Sumiko announces Chordette Gem-USB/Blutooth DAC

[klipschfan]

NEWS: Sumiko Announces Chordette GEM—Combo USB/Bluetooth DAC | AVguide

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by klipschfan

NEWS: Sumiko Announces Chordette GEM—Combo USB/Bluetooth DAC | AVguide

Those interested in USB DAC's should read some of the digital reviews in this months Absolute Sound. A comparison was done and according to their findings USB connections in general are not to audiophile levels and cannot reach S/PDIF sound. That is comparing USB output to a DAC versus the S/PDIF output thru the same DAC's.

[b3n]

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[b3n]

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[Still-One]

Originally Posted by b3n

Stillone - I don't have that issue (don't subscribe, no reason just don't at the moment - will address that thou) however what kind of usb cables did they use? I would agree that in my testing, using of usb ports on hifi gear that the quality is awful compared to toslink/spdif/fiber/coaxial/rca - whatever you want to call them I've even tried expensive cabling to no great effect, as well as various usb addon cards, various mac systems.

OP; very cool - I'd love to hear how it sounds using bluetooth - could be a very interesting niche product.

There were several articles since it was kind of digital issue.
The comparison was done between:
Generic Brand X that came with some piece of gear.
A Belkin Gold $45
A Kimber $50
Synergistic's Tricon $550
The generic and Kimber were the worst. The Belkin Gold very good especially for the money and the Synergistics good for units that did not have a "shrill" top end.

The also compared some USB to analog and S/PDIF convertors in another article and in a third article the Bryston BDA1 abnd Audio Research DAC7.

[b3n]

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[TommyC]

Is the industry going to the computer route?
I still like having physical media.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by TommyC

Is the industry going to the computer route?
I still like having physical media.

I think distribution is "moving" towards the download format. Like you I still prefer the physical media but I do load thse discs onto my server .

[TommyC]

Originally Posted by Stillone

I think distribution is "moving" towards the download format. Like you I still prefer the physical media but I do load thse discs onto my server .

That's what I was trying to say. Thanks