I've been noticing that in just about every USB DAC review I've read in recent issues, the listener has pretty much hated every DAC when listed to over USB. They have all commented on how pleased they've been with the audio quality when using the other means of connections, however, as soon as they connect the DAC via USB, their opponions have changed drastically.
I'm wondering why this might be? What is it about audio over USB that makes it so bad?
The only thing I can think of is that USB was designed to be used for data, not audio files. Therefor, perhaps the clocking on it isn't adequate? Perhaps there simply isn't enough bandwidth at 480mb/s per the USB standard?
Perhaps it's the way the operating systems are handing the audio files? For instance, Windows XP is notoriously bad for butchering and upsampling all audio that runs through it's kmixer. Would this be the source of some complaints? Surely the reviewers have 'optimized' their computers for such things by utilizing players that have the ability to bypass the k-mixers via the use of plug-ins, etc.? While I realize that some of the recent reviews were done with Mac computers, I can't help but ask this question.
What can the poor audio quality be traced back to? I'm wondering if the same results might be found when comparing external USB sound cards to internal PCI/PCIe sound cards.
Any information would be appreciated!
I've been noticing that in just about every USB DAC review I've read in recent issues, the listener has pretty much hated every DAC when listed to over USB. They have all commented on how pleased they've been with the audio quality when using the other means of connections, however, as soon as they connect the DAC via USB, their opponions have changed drastically.
I'm wondering why this might be? What is it about audio over USB that makes it so bad?
The only thing I can think of is that USB was designed to be used for data, not audio files. Therefor, perhaps the clocking on it isn't adequate? Perhaps there simply isn't enough bandwidth at 480mb/s per the USB standard?
Perhaps it's the way the operating systems are handing the audio files? For instance, Windows XP is notoriously bad for butchering and upsampling all audio that runs through it's kmixer. Would this be the source of some complaints? Surely the reviewers have 'optimized' their computers for such things by utilizing players that have the ability to bypass the k-mixers via the use of plug-ins, etc.? While I realize that some of the recent reviews were done with Mac computers, I can't help but ask this question.
What can the poor audio quality be traced back to? I'm wondering if the same results might be found when comparing external USB sound cards to internal PCI/PCIe sound cards.
Any information would be appreciated!