Audiophilleo 1 and 2 USB to S/PDIF transport - Page 6

Originally Posted by IPodPJ    The Audiophileo should function best from battery power, as oscillators are very sensitive. 

 

Ive heard the AP2 sound better running on batteries compared to USB power. It was an affordable mod using 4xAA Ni MH spliced into a USB cable power feed. It was  definite though minor improvement which made it great value considering the cost of the AP2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

S/PDIF is a connection specification. I gather you meant "RCA".  

 

75 Ohm BNC is recommended, using the female-to-female adaptor included directly to the DAC.

Thanks. If Anedio doesn't come out with their USB/SPDIF device soon, I may give this a try. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pigmode 

Thanks. If Anedio doesn't come out with their USB/SPDIF device soon, I may give this a try. 

You may also want to consider John Kenny's latest Hiface based converter. It barely resembles the M2Tech device now, and already has a complete battery and recharging system built in, no need to hack any USB cables and roll your own battery supply.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

S/PDIF is a connection specification. I gather you meant "RCA".  

 

75 Ohm BNC is recommended, using the female-to-female adaptor included directly to the DAC.

75 ohm impedance is really not the norm, even though most people think they are using a direct 75 ohm connection between the cable and connectors.  There are usually so many areas of impedance mismatching between the connectors, cable, and PCB that I've found a 50 ohm coaxial cable to often work best.

Thanks!  I was always wondering how good Squeezebox Touch is compared to those top USB transports and this provides an answer. I won't be getting one..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 
 

Apparently there's an upgrade going on in Japan....

My AP2 arrived a couple of days ago and I'm enjoying the clarity and detail. So, how do I do the battery power? I'm currently using a Cardas clear usb cable - not about to cut into that, but I do have a Belkin gold USB cable I'm prepared to have a dabble with. I did a brief search on you-tube .... not found anything worth while yet. Any suggestions?

Thinking about the AQVOX unit... has anyone compared this against battery power?

It also needs to be said that Philip at Audiophilleo is coming out with a battery pack upgrade for the unit.  It will require sending the AP in for a new casing and the normal USB driven PS will be disabled.  

That said, I'm not so sure I'm up on using a battery if the improvement is subtle relative to a good linear PS.  One less thing to worry about.

Have you got a link for that ?

TIA
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

What I've ended up doing is getting the USB Isolator

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau 

Thinking about the AQVOX unit... has anyone compared this against battery power?

Just want to say received the AQVOX unit a couple days ago.  In my setup (a Win7 workstation) the improvement is pretty obvious to my ears.   There's a bit of a hotness in the upper mids, a bit of bloominess in the bass, that seems to vanish with a newfound clarity.  Well worth the cost.  Of course YMMV.

So I'm a little confused here and have derived these conclusions thus far:

1) Battery option seems to do best with this device...but that means more money so why not buy the Jkeny MKIII?

2) Reading about the PC sound card having better sound than this device w/exception of a "hub" system setup for it was not exactly what I had expected to hear especially when sound cards are generally given the nod when it comes to them vs. anything like this device.

3) Then there's the review that says it is cleaner/clearer and not as smooth than the Jkeny MKIII.  Whenever I hear the words clean/clear vs. smooth, I automatically think smooth=veiled, clean/clear=more transparent.

4) If one has an already excellent dac, there is no need for this type of device or any other nice clocking type device.  What was mentioned is when you cannot hear much of a difference between one transport and another, you don't need to have a device like this.  Then what do you need, a cheap sound card or cheap USB converter, etc.?  From other places I have read, the same aforementioned dacs that have been said to hear no difference between transports have been found in reviews where one transport was superior to another.  Seems like an unclear answer here.

In sum, all of this and many other reviews suddenly become more prone to big question marks?????  What exactly is considered a truly good transport, especially when sound cards have been tossed into this thread, some consider a transport to have no sound difference when used with X dac, etc. etc.

I have heard some solid differences between different transports, but at the same time, I don't know that I can say with 100% certainty what exactly I am hearing that is different between them.  Maybe a little different soundstage, maybe a little different tonality, maybe, maybe....So confusing since I have been seeking a SOLID set and let be transport for a long long time now and cannot help but be interested in all these newest/latest gadgets that come around, get their wonderful reviews, but not without some confusion or inconsistency involved IMHO.

Anyone want to shed light on this or at least let me know I have any sanity left?:)))