Benchmark ADC1 USB Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC)

For higher resolution I set the ADC1 to 24bit 88.2kHz (the idea being I could create 44.1 tracks for CD with minimal processing but that is a topic for another day). For playback I have a gorgeous old Bel Canto DAC1, a beautiful little box to be sure but alas no USB input. To convert the USB output from my laptop to S/PDIF I borrowed a Trends Audio UD-10.1 USB Audio Converter from my good friends at Stereotypes Audio in Portland, OR. Another happy plug and play experience. I’d like to say more about Trends Audio USB converter but other than ‘it worked right away and caused no problems’ I wouldn’t know what to say. It’s highly unlikely that any such device would drop bits or anything like that. It could of course introduce jitter that would affect the downstream DAC but I didn’t have anything on hand to compare or measure it with. The Trends box worked without a hitch and looked good doing it.

At first glance the user interface of the ADC1 is a little intimidating. Get over it, it’s actually quite easy. I had an early version of the user manual which led one to believe that the arrays of LED’s and switches were used to set the sample rate for the recording. Actually they only set output rates. The ADC1 has two S/PDIF digital outputs (for monitoring or what have you). The USB output, from whence the recoding is made has its sample rate set by the computer and your recording software. So for my purposes I never had to worry about any of the controls except the analog gain.

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