Yulong Sabre D18 thread: reviews, impressions, discussion (full review added 2/5) - Page 54

Quote:

Originally Posted by naimless 

<snip>The Cambridge Audio ID100 looked ideal but it just wouldn't work with the dac,the sound constantly drops out,I tried all three connections with cables I know work,tried a replacement dock that still didn't work.So now I don't know what to try next or whether to leave things alone.
So I thought I would post this just for information in case anybody else was going to try something similar although if anyone has any advice or other dock options I would appreciate it.

Sorry you missed all my various posts on what a sub-par dock the iD100 is based on going through the same things as you did. Could have saved you the trouble. I was only able to get that overpriced POS (I do not say this lightly) to work reliably on my M-DAC with jitter correction set to maximum.... never with the D18.

There's still the Arcam drDock as a pricey solution, but coax-out only is a bit of deal killer for me... plus I've become wary of spending big bucks on a device whose only function is to transport digital data to a DAC reliably, esp. with the now-obsolete 30-pin dock connector.

I heartily recommend the Pure i20: yes it's cheap, but unlike the iD100, I have not had a -single- dropout through either S/PDIF out into the D18 from an iPod Classic 160GB, and it has its own DAC, so you can use it with analogue amps too. And remote-controllable digital volume (since the D18 and maybe your amp don't have one) and more... It can even handle a full-sized iPad, as awkward as it may look.

What makes you think the Teralink isn't cutting it?  I'm assuming you get momentary audio drops?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wynnytsky 

What makes you think the Teralink isn't cutting it?  I'm assuming you get momentary audio drops?

 

I have no idea how much better the D18 is because of the JK as this is the only USB=>SPDIF converter I've ever owned.  So I'm not sure to whom I should give praise for what I'm hearing.  The blue light comes on even before I play music.  So the moment the JK is turned on (or it's charging usb cable is plugged in) the D18 will go blue.  My previous DAC had a USB input that would only make a connection when audio was played (and it would do so with a small delay and an audible mechanical click).  Really annoying for this to happen every time I resumed playback.

 

I tried connecting the optical output from my friend's Microsoft Zune to the D18 and that failed (no blue LED).  The same plug into a NuForce DAC-9 worked just fine.  So, seeing (and reading) how picky the D18's optical input is, I will assume that the coaxial input is equally as picky.  And this doesn't bother me.  It's like the D18 has really high standards and it would rather block a high jitter signal entirely before playing something sub-par.  You'll never be left guessing if your digital transport is playing at it's best because it will either play, or not play.

 

I read that people using the M2Tech Hiface had no issues with the D18.  Isn't that the safest route?

I have the Yulong U18 USB converter working with the D18.  So far it performs flawlessly.  24/196 capable. Optical, coax and AES/EBU output.  Option for external power supply.

The JK comes with a RF Attenuator which "reduces SPDIF cable induced jitter" but it has no problem getting the blue LED with and without the attenuator.  I do prefer the sound with the attenuator so I keep it in.

The Zune by itself only has an analog out.  With the additional docking station you get an optical out, and since the D18 doesn't like the "flavor" of that signal, nothing short of the Empirical Audio Synchro-Mesh will get the Zune to play with the Yulong.

Q: Is anyone out there using the AES/EBU connection?  That connection is supposed to be good for 100 meters so wouldn't it offer the cleanest (or most reliable) possible signal for the D18?  If I didn't have the JK I'd get the U18 on faith alone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naimless 

Sorry I must have missed your posts was it in this thread?
Anyway I've sort of decided to leave things alone for now and stick with my onkyo dock,I did have the pure a couple of years ago but it didn't sound as good as the onkyo and I didn't need its internal Dac .
I did think of trying the Arcam dock but it seemed a little pricey and not worth the hassle as it may not work anyway.

I mentioned it in this thread, but mostly in the iD100 one (start with the last posts)... anyway: Agreed, if your Onkyo dock works fine I'd leave it at that too. Not sure how a digital out would sound much different from one device to another though (barring plain not working like the iD100)

My D18 needs to be warmed up for 6min before playing 24/192, or else I'll get a brief drop every minute or two.  In my tests I warmed up everything else in my system for a long time before turning on the D18.  The 6min can be spent playing music or just being on, so that doesn't matter.  Today I did the same test with 16/44 and there were no drops at all.  I wanted to test 24/96 on a cold D18 as well before posting this statement (and retest all of this) but I'm curious if your drops persists after 6min.  My TubeDAC-11 required a 20-30min warmup before 24/96 playback (every other freq was fine if you'll believe that), and inserting the JKSPDIF did not fix my issue.  I'll test 24/96 tomorrow.

To me the pricing of these usb2spdif adapters does not reflect the engineering and materials that went into them.  Even the relatively affordable Hiface 2 looks like nothing more then a $25 Turtle Beach USB sound card.  I can get a Core-i3 laptop with a 15.6" screen for $400 new, but I can't get an Audiophilleo 1 with a 1" screen for $700 used.

I got the JK because it came up used on Audiogon (shipped for $385 from Korea w/ the attenuator) but I still have to remind myself that this is a niche market that cannot enjoy the economies of scale.  And I was at peace with my purchase until slickdeals.net informed me that Intel is selling an i7 3770K Ivy bridge for $230!

If I were you I would take a chance on the $100 NuForce U192S from some place that has a good return policy.  Sample rate LEDs are fun!  It doesn't use an external PSU, but neither does the Hiface 2 and that seams to get the job done.  But if your tired of disappointment then I'd get one of these...

http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/3619075023.html

http://hifiheaven.net/store/M2TECH-HiFace-Two-B-USB%20Hi-End-SPDIF-Output-Interface?filter_name=hiface

...or spend the extra bucks on the powered U18.

I am on my third D18 in a little over six months, the first was d.o.a but the last two have both had the same drop out behavior as yours.

It only ever occurs in the first few minutes of use and not at all if you let the unit warm up first.

Would be interesting to find out why.

Sounds a bit dodgy to me frankly "must be warmed up for 6 minutes to avoid dropouts"

I did another cold test this morning and 24/96 passed w/o a single drop.  That's important because while I might own all of five 24/192 albums, I have lots of 24/96.  My next cold test will be on a different 24/192 album to confirm it's still happening.  Then I should repeat all these tests w/o the JKSPDIF's RF Attenuator to see is that has a role in drop prevention.  Also I have a couple huge DSF files I'd like to cold test.  I play the DSF using a DSD-to-PCM foobar component.

I use the D18 in a pretty serious speaker-fi setup, so I'm used to waiting for my other components to warm up.  My amp has a 45sec mechanical delay before snapping on and my current preamp has a 90sec delay.  If my first song or two has to be 24/96 then so be it.

Q: Has anyone been shipped the D18 with the switch on 220?  That was issue #1 for me to solve and I'm embarrassed to say it took over 30min to figure out.  In my defense I was in a Christmas morning state of mind.  If your curious what that sounds like it's more silence than sound and the sound will drop in once or twice a second.  Also the blue led will be a faint purple.  If don't think that caused any damage but I should give full disclosure.

Maybe the wrong voltage selection didn't damaged your D18, but I'd think it's still possible... as far as I know one way is worse than the other, and running 110 with the D18 set to 220 may be the less-bad one. I'd still at least contact Yulong/Grant Fidelity to get some confirmation. (Damaged electronics are not always a case of a zap, burnt smell and complete failure -_-;)

As far as the warming-up thing goes, can't say I noticed that on mine, however since it's hooked to a tube amp which takes a while to warm up, and I generally turn everything on at the same time, I may have inadvertently worked around that issue...