any ideas other that two adapters.

Also I am looking for a Hub that is $30 or under.

Thank you,

TD

Any standard hub will work. You’ll need to hook it up in the normal way, a standard A-B USB 2.0 cable from the PC (or whatever) to the Hub and another standard A-B USB 2.0 cable from the Hub to the DS (Jr). I was using a relatively cheap Belkin four port powered USB 2.0 hub but they seem to have moved on to USB 3 hubs. Plugable is a good company that makes good products their USB2-HUB4BC hub is slight overkill but is cheap and should do the trick:

https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Charging-Adapter-Support-Android/dp/B005P2BY5I

https://plugable.com/products/usb2-hub4bc/

Thank you…T