Are all asynchronous USB inputs similar?

Koestner - some USB interfaces are constantly improving, even my own. I have done at least 2 mods to the Off-Ramp and added an optional power supply in the last year. It is 5th generation, Off-Ramp 5.

The thing to realize is that an external USB converter like an Off-Ramp 5 driving your USB DAC with S/PDIF will undoubtedly beat your USB interface and probably your transport too. I have lots of customers using the Off-Ramp 5 to drive USB DACs, abandoning the built-in USB interface. 30-day money-back, less shipping.

Off-Ramp 5:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/off-ramp-converter

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Timlub - these different Async implementations have more to do with the drivers or lack thereof and maybe support for DSD.

The jitter performance of each of these is really independent of the base chipset, assuming the designer knows what he is doing. A lot don't.

This is the reason why I don't expect the SQ of my newer XMOS implementation to be much different than my current M2Tech implementation. If anything, the galvanic isolation will make the difference. Galvanic isolation can be designed into the M2Tech implementation as well, but I didn't.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thanks Steve, Has anyone heard that Microsoft will ever make a USB Audio 2.0 Compliant driver?

Steve N.,

I looked at your Off Ramp and it said to use drivers for MAC and Windows, but my platform on the Auraliti PK90 is Linux. Do I need a driver for that, and how would I install it?

Koestner - Some Linux servers have put the edits in to support M2Tech/Empirical products, others haven't. I know that Sonore and Antipodes have these mods in them. I used Antipodes at last RMAF.

If your server does not put in these edits, then you may have to wait for Off-Ramp 6, which supports Linux without custom drivers.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio