Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 USB to S/PDIF Converter

Chris Connaker has poster a review of the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 USB to S/PDIF converter ($399) at The Computer Audiophile. His conclusions:

“Readers contemplating the purchase of a USB to S/PDIF converter should start with the V-Link 192 for $399. Some users may find this is the last converter they’ll ever need to buy while others may realize the V-Link 192 isn’t going to eek out every ounce of performance from a high end system. Spending $399 on this converter will either leave one with plenty of cash for music downloads or be a small price to pay to realize one needs something better. Comparing the V-Link 192 to other interfaces and a direct USB connection was pretty easy in my Spectral Audio / TAD Labs CR1 / EMM Labs DAC2X system. This system is incredibly transparent and reveals the shortcomings of most connected components. It’s hard to say what the sonic differences would be between the V-Link 192 and other converters on a different system. One item readers must consider is the ability of the DAC2X to reject jitter and noise coming into its AES/EBU input. Most DAC manufacturers say their products reject incoming jitter extremely well or something to that effect. In reality no DAC rejects all jitter and many DACs handle jitter differently. What I’m getting at is the V-Link 192 performance will likely vary from system to system and users should demo the unit if possible. Getting nearly 90% of the performance at a fraction of the price is a no-brainer for most computer audiophiles. I highly recommend walking before running and I highly recommend starting with the V-Link 192 before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on another USB to S/PDIF converter.”

You can read the full review here.