Halide Bridge vs hiFace Evo vs Sonicweld 192
Based on his resume, I believe Steve Nugent (Audioengr) probably knows what he's talking about. From the Empirical Audio website: "Steve Nugent...is an Electrical Engineer with 25 years digital design experience in the computer industry designs all of our products. He has a broad experience in digital system and interface design, board layout, transmission-lines and other relevant technologies. Steve was a design-team lead on the Pentium II at Intel Corp. and holds 22 patents in various cable and digital technologies. |
I have been talking with Steve N. from Empirical Audio. He is an experienced Audio Engineer with extensive knowledge on PC Audio. Where I disagree with him, is his conclusions of 30 years of Research, development and experience in designs of other Transports and DACs. I suppose that this is nothing new since every Audio Engineer has his own idea of how to design equipment, usually dismissing lessons learned by others earlier. He appears to be successful at what he is doing, and I wish him further success. I just have an honest disagreement about some of the conclusions that he has drawn from the last thirty years of Digital Audio Development. He does dismiss many Audiophile beliefs, be they based on personnal experience or not. I get a little wary when someone tells me what I am supposed to be hearing, when it conflicts with what I am actually hearing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, based on their own personal Audio preferences. The problem is when we dismiss someone elses Audio preferences by calling them, "Total nonsense", when after all, they are nothing more than just a difference in preferences. I have a tendency to over react when faced with intolerance, by some, in PC Audio over different Audio preferences by many. Audio will ALWAYS have room for different opinions, regardless if it is PC or CD. When this stops, Audio will no longer be a Hobby worth pursuing. I would like to think that this can be avoided with PC Audio, but everyone (including myself) needs to just loosen up a little bit. Would really like to enjoy this Hobby once more. |
I've had it. No more USB for me. I tried the WaveLink HS. It sounded terrible, especially with the upper frequencies. It made me cringe when playing loud. Sometimes it would sound good at lower levels, or with higher quality recordings, but after more listening I could hear the inherent deficiencies. I couldn't live with it. Even Pure Music and Amarra Mini didn't help. Perhaps the dealer supplied WireWorld USB and digital BNC>BNC cables were partly to blame (I didn't have a BNC>RCA adapter for my D-60), but I have my doubts that better cables could make up for it enough. And imagine the total cost; USB converter, playback SW, high-end cables, and a dedicated iMac or Mac Mini since running 20+ feet of USB cable isn't recommended. You may as well go back to a high-end CDT. The WaveLink costs about twice as much as a new 171iTransport and iPod Classic and yet sounds half as good. So what is it? My systems too resolving? The cables? The connections used (BNC,..)? Or is it that USB just sounds bad - to me and my system? I tried, again (four years later). I also tried the hiFace Evo. It wouldn't work. Set up is simple enough on OS X. It showed under Sound>Output once the driver was installed, but the sound only came out the built in speakers. And I'd swear OS X was glitchy after installing their driver. I want plug-n-play. Arj: Try Squeezebox Touch or iTransport w/ COAX O/I. Any other type of ready-to-play music server with SPDIF out should suffice also. Stay clear of all USB converters and DAC's. Ic an't speak for FireWire (Weiss,..etc), but I have a feeling it's similar. |
