Hi
I’m tagging @support on this as I would like DCS’s view on the following question:
As an engineer by training, albeit, a mediocre one, I believe in simplicity. To me, simplicity means less moving parts, less stuff breaking, less things to maintain, etc.
Let’s assume I have an SACD and a bit perfect rip of the same SACD. Which will sound better, in DCS’s professional opinion?
(1) bit perfect rip on NAS, fed to Rossini DAC via Ethernet
(2) spinning SACD in DCS Transport fed to Rossini DAC
(3) bit perfect rip on thumb drive, plugged directly into back of Rossini DAC
Please indicate which (or if I’ve missed an even better option indicate), and explain why.
DCS claims ethernet is the best connection. Doubt anybody from DCS will respond to this since it’s a no win scenario. How could they ever claim the transport sounds worse than ethernet?
I understand why Ethernet would be superior to using the USB1 connector, but not why it would be superior to using the USB2 connector, which is plugging a thumb drive directly into the unit (option 3 in original question)…
When it all comes down to it 1 and 3 are functionally identical. The same playback pathway is used and the bits are buffered in memory immediately prior to playback.
As for whether or not network (or USB stick) sounds better than the same disc spinning in a proper transport…well… that one is left for each listener to determine on his/her own. There is no ‘better’ option here.
Thank you very much @Andrew. This was exactly what I was interested in.
This means, practically, if I don’t want to stream, I could simply insert a 1TB thumb drive into the back of the unit, and use Mosaic, and I am “done.” No new music can come in, but my whole library would be accessible to th Rossini.
That USB interface is for convenience only (e.g. a friend brings over some tracks on a thumb drive) and it was never intended to interface any sort of large storage device. We’ve seen tons of issues with customers attempting this and simply cannot support it being used in this way.
Again, in an attempt to be 100% clear, we do not recommend nor do we support using the USB2 interface (the USB type A port) for anything more than convenience access to a typical thumb drive with a manageable number of tracks (tens to hundreds of tracks). Attempting to plug in a large storage device (thousands of tracks or more) has been fraught with issues and is not supported.
The reason that we recommend the network port is that when all things are considered it is the cleanest and easiest way to get content into your device.