Battle axe, dirk or mosquito bite? To take my purely subjective measure on audibility gap—for once gapless playback would disappoint—I connected the SU-2 to my Z230 work station with its own USB cable, to the iFi via upscale AudioArt digital cable with Oyaide BNC plugs. Switching the USB output in Audirvana Origin then DAC inputs between USB/BNC gave me quick A/B for as often as I needed, no rewiring involved.
First of course I had to install Singxer's USB driver for Windows. A link to that conveniently embedded on Audiophonic's product webpage. Once installed, its very boring icon parked itself on the Windows task bar right next to iFi's. One branding opportunity overlooked. But then Singxer don't seem to have a logo they could have used in the little space such icons are allowed.
Once set up, I had noise and faint ticks with a flashing red middle light on the front. I turned the SU-2 belly up to see that its clock switch was set to external. I of course had no external clock hence no signal. Okay. Once set to internal, my blinking red turned a steady blue. Yet sound remained MIA. I was playing local files through Origin.
Switching to Qobuz Sublime for cloudy files, I had instant cloudless sound. Huh? Then I remembered. I had Audirvana's 64-bit r8brain upsampler at 705.6kHz since via USB, the iFi handles such sample rates just fine. Now I was motoring down the S/PDIF offramp. I was limited to its 192kHz speed limit. Duh. Once I changed r8brain to 176.4k/192Hz, I was in business. Looking at the SU-2 in Win 10's sound control panel then opening the Singxer device window's advanced properties, 384kHz was actually the ceiling Windows allowed for this device. On the off chance that Singxer had figured out how to send 352.8kHz down single not dual AES/EBU, I tried. No dice. For that one needs to exploit I²S which the Pro iDSD Signature doesn't support.
Time to listen for any fairy dust. In Eire that actually wouldn't be so odd.
Shared upsampling duties: 44.1kHz x 4 to 176.4kKz in Audirvana Origin, 176.4kHz x 4 to 705.6kHz on iFi's Cassiopeia FPGA.
First I had to sort whether to settle on BNC or AES/EBU. Naturally I didn't have equivalent cables so my preference for BNC was just as likely due to the pure silver AudioArt Cable vs. balanced Van den Hul than the transmission protocol. To my ears, the BNC connection/cable simply was a bit more airy and lucid. That got my vote. Now I was ready for with/without USB bridge comparisons.
Now I had fairy dust; and plenty of it.
On Jasdeep Singh Degun's Anomaly album in 24/44.1 via Qobuz Sublime, sitar and sundry background strings sounded splashier and dirtier USB Direct; just a bit like oil with charred flecks sizzling. At the same time, textures were looser. When the USB bridge inserted, textures tightened up. The hot oil inside the strings stopped its sizzle. The charred grit embedded in metallic harmonics vanished. Cleaning up the sitar's sympathetic drone strings was particularly telling. Imagine a photo with over-pixilated edging. Instead of a simple clean outline, bright splatter limns it especially when we magnify the image for a closer look. With this system, I had exactly such magnification. The effect was plain.
For seconds I moved to Yildiran Güz's Askim on whose opener Göksel Baktagir's qanun makes an appearance. That counterpoints oud and clarinet. Now the harmonic fire around the lap harp's high tremolos cleaned up. So did the warbling lower ones of the Turkish lute. To my ears, the strongest so first-to-hear SU-2 benefits focused on plucked/struck strings. It cleared up the action between sharp attacks immediately followed by harmonic energies blossoming in halos around them.
It thus also factored on the shorter strings of Tord Gustavsen's piano from his new Opening album on ECM. That was a bit more subtle to hear since now it were felt-covered hammers not plectrums or metal picks behind the attacks on the strings.
Switching over to vocals, I cued up Wael Jassar with one of his lyrical numbers set to massed strings but mastered with excess reverb. The Singxer tightened up USB Direct's looser billowiness. That behaved like a miniature extra reverb injector by contrast. Now my ear/brain could associate which reflection clouds belonged to the voice, which to accompanying instruments. The upshot was greater intelligibility or ease. My brain worked less to understand what it heard. Very much opposing hi-res' bad rep—fatigue from detail overload—the SU-2's removal of noise as grit then cleaner time-domain performance made for less not more fatigue. Irish fairies to the rescue!
Naturally this also benefited the Istanbul Strings's intensity in the bridge of this song. Massed strings are a real litmus test. System errors that don't show up on Jazz trio, Rock or electronica suddenly become, well – glaringly obvious. It's why I adore much Middle-Eastern music. It serves up glorious challenges with contemporary tunes to not require going back centuries into Western classical.
That's fun too but on sheer scale even more unbelievable over the close-up intimacy of a desktop hifi.
