I hate to be the skunk at the Bridge II garden party, but removing the Bridge II from my DS Sr. resulted in an immediate and material positive SQ upgrade on the remaining digital inputs. There is a thread about this apparent noise-lowering phenomenon on the forum. I switched to the I2S input, sold my Bridge II on the used market, and have not looked back. YMMV.
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bootzilla, ditto for me.
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Not at all for me. I donāt have the proper tin foil hat perhaps.
If the Bridge II come out on top, Iāll remove it for an separate evaluation of the #2 source. I guess I better order a slot cover nowā¦
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aangen, try aluminum, seems to be a better filter!
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Survey says . . .
Whereās that confounded bridge?
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I went many months without having a bridge 2. When I added it the sound did not collapse. To test, I disengaged it from its internal connector and I heard no improvement. Lucky me I guess.
Iām seven tracks into the first comparison. I chose to stick to only two sources for now; went for what I think is the heavy-weight fight here, because Iām a filthy sound glutton: Bridge II and NUC USB.
Three tracks in, and is one louder than the other? Doesnāt make sense to me, but I only pretend to know how all this crap works. I have to have reliable information, so I fetch the Radio Shack SPL meter Iāve had for at least a decade, and have only used, like, twice. All three sources already connected read the same SPL using the Stereophile dual mono pink noise track. Two more tracks in, listening to each once on the Bridge II and once on the NUCās USB, and I canāt shake the obvious certainty that the USB sounds louder.
By the seventh track, I noticed about the USB source that the elements of the soundstage, the individual images, occupy more area in the soundstage - each just uses more space for its expression. Also, each image is resolved in more detail. Thereās more information there.
Iām discouraged about facing the possibility of moving a PC into the listening room, but the difference is very compelling for now. Funny, though, every time I go back to the Bridge II, I am perfectly satisfied with the sound. It sounds right, and lovely, and also perks my attention onto the music. Iām not done, especially since it seems like the Bridge IIās soundstage is more laid back than the USBās, and Iām a big fan of that trick.
Hereās the seven tracks:
Cat Power - The Greatest
Colter Wall - Me and Big Dave
East River Pipe - My Little Rainbow
Grandaddy - Heās Simple, Heās Dumb, Heās the Pilot
Silver Sun - This Nā That
The Police - Tea in the Sahara
Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
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Just to echo Bootzilla and kylemillsap, while I was happy with the SQ during the three and a half years I used the bridge in the DS DAC for my prime input, I got a marked improvement in SQ when I removed the bridge. I replaced the bridge with a dCS Network Bridge connecting to the DAC via AES/EBU. I installed this before removing the bridge which gave a large improvement in SQ (more there there, more transparent and more PRAT) - making the music altogether more enjoyable. I then removed the PS Audio bridge from the DAC which gave a further, smaller improvement in SQ. My conclusion was that the dCS Network Bridge is a āstealā in terms of SQ improvement for the money.
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The dCS is on my shopping list. Looking to pick up a gently used oneā¦
Tough to findā leading me to believe they are great performers/rarely parted withā¦
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So based on your original post for this thread, which of the four original options had the best sound?
I prefer HDMI I2S direct from my server to my dac with no converters in between.
Not done yet. Iāve only been able to compare the ROCK NUCās USB to the Bridge II. I still have high hopes for the HiFiBerry, and the NUCās USB has me wondering about the Squeezebox USB. I should be able to put some time into it today.
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Very interested in the hifi berry result, I assuming the digi plus pro board?
Iām using.one via toslink out here 
Yes, digi+ pro. I wasnāt planning on trying toslink, but I got the ratās nest of gear all set up, so I might as well. Gotta find that old Kimber toslink cableā¦
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After warm-up listening to Roon shuffle the folk genre, I played Dead Can Danceās āThe Wind That Shook The Barleyā live performance from that 3-disc set. First with the Bridge II, then again via the NUCās USB. Three or four seconds into the second play, the wifey prairie dogs up from her coffee and proclaims that the second one is better because you can hear the reverberation better, in more detail.
The wifey has bat ears. She can hear a mouse fart in the field behind the house. Itās mostly a bad thing. On the plus side, she does come in handy during speaker setup. I move the speakers, she tells me when to stop, go back, or keep going. However, in order to listen to music past nine-ish at night, I have to make sure she is well drugged. Sheās never been one to appreciate the nuances of āpartying,ā so I have to scheme some to get it done. Anyway, back to the work at handā¦
Next up was HiFiBerry Coax vs. Bridge II. The Bridge II took the cup, but it took very attentive listening , and the right recordings, to convince. The Dead Can Dance track wasnāt much help, though, to be fair, during the third listen, in-a-row, of any track, I lose interest. See my previous post about being a glutton. Chad & Jeremyās āA Summer Songā started showing the Bridge IIās better image specificity and separation. James Tailorās āSweet Baby Jamesā only confused me - I couldnāt conclude anything from it. EivĆørās āMĆn MĆ³Ć°irā allowed the Bridge to distinguish itself with resolution, separation, and soundstage depth. Looks like the votes predicted this one very ably.
So I moved on to the next bout: Squeezebox USB vs Bridge II. This one was very difficult. I have a hypothesis about this, the attention required to judge Bridge/HiFiBerry, and the tug-of-war between Squeezebox Coax and NUC about which Iāll report below. My hypothesis is that daytime listening played a blurring role. I ran NUC vs. Bridge at night, with clean power, a calm mind, or whatever it is about night listening that makes the system sound so much more resolving and black and quiet. Iām planning on testing that hypothesis, but Iām not sure I can stupefy the wifey two nights in a row, so we might all have to wait for that one.
Back to the resilient Squeezebox Touch. I asked my sober wife to help with this comparison, before I got even half-way through the first track: Tom Waitsā āOlā 55.ā We went back and forth several times. Neither of us could find a perch for our thoughts about the two sounds. Went to R.E.M.'s āHalf a World Awayā from that MTV Unplugged album. I donāt know about the wifey, but I definitely heard something different. Who knows what THAT wasā¦ Tried Elton Johnās āDonāt Let The Sun Go Down On Meā from the same album. The Bridge II started making the Squeezebox USB seem a bit too sharp, like someone turned up the contrast on a TV just a bit past just-right. In contrast, the Bridge sounded more natural (thatās the word my temperate wife used), organic, coherent across the frequency range and across the soundstage.
Still in a mood for Regie, I clicked my way to āMona Lisas and Mad Hatters.ā Yup, little-too-sharp vs. natural. We stayed with that track for the next bout: Squeezebox Coax vs. NUC USB. I went into that one under the assumption that I was paying my respects to the Squeezebox Touch, like when the host nationās team used to qualify for the World Cup automatically, simply because it was hosting.
We went back and forth on the Elton John track, like, six times. The only difference we could articulate at first (and there are more, to be sure) was that the NUC had better leading edge definition and perhaps more resolved detail. The Squeezebox Coax had smoother leading edges. Not rounded off, I donāt think, just smoother. That smoothness went beyond the leading edges of notes and transients to all the detail. And, it was detailed. We went back and forth, each of us wondering whether she/he preferred the smooth Touch or the resolved NUC.
The wifey went about her life, so I went for the Dire Straits - āYour Latest Trick.ā Yeah, I know. I donāt care. Dire Straits was the first band over which I obsessed, back when I was 11 years old in the early 80ās, soā¦ quit breaking my balls. Anyway, that track kept the information flowing. The NUC via USB is not an abrasive detailer. āNatural,ā like my clear-headed wifeās word choice for the Bridge. The Touchās Coax has never been muted, or veiled, or restrained. With the Musical Fidelity V-90 DAC, it could sound bright even. But the resolution of the NUC USB made itself plain with āYour Latest Trick.ā Yeah, I liked the NUC better, but I thought about keeping the Touch on the rack as a long-term option (for those tender moments).
The wife rejoined me, with, as always, Kindle in hand. I wanted her to hear that track from last night: Colter Wallās āMe and Big Dave.ā She hated what happened to country music with Shania Twain and that patriot handjob of a country āartist,ā I forget his name. Whenever I play her artists in that currently unfolding flavor of outlaw country and trucker country, she always mentions George Strait fondly. I thought she would dig Mr. Wall. Also, I told her the track reminds me of small-town (for) Wyoming, and she will always love that place just shy of how much she loves this guy. We reached consensus: the NUC feeding the DS Sr. via USB was more compelling, more interesting - it offered more to wonder at.
Iāll keep playing. Squeezebox Coax vs. Bridge II might help with my speculation about daytime vs. nighttime listening. It might better contextualize NUC vs. Bridge II.
I hope youāre enjoying this ride some.
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I did all my listening yesterday via the NUCās USB. I canāt help but feel like there is a subtle, sharp harshness to the sound. It definitely is more resolving than the Bridge II, but I never got that feeling with the Bridge II. Part of the problem is that I went into this comparison with a prejudice against USB. Iāll start doing longer listens before switching output/input.
Does that mean you use a Pink Faun card or something like that in your server? My NUC has an HDMI output on it, but I have been under the impression that it is not compatible with the DS Sr.'s HDMI wiring.