[Brucemck]

The following are my comments on the Off Ramp Turbo 2 product from Steve Nugent at Empirical Audio.  This is a USB to coax converter, that enables me take uncompressed audio tracks from my laptop and feed a digital input on my processor. The product also comes with "SRC", Silent Rabbit Code, which is an upsampling plug in that converts 16/44 to 24/96.

I've had my Turbo 2 for two months, but just got it going at 24/96 using SRC resampler to 24/96.  (I had to get a new laptop, because my old micro portable Dell didn't have the chops to run anything other than 16/44; it wouldn't support the upsampling plug in.  The new laptop is a basic Gateway Intel Core 2 at 1.6 with 1gb ram.)

This is one terrific "transport".

Without the SRC the Turbo 2 was close to, but not quite as good as, my Meridian 800v4 feeding my Meridian 861v4 dac/processor. (The 800 is a VERY expensive transport and far from a "fair" comparison in any traditional sense of the word, particularly given that it both upsamples and has a Meridian proprietary anti jitter "handshake / buffering" going on with the companion 861.)  Without the SRC I felt the 800 had a bit more body on hard transients such as lower piano registers, and, a bit more air and space around vocalists.  It was close, but the 800 won.

With the SRC upsampling to 24/96 the Turbo 2 now handily beats the 800.  There's more air, more space, and a more "relaxed" gestalt to the music.  It's obvious within the first few seconds, and it's very seductive. 

Several examples:  On Blue Rodeo's "My Dark Angel" there's a series of overlapping/doubled vocals where with the Turbo 2 you more clearly hear two people rather than two voices, while at the same time retaining hard edges from the backing piano.  (This is a very revealing track.)  On Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" you more clearly hear the background noises and shuffling around of the various members of USCs marching band.  On a Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt duet you more clearly hear three dimensional performers, rather than the precisely placed but more two dimensional/etched version from the 800.

So, it beats a "Class A" component hands down, at a big delta in price and convenience.  Way to go Steve

fyi my audio chain: Turbo 2 or Meridian 800v4 to Meridian 861v4 to VeraStarr amp to three Salk HT2 speakers and two James EMB 1500 subs.  Black Mountain, Transparent, and Audioquest cabling.  PS Audio PowerPlant.  (The 800 replaced my prior dCS Elgar/Purcell stack.)

[pardales]

Thanks for the review. I have been doing a lot of reading, trying to figure out whether one really needs to spend 1k on a USB to S/PDIF converter. While there are devices for 10X less that can do the job, I am beginning to think it is worth it to get one of Steve's audiophile grade devices, and your review supports this.

[gongos]

Thanks for the review. I have been doing a lot of reading, trying to figure out whether one really needs to spend 1k on a USB to S/PDIF converter. While there are devices for 10X less that can do the job, I am beginning to think it is worth it to get one of Steve's audiophile grade devices, and your review supports this.

You could ask the same question about why you'd ever want to buy a $1000 CD player, let alone a $5000 one, since there are $50 players that "play" cds.

[pardales]

I know. But, lately, I have been really surprised at how much value there is in audio. We have all had expereinces where we find less expensive components  that can outperform those costing much, much more. I think this is especially true in the digital domain these days.