I've been using my off ramp with short block into a w4s dac 2 with great results. I just got a new lampizator dac it took me a while to figure out the usb so i was using the off ramp to convert to spdif. Really impressed with the sound. now i have the usb working on the lampizator. will the off ramp always improve the single? I've heard the best option is to use usb when possible. but since i cant do usb out on the off ramp into the new dac is it better to convert to spdif? on first listen i think it does sound better with the off ramp.
Yes, it is better to go SPDIF to the DAC using a good coax cable such as my BNC-BNC cable with RCA adapters.
Most built-in USB interfaces on DACs are not that good, and putting the USB interface external with the Off-Ramp means that it is on a dedicated power supply. Even with my own DAC, the Overdrive, I use an Off-Ramp 5 driving it with S/PDIF coax because it is slightly better this way.
There is also another thing you can do to improve the quality significantly: change the AC adapter for the Off-Ramp to a Dynamo power supply. It can be purchased on the pull-down menu on the Off-Ramp webpage.
Steve N.