So you hear a big difference between the two orientations? Another seller (product ID 1005001668174034) claims that these are not directional, but I trust your ears,

Thanks, intriguing!

The link does not work for me. Do you have an Ali product ID?

Thanks @sns109 and @DBB1, and yes I will post further impressions before long. Not sure whether this thread or the Audiogon one is the best place for it? A friend of mine had the Mola Mola Tambaqui so I know that DAC pretty well. He replaced it with a (cheaper) CenGrand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe which...

Today I received a new 005. Before I used f.i. Lampizator, Pegasus, Terminator, Holo Spring 3 L2, Audio-GD, Teac UD-701N, Leaf Audio CMD27 (with Staccato opamps) and ECdesigns PowerDAC-SX. The latter I plan to keep as a parallel 'unvoiced' all-in-one system. I use a Rose RS130 streamer. I am...

Answer from Ferrum: "Unfortunately without DSD flag DSD will be not properly decoded."

I see that the I2S pin layout expects a DSD flag on one of the pins 13-16. Will it be possible to play DSD over I2S from a DDC that does not send this flag? An example is Audio-GD's DI20HE or DI24HE.

Actually I am offering my Heddphone ONE from 2022 for sale for the simple reason that I now have a dedicated audio room (and no neighbors). This means that I no longer (or hardly) listen to headphones anymore. Just send me a PM when interested. I am in Europe.

Yesterday I tried to drive my Heddphone One from the balanced XLR outputs of my DAC (Leaf Audio CMD27 with Staccato opamps), which has a volume control. I am using a balanced converter cable going from two 3-pin XLR's to one 4-pin XLR. It sounds great! I know that the DAC outputs 4.2V, but I do...

It is hard to compare as I am now using a DAC that only (!) has input for either Toslink (or the esoteric ElectroTos). The DAC is a an ECdesigns PowerDAC-SX. Admittedly limited in its connectivity, but it is so by design. And actually powerful in other respects as it makes external amplification...

I also have this Canadian cable and agree it is very good.

I am avoiding silver plated, but not sure that I should.

With these two boxes you need two USB cables and I noticed that the quality of the latter still makes a difference. However in all cases the USB > fiber > USB setup beats the single USB cable. I have tried Phasure Lush^2 and Xangsane 4N sterling silver USB cables (both very good cables -- I am...

I have something similar (actually 2 boxes with fiber in between) from Aliexpress, with 9V DC input. Best USB ever. Was looking for a link, but seems to be discontinued. Here is a pic.

The clock output on the DI20(HE) is not 10 MHz but a so called word clock output, for which the frequency of the clock signal depends on the resolution of the played file. Devices that can accept this are usually pro gear.

Though not 100% sure yet (much in transition), I sent you a PM.

For those who (like me) are reluctant to spend top money on an I2S cable: I am really impressed by the SQ of the Ricable Supreme Mk2 at €64 :-)

Yesterday I installed two V6 Vivid's in my Leaf Audio CMD27 DAC, for use with the balanced XLR outputs. I had to fiddle somewhat as initially they did not fit without DIP8 adapters, and with these adapters they were just slightly too high. However I found that they do fit without the adapters...

Square theoretically is better, but it depends on the implementation/quality. Also, square requires top notch cables with the right impedance. So with lower quality or mismatched cables sine can sound better. By the way I am using a Mutec Ref10 SE120 (square only) to feed a Rose RS130 and...

I believe the 4N etc. indicate the number of decimal Nines indicating the purity.

You expect it to be better than you expect it to be? That is expectation bias at work... :wink:

I did compare: (1) RS 130 > I2S > DAC (Leaf Audio CMD27) vs (2) RS 130 > fiber isolated USB > DI20HE > I2S > DAC and prefer the latter. For some time I have been fantasizing about the DI20HE becoming redundant, but that fantasy has not yet become reality...

Indeed I really like the openness of the Xangsane 4N USB cable. I am using two, with a fiber isolator between them.

Do you have a link?

Here is Peter Stordiau's (of Phasure fame) answer, translated from Dutch: Because HDMI has no standard for connecting the ground to connector and therefore no standard for the inter-chassis connection, the HDMI^2 offers the possibility to a. by default *not* have that connection; b. but still...