[Parabellum]

Thank you John, glad you appreciate.

As for the differences between AES/EBU and USB cables, I believe that Caelin from Shunyata is right when he says that all cable should sound the same regardless of their respective interface. For instance, an Alpha AES/EBU and an Alpha USB should technically sound the same. The difference I believe resides in the implementation of such connections in the device it is connected to. As you pointed it to me, and as I have read it in the review of the BDP-3 over HiFi Advice, the USB implementation differs and sound different on the BDP-3 from the 3 available buses. Why is this, I don't know. As for the BDP with the Bryston IAD sound card, even Bryston admits that AES/EBU will sound better than USB; it's even written in the manual and brochure. After reading some reviews again over HiFi Advice, the author affirms after many cable reviews that AES/EBU sounds constantly better generally speaking when compared to USB. That's why I decided to go with this interface on my BDP-2 and now BDP-3. The only downside with this is that, as far as I know, DSD is not supported as it is only supported with USB on the BDPs. Since I am in Canada, not much DSD is offered (and I haven't really searched for them though) and I am quite pleased with regular red book CD rips when the recordings and masterings are there.

Quite frankly, before I dive into those hi-res downloads/streamings, there is so much more I can do to improve my sound system before even thinking about this. There is so much to be squeezed from regular CDs and every time I make a change (for the most part) the performance jumps a notch or two. I don't deny that those hi-res files may sound better when compared to regular CD but this is not a panacea. Some people I guess believe that because they now stream hi-res content that their system will sound world class with inferior gear. I mean, I would not be surprised that a regular CD in a proper system will outgun an inferior system even with those hi-res streaming. To confirm this I will have to try myself. if you have an excellent system and have access to hi-res streaming/downloads, then you have the best of both worlds. For my part, I still like to have the CD rips as I believe they sound better than streaming feeds. I will however for convenience add a Bluesound Node 2i probably this year in my system for music discoveries and for those people who come home like "hey, do you know album X from that singer Y?" Maybe I am still stuck in that old paradigm where albums needed to be purchased to be listened to, and I like to own the real thing. Maybe this will change in the future.