Halide Design Bridge - Async USB converter - Page 2

Looking forward to it, realmassy.

I got mine the same day I left for Canjam. I've been listening now at home every evening since Monday. It takes me a very long time to acclimate to anything new in my setup, but thus far the bass is noticalbly improved and clear and tight. Soundstaging/layering is improved. On material that I have listened to a lot lately it seems to sound somewhat foreign and not quite right, but on stuff that I have not listened to in a month or more it sounds great. This leads me to believe that someone like Chris on CA who is accustomed to listening to ultra high end equipment will not find a product like this as foreign or strange sounding as I would, if at all.

 

The bridge is replacing a Musiland 02US in my setup.  Lenovo laptop, Bridge, EAD DSP7000mkIII, Dynamite, SRD-5pro/404LE or my own personally modded Denon 2000s.
 

 

I saw your post over there. It takes me so long to get used to listening to something, and I can't really hear all that good anyway. Then after listening for at least a couple of weeks I will switch back to the original transport or cd player and listen again to see if things sorta sound foreign to my ears again. On top of that I've have an almost impossible work and after-work schedule lately.

 

After 4 days listening I am beginning to like it a lot. Especially the bass on some tracks that I used to fine tune my Denons. They never sounded this good before, and I tuned and tweaked using only 2 songs for weeks. I like what I hear so far, such as it is. I will switch back to the Musiland this weekend sometime and see what's noticably different other than the bass and SS.

 

To be continued.....

 

Edited by digger945 - 6/10/10 at 5:55pm

Thanks for your impressions digger! It sounds promising.

But it seems that the change is quite "radical", I didn't expect that from a simple digital to digital converter. This could lead to some problem of synergy, maybe, with the rest of the rig.

Anyway, I'm still waiting mine, can't wait to put my hands on it :-)

this is a little off topic, but can someone explain to me  why using one of these would be more beneficial than just using the optical out on my macbook?

 

isnt using toslink inherently better than going through USB no matter how could the USB design is?

Timing. The Bridge is in control of the computer, and is timing everything coming from the computer via USB. This is what Streamlength does.

 

You are right, the usb vs optical debate would best be hashed out by actual listening experiences posted in a dedicated thread for just that topic.

Edited by digger945 - 6/11/10 at 2:58am

Thank you for the impressions, digger945. I'm looking forward to the verdict later.

My Bridge has been delivered today but i'll collect tomorrow at the post office. Wondering if any kind of burn-in will be needed...

I wonder if you find it to be as different as I did.
 

Sorry!

I haven't posted my impressions in this thread, but I wrote something in the Ref.5 thread, saying that I was hugely surprised by the difference I found between the optical connection and the Halide.

I'll test again the Halide during the week end with some critical listening, but so far:

1) the higher frequencies are more "controlled". I have a few recordings (a version of the symphony no.9 by Dvorak a some Mozart Symphonies) that sounded really harsh, bright, especially with some horns passages. So I tested them with the Halide and they sound smoother, the horns are not as forward as they used to be. I could spot the differences in a blind test for sure

2) high resolution files are more "musical": with the optical connection they sound "extreme" (I can't find a better word)...The soundstage was not-naturally wide, instruments were too thin, with no body, too airy. Sometime I had the same result playing 24/44.1 files.

3) I had to turn down the volume on my amp. I don't think the volume is actually increased, but maybe the sound is clean and transparent...I really don't know, but my ears will thank for that.

 

Also, the Halide is so easy to use: I've plugged into the PC, selected the output from Foobar, and enjoy the music. No pops, clicks, drop-out.

No issues at all with Linux (Ubuntu on my laptop), so I'm planning to use the Halide with a small Linux box (probably a SheevaPlug), completely silent and cheap.

 

Unfortunately I haven't tried any other converters, but the difference with the optical connection is very apparent.

Edited by realmassy - 6/25/10 at 5:56am

I to am turning the volume down. As much as half the volume that I normally use. My dacs are only 44.1 so that's all I've used so far. I like it better than any other transport I have owned thus far.
Edited by digger945 - 6/25/10 at 7:47am

Quick update: today I played with the Halide Bridge on my Linux Box, with Ubuntu and a new version of MPD...

I wasn't expecting this setup to sound that good! The new MPD supports S24_3LE, and can output bit perfect. The difference with the previous version is not subtle, and I think I'll test this configuration for some time and then compare with my Windows 7 box, with Foobar.

One nice feature of MPD is the MPOD app for IPhone/IPod, completely free and stable.

I wonder how this compares to Firestone's Bravo, with the Supplier PSU it's still a good bit less expensive, also driverless.

Edited by grokit - 7/5/10 at 12:57am

Well i just ordered myself a Bridge. But i did not see anywhere on the Firestone website about asynchronous usb (halide uses this), and the halide is supposed to not do any re-clocking, where the Bravo does. I am no expert in these things of course i just wanted to point out those differences i read. I have a hunch the halide is probably better .

Thanks for pointing that out, I had missed that. But re-clocking with a stable power source is nothing to sneeze at, IMO. It would most likely depend on the individual DAC's needs as to which would work better. Interestingly, the Bravo has a coaxial in so they could theoretically be used to compliment each other. So I may still have a bridge in my future, talk about separate components!

Edited by grokit - 7/5/10 at 2:06am

Yeah, implementation is more important. I have a wallwart powered usb hub that it would atttach to, which also happens to be powered by my furman pl-8. So any power the bridge would be getting would come from that, although i heard about something called a USB Isolator (which is basically the same thing) that probably uses this idea better than a typical powered hub. Might have to look into that some more. I would definitely like to know if daisy chaining transports would be beneficial. That would be quite interesting to find out!