Laptop to DAC interface

[Charles Wasserf]

Hi,

I own a dac which will accept either optical or coaxial inputs and after a search on this forum and google I am more confused than ever.

I wish to send audio from my aging Toshiba laptop with windows XP, to my
external dac ( as mentioned optical or coax inputs only ) The laptop provides usb out and I thought that all I needed was a usb to digital coaxial cable. It appears though that this ' cable ' does not exist.

So can I diy something that will work ?

 

[Rodeodave]

Search for USB to SPDIF, you'll find plenty. USB to optical might be better because of electrical isolation (ground loops and such...).

 

[tassosk]

M2Tech Highface is a very nice USB transport as well. I own it for more than six months and I'm very happy with it.

 

[Charles Wasserf]

OK, so I need some sort of interface. The M2tech is pricey but I found this at about one third the price.

Monitor 01 USD-??? MUSILAND -

Is this what I need and does anybody have any opinion on its sound

 

[Pjotr]

Yes, it is a great product and does the job pretty well. Drivers work flawless but only under MSWin. Does not work for Linux.

It uses a-synchronous data transfer which is the only proper way to have low jitter.

 

[Charles Wasserf]

Hi,

I have stumbled across a demo model Bel Canto USB Link at a good price locally. This would be cheaper than importing the Musiland, but which one sounds better.

Perhaps someone has compared them and could comment

 

[paulb]

Don't spend too much. Here's one that has also received favorable reviews, and it's a one-chip solution:
Hagerman Technology LLC: HagUsb USB to SPDIF Audiophile Converter

 

[Pjotr]

Don't spend too much. Here's one that has also received favorable reviews, and it's a one-chip solution:
Hagerman Technology LLC: HagUsb USB to SPDIF Audiophile Converter

Duh??? $129 is way, way too much for a simple PCM2704 (costing barely $3) implementation the Hagerman provides. For much less many others are around.

 

[danb1974]

You can get several pcm 270x/290x based variations on ebay for like 30-something bucks, shipping included. Or if you settle with optical output another one at a fair price could be Behringer UCA-202 (pcm 2906 based plus some opamp, IIRC).

As Pjotr said, don't waste more money on it.