I can't hear any diff when the USB drive is powered by a completely separate/dedicated linear supply.
This is vs a shared single linear supply getting power from a *balanced* AC source, using a shielded USB cable with larger gauge (than typical) power conductors. Note that this is a 2.5" drive, takes ~900mA startup current then runs at ~0.4A, which is ~ what my Touch also takes pretty much continuously. This is easily audibly distinguishable from the stock switching PS, which is actually quite good in many ways IMO/E for what it is. The long S/PDIF I'm using sounds the same to me as when I put the Touch right beside the DAC and use my best S/PDIF cable. My DAC has an xfmr isolated input. It still doesn't sound as good as my best CDP using all the same gear except the S/PDIF cable. However, I spent well over a hundred hours lol carefully matching the CDP to my DAC. Had to rebuild a bit of the CDP too, mostly had to add some S/PDIF isolation to it. I'm sure I could make the Touch match if I wanted to put the same effort into it, though the CDP had tons of room in it and the Touch doesn't and I'm not as adept at fiddling with tiny stuff as I used to be. Will definitely consider it, but I have to say I'm very happy with the Touch already after owning for 2.5 weeks. I have had no trouble at all running the built-in server. Only have about 2k FLAC tunes on the drive so far though, all the album pics and everything come up just fine, may be different when I have a lot more... -- cfraser ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cfraser's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=48869 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=89583 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
