SPDIF converter for Audio Note Dac 2.1

Don't know your price range, but the Empirical Audio Off Ramp is an excellent USB to S/PDIF converter.

Bryon

My first thought is that if your DAC Magic is bettering the Hiface/Audionote combo you might have a problem somewhere.
The DAC magic is not known to have great USB interface (I am assuming here). I'd look into it. The Hiface/Audionote ought to trounce the DACMagic.

Empirical Audio, Wavelength USB>SPDIF, Audiophileo, Weiss Int 202 are all good SPDIF converters.

I was thinking the difference maker was pure music into dacmagic vs. itunes into hiface to Audio Note dac. Pure music is a game changer even straight into headphones for me.

The M2Tech HiFace is a very good converter. In my system, using it with a Mac Mini/Pure Music into a Modwright Transporter (as a DAC), the resulting sound is as high fidelity as my Esoteric UX-3Pi.

That yours sounds "am radio like" indicates a possible problem either with set-up (the most likely cause, IMO) or a faulty HiFace.

A couple things to check:
1) Apple Midi configured with HiFace as the output device, and at the highest sampling rate supported by your DAC, and no higher.

2) Sampling rate configured for the HiFace in Pure Music set to the correct sampling rate for your DAC.

There are quite a few settings to get correct in Pure Music to get it performing optimally. It wasn't all readily apparent to me without carefully studying the PM user manual and reading a few threads about Pure Music.