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Teradak Teralink-X2 released 19.1.10 - Page 3

post #31 of 641
2/6/10 at 9:29am
After a few days of constant use (and 24/7 power-up), the Teralink-X2 has improved further. I think the bass has increased in heft while retaining its quality and highs are coming through without being fatiguing.

EDIT: I have found some downsides to the Teralink though. I'm noticed a slight boominess to the bass (and lack of punch) compared to the direct USB input of the y2 DAC. It's tighter than the coaxial output of my mobo but not as controlled/tight or punchy as the direct USB connection to the DAC. The soundstage, smoothness, warmth are all excellent but the looseness of the bass bothers me. I've burned the device in for a week now and haven't noticed any changes in the past couple days so it's safe to assume this is a measure of the Teralink's true SQ.
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post #32 of 641
2/7/10 at 12:01pm
Finally Ive got mine!
It took about 2 weeks from China to Lithuania - not bad, i bought it from vintage_audio_lab on ebay.

System:
Foobar -> teralink x2 -> Mhdt Paradisea 3 -> Audio gd Compass -> Denon 5000
cables -nothing fancy
power from pc usb.

Burn in - about 24 h only.

Sound - Im quit happy about changes in SQ with teralink X2!
Its getting better with burn in.

I agree with Shahrose its a great device.

Some pics:

The package
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1734/dsc02898g.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5756/dsc02897y.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3549/dsc02899c.jpg

The box
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9291/dsc02900t.jpg

Whats inside the box?

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6712/dsc02923x.jpg

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9081/dsc02934n.jpg

Clock 1PPM TCXO
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7682/dsc02924dm.jpg

back side
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4258/dsc02932s.jpg
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post #33 of 641
2/7/10 at 5:04pm
It's interesting to note that the subtle boominess I described earlier is only noticeable with my more revealing headphones (ie. HD800 / HE-5). I can't really notice it with any others including the HD650. In fact, with the HD650, the Teralink sounds amazing. However, I do have an aftermarket cable on the HD650 which tightens up the bass and speeds up the sound in general.
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post #34 of 641
2/7/10 at 11:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

Hey guys , what drivers and os are you using ? At the mo, I can't say the spdif output is any better than my re-clocked (Vanguard TCXO 1ppm 2ps) Asus ST. I wonder if it is the driver cos the Asus has its own ASIO driver.

Has anyone tried the IIS output on this yet ?

Shahrose - do you think it might be the transformers creating the slight boominess ? Maybe a power issue ?

Thanks.

EDIT : (Deleted comments = ASIO driver release due very soon).
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post #35 of 641
2/9/10 at 2:09am
Thread Starter 
Here's a photo - simple double bobbin 0-9V 6VA trans (safe max about 450mA) and LM317 reg set to 8V output. Pre-reg voltage is 11.2V loaded so it'll happily stay in regulation. I checked the output on my scope and the output noise/ripple is below the scope's minimum of about 0.5mV and it also shows as zero ( 0.000 AC V ) on the dmm. Obviously this is far better than the 5V USB power, where ripple and noise are very evident and generally around 1mV ripple and 5-25mV AC spikes.

With the X2 set to usb power it uses 12mA, then switched to the extra power, it uses 89mA, then with music playing it uses 91mA. I haven't tried it with a 75ohm load but it's safe to say that a 6VA trans and a 1A regulator are more than sufficient.

I haven't tried an iso trans or any filters as yet. I can't see the point at this stage. COME ON TERADAK - GET THE DRIVER OUT PLEASE !!!

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post #36 of 641
2/9/10 at 6:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thoppa View Post
Hi,

Hey guys , what drivers and os are you using ? At the mo, I can't say the spdif output is any better than my re-clocked (Vanguard TCXO 1ppm 2ps) Asus ST. I wonder if it is the driver cos the Asus has its own ASIO driver.

Has anyone tried the IIS output on this yet ?

Shahrose - do you think it might be the transformers creating the slight boominess ? Maybe a power issue ?

Thanks.

EDIT : I would say to anyone thinking of getting one of these to hold off until they get a dedicated driver sorted. It isn't the top-sound-quality product I hoped it would be. Maybe my expectations were too high...?

I actually prefer the spdif output from both the Onkyo Se-200 and the Asus Essence ST to this. The differences are subtle and for the two PCI sound cards it's very hard to hear any difference at all, but the Asus seems to have a bit more space in the imaging than the Onkyo. None of these sound as good as the spdif from a Pioneer DV696 with a Tent labs XO and AD1896.

The X-2 isn't rubbish, far from it, but equally, it doesn't live up to the promises in the Ebay ad. "This USB to SPDIF/TOSLINK/I2S converter is not a cost compromised nor a functional concession product."

It may be it needs really clean juice - a double-bobbin isolation transformer with a centre tap to take away common mode noise, and MKP 0.1uF caps to clean up the mains, then a good toroid, MUR820 diodes with 220pF snubbers, a low noise smoothing cap like Philips BC136, or Blackgate, then a whopping inductor to filter any ac noise left....but I'm reluctant to try until a driver is released.
I have the older model (the Teralink-X) and I found out that the boominess and excessive warmth were reduced when I use the Wireworld ultraviolet usb cable and the ploytec asio driver (instead of stock cable and asio4all driver).

Did you guys try aftermarket usb cables with your teralink-X2?
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post #37 of 641
2/9/10 at 6:40am
Thread Starter 
Hi,

Well, you know they are all aftermarket cables because it doesn't come with one....hehe. :-) I'm using one I got with an audio device, not the bob standard printer type. If you don't mind me asking how much and where did you get yours ? Have you tried more than one ?



As for the driver, I'll look into that - thanks ! Is it compatible with the Tenor chip or is it not fussy about the receiver ?

Thanks again,

Tom

EDIT : EUR 44 for the driver - gah, that's over half the price of the device. Add on a cable and no doubt I have to pay the same as the device cost me again, and that's then almost as much as the Onkyo - a complete pci sound card.

I'll push Teratek for a timetable for their driver and if it isn't anytime soon, I'll return this.
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post #38 of 641
2/9/10 at 8:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by slim.a View Post
I have the older model (the Teralink-X) and I found out that the boominess and excessive warmth were reduced when I use the Wireworld ultraviolet usb cable and the ploytec asio driver (instead of stock cable and asio4all driver).

Did you guys try aftermarket usb cables with your teralink-X2?
I'm using a 20 inch Belkin USB cable. I tried the Ploytec ASIO driver and it tightened up the bass and reduced the extra warmth (could be a good or bad thing depending on the recording). It was a subtle but positive improvement, but it introduced a lag in play/pausing songs so I got rid of it. The latency/buffer settings made no difference.
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post #39 of 641
2/9/10 at 1:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thoppa View Post
Hi,

Well, you know they are all aftermarket cables because it doesn't come with one....hehe. :-) I'm using one I got with an audio device, not the bob standard printer type. If you don't mind me asking how much and where did you get yours ? Have you tried more than one ?

As for the driver, I'll look into that - thanks ! Is it compatible with the Tenor chip or is it not fussy about the receiver ?

Thanks again,

Tom

EDIT : EUR 44 for the driver - gah, that's over half the price of the device. Add on a cable and no doubt I have to pay the same as the device cost me again, and that's then almost as much as the Onkyo - a complete pci sound card.

I'll push Teratek for a timetable for their driver and if it isn't anytime soon, I'll return this.
I am using a WireWorld Ultraviolet USB cable with my Teralink-x (that I paid 49£ here). Before the wireworld I tried a regular Belkin, a Belkin gold, a Real cable and a Monster cable. The wireworld was better but also more expensive than the others.
However, there are so many usb cables today (cryoparts, Kimber, ...) that making a choice seems difficult for a new buyer. Anyway, since I bought the hiface which doesn't need a usb cable, I don't have to worry about that anymore

As for the ploytec driver, it seems that it is working on Shahrose unit, and it also seems that it affects both the teralink-x an x2 in the same way: more clarity, tightening up of the sound, and reducing the warmth.
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post #40 of 641
2/9/10 at 7:32pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks.

The driver is an improvement so it seems I'm gonna have to wait for Teratek to keep their promise, cos I can't justify the Ploytech driver's price.

Thanks again.
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post #41 of 641
2/9/10 at 7:43pm
these driver issues are strange. Maybe it's a windows xp thing. Windows 7 works great thru wasapi and ks. with Foobar 1.0 and the newest KS Plugin
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post #42 of 641
2/10/10 at 1:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeW View Post
these driver issues are strange. Maybe it's a windows xp thing. Windows 7 works great thru wasapi and ks. with Foobar 1.0 and the newest KS Plugin
Hi,

Thanks, I'll try updating Foobar and the ks component and see if that helps. Does your Chameleon have an exact-same X2 inside ? How is it powered ? I'm just curious to know what might be different between using a standalone X2 and the Chameleon.

Shahrose is also using Windows 7 but it seems he still needs a dedicated USB ASIO (or wasapi...?) driver to get a tight bass response, so I'm not sure it is just XP.

I actually didn't notice the bass - a bit warmer perhaps - to me the sq just didn't sound right - like the effects of jitter.

I heard from Teradak. They have a driver with ASIO and AC3 already written but it isn't ready for public release yet - it's still being tested.

So now I'm very hopeful !

I can't say I love the Ploytec driver cos it seems it won't force 16 bit and I can only get 24 bit. So I guess it pads the word length...maybe dithering is necessary ? Am I missing something ?
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post #43 of 641
2/11/10 at 11:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thoppa View Post
Shahrose is also using Windows 7 but it seems he still needs a dedicated USB ASIO (or wasapi...?) driver to get a tight bass response, so I'm not sure it is just XP.
WASAPI had the warmest/loosest sound, then KS and then the ploytec ASIO driver. The differences were subtle but present. From my short test with the ploytec driver, I preferred it to both KS/WASAPI in Windows 7 x64.
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post #44 of 641
2/11/10 at 3:35pm
After two day of burn in.
I do not think the teralink x2 is at the same levels of hiface or musiland.
Ciao
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post #45 of 641
2/11/10 at 5:20pm
Personally, the reason for buying this would be for its I2S output and ability to easily run off 12V batteries. Configured so, it should do pretty well driving I2S inputs of DAC's like Northstar, old Perpetual, Audio Alchemy, Empirical Audio, etc. The promised ASIO driver is a MUST, however.
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