Reinhard's new essay about ISO, USB and Doede Douma's DDDACs - digital ripping and reproducing done right

Rope ladder (not to but) in Hi-Fi-heaven... you thought: you had learned in maths that 5 = 5 and in physics that 5 Volt = 5 Volt ?

Theoretically this is all right... but practically, in HiFi, it is not single right, not double right, not triple right...

You might remember that we (Klaus, Bernd, Doede and me) have been researching during the last couple of years within streaming digital via computer because the advantages were so obviously convincing right from the beginning... 

... and as you might know within this context Doede and Bernd have developed several components; those of you who might want to re(read) of what all happened within this area in the meantime feel free to have a look here:

http://www.dddac.de/start.html for Doede Douma's 16 Bit DAC DDDAC1543 MK2 (with multiplying chips up to 240 pieces) 

and

http://www.dddac.com/ for the newly "finished" DDDAC1794 NOS with multiplying decks, eight at the moment, but there are more to come...

Within this area, really fantastic and spectacular results have been reached, that good that we haven't been able of dreaming of... no "digititis" at all, just clear and pure sound, no more boring things for the human brain, just music, natural music... but this was - and still is - as I already indicated some time ago - only part of the "whole digital stream project".


From all the researches and results within digital stream we rather quickly learned that we simply cannot "trust" mathematical and or physical "results", even if they are "confirmed" by measurements... and finally that we neither cannot "trust" computers at all, at least regarding the reproduction of digital stream, i.e. - reproduction of HiFi.

Within this realm we really carefully read and try to follow and adopt the results of other researchers and develloppers all around the globe... and so, for example, we are aware of a "very friendly tracker" on which the one or other heavily claimes against our results:  in  t o t o. "I still don't agree with most of his statements"... and especially regarding this theme here (I quote myself): "USB-cables... this is indeed a theme on its own... all sound different... and this within the pure digital area where only 0s and 1s reign!!!" was responded with: "Yup, I've got to say I sincerely disagree"...

I feel absolutely no ambition to enter into a personal discussion and/or to "convince" anybody with anything, and I do not try to "misuse" any page for that, but our results here are simply spectacular and indeed unique (and the results are confirmed - although there is no need for that at all - by people which I highly estimate and respect...)... and we care for the results that way that we share them and that they are all for free for those who might be interested in... theoretically there may be DIYers who might be better informed than we are, but practically? I have greatest doubts that they might even come close to our results...

... but, back to the theme... the theme is USB, and at the moment just that part that is "served" from PC, i.e. coming out of the PC and leading to the DAC... latest when leaving the PC and/or MAC (no, at the moment we have not yet entered the PC with our researches, but this will come in the near future...) the digital signal and the corresponding power supply with 5 Volts is led in parallel and within one cable to all our DACs...

We have no influence on what is "going on" within this "transporting", neither regarding the data nor the power supply... but from what we have all experienced so far (obviously except one single guy on the "very friendly tracker"): we can clearly say - confirmed by our results - that different USB-cables with whatever (even skyrocketing) prices have different results on our sound - I think there is no discussion necessary about how the sound differs, rather than the fact that it has any influence at all, no matter what...

... and that is one criterion that went through my head at least for the last 18 months (there are others, more about them when we will have researched)... to get rid of the computer norms USB, Firewire or whatever, which might serve well for computer-purposes, but obviously  n o t  for HiFi-reproduction...

What did I do except long time dreaming of how it would sound having already gotten rid of USB? well, within all the other parallel devellopments within digital streaming, not only the DACs but as well the different controlled power supplies... I regularly urged and urged and urged and urged Bernd to care specifically for this very topic, but I had to wait and wait and wait (because I am no technician)... but finally last week, "all of a sudden" and without any indication, he brought a newly designed power supply with him to Klaus's... a newly constructed controlled power supply.. but this time not only for 12 Volts for the DAC (there nothing has changed), but as well for 5 Volts for the power supply  i  n s t e a d  o f  the leading within the USB-cable.

My stomach had told me already months and months ago - and still continues to do till this very day - that there would be excisting a "sleeping", a not yet discovered "sound potential", waiting to be discovered by us, and that would homogeniously "fit" in our so far reproduction results...

...and yes, now we found out, there definitely is such a sleeping amelioration potential, in fact much,  m u c h  more than we ever would have expected... no, not that the frequency range would have changed or become "bigger" or something like that, but in the way the sound gets reproduced as a whole... the result is much more "punch", precision, "seeing through" and sparkling, a sparkling that way that is not at all insistendly, but natural, and perhaps best described of that sort that you "realize" the most when you go back to "complete" USB-supply... and the result is very,  v e r y  clear: you never ever want to go back!

... but this is not the only good news, fortunately the DDDAC1794 NOS DAC has a jumper right at the input where one may "switch" from "internal" power supply via USB-cable to external controlled power supply, in our case controlled 5 Volt power supply from Bernd's new "toy"... and it is not that Doede did not have devellopped this "external" controlled power supply within his own DDDAC1794 NOS DAC... it is just that we - so far - have not been able to make proper use of that idea within our systems...

So, to get it right; the PC is still leading the digital data  a n d  the 5 Volt via USB-cable, in our case the Kimber-silver-USB-cable, 75 cm in length, the difference is now that the jumper on the entry of the DDDAC1794 NOS DAC is switched to Bernd's new 5 Volt controlled power supply and the USB-cable power supply just cut off (we will see later how it will works when we cut off the USB-power supply within the PC, just when "leaving" the motherboard ...)... and yes, Klaus had Bernd's new controlled power supply burning in for some 250 hours, so that we are able to talk about a "final" result regarding that matter.

The great surprise - yes, for us it is still a great surprise and not "not a new sensation" as for others - is that with the reproduction of true ISO, i.e. the original DSD64 and DSD128, the one and only "bit perfect" rip of SACDs - the whole reproduction of music reaches a new level; not that we are some sort of "unsatisfied" with the last results, we clearly are in HiFi-Heaven, but what we were not that aware was the fact that within HiFi-heaven there is definitely another rope ladder... and what a rope ladder that is: seems some sort of mounting hierarchy there... anyway, the results are absolutely superb and nothing but joy.

Yes, that's the right way to go!

Pixes?!? 

On Doede's page are lots of cool and sharp pixes to browse, so you may have a look there, at your convenience.