Bridging Vintage R2R Magic with Modern Streaming: A High-Speed USB Isolation Project
Here is the setup of the streamer Even though I thoroughly enjoy my main audio system using physical CDs and vinyl, high-resolution digital music files are becoming hard to ignore. To play these modern formats without sacrificing sound quality, I needed a clean, modern digital front end. For casual desk listening, my setup is simple: Foobar2000 on a Windows laptop, connected to a USB-to-Coaxial receiver, feeding a Denon Heos Link HS2 streamer acting as a DAC. However, I wanted something significantly better for my dedicated listening room. My goal was to build a high-performance streamer with a clean digital output to feed my prized Denon DVD-5000 . Under the hood of this classic unit lies a phenomenal vintage DAC section: four Burr-Brown PCM1702 R2R chips paired with Denon’s AL24 Processing and a Pacific Microsonics PMD100 HDCD filter. It represents the absolute pinnacle of classic multibit digital audio. The Problem: Computer Noise Computers and laptops are notoriously noisy due t...
