Best sound quality

assuming your feeding into the same DAC and the transmission medium has ample bandwidth they will all sound the same

For what it's worth, the guy who sold me my second hand Qute and one of the guy working at my local Naim reseller store said that USB sticks are the best.  It's straight as it can be to the internal DAC, no cables influence, nothing

. 

It does make sense to me, but I have some doubt that I will personally make the difference (the day that I will buy real hifi speakers)

pz,

Strictly sticking to the alternatives you mention, it is obvious, that most members have reported to get the best results with the last option (albeit more expensive). Please don't ask why, otherwise this will become one of the longest threads again! They will certainly not sound the same, at least not in your system.

I have ndac and hiface (rest of system 282/200/totem hawks)

Usb sticks are clearly better from laptop/hiface but not as good as i would like.

My cd5x/fc2 most of time is more musical and involving than ndac/usb

I have not heard ndx.

I've used the nDAC in many different systems over the past two years, including a high-resolution tri-amplified system based on Linar amps, and in order of good, better, best, it's : USB, computer and streaming. Many here and elsewhere have claimed that USB is best for the nDAC, but not in my experience, and I've tried many times with different types of USB key. The presentation is very detailed but lacks drive and substance when compared to streaming, even when comparing a 24/96 file on USB to a 16/44 streaming.

As Aysil says, please don't ask why. As they say at AudioVector and now Linn (copycats...) : Just listen.

Jan

The only way you will answer this question is to try them yourself, as we all seem to hear different things even when listening to the same sound.

I can say that to us, usb sticks directly into nDAC can be stunning, however, there’s no way I would do this long term. So for us NDX/nDAC/ps streamed from a NAS (or WHS box) is our preferred method of listening to quality sound.

Peter

Perhaps differences in SQ between different NAS devices are leading to these divergent findings ?

(Donning asbestos flameproof suit)

Jan

HiFi Critic reader

Hi Jan……My you are living dangerously today……..Are you OK?

I’m sure Guy will appear soon.

Peter

Perhaps it's also down to the fact that people have slightly different shaped ears.

Hi Peter,

Yes I'm fine, thanks ; it must be my Norwegian genes or something...

Jan

@horse : while the morphology of the outer ear is important in delivering sound to the brain, it is the brain that is doing the heavy lifting and it can be trained, as some hifi reviewers have discovered.

Jan