Windows 10: Viability of a USB DAC?

Oh, amazing!! Thats really helpful. Done and done. Cheers

 

Mostly vinyl and HDTracks, also I rip DVD-Audio and 1411 kbps CDs.

 

If you have a favorite music album that you want to listen as close to the master record, then you can always use a search engine to look HD audio sellers. HD Tracks are good that they offer FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, PCM WAV all the way up to 192khz 24-bit. There's also exotic formats such as DSD (HDTracks also provides this format) or even MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). The latter two are DAC dependent.

 

Yes, there are many different vendors for high resolution audio on the internet, and there are also many different physical formats for high resolution audio. I have several of my favorite albums on Blu Ray audio, but you have to be careful with the mastering and the source. Generally speaking, Japanese DSD discs always seem to be sourced from the artist's original master tape, but these discs usually cost about $65 each here in the US. I have many hundreds of these discs, but I do not transfer these DSD files to my computer, I play them in my media server.

 

May I ask which application you use to play DSD files? Do you just insert the SACD disc or DVD-Audio disk in the drive or you need a converter?

 

For DVD- Audio discs, DVD Audio Extractor works real well, ( DVD Audio Extractor -- Full featured DVD audio ripper for your easy use) . For SACDs, you have to use a PlayStation 3 that was made during a certain time frame. I do not rip SACDs, (SACD ripping using your PS3 (part 2)) .

 

Isn't there any software that can read SACDs directly from a PC DVD-ROM? Not that I have any, but good to know.

EDIT: You can play it with Foobar by adding the sacd playback plugin. You can also play it with WinAmp using the AC3/DST decoder plugin. Just rename the DSD file to DTS (by saving on hard disk)

 

Yes, foobar2000 definite plays DSD files, but unfortunately there is no onboard hardware that will read SACDs.

 

I thought they are similar to DVD so, in theory, they can be read in a DVD-ROM with appropriate software. Isn't that true?

 

Sony makes the chip for playing SACDs and they have never licensed the technology to any PC maker. This ability was never included in any Sony PCs and was removed rather quickly from the PlayStation 3. Also, if you want a PlayStation 3 that does have the ability, make sure it matches the manufacturing window when it was included and you have to get into the BIOS to make sure that Sony has not deactivated this ability. Sony released a firmware update that completely eliminated the ability from the few Playstations that had the ability.