deebster
Half Man Half Biscuit
Here’s my experience of the ISO-SPDIF
System is Mac mini with Audirvana Free > Optical to Rega DAC > Recently serviced Audiolab 8000a > Epos ES11s, listening near-field (about a 5ft equilateral triangle). The ISO-SPDIF slotted between the Mac and DAC and I used the video part of an old AV cable I had kicking around to link them.
I’d expected the optical out I was using to the DAC would have been possible to improve upon – hence trying this unit out – but have no experience of any other output converters to compare with.
As with previous posts, describing sounds isn’t terribly easy for me to do and I’ll try to avoid clichés and wild statements but inevitably some of that will creep in. So here goes.
Concentrating on a favourite, well-produced album, namely Paul Simon’s Hearts & Bones (original rather than remaster, so to be able to compare a bit more easily with the vinyl) the ISO-SPDIF gave a wider and deeper soundstage, with more space/air between the instruments and voices. Particularly Simon’s voice had a nicer echo / reverb around it so I could more easily get a feel for the effect of him being in the studio surrounded by instruments.
Background vocals and those little studio touches gained more clarity and feel, but were no brighter than before. It felt as though the music had been expanded, in the sense of the whole soundstage spreading out and becoming even more of a wall of sound than I already had (yay for nearfield).
Perhaps the easiest way for me to express this is that for the first time digital gave me that tingle that listening to really good vinyl does (I use a WTL Amadeus and DV20X2L). No feeling of harshness and it was easy to just play track after track without becoming tired of the presentation. Lest this comes across the hyperbole of saying ‘it was night and day’, it was more of a subtle change than that, but significant nonetheless. As the great Mr Duffy once said, it was the icing on the cake.
I found the best sound came with the grounding switch down. I’ve had occasional hum issues but our house electrics are a bit iffy sometimes and I don’t know enough about the subject to comment further. Not had chance to try the white USB cable but will try to before I pass the unit on (who’s next by the way?).
Thanks for letting me try it out. I could happily live with this ISO-SPDIF.
Can I keep it?
System is Mac mini with Audirvana Free > Optical to Rega DAC > Recently serviced Audiolab 8000a > Epos ES11s, listening near-field (about a 5ft equilateral triangle). The ISO-SPDIF slotted between the Mac and DAC and I used the video part of an old AV cable I had kicking around to link them.
I’d expected the optical out I was using to the DAC would have been possible to improve upon – hence trying this unit out – but have no experience of any other output converters to compare with.
As with previous posts, describing sounds isn’t terribly easy for me to do and I’ll try to avoid clichés and wild statements but inevitably some of that will creep in. So here goes.
Concentrating on a favourite, well-produced album, namely Paul Simon’s Hearts & Bones (original rather than remaster, so to be able to compare a bit more easily with the vinyl) the ISO-SPDIF gave a wider and deeper soundstage, with more space/air between the instruments and voices. Particularly Simon’s voice had a nicer echo / reverb around it so I could more easily get a feel for the effect of him being in the studio surrounded by instruments.
Background vocals and those little studio touches gained more clarity and feel, but were no brighter than before. It felt as though the music had been expanded, in the sense of the whole soundstage spreading out and becoming even more of a wall of sound than I already had (yay for nearfield).
Perhaps the easiest way for me to express this is that for the first time digital gave me that tingle that listening to really good vinyl does (I use a WTL Amadeus and DV20X2L). No feeling of harshness and it was easy to just play track after track without becoming tired of the presentation. Lest this comes across the hyperbole of saying ‘it was night and day’, it was more of a subtle change than that, but significant nonetheless. As the great Mr Duffy once said, it was the icing on the cake.
I found the best sound came with the grounding switch down. I’ve had occasional hum issues but our house electrics are a bit iffy sometimes and I don’t know enough about the subject to comment further. Not had chance to try the white USB cable but will try to before I pass the unit on (who’s next by the way?).
Thanks for letting me try it out. I could happily live with this ISO-SPDIF.
Can I keep it?