Best digital input for Esoteric

[Nacho]

Hi to all.
Now i have an Esoteric D02X playing from an Aurender N100H by USB.
I'm going to upgrade to an Aurender W20 and i'm thinking about the best way to connect it to my D02X.
USB, DUAL AES, SPDIF?
Whats your opinion or experience?

[Robert_Anderson]

Dual AES sounds better on my D-03/P-03 setup.

[PlanarSpeakerFan]

Originally Posted by Nacho

Hi to all.
Now i have an Esoteric D02X playing from an Aurender N100H by USB.
I'm going to upgrade to an Aurender W20 and i'm thinking about the best way to connect it to my D02X.
USB, DUAL AES, SPDIF?
Whats your opinion or experience?

Dual AES should be best and you'll want to take advantage of that unique capability with the W20 and D-02X. But USB is really great too with Esoteric and I would recommend trying that as well for comparison.

Best,
Ken

[Nacho]

Thanks for your answers.
Do you know the W20 Dual Aes output bit rate?
I think is up 24/192 but no sure if DSD also too.

[Anatta]

Any input; just make D-02X the clock master by connecting its word clock output to the clock input of the W20.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Anatta

Any input; just make D-02X the clock master by connecting its word clock output to the clock input of the W20.

Thanks Anatta.
Why you said any input?
The W20 internal clock seems better than the D02X.
1. Phase noise < 155dBc/Hz@10000Hz
2. Warm-up time @25C : < 2min
3. Temperature range : -10~+60C
4. Stability : +/-2×10(exp-8)
5. Operating frequency: 12.8MHz

Regards.

[Nacho]

Double post....

[Nacho]

Dual Connection
Input Signal Format:
32 − 384kHz, 16 − 24-bit
Linear PCM (DUAL AES format)
32 − 192kHz, 48-bit
Linear PCM (ES-LINK3 format)
DSD (ES-LINK1, ES-LINK2 format)
Output frequency precision ±0.5 ppm (when shipped new)

[Anatta]

The internal clock in the W20 may be better than the one in the D-02X but by the time it reaches the DAC input and is extracted by the PLL from the SPDIF or AES stream its quality at the moment of conversion (where it matters) will be degraded.

So it's better to run the DAC from its internal clock by making it the clock master to which the source is slaved; this way you don't have to worry by any interface jitter as you are sending to the DAC just the bits at the clock rate the DAC tells the source to do it.

[SCAudiophile]

Dual AES without a doubt on;

P-03/D-03
P-03U/D-03
P-02/D-02

Every reviewer or consumer who has ever touched these units and really tested them states the same. This is compared to RCA, single XLR, TOSlink and Firewire (for units that had it).

The X generation may change things given the use of HDMI allows one to tap into ES-LINK4 protocol with great bit-depth, etc...(RTFM as it were) whereas dual-AES stops with ES-LINK3 support. The way Esoteric leverages HDMI is to throw out the HDMI protocol itself as it burdens the user with having to route blank video frames interspersed with a few frames of audio over and over just to use the HDMI <gag!> standard. Esoteric abandons that and uses HDMI for its applicability as a wire standard only with many more conductors, thus the extra effective bit-depth over the wire.


Frankly on my P-02/D-02 I hear nothing missing with dual-AES so even if I went to P-02X/D-02X or Grandioso, I would at least start with dual-AES and go from there. dual-HDMI may very well sound superior given how much Esoteric has put into that so i would definitely still test both alternatives thoroughly.