Beresford DAC USB vs Coaxial

[admin_exported]

For ages I was running Spotify premium from a laptop into the Caiman via USB and the sound was excellent. I am now running Spotify premium from a Sonos ZP90 via Coaxial into the Caiman and the improvement in sound quality is dramatic. More depth more detail, a rich fuller sound with energy and lots of zip. It's night and day stuff. I thought I should share my findings. I thought I'd heard everything the DM1's had to give but am happy to say I hadn't.

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I look up the specs and learn that (a) the USB 1.1 (!) implementation is limited to 16bit 48KHz and (b) the Texas Instruments introduced the 2902 chip used for the USB in 2003 and list it as "NRND" - Not Recommended for New Designs. Could USB audio chips have moved on a long way since? Or is it that the Sonos has a very good onboard encoder?

Now I really want someone to test a DAC which has a USB 2 24/96 capability and do direct comparison with USB and S/PDIF feeds...