M2Tech HiFace 2?

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spkrs01 said:

I have no idea whether one can hear jitter?
 
I bought a HiFace two and using it in the following set up: JRiver > Wasapi > HiFace 2 > V800 > V200.
 
The results are stunning, Soundstage has increased especially perception of depth, the transparency and also the improvements in bass is awe-inspiring! What a great little piece of kit!
 
Highly recommended. 

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I can also confirm your results with the gear in my signature. I think the only built-in USB modules that are better are only included in significantly more expensive DACs. The HiFace allows a significant offset in costs when using a excellent DAC that didn't engineer the crap out of its USB input. Another benefit is that it's very flexible with changes in equipment. I also personally enjoy the freedom of not being chained to a USB DAC, Schiit and Yulong come to mind.

Hiface 2 is a big step up from 1 but no one seems to notice it's available. Too much FOTM burnout from the first one I imagine.

just got the hiface 2 today.
 
have selected "wasapi:speakers(hiface two audio" from drop down menu in preferences.
is this best or should i get aiso?

Quote:

oldson said:

just got the hiface 2 today.
 
have selected "wasapi:speakers(hiface two audio" from drop down menu in preferences.
is this best or should i get aiso?

Click to expand...

Top Choices - in order:
1) ASIO
2) WASAPI - Event Style

+1

Quote:

ferdit said:

What does HiFace 2 do? It feeds into a DAC?

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It acts as a transport.  Usually used as a usb to coax (spdif) converter so you'd know if you needed one.

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mr.sneis said:

Is it possible to setup in OSX or Windows so that the converter is forced to not exceed 16 or 20-bit and 48khz? 

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In windows, when you select your audio device and go into properties, isn't there a list of boxes you have to select or deselect to indicate which rates are available?

I'm new to head-fi as and this M2Tech HighFace 2 has been of interest to me over the last few days.  I have a HT set-up that I use for two channel listening as follows;
 
Adcom GTP-880 pre/pro (has built in DAC with 24bit 192 decoding)
Adcom GFA-7607 amp 7 channels at 175 RMS 4 ohms
KEF Reference 4 Mains (using 4 channels of 7607 at 175 rms ea).
KEF Reference 200C center
KEF Reference 2 surronds
Velodyne R1500 sub
Sony BPD SS570 Blue-Ray
Charter (Motorola DCX3501M) HD Cable Box
Dell XPS l502x Laptop (WavesMax JBL soundcard)
Schiit Bifrost DAC with Async 24/192 USB
Headphones/amp-(after I address my amp/prepro updates)
 
I know my electronics need an update (as budget allows) but I just added the Reference 4's and moved the 2's to surround duty. After a week of letting everything get situated togteher, what a sonic difference and what an enjoyable way to listen to stereo audio.
 
Some observations though, The Bifrost is my second DAC and it replaced a Nuforce HDP Icon. I enjoyed the sound of the Icon but when I played back USB output from my Dell laptop, it picked up a high percentage of keystroke and mouse clicks and interupted the audio (regardless of USB cable length or make, also when I played the Icon through some powered desktop speakers), while I surfed and typed. Most of my laptop audio is streaming radio off of Itunes or Pandora One. I have about 10G of music stored on Itunes in lossless as well.  The Icon was sold and the Bifrost was moved in for six weeks now.  With its USB 2.0 software the unit has very few noises while working and listening, and I'm 12' feet from the Bifrost using a cheap Belkin USB cable sitting in the sweetspot on the couch, (I know a proper USB cable will make improvments).
 
I did some A/B listening tests and discoverd I like the audio sound (presence, dynamics, and smoothness (with my Cablebox playing cable HD-stations in Dolby Digital 2.0, and CD's and streaming music from the BlueRay) through the DAC in the ADCOM GTP-880 better than the Bifrost. It didn't matter if I used the Toslink or coax input into the Bifrost, quality music from the Cablebox or Blue-Ray sounded better through the Adcom DAC.  The key A/B listening tests were playing the same disc through the Blue-ray/Coax to DAC in the GTP-880 and switching to the laptop drive playing USB through the Bifrost with analog into the GTP-880. Even playing the disc in Blue-ray and switching between the Bifrost and GTP-880 DAC's confirmed the sonics, (flipped the toslink and coax cables to each to confirm the cabling wasn't a sonic influence).
 
 
The Analog input from Bifrost through the GTP-880 is set direct (preamp bypass).  I just get fatiqued listening to music through it compared to through the DAC on the GTP-880.  As the GTP-880 has 3 Coax inputs, I thought of adding the HighFace 2 for audio from my Dell laptop and ditching the Bifrost. (sorry to take so long to introduce my system and assessments)
 
My questions about the Highface 2 are;
Have any HF2 users used a longer 12' (4M) coax cable from the Laptop (I'll be sitting at the couch) to the DAC? Any keystroke noises or other noise from the long cable run or from typing, surfing?  Is there any problems with the HF2 if say you bump it with your knee or the laptop moves around on your lap while using it? Should the USB output compete with the Blue-ray or cablebox musicality through the GTP-880 DAC, (beating the sound through the Bifrost)?
 
If the HF2 will put up with an in-use laptop, it sounds like a no brainer, otherwise I'll keep the Bifrost but just use it for USB only.  Thanks for any help on these concerns

Hi and welcome to HeadFi!
 
It sounds like you need to setup your BiFrost with the correct Audio driver. Those key click and keystrokes sounds are not a typical experience at all.
1) What player are you using? I recommend JRiver and FooBar. Make sure it's set as ASIO/WASAPI output and all DSP is disabled.
2) Under your audio properties, what selection have you made as the default sound? Make sure BiFrost is set as ASIO/WASAPI output and all enhancements are disabled.
3) What is the signal chain used while listening to BiFrost? Keep it short as possible, using only one preamp and ensure all DSP is disabled in the AVR.
 
To partially answer your question about the HiFace Two, I haven't tried a 4m coax cable, but it will most likely degrade SQ a bit. Instead of holding the laptop at your listening position, get a "remote" for your phone! JRemote works wonderfully on iPhone. This makes the whole "cable attached to laptop" a non-issue if you're using the laptop strictly for music while listening. You can also hook it up to your AVR via HDMI and get a wireless keyboard/mouse combo like the Logitech K400 and be happier with that too. You can also use a 12ft. USB cable with no issues. The Lacie Flat cable is a meaningful cable upgrade that costs only $8-20. It keeps the data and power signals separated and will beat many expensive cables that disregard this fundamental area.
Quote:

tp280 said:

I'm new to head-fi as and this M2Tech HighFace 2 has been of interest to me over the last few days.  I have a HT set-up that I use for two channel listening as follows;
 
...
 
Some observations though, The Bifrost is my second DAC and it replaced a Nuforce HDP Icon. I enjoyed the sound of the Icon but when I played back USB output from my Dell laptop, it picked up a high percentage of keystroke and mouse clicks and interupted the audio (regardless of USB cable length or make, also when I played the Icon through some powered desktop speakers), while I surfed and typed. Most of my laptop audio is streaming radio off of Itunes or Pandora One. I have about 10G of music stored on Itunes in lossless as well.  The Icon was sold and the Bifrost was moved in for six weeks now.  With its USB 2.0 software the unit has very few noises while working and listening, and I'm 12' feet from the Bifrost using a cheap Belkin USB cable sitting in the sweetspot on the couch, (I know a proper USB cable will make improvments).
 
...
 
My questions about the Highface 2 are;
Have any HF2 users used a longer 12' (4M) coax cable from the Laptop (I'll be sitting at the couch) to the DAC? Any keystroke noises or other noise from the long cable run or from typing, surfing?  Is there any problems with the HF2 if say you bump it with your knee or the laptop moves around on your lap while using it? Should the USB output compete with the Blue-ray or cablebox musicality through the GTP-880 DAC, (beating the sound through the Bifrost)?
 
If the HF2 will put up with an in-use laptop, it sounds like a no brainer, otherwise I'll keep the Bifrost but just use it for USB only.  Thanks for any help on these concerns

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Thanks for the tips. It appears JRiver costs $49, not sure about Foobar. Anyone from Schiit have a recomendation on these Audio Drivers vs. the USB 2.0 High Speed True HD Audio Driver that downloads when you plug the Bifrost in initially.
 
Actualy the Bifrost gives very good results for eliminating audio clicks and picking up keystroke and track pad activity, (The Icon was bad).  This laptop is for everything not just music files, thus my concerns of undoing the performance strengths of the Bifrost.  I did discover my settings had reverted to 16bit,44k from 24b, 192k sometime in the last two weeks. Reset the dynamics are more apparent).  I probably introduced my new Reference 4's while in the low setting for USB playback. Still not sure why I prefer the Adcom DAC to the Bifrost for the output of the Ble-ray and cablebox.  As to the HDMI approach. I have tried the HDMI outputs from the Cablebox, Blue-Ray, and Dell through my Phillips LCD and the the Coax SPDIF to the Bifrost.  Absolutly no noise from the Dell when typing or surfing, but the LCD seems to cut dynamics a bit in an AB test, also unless I need two monitors for a project, or want to watch sports and listen to music, the LCD is nice to have off, maybe save a bit of power. 
 
So back to cables, the LaCie USB or similar is my next investment, anyone have a low cost SPDIF coax cable worth trying (1M length for the Blue-ray)?
 
Any other experiences with the High face 2 and in-use laptops?

Quote:

tp280 said:

Thanks for the tips. It appears JRiver costs $49, not sure about Foobar. Anyone from Schiit have a recomendation on these Audio Drivers vs. the USB 2.0 High Speed True HD Audio Driver that downloads when you plug the Bifrost in initially.

Click to expand...

You may be a little confused here. Not all media players support ASIO, and some don't make WASAPI an easily available setting. I suggest getting a trial of JRiver and trying it out. If you really don't see the benefits that the $50 makes (when properly setup) then just go with FooBar, which is free but will require alot of tweaking to suit your taste in GUI layout. Choosing one of these media players is a fundamental upgrade over iTunes and Media Center/Player.

 I loaded jriver trial and under tools/options found the Wasapi setting and went through and negated any dsp settings that were readily available in settings. I'm not finding any setting window on the USB 2.0 True HD audio file work that Bifrost initially loaded to set Wasapi. Otherwise good things, Thanks Brunk!
 
I can still use Pandora One and Itunes radio with better response now and play my media through jriver and also access last.fm. Audio is now what would be expected, but if!there are settings for the Later softwarea bove it would be good to know. I'll try a good spdif with the BlueRay to Bifrost and see if it solves that problem.

Some more critical listening from my Blue-Ray player, it just sounds so much more open therough the Adcom DAC. I ordered a Hiface 2 this morning, will give it a run against the Bifrost, If Its not for me it goes to my sisters system.

Quote:

ferdit said:

What does HiFace 2 do? It feeds into a DAC?

Click to expand...

It uses one end to directly connect to a USB port, and uses the other end to go coax/bnc to an external DAC.

I use a usb extension, lessen the stress on the usb port.............