Im curious about the i2s output going to the rwa isabellina. The usb on the isabellina already does direct conversion to i2s which is the strength of this dac. Running i2s from the coax of the off-ramp to the isabellina seems like it would be a mute point. Yes it would have less jitter but it than has to go through s/pdif to i2s conversion. Which would be better? Is it possible to have i2s outputed from the off-ramp via usb rather than rj45 or is there a way to dirrectly get the i2s directly into the isebellina without s/pdif conversion.
You would need to bypass the S/PDIF receiver in the DAC to get the benefits of I2S. Doing this can be hazardous to your speakers and I would not recommend it. Not for the inexperienced DIYer. I dont do these mods anymore. Maybe Vinnie can help you with this.
As for driving your DAC S/PDIF input from my Off-Ramp3 or Pace-Car 2, this would be a significant improvement in jitter reduction, assuming you use a decent S/PDIF cable.
I have demonstrated this even on the Benchmark DAC-1 USB, which has a very similar USB interface to my Off-Ramp. Driving from an Off-Ramp 3 to the S/PDIF input, it is superior to the existing USB input on the DAC-1. This USB input goes direct to I2S internally. On the RWA DAC I would expect the improvement to be even larger.
Steve N.
