Only on the A-Male connected equipment. The B-Male connector is different on USB 3.0 from the B-Male connector for USB 2.0.
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You are correct, I misspoke.
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Thanks @tedsmith and @mountwashnh1 !
Am I correct the current DS DAC USB input receives a USB 2.0 connector?
Will the DS Mk.II accept as a connector USB 2.0, 3.0, both, or not decided yet?
Will the AirLens accept as a connector USB 2.0, 3.0, both, or not decided yet?
Might I want to consider interconnecting these devices using a high quality RJ45 cable instead of a USB cable?
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The DS and DS Mk II use a USB 2.0 connector, that’s plenty of bandwidth for audio and doesn’t require people upgrade to USB 3.0.
If you are asking about using a non-USB cable to connect two USB devices, don’t. Impedances, lengths, wire gage, being out of spec can cause very flaky behavior (working some days and not others, being sensitive to which drivers you are using on your PC…)
Someone else will have to answer about AirLens
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DS DAC does not have a jack for RJ45 cable.
Good point! I was thinking of the transport. Duh.
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I have T-Select and it’s works wonderful on DS mk2
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It is on par with Shunyata Sigma at a lower price. They do sound different and either one will work great. Big Al called it a bargain and I agree considering its performance!
It’s been a while since I saw Ted’s post, then I realized it was 2 years old. We miss him!
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I see there hasn’t been much recent discussion of USB cables. But I just purchased a refurbished DS Mk. 1 from The Music Room and I’m having trouble finding a good USB cable for it.
I see this thread has some USB cable skeptics, but I’ve always found they make a large difference (at least between high-end and generic).
The first cable I tried was hand made by Igor Kuznetsoff of K Works Audio and in the past it has proven to be an exceptionally high performer. This has made every DAC I’ve tried it on shine much brighter… better extension, usually, and better resolution.
On first listen I thought the Mk. 1 was bright and had funny bass - such as the fact that the bass had poor pitch definition and double basses emitted a loud, unpitched thump while the midbass was recessed. Someone on the Audiogon forums suggested that couldn’t possibly be right - the Mk. 1 is not like that, he said. I tried changing a lot of things in my system with no help, until I got to trying a different USB cable (I’m feeding this from an Aurender N100 by the way).
So I tried an iFi USB cable, fairly budget model. The tonal balance was now good and the bass was decent. But the highs were grainy. I can’t live with this cable long term but it was a pleasant surprise.
Looking for something that might improve the graininess, I tried a Cardas High-speed (their higher model, $450). It did bring back a beautiful sound and the tonal balance was still good. I’ve been living with that one for a while now. It seems to be lacking some resolution and excitement compared to the K Works and the Mk. 1 sounds good on some headphones but not others. It sounds good on my Spendor S3/5 speakers too. I’ve found that more extension can help a DAC sound good on all my headphones.
But I also got a hold of a Transparent USB (1m, $310). That sounded forward, somewhat like the K Works, with the funny bass, too.
I’m going to try an Audioquest Diamond USB in a couple days.
When I mentioned all this on the Audiogon forums, the most common reply I got was that the Mk. 1 sounds best through its I2S input anyway. So I bought a Gustard U18 DDC and I’m going to try the Transparent HDMI cable with it (also around $300). Fortunately this stuff is all returnable or can be borrowed, so I’m really just trying everything I can.
I was hoping to find some mention here of problems with the higher-end USB cables causing brightness or unpitched bass, but I couldn’t find any mention of this.
Buy the InakustiK reference for USB or HDMI WWPS7, RAL or Dragon and be happy. The HDMI for DS1 works better with. HDMI All the USB cords you tried to date are challenged. It is better suited to HDMI cords. The DS2 likes top of line USBs but also does well with HDMIs
You really can’t find a decent USB cable for under $3K these days.
Or so I’ve been told,
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I use AQ diamond usb + i2s. It’s a good match
USB cables can only improve DS USB link a little, and I2S input on it with any decent HDMI cable will beat any $3K+ USB cable with DS.
Stop wasting money on cable, and saving up for a MK2 trade in later!
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I use the Wire World Platinum Starlight 7 to good effect, and as VMAX suggests their are several other credible options.
Well I tried another USB cable (AudioQuest Diamond) and it had the weird recessed bass too, but also a gorgeous midrange and lots of detail. The pattern with USB cables is: the better ones have a lot of detail, but recessed midbass, unpitched low bass.
I got a Gustard U18 DDC today and should probably wait for it to warm up, but trying it right away with a very high end coax cable running from U18 to DS DAC, immediately a lot of problems were fixed. Much more appealing tonal balance, prodigious bass, good midrange but also good air around the midrange voices/instruments. Downside is that piano leading edges are hard, and the overall refinement is pretty low. The U18 probably needs to warm up, #1, but #2 I don’t expect the U18 to be as good as the Airlens as a source.
Oh, will try I2S when the cable gets here.
EDIT: should have waited for it to warm up. Already refinement is a lot better and piano leading edges are okay. I’ll try putting the U18 on vibration isolation as well, next.
Well the i2s from a matrix fed by USB gives DS galvanic isolated signal. A USB shorting plug silences the noisy USB chip in DS. As does another i2S shorting plug for the unused ZhDMI. These are mods Ted suggests.
Mike, see an earlier forum topic “I2s cable advice” from a few days ago. Given the many MkI and Mk2 owners here, there are only two constants. One, I2s is the preferred connection for the Mk1.
Two, the AQ dragon is the best HDMI cable. You will find no dissenters here. If the Dragon is too much dinero ($1,400. used) there are less costly AQ, RAL, Tubulus and Inakustik to consider
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Thanks. Just an hour ago I found and bought a used Audioquest Firebird 48 HDMI for $700. That’s about the most I can justify. Hopefully that’s a decent cable even if not the Dragon. I also bought (on return policy) a Denafrips Iris to try as a DDC.
I have a guy who does amazing custom modifications, and my plan is to have him modify the DDC, whichever DDC has the most potential between the Iris and the U18.
With the DS Mk. 1, does the I2S signal provide the clock? If so, everything is going to depend on the quality of the DDC and cable.
What I’m getting right now is good, very appealing tonal balance and midrange with the U18 feeding the Mk. 1 through a coax cable (custom but very high performing) but not all that refined, not all that much microdynamic resolution.
I realize no one is talking about the coax as the preferred input of the Mk. 1. So I’m curious what the Firebird HDMI will reveal. I’m just curious to know if the DDC is still expected to provide the clock through I2S, because the U18 is a pretty basic DDC.
EDIT: also the USB running from my Aurender N100 to the DDC seems to make a difference. Between a custom cable I have, the Cardas High Speed, the Transparent, and the Audioquest Diamond, the AQ won hands down. I also have the DDC plugged into power conditioning with a good PC. (Both the conditioner and the power cord are built by the same same guy who does my mods, Igor Kuznetsoff of the New Jersey Audio Society. I have distributed power conditioning, almost 200 microfarads of three-line parallel capacitance and ERS distributed through every circuit in the house and 100 uF of 2-line parallel capacitance along with ERS in the system circuit.)
The DS doesn’t use the bit clock in the I2S bits for timing. The I2S inputs are pattern matched for the transition of the clock from 0 to 1 and then the data is placed in the buffer. The system clock depends on the average size of the buffer. This basically buffers out any jitter on the incoming clocks.
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Thanks, Ted. How about the coax input? Is that buffered?