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Musiland Monitor 01 USD 24/192 USB to SPDIF
Sep 28, 2009 at 11:00 AM Post #436 of 905
I have the musiland 02 version which I find is an excellent usb sound device with excellent sound quality particularly when using the sdif output and have had no issues with wasapi or asio when using foobar (latest version) and I particularly like the control panel. I am however having second thoughts and a little peaved with the need to email and all the other requirements just to update the firmware or drivers, all the other usb devices I have eg. emu 0404usb do not not require anything like this, also the web site is difficult when trying to create a log on due to language problems, all very dissconcerting and has put me off buying another musiland product, I think I will stick with the original drivers, this has soured a very good product for me.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 1:31 PM Post #437 of 905
Mikeb, it is not that difficult, just do the steps and you are future proof. The drivers WILL BE free, they just want to implement a new framework for future driver releases. Do it once and you are set for as long as they support the devices.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 1:33 PM Post #438 of 905
I've updated my 01USD and 02US without any problems.
The update is easy and painless
smile.gif

It's basically nothing more than sending an email and applying the license key (10 minutes of work)
See the instructions of jkeny on page 27.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 3:19 PM Post #439 of 905
For those "afraid" of security, the new firmware probably has a handshaking feature that checks for a digital signature to make sure the driver and device are made by Musiland. The driver cannot be encrypted because it has to run on your computer.

But you already support this king of checking whether you know it or not: https, hdmi, DVI, etc.

The only people that are going to be affected are those that plan on cloning the hardware and taking advantage of the Musiland driver.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 3:59 PM Post #440 of 905
Quote:

Originally Posted by glt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The only people that are going to be affected are those that plan on cloning the hardware and taking advantage of the Musiland driver.


This is probably true but still many are concerned because of what Sony and others have done in the past. IMO it's a poor marketing decision because the restrictions of DRM will usually be defeated when there is a strong incentive.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 4:08 PM Post #441 of 905
There is always incentive to pirate stuff... Marketing could have been smart about it and make the error messages less obvious (something like, "this version requires new firmware because of timing improvements") and then no one would know that a signature is being checked. But I guess in a different culture, trying to protect your stuff with RSA crypto is a good marketing thing. At least they were straight about it.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 5:51 PM Post #442 of 905
Agreed, they did not sneak anything thru the back door - change log clearly stated what and why they included a RSA authentication system. Being the first who discovered the new driver here I am somewhat ashamed that I asked if they were licensing the new driver - again, THEY ARE NOT ASKING MONEY FOR THE NEW DRIVER! They are just implementing hardware verification in the driver because of clones. And they are NOT restricting on how many computers you can use your hw (it is not anyhow connected to your PC like windows activation!)
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 6:00 PM Post #443 of 905
Quote:

Originally Posted by Olev /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Agreed, they did not sneak anything thru the back door - change log clearly stated what and why they included a RSA authentication system. Being the first who discovered the new driver here I am somewhat ashamed that I asked if they were licensing the new driver - again, THEY ARE NOT ASKING MONEY FOR THE NEW DRIVER! They are just implementing hardware verification in the driver because of clones. And they are NOT restricting on how many computers you can use your hw (it is not anyhow connected to your PC like windows activation!)


We all hope this is true and correct, but with drivers and other software that is not independently verified, "let the buyer beware".
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 6:09 PM Post #444 of 905
Quote:

Originally Posted by Olev /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Agreed, they did not sneak anything thru the back door - change log clearly stated what and why they included a RSA authentication system. Being the first who discovered the new driver here I am somewhat ashamed that I asked if they were licensing the new driver - again, THEY ARE NOT ASKING MONEY FOR THE NEW DRIVER! They are just implementing hardware verification in the driver because of clones. And they are NOT restricting on how many computers you can use your hw (it is not anyhow connected to your PC like windows activation!)



Thanks for all the input joe_cool, glt, Olev, gattari.. and everyone else pertaining to this matter.

And Olev, there is nothing to be ashamed about asking anything. You were correct to bring up the issue about licensing. Thanks...As you can tell, I was a bit surprised, but bringing it to light was the right thing to do, to sort all the facts.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 6:31 PM Post #445 of 905
I found it little funny that 'cloning' is an issue that Chinese company wants to protect against..
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 6:36 PM Post #446 of 905
Well that's another topic
biggrin.gif
I am more than sure that whoever is cloning will not stop cloning anymore because of respect for other china men etc, they will break the protection sooner or later like they have been doing since the 90's.
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 6:55 PM Post #447 of 905
So, it looks like it's not restricted to a single version or locked to a particular PC - good!

So, sound improvements? - can more report on the improvements they are finding, if any!

I know anti-piracy is the commercial reason for this encryption but no other USB DAC manufacturers have done similar, AFAIK - so why are they so paranoid?

Edit: I too find it ironic, Toshee, Olev
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 7:20 PM Post #449 of 905
Jeez, Heatfan - I'm getting paranoid now
biggrin.gif
. Seriously though, I hope they understand that all I'm doing is modding the unit for better operation - there is a Cinese modder on their forum who has done similar mods to me.

I did say to them at one point that the value of their product was in their software & that the hardware was standard off-the-shelf parts. Oops, I hope this didn't precipitate their move. This statement would apply to EMU, etc so it isn't any different for them.

The point is, I doubt anybody could make the same or similar board as theirs for the price that they retail it at, so it doesn't make sense - why not just buy their DAC?
 
Sep 28, 2009 at 7:40 PM Post #450 of 905
By the way, I own the Musiland Monitor 01 USD and E-MU 0404. What is the E-MU concerned, I have not found any way to work its digital output for standard Windows applications like Media Player etc. I can use the digital out of the E-MU only in some applications like Foobar etc. The E-MU 0404 drivers are very old, maybe that is the point... But the Musiland works well in this respect, there is no problem, I really like this small card as an universal digital transport for Windows. SQ is good and what is the new driver concerned, there may be some improvement, I think, but too soon to judge. The SQ is not worse, it is for sure - I hear deterioration in SQ very quickly. So, SQ is the same or better with the new driver, but I am not sure if it is better at the moment.
 
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