Alse depends on the streamer or quality of digital out. I have a mutec mc3+, when I connect that between project stream box s2 ultra and La Voce S3 I couldn’t hear a difference. Between Sotm ultra neo and La Voce S3 the difference is clearly noticeable.
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Can anyone here comment on how competent a DDC the Schiit Urd is? I like the dual USB input.
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@Christof has (had?) one
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Yep I still own the Urd but have replaced it with the holo red. I liked how the urd sounded and provided good isolation between my pc and dac. But it’s quite large and has a bit of a mechanical hum to it which is annoying since I left it on all the time.
I still have it around for a cd player and that functionality works well. But much happier with the red so far. It’s more small, runs silently, maybe gets a bit warmer, and is flexible with the software you run.
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I’m going to speak to the Ideon Absolute Time. It was a “Target of opportunity” acquisition a few weeks ago. It’s some kind of USB or SPDIF re-clocker, cleaner-upper. It can input either USB or SPDIF but ONLY outputs to the like. You cannot feed it USB and output to SPDIF. Thus you have USB in → USB out, SPDIF in → SPDIF out that’s it. Feel free to read about it here:
I’ve been playing around w/ the unit, it’s basically brand new, it was purchased for the original owner’s second home BUT he decided to upgrade to the newer Signature V model before bothering to install this unit. (It must be so nice to have FU $$$ 
) I have been told a few hundred hours to break in the circuitry and a good week long warm-up are required before I should make any permanent impressions or judgements of the unit. I’ve also been told to get some appropriate quality cables to use w/ the piece 
If you are bothering to read this the assumption is that you already use or somewhat agree to the relevance of audiophile grade cables, accessories and equipment, my goal is to eventually purchase some “better” BNC/SPDIF cables for the piece, I’m currently using Blue Jeans Brand or Wireworld make BNC/SPDIF cables, I own a bunch of them and use them as my reference in general. My fancier more expensive cables have always been purchased as “targets of opportunity” and I do not have them in consistent or various enough quantities to use across multiple systems, so the Blue Jeans and Wireworld brands have always been my “go-to” for consistency. (RCA, XLR, BNC) So we are clear, my BNC/SPDIF interconnects are “NOT worthy”.
On a good note though i do have a few thousand dollars worth of quality USB cables, 
So for the past few weeks i have been focusing on this unit via USB only on my HP set-up and I’ve finally understood what it does and just how well it does it. Using HP’s was a good choice for me, it allowed me to focus, yes i tried it with speakers but the real value has been on the HP rig thus far.
Stupidly clean, liquid smooth, darker than the void of space background. You can compare it all day long, (disconnect one USB cable from the unit and go direct from your streamer to DAC it’s easy so it doesn’t take much effort to compare often), background blackness gets “blacker”. Listen for the difference in separation, the extra “crispness” seems to pop out. It takes something that already sounds really good and just adds a nice “POP”, which you will then miss later on when you remove the Ideon from the chain. I have found it easier to hear the difference using the HP set-up rather than the speakers, it just seems more pronounced since it’s in my head and i don’t need an absolutely silent room to listen for the change.
The most exciting part has been that I’m slowly cycling through my various HP amplifiers and HP’s and very much enjoying what i have on hand anew. 
I can’t imagine what their new signature series unit does with the appropriate equipment 
. Technology continues to surprise and amaze me.
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