Compare USB direct to Streaming over Ethernet?

Which USB interface?

I recently put some CD rips from my Unitiserve onto a USB stick, and played them through the front USB input of my Superuniti. They sounded significantly better than UPNP from the US. However, I have since made changes to my network which have improved sound quality from the US in a big way, so I'll do another comparison with the USB stick and report back.

I have a 128GB flash drive plugged into the front USB port on my Qute. It is also the iPod interface. 

FWIW I can't hear any difference!!!

I realize though that by saying this I'll probably be drummed out of the Brownies

You might also wish to try this with a newer Qute with the 192 kHz streaming board fitted–there is enough of a difference that it might put things (for those who would find this approach of locally-connected USB drives practical) on equal footing.

I've experimented with this on my NDS with varying results.

. Using exclusively .wav files with nothing special for an internet cable, I'm pretty confident the usb sounds a little better

. If i switch all of the inputs off except the one I'm using at the time, there's not a lot in it ...both sound a little better than before

. If i use hi res files the differences seem less significant (scarily flac 96 sounded better than wav 96 for Kate Bush....and a second pair of "blind" ears agreed with me)

. Initial tests with a Chord Sarum TA interconnect twixt NDS and 252 kind of took me back to square one ...to my ears it made both sound better but i would need to leave it in the system a lot longer before i trusted my opinion. (I'm not a fan of switching back and forth between options, i prefer to trust my instincts and those of my wife over longer periods)

. .....and I haven't dared go anywhere near posh ethernet cables to see what influence they would have. (Ive had it demonstrated to my satisfaction that they can make a difference but I'd rather spend my time listening to music rather than analysing it too much.)

not sure that helps at all but I think it points towards the USB possibly being less prone to outside interference though overall there really isnt much in it?

There are some technical reasons (elaborated upon previously on this forum) why ethernet should sound better than USB.  You'd have to read the posts to understand why (it's a bit beyond me).

Guys, USB and Ethernet are completely different transport types, it's probably more relevant to compare USB with SPDIF.

With Ethernet there are many levels of indirection between varying voltage levels on the ethernet twisted pairs and the encoded data representing the audio.

So if you hear differences, which almost certainly you will, the chances are you hearing differences in the implementation of the technology rather than the transport type per se.

Simon

Understood thanks Simon (largely due to your patient tuition on this forum).

i guess I was instinctively expecting USB to be less prone to degredation than streaming and, therefore, would give the best sound quality. However, as always, i guess things arent that simple.

Thanks for responding everyone.  I'm glad to hear that i am not the only one who thinks or experiences this. 

I have never been able to detect a difference. They sound equally superb to me on my system in my room.

Simon, I don't think Brubacca was referring to using USB as a data transport as such, rather plugging a USB mass storage device into the front of the streamer.  In this (file access) mode things are a lot simpler (particularly in the time domain).

Initially, when I compared a USB stick to UPnP from my NAS, there was a slight advantage to the USB stick.  When I unplugged the Ethernet cable, that advantage increased.  When I properly dealt with the RFI on the cables, the advantage went away and (to the best of my ability) the two now sound just the same.

Huge, based on my own experience, I agree: my UPNP is certainly as good as a USB stick now that I have it configured properly. UPNP over Wifi sounded inferior.