Can folks on this board explain how this review's claim about the digital out of a modded and non-modded Duet be true. Here is a link to the review: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/bolder_cable_company_squeezebox_duet_review
The parts that I find puzzeling are: " I connected the stock SB Duet and the Bolder Cable modified SB Duet to my system via coax digital out from the SB Duets into a Benchmark DAC1 PRE. Using my MacBook Pro music server I served nothing but uncompressed AIFFs to the two boxes. I did connect the modified Duet to a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC briefly to insure bit perfect digital output. It was nice to get visual confirmation, that the stream was bit perfect, by illuminating the HDCD indicator on the Alpha DAC whenever I played an HDCD track." This part I think I understand. The duet can't take advantage of HDCD coding but will pass that info along in its digital outs. Thus bit perfect! Right? and then: "What really set the Bolder Duet apart from the stock Duet was its analog performance. I must clarify this statement by noting the digital output through a good DAC is far better than the analog output. But the difference between the stock and modded Duet is less pronounced when listening via the digital outputs." "...less pronounced ...via the digital..." Is this possible? If the digital outputs are bit perfect from both the stock and modded then they should sound the same via the Benchmark external DAC. Or is my understanding flawed? The only explanation that I can think MIGHT be relevant is if the stock had much higher jitter--so much higher that the Benchmark couldn't correct it. Seems unlikely to me but maybe some one can explain. Of course one has to doubt any of this would stand the test of a DBT, but I am curious to know if there could be some basis in theory. George -- gsawdy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gsawdy's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14330 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=50147 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
