murphythecat said:

  I'm still not sure on what to get, DXIO PRO3a or Breeze DU-U8...

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It seems to me that the Breeze is a better bet. 

bimmer100 said:

I need to go to ddc's anonymous...
I just ordered the pro3a... Also their USB i2s module (DIY version)
Also breeze du-u8
Also the audio-gd diu8
Have a super modded out gustard u12
Which I got three diff ultra low noise 5v regulators in order... One I'm using... The new class d dexa, also ordered the acko Dac's newest 1uv model... And that other one I mentioned and forgot the name already. Starts with a. b.
Meh...
I ordered 2 pairs of crystek 957's. Two pairs of crystek 575's, lots of dip socket boards and crystal adapters dip14, and some bypass caps for them. Hmm

What else...
Oh, just got myself some hd800's today too. I don't even like them. But want them to compare to my hex. I plan to mod the crap out of the hd800's to get them to sound better. Stock... I hate em.
But the hex is awesome

I have a lot of DDC projects ahead of me. And will do a shootout between them all


The breeze will get 957's.
The diu8 will get three diff xmos boards, one with stock Hosonic clocks, one with 575's and one with 957's if I can pull it off
The pro3a likely won't need anything because i truly think it's spec is impressive as is! And best bang for buck, but I haven't listened to them all yet! Just a hunch.

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will you be able to test the breeze stock vs pro3a stock.
Im wary about the breeze unit. I bought a tpa3116 breeze amp and thought it sounded terrible.
Would love to know breeze vs pro3a. RB2013, you didnt follow up for how good the pro3a is compared to the breeze. is the breeze is smoother and the pro3a maybe more accurate more detailed?

wwmhf said:

   
Is is easy to get the board out the box? 

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Extremely easy. Could not be any easier.
 
Getting it back in is a little tricky b/c you have to have the led's lined up perfectly.
 
Takes some patience. You'll see what I mean.

bimmer100 said:

  I wish the owner would of sold me one of the graphene Xtreme... he just wouldn't do it? if you can get me one for 250, PM me...i want one still. we live near each other...

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I'm not to surprised I bought three for the $250 price.  Was on the fence for a fourth.  This cable rocks - the word has gotten out.  This is a new design - I hear 6moons is about to review the whole new line up.  I'm pretty sure they'll be as floored as I have been.
 
Been think of giving their speaker cables a try - but just so happy with my Tellurium Q Ultra Blacks.  They beat out the Nordost Valhalla and SR Tesla Apex I used to have.  The TQ are a match made in heaven for the Maggies.
 
I'll try and ask him.  The last one I had to beg and plead - even then it took 4 week to get him to make it.  I waited very, very, very patiently.

Maybe beg and plead for me, get me an extra and I will for sure compensate you! He agreed to selling me one at 250 then backed out after I mentioned I had a psaudio p300, but will use it without that ac regen for testing. I just want to try it. It will be my mobile cable for shows. I don't bring the ac regen to shows. But if you can, buy me one! Or I will send him 250via PayPal at the hat, or you, if you buy it for me. We should still get together and do a listening day

 

 

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prot said:

I also tested about 10 usb cables. From the usual printer cable to a pure silver one. Never heard a single difference.
Currently using a Viablue cable .. mainly because it's very well built and it looks nice

Go figure.

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Yikes. You're sure you want to admit that here? My experience could not be any different from yours. I have tried about a dozen and EVERY single cable sounded different... even with cheap printer cables. A Lacie (blue) flat cable and the Belkin Gold sounded extremely different from each other. I sure wasn't expecting that! I'm currently using a (used) JCAT USB cable and very happy with it. Replaced a mellower sounding Revelation Dual-Conduit.
 
My advice: Look for a great deal on a used high-end USB cable and never look back. If anybody has an argument with that, please take it elsewhere.

wwmhf said:

  It seems to me that the Breeze is a better bet. 

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Just to add some more feedback to the thread.... 
 
I tried both about a month ago. I could not get the DXIO Pro 3A to work with 176.4khz and 192khz sample rates and I tried everything with my software programs. I also heard a slight crackling noise on the +5v power input. So I sent the unit back for a refund. Great company. It's a shame b/c I was leaning towards the DXIO in sound quality, and agree with everything rb2013 said about it.
 
The Breeze and DXIO are two awesome sounding units with VERY different sonic signatures. Breeze is darker and much richer sounding to my ears. Also more "analog" sounding. DXIO has absolutely incredible transparency!
 
It all depends what you're looking for. I loved them both.

robertsong said:

   
The Breeze and DXIO are two awesome sounding units with VERY different sonic signatures. Breeze is darker and much richer sounding to my ears. Also more "analog" sounding. DXIO has absolutely incredible transparency!
 

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I've always felt that USB-connected DAC's, when compared to their spdif input, tended to sound smoother, warmer, more "musical" but not as crisp, sparkly, and airy on top.  To avoid that USB tendency, DXIO (with linear PS) is a better bet than Breeze then?

robertsong said:

   
Just to add some more feedback to the thread.... 
 
I tried both about a month ago. I could not get the DXIO Pro 3A to work with 176.4khz and 192khz sample rates and I tried everything with my software programs. I also heard a slight crackling noise on the +5v power input. So I sent the unit back for a refund. Great company. It's a shame b/c I was leaning towards the DXIO in sound quality, and agree with everything rb2013 said about it.
 
The Breeze and DXIO are two awesome sounding units with VERY different sonic signatures. Breeze is darker and much richer sounding to my ears. Also more "analog" sounding. DXIO has absolutely incredible transparency!
 
It all depends what you're looking for. I loved them both.

Click to expand...

 
Using external power supply in DXIO Pro 3A is both good or bad. It is good because it makes the upgrade to a better power supply easily. On the other hand, that demands the user to look for a better power supply, costing both time and money. 
 
By a quick look at the board of DXIO Pro 3A, it seems to me DXIO Pro 3A has less guts. This might be a reason for its transparency, if any. 

I ordered the breeze I figured it was the best for the buck. I think it will sound amazing with the Ec designs Mosaic T.
 
Now, usb cable. Is the Forza twin the best bang for the buck under 100$?

murphythecat said:

  I ordered the breeze I figured it was the best for the buck. I think it will sound amazing with the Ec designs Mosaic T.
 
Now, usb cable. Is the Forza twin the best bang for the buck under 100$?

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That's a good call - with a decent LPS the DXIO is much more expensive.  In my rolling the Forza Twin Copper sounded pretty good - and the split design allow you to only run the data leg.

wwmhf said:

   
Using external power supply in DXIO Pro 3A is both good or bad. It is good because it makes the upgrade to a better power supply easily. On the other hand, that demands the user to look for a better power supply, costing both time and money. 
 
By a quick look at the board of DXIO Pro 3A, it seems to me DXIO Pro 3A has less guts. This might be a reason for its transparency, if any. 

Click to expand...

Well part of the 'guts' is no power supply - so no transformer and power supply reg and caps.  But also the very small size of the excellent NDK SD Ultra low noise TXCO femto clocks is one reason the board can be so small.  They're like 1/10th the size of an OEM JYEC TXCO.   Yet have orders of magnitude less phase noise.  Every -3db is a double and they have -25db to -35db less noise.
 
And DIYinHK uses one for USB clocking - a very nice touch.
 
So it's not the size that matters - but the components and design - and well in the end for me, the sound quality.

bimmer100 said:

Maybe beg and plead for me, get me an extra and I will for sure compensate you! He agreed to selling me one at 250 then backed out after I mentioned I had a psaudio p300, but will use it without that ac regen for testing. I just want to try it. It will be my mobile cable for shows. I don't bring the ac regen to shows. But if you can, buy me one! Or I will send him 250via PayPal at the hat, or you, if you buy it for me. We should still get together and do a listening day

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Sounds good!  When you get your clock mods done for sure

rb2013 said:

 
Well part of the 'guts' is no power supply - so no transformer and power supply reg and caps.  But also the very small size of the excellent NDK SD Ultra low noise TXCO femto clocks is one reason the board can be so small.  They're like 1/10th the size of an OEM JYEC TXCO.   Yet have orders of magnitude less phase noise.  Every -3db is a double and they have -25db to -35db less noise.
 
And DIYinHK uses one for USB clocking - a very nice touch.
 
So it's not the size that matters - but the components and design - and well in the end for me, the sound quality.

Click to expand...

 
After reading your post, I took another look at the board of DXIO Pro 3A and found those TXCOs after some efforts. I originally thought DXIO Pro 3A did not even use any TXCO so "less guts"

robertsong said:

   
Yikes. You're sure you want to admit that here? My experience could not be any different from yours. I have tried about a dozen and EVERY single cable sounded different... even with cheap printer cables. A Lacie (blue) flat cable and the Belkin Gold sounded extremely different from each other. I sure wasn't expecting that! I'm currently using a (used) JCAT USB cable and very happy with it. Replaced a mellower sounding Revelation Dual-Conduit.
 
My advice: Look for a great deal on a used high-end USB cable and never look back. If anybody has an argument with that, please take it elsewhere.

Click to expand...

Cheers to that!
 

robertsong said:

   
Just to add some more feedback to the thread.... 
 
I tried both about a month ago. I could not get the DXIO Pro 3A to work with 176.4khz and 192khz sample rates and I tried everything with my software programs. I also heard a slight crackling noise on the +5v power input. So I sent the unit back for a refund. Great company. It's a shame b/c I was leaning towards the DXIO in sound quality, and agree with everything rb2013 said about it.
 
The Breeze and DXIO are two awesome sounding units with VERY different sonic signatures. Breeze is darker and much richer sounding to my ears. Also more "analog" sounding. DXIO has absolutely incredible transparency!
 
It all depends what you're looking for. I loved them both.

Click to expand...

Did you have the 'old' design Pro 3A or the new one.  They've made some changes.  I agree the Breeze has wonderful rich tone - and another half octave of bass then the Hydra Z (LPS) I had for months before.  But you should hear the Breeze with the Cerious Graphene Xtreme power cable - the detail greater and the tone even more sumptuous.  But a well fed (LPS) DXIO (new version) is just on another level still.  It was hard for me to accept this - especially since it has that damn USB power relay and needs a driver with it's handshake.  The only USB bridge I have had that does not work with Chodi's Luckit drivers.  Also note I could not get 192k and 176k to work with Jplay 6.2 - so just removed Jplay - then 192k and 176k worked fine.  This is really important for me as I use SoX upsampler on my Redbook files to run them at 192k in my main system.
 
But I'm in awe of this thing  - the level of stage depth and the clarity of image - scarily holographic on the Maggies.  Well it's just in a whole new realm.  And the tonal richness is terrific.  The Breeze/Cerious is more forgiving of down stream equipment.  But on a really tuned in system - pretty spectacular - and worth all the hassles. 
Complete audio addiction.  Like super Crack for the ears.
 
Now I want to see if the Breeze with mods can be taken to an even higher level,  new caps, new SPDIF RCA, new clocks, etc...