Digital Transport DAC Convertors I2S Simple is Best

Boy, that little socket can give you headaches! Pic shows the butt of the Sparkler 512.
 
HiFi Basics X: Know Your Source(s) Brief Digital Front-End Buying Guide, Part II

Amended 4/6/20: I have incorporated into the text our writer mrgoodsound's advice

Part I (Recommended Reading if you haven't read it before)

Regular readers will recognize our spirited Russian friend who, after acquiring a Sparkler DAC, has again posted some questions (translated) in Part I (link above).  I re-read my article and there is not a word that I'd change. In fact I think it is one of my better articles, on a favorite topic. So I shall take this opportunity to write a bit more on the subject. First, his comments and questions. You can skip it if you want, as I will make a summary in my answer.

Q. What do you think ? there is a secret to good transport ... if so, what is the reason for this ? ... a successful model will sound equally good in different systems ? or each combination is individual . I sold the player and already ordered 512 Sparkler DAC ... Which way is better to dig ? - I don't have (cheap DVD player I don't count) transport ... The manufacturer says the I2s output is 20% better than the coaxial one . I wanted to get away from the mechanical rotation of the CD and related errors , and buy a SD card transport ( http://www.tachyon.co.jp/~sichoya/SDTrans/SDTrans6.html ) ... to take the risk ? - I read (I didn't hear it myself - and this is the main thing in this hobby) that this is probably the best source . Buying mechanical devices on the secondary market is probably stupid - they are sold because they are worn out, and the new ones are insanely overpriced . Let me remind you that my ambitions are high ... I want to make smart moves-to get a great sound for a modest amount of money ... Yes, good food is important , but the skill of the cook is more important )))

It so happens that I have not used a separate СD transport before ... and I forgot a lot of audio theory... I had to update the information. My preliminary conclusions are as follows: several processes are running Simultaneously - reading data from the disk , correcting errors , correct timing (clocking - the source and receiver must keep pace) , the entire electrical circuit along which the signal goes must be clean of interference. Digital signal is not zeros and ones - it is a special analog signal ! ... if the DAC receiver does not recognize the ripple of electricity perfectly, it will confuse zero and one and get a bad sound. From this it follows that cheap Blu-ray or DVD players-with such a task will not cope! (((you are a practitioner and Sony 190 you like , but common sense is against-light weight is vibration; cheap drive - poor reading ; long signal path and an abundance of other functions (video or multi - channel) - this is a parasitic electrical voltage ... in addition, there are often switching power supplies. For the same reason, old devices from the secondary market or after repair are not suitable - it is enough to shift one of the components and there will be no sound ... it is as if a car suddenly has one (or several) wheels that will spin slower/faster than the others - it will not be possible to drive smoothly ... You wrote a coaxial Belden-a favorite cable , but it is not sold ready - made, and independent soldering is a lottery ... and all this is half the trouble - the second is how the record was created (if there was processing or retouching - you can forget about the quality)... Yes, I'm from Russia (remember the Nirvana audio system?)... But it was a good time - no digital music !

A. Something is always lost, or re-invented, in translation, but I think this is what our friend is saying: "I have just sold my CD player and acquired a Sparkler DAC with I2S input. I don't yet have a good transport and am thinking about the SD card transport. I'd like to avoid buying used mechanical transports. What is the secret of transport anyway? I believe in science and numbers." My views will be in several parts.

DAC The DAC is the heart of digital playback, and is the most important. NOS While there are good DAC's of various types and technologies, for me the minimalist Non-Oversampling (NOS), when well executed, has something special. This is true for my Sparkler S306 (read how it bettered a Weiss DAC; I still remember that day very well), and I am sure it will be the same for our friend's newer 512. Good choice. Anecdote: My friend Victor, of vkmusic (Elekit and Sparkler North American distributor), a participant in many audio shows, including RMAF and Capital Audio Fest, told me that the sound of his room always get praised by many dealers of smaller "artisanal" (but not inexpensive) brands, and you can verify that in TAS and Stereophile reports; also, I won't mention names, one dealer actually uses for his own enjoyment an all-Sparkler system. So much for Sparkler. Now, not all NOS are the same! My Sparkler S306 I am pretty sure is better than Audio Note UK (I have owned 2 lower-level ones long ago and have heard often their relatively recent high-level ones before I left HK). A friend in HK also ditched his Metrum after he got his Sparkler. And I never heard the qualities that Sparkler displays in my good friend jules' 4-box TotalDAC. I mentioned this to our Toronto correspondent, mrgoodsound, who is a young tech guy who has gone through the whole computer audio thing and, like me, is now a fan of 16-bit vintage CD players.He thinks discrete R2R DACs are generally a "travesty". He mentioned the problems of terrible linearity and temporal temperature drift, and the much higher quality of earlier chips. Perhaps that explains it. Incidentally, he has also tried and sold his Border Patrol NOS DAC. I also think the chip is important. Personally I love the 16-bit TDA-1541 and 1543 chips (the latter used in Sparkler).

CD Player In my next article, you shall read about the renewed Klipsch Heresy system in my living room. The CD player is a very cheap vintage Magnavox player that I acquired only last year. It uses the TDA-1543, without oversampling. I am hearing the same things that I hear in my Sparkler. In the near future, mrgoodsound shall also write about a fabled vintage player that he had recently acquired. This is to tell you how much a role the CD player can still play in our lives (and many classic models are very good when used as transports too). But I understand there are very real risks in acquiring vintage CD players, so I understand our Russian friend's reluctance. For the common folk, if you ever come across a vintage CDP (not on the net), think about trying it out.

Transport Now we come to the heart of our friend's question. Why one transport sounds better than another is complicated question. As mentioned in Part I, the difference can be astonishing. We can perhaps get some insight from the case of Theta. The very early and mammoth Theta Data (which I still own) is basically internally identical to the Pioneer LD player it was based on (which I have heard in other HK audiophiles' homes) but I can tell you the Theta sounds better. Later, Theta made the Data Basic (which I also still own), which is internally very similar to the PS Audio Lambda but in this case there were visible differences in placement of the drawer, power supply and caps. Read this Stereophile review and draw conclusions for yourself. Since I used to own a Lambda, I can tell you that the Theta is the better transport. But power supply and good parts do not make the whole story, as my own experience mentioned at the start of Part I attests. The most important part of design is listening. Many DIY people have all the skills and spare no expense, yet get terrible sound because they lack listening skills, not something easy to remedy. Laser Head Obviously, this is an important part of the equation, but it is not the whole story either.The Theta and Lambda I mentioned were high end designs that used the excellent and expensive Philips CDM-9 Pro. On the other hand, why then do the 47 Labs and Sparkler CDPs sound so good when they use low-end lasers (used in mini systems and portables)? Talking about that, I have never used the co-axial out of my Sparkler S303, and if I ever get the time I'd pitch it against Theta - that should be highly interesting. Built The Theta and Lambda were pretty well built for the price, but not to the crazy extent of the highest end, like the top Metronome, which I have heard many times. Take my Sparkler S303, although it looks very nice to me, it is very light (the small separate PSU is sturdier) but it sure sounds good and I'd not trade it for the Metronome. Again here, weight and sturdiness is not the whole story. In analog, witness the more expensive Rega's, which weigh very little and from reports sound better than many a heavier turntable. Similarly, the crazy overbuilt Clearaudio Statement turntable, I have heard three of them - while it is good in slam it is seriously deficient in other parameters, like PRaT. DVD and Blue Ray Players as Transport? I always encourage people to use their old DVD and Blue Ray players, even cheap ones, as transport. With the solidly built units, good sound is a given, and I have heard many systems in HK using these as transports. The DVD and BR players have much more powerful computing abilities than a CD player and getting the digital out is a piece of cake. And these players last a long time used as transport. The true wonder of this is that some cheap players still do an excellent job. Witness the famous (even legendary) el-cheapo Sony DVD player, DVP-PR50P (here). In HK, everybody back then had one, and everybody was amazed by how good it is as a player and as transport. A decade later, many are still using it. In the case of BR players, in 2012 I bought my first one, the very cheap Sony BDP-S190, which I used as a transport in my main system till I returned to the US in 2018. In the link above for Sparkler you have read that it sounded better than the Weiss DAC to me. It was my Best Buy of 2012 (here). I am big fan of Sony, always solid engineering. I only have experience with Sony but I suspect even lesser brand cheap DVD and BR players will still do a decent job as transport for CD. It would be wise for our friend to try it out for himself despite his skepticism. SD Card Transport Yes, I know about this. One of my yumcha friends, a DIYer, swears by it . And yes, I have previously read about the SDtrans384. But I have no personal experience, nor even an iota of desire to do things this way. Computer Music can be crazy enough when carried out to ridiculous extremes, and this may be one of them. Transferring music to the SD card is a hassle, but the lack of a good user interface is even more undesirable. Even if the SD transport has a small display it will never be as good as the one on the computer. Think if this is convenient or important to you before thinking of using one. The question is, let's say it sounds good, but will you find it a hassle to use? It would be a more of a hassle to someone with a large music collection than someone with little music. In any case, files are getting less popular and streaming has taken over.

Digital Outputs In Part I I have treated the basics of this. In general, convenience is important to me, which was why I ordered my Sparkler CDP and DAC with coaxial inputs even if the I2S option was available, as I didn't want another can of worms. In any case, some of the differences between different inputs can be due to the difference in cables used - hard to be sure. I2S/IIS Yes, many people say this is the best, but within consumer electronic this is not the most practical. I don't have experience with I2S, but I do have some experience with Firewire, which many people regard as better than S/PDIF and some even prefer to I2S. I liked my Firewire experience with my cheap M-Audio used on the desktop (here), but I disliked a friend's very expensive computer music setup that employed a very expensive Weiss (a brand I dislike) USB to Firewire convertor (here). Back to I2S, our friend now has to find a way to connect the I2S of his DAC to the computer. Of course, he can buy the Sparkler transport with I2S output, but besides more money he doesn't seem to like mechanical devices. Personally I'd not go the SD card transport route, a hassle and not particularly cheap. Instead, read the next section.

USB Digital Audio Interface Convertors Let me start with USB to S/PDIF convertors. I didn't write about this, but now I am telling the story. My friend Paul uses a vintage ARC DAC-2 (bought from me) for his CDs and used to have a Taiwanese USB DAC (of good repute in many forums) for computer music. One day I took over my cheap Musical Fidleity V-Link II (USB to S/PDIF convertor) and hooked it up to his computer and ARC and it completely killed the USB DAC. This showed that conversion was successful. There is little reason why conversion should not be successful. These are basically computer related components, which can be dirt cheap if one can DIY (the boards cost very little). Hifi manufacturers just give it case, making it a finished product. Should someone gives me a DAC with I2S input only, I would buy a USB to I2S Convertor, and a cheap one only. Having gotten curious, I did some research, and this is what I'd buy: SMSL X-USB II. No body has reviewed it but, as I said it is just computer stuff. It is around $60 (Ebay, Amazon. The other reason is I have faith in SMSL: they have hifi roots and I am satisfied with their cheap and cheerful T-amp, SA-36A Pro (here), which does have a good reputation in T-amp circles. But there are even cheaper convertors out there, some even with a built in DAC. Also, Sparkler makes these convertors also, but I don't know how much they cost. There.

Simple is Best for me, but for you? Why does NOS sound good? Why does Sparkler sound good? Because they are simple. I chose the simple route, just connecting my BD player digital out to the co-axial input and it had served me superbly for 6 years. Our friend wants the "best", chose a different route, the supposedly better I2S, but now would have to face the problem of how to interface, and to me more steps mean less. To each his own. This is a dichotomy not infrequently seen in audiophiles. No matter whether we think we are sane or not, we often wade into unknown waters. This is true for all of us, myself included.

Audio Science This is murky water at best. Given our friend's penchant for science, I am actually a little surprised he chose a NOS DAC, which surely would measure terribly. But then he wants what he thinks is the best in transport, which is why he is interested in the SD Card Transport (which measures well). This illustrates the dichotomy mentioned above. We all struggle with our conflicting inclinations, but sometimes that produces unexpected results. I hope so. Who knows? We always have hope, and that is good.

To our friend: I am just thinking aloud, and have also waded into unknown waters myself. One thing I am confident about, though. The Sparkler shall not disappoint, no matter how you connect to it. Since you still have CDs, as mentioned above, I'd still urge you to try out an old DVD player as transport, if you have one, no matter how cheap it is. The problem is, you need S/PDIF to I2S conversion. There are very cheap boards that will do this but you need to DIY. It seems there may not be ready made products (except Sparkler I think). With this move, you are committed to Computer Music and would otherwise have to rip your CDs into files. That is a lot of work for you. I wish you the best. When you get it to play, please post a comment somewhere here. We here would love to hear from you. Finally, keep safe during these tough times.

Our writer mrgoodsound comments:
The second paragraph of the reader's email also has truths. I have enough to say on these topics to fill a small novel.

I will say that I came dangerously close to purchasing the Sparkler CDP several times, I was emailing back and forth with VKmusic. In the end my experience with the Border Patrol DAC made me go a different way, although I am fairly confident the Sparkler will outperform it because of its active I/V stage. Congratulations to the reader on his order, although I am concerned that the DAC is i2s input only, I am not sure why a S/PDIF receiver couldn't be included in one box, like the 'notebook' CD player they offer.

The SD card transport looks ergonomically challenging. If the reader is convinced he needs pure I2S transport, please consider a RasPi solution such as the Pi2AES. You will want to order it with the buffered I2S output for use with the Sparkler and it's unbalanced 4-pin input.