Melco N1Z vs Aurender N10 vs CAD CAT

[Antoine]

Again I don't agree. If it would be a problem most of the USB DAC's out there wouldn't work. Power is a standard requirement in the USB specs so this shouldn't be an issue as well. Also there's plenty of USB powered DAC's, the Mutec's aren't really that different.

Here I disagree, Antoine.

As many of us have experienced the Devialets do NOT need the 5 Volts power from the source to use the USB input. Moreover it is a known fact that the power supply inside an USB cable can degrade the SQ. Because of that some people have modified their USB cables for the use with a Devialet to improve the SQ. Additionally some reference grade USB cables (such as the fabulous JCAT Ref. USB) come with two cables (one for the signal only, the second to provide the power (which must not be connected to a Devialet)).

Furthermore some dedicated high end USB add-on cards come with jumpers to switch off the power supply of the USB output for better SQ.

I didn't mean with my hint that the MUTECs are special but I thought it is worth a reminder to those who use an USB connection without the 5 Volts with their Devialets. In fact this caused us some serious headache the first time we tried to install the MUTEC MC-1.2 between our source and the Devialet while still using a JCAT USB card with disabled 5 Volts....

In Dubio Pro Audio

Jan

Since you still mentioned: "So in fact we need to do some more research or tests if the USB-MUTECs will work with MELCO, AURENDER, etc." I thought you meant something else, namely that the Mutecs requiring the 5V (and actually using it as a power supply as well besides merely using the 5V for handshake initiation) would somehow pose an issue if people would use the Mutec with a Aurender, Melco or any other off the shelf streamer/music server. This would surely not be the case.

Of course people should need to check first if their USB DAC (or other USB audio device) needs the 5V first before trying to somehow 'block' the 5V lead.

(Off topic: I myself have owned a dual headed Kingrex cable quite a time ago, still own a Gigabyte mainboard in which I can disable the 5V, and have also experimented in blocking the 5V lead and disabling the 5V on my JCAT USB card but it never worked in my setup. No idea why it does work for other Devialet owners. I've tried both the mainboard as the JCAT card back then. Things would work with the 5V disconnected AFTER the initial handshake took place only. Doesn't matter anymore though now I use the Mutec MC-3+ USB )