I would say yes only because coax has been around since 30 years. USB audio started as a convenience ten years ago and has only started to get serious as of late.

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Native mode seems to sound better than NativeX on the PWD2 with the OR5. I can only assume Native mode via I2s is better because the PWD2 clock is slaved to the OR5's clock, which are better than PSA's internal "digital lens" / clock.

Wondering if the Coax implementation in most DACs is even good enough to warrant using this? Pretty sure the USB input of my DAC had more time/money spent on it than the Coax.

USB is shit, which is why the OR5 is so amazing.  The only time I use USB is for ABing gear.  For my own listening pleasure, I went back to CD transports because they are better via coax than typical PC garbage via USB.  The OR5 may change that which would be nice to finally ditch the spinning platter.  Inherently, USB is just shit in typical implementations.  And the XMOS in the PWD is even better than the XSabre and the gap further widens between the two when I went to coax via transport if you recall my review.  USB is the great equalizer, makes everything sound like SHIT!! 

Do you have PWDII with the Bridge? Or no Bridge? Wondering how SQ is when going through the Bridge, since it has a digital lens as well, essentially putting the signal through 2 digital lens. That doesn't sound ideal to me but folks on PSAudio's forums have reported that going through the Bridge sounds better than just the PWDII's USB implementation, from a computer/audio server source.

I don't have the Bridge myself to make any comparisons for yeah or nay but it definitely kicked the Bifrost and Burson HA-160D's (DAC section only) butt. It'd be interesting what improvements the OR5 does with DACs at this level, vs. the Gungnir or PWDII.

The Bridge is the best (over optical, USB, coax, AES) with one caveat, it's a little bit more bright sounding than most coax sources. I don't use the Bridge for two reasons: it only does gapless with PSA's elyric software; PSA's elyric software is a POS. Ease of use is critical to me. It's the only reason why I prefer JRiver MC to Foobar.

The OR5 kills the Bridge. It's more articulate with better blackground, while at the same time offering fluidity, warmth, smoothness. Basically the PWD2 gets A's in all categories now. I have zero complaints. I have not yet heard a DAC (under good conditions) that does any single element better than the OR5 --I2S--> PWD2 (Native - not NativeX combo). The only downside is that stuff like software settings, players, etc. start to matter more now. Good if you have OCD.

It's obvious Steve Nugent of Empircal has f'd with the OR -> PWD combo quite a bit to get the best sound out of it. I don't know anyone else other than PSA supporting their I2S over HDMI connection: http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/recommended-systems

Quote from: twizzleraddict on April 06, 2013, 02:45:10 AM

Do you have PWDII with the Bridge? Or no Bridge? Wondering how SQ is when going through the Bridge, since it has a digital lens as well, essentially putting the signal through 2 digital lens. That doesn't sound ideal to me but folks on PSAudio's forums have reported that going through the Bridge sounds better than just the PWDII's USB implementation, from a computer/audio server source.

I don't have the Bridge myself to make any comparisons for yeah or nay but it definitely kicked the Bifrost and Burson HA-160D's (DAC section only) butt. It'd be interesting what improvements the OR5 does with DACs at this level, vs. the Gungnir or PWDII.

The Bridge is the best (over optical, USB, coax, AES) with one caveat, it's a little bit more bright sounding than most coax sources. I don't use the Bridge for two reasons: it only does gapless with PSA's elyric software; PSA's elyric software is a POS. Ease of use is critical to me. It's the only reason why I prefer JRiver MC to Foobar.

The OR5 kills the Bridge. It's more articulate with better blackground, while at the same time offering fluidity, warmth, smoothness. Basically the PWD2 gets A's in all categories now. I have zero complaints. I have not yet heard a DAC (under good conditions) that does any single element better than the OR5 --I2S--> PWD2 (Native - not NativeX combo). The only downside is that stuff like software settings, players, etc. start to matter more now. Good if you have OCD.

It's obvious Steve Nugent of Empircal has f'd with the OR -> PWD combo quite a bit to get the best sound out of it. I don't know anyone else other than PSA supporting their I2S over HDMI connection: http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/recommended-systems

Was about to reply to TAddict's query . Purrin definitely nailed it !

Hmm this brings up an interesting question, how would the OR5 to gugnir/nuwave/other dacs under $1000 compare to a complete system like the NAD m51 or PWD if you were only using USB input?  An OR5 to gugnir combo would cost roughly the same as the NAD m51 or PWD mk2 with added versatility of the OR5 being able to be used with other DACs. 

My guess is that it would depend on how important USB to SPDIF conversion is to the overall performance of a USB DAC, but I don't have any real experience with this stuff to know.  If it was even reasonably close it might not be such a bad option.

edit:  my bad, it looks like Purrin did touch briefly on this subject...any further thoughts?