[jkeny]

How about a Wadia 850 (highly modified) comparison? http://www.tirnahifi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11408#p11408

Or Lector CD7 comparison http://www.tirnahifi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10564#p10564

Both of these are using the I2S Hiface integrated with a DAC

[kyrill]

Hi John

You know your mods as no other

Is the audio quality difference between I2S and S/PDIF with attenuators subtle<-->BIG everything being equal?
Kyrill

[jkeny]

Hi John

You know your mods as no other

Is the audio quality difference between I2S and S/PDIF with attenuators subtle<-->BIG everything being equal?
Kyrill

Thanks Kyrill,
That's a hard one to answer. I'll do my best If I2S is properly implemented it beats out SPDIF sonically. How much? If I was answering as a man on the street, not much. If I was answering as a person looking for the las refinement, I would say a huge amount. It's seems to be about solidity of the image & sound stage - there seems to be some last bit of indecisiveness removed in the sound stage! How much you value this is the question? We are getting to the point of incremental refinement rather than the big leap in sonics that you experienced with the stock to modified Hiface. To put it in perspective a bit better - it's probably about the same as you experience between using & not using the RF attenuator!

[kyrill]

erghh John
that was huge...

[jkeny]

erghh John
that was huge...

Ok, maybe that was a bad analogy as the sonic improvement from RF attenuators is different for everybody, depending on their setup. I considered the jump from stock to modified Hiface a big leap in sonics & comparatively speaking the introduction of an RF attenuator a smaller improvement. Your mileage might be different?

[kyrill]

percentage would be a not so good analogy for me, it was much more audible than differences between IC or powerchords. I think the differences I heard would be a little bit less than the big difference I heard  between power conditioning or not   in this case the Felix My DEQX preamp appears to be very sensitive to incoming jitter

[johnnydarko]

I'm a late-comer to this thread, and I've only had the device for 12 hours, but I can attest to some of the 'bass definition' improvements brought by an AP1 (feeding an Anedio D1 DAC).  Overall tonal density also gets a slight leg-up.

There's 2010 MacMini on the other side of the AP1.

@jkeny - give me a couple of weeks and I'll have something more concrete on the jitter simulator's effects.

The AP1 (and Mr Kenny's very own modded Hiface) really do bring computer transports up to a level that I've hitherto not heard.