[FredA]

Have you tested your linear power supply? Sometime the problem is on the LPS.
And the clock should output sine wave signal to the DI-20, not square wave.

Both the sine and square should work. I use sine anyway. I will give a switching wallwart i have a try but i think it has been done already. Thanks.

 

[FredA]

The issue is with the fact the ocxo has sharp ponctual peeks with power consumption.. It still occurs with the wallwart, just had 3-4 occurences of the issue. The unit i have supposedly could work with 12v/1a but did not. I needed 2A for it to come alive. So the ocxo unit has an issue.

About the price spent on the ocxo, only long-term reliability should justify spending more than i did, cause the improvement potential is small. Don't forget my dac reclocks using inferior xos, at least on paper. As for the gps feature, it by itself does not help with sound quality. What does is the quality of the circuit feeding the ocxo and the crystal. So paying more for a unit that includes better regulation is a good idea, just don't pay more the gps antenna. The best units out there meant for audio don't have the gps feature. What matter is phase noise, not long-term frequency accuracy.

If you have an old audio-gd dac that works in synch mode using i2s like the master 7, the ocxo could have more effect but it remains to be tested cause the dac does itself introduce phase noise.

 

[DACLadder]

I have to agree with @FredA! AES/EBU sounds great driven by the DI20HE. My R7 doesn't have AES/EBU input so I plugged up the S7 (factory M7S) running DSDCLK firmware. I2S sounds a little grainy by comparison. AES/EBU beats ACSS SPDIF by a touch. Using internal clocks on the DI.

 

[Pappas3278]

Little advice needed.

Would you use your best power cord with the DI20 or the DAC that it is attached to?

-Mike

 

[FredA]

Little advice needed.

Would you use your best power cord with the DI20 or the DAC that it is attached to?

-Mike

The dac i guess. It draws more juice. At least, the heaviest gauge should be on the dac. Both have to have good shielding ideally.

 

[Wynnytsky]

Would you use your best power cord with the DI20 or the DAC that it is attached to?

For me the interface was more reactive to the cord.
My DAC has a 2ft 9awg and the di20he has a 6ft 13awg -- I wouldn't go skinnier than that on the interface.
Will try swapping the 6ft for an 8ft version now.

 

[Tango Sierra]

My DI-20HE arrived yesterday (Friday) when the DHL driver set the package on my front porch at 11:15 and honked his horn as he pulled out of my driveway. I set the box on a living room table to acclimate to the indoor climate for a few hours before opening to prevent condensation from forming inside the winter cold DDC. At 12:15 the mailman dropped off a box of various cables from Audio Sensibility to add to the many cables I already have from this company. It wasn't until late afternoon that I was able to start rearranging a few shelves in order to fit the DI-20 into my system and finally connected and powered up the unit somewhere between 5 and 6 PM. I told myself that I would wait at least 100 hours (this coming Friday afternoon) before peeking in to have just a little listen. Well, I'm proud of myself to say I actually lasted five hours.

A well broken-in AS Statement USB cable connects my Aurender N100H Server/Player to the DI-20HE. Between the Audio-gd DDC and my Master 7 Singularity are an AES/EBU cable, an RCA-RCA coaxial cable, a BNC-BNC coaxial cable, all Statement OCC silver cables from Audio Sensibility plus a DH Labs 0.5 meter HDMI silver-plated OCC copper cable. All my gear is connected to a Furman IT-20 Reference power conditioner using all Audio Sensibility Statement OCC copper Power cables. The AES/EBU and BNC/BNC coaxial cables are brand new so those may require some burn-in time.

At this point, I can't hear very much difference with the AES/EBU or coaxial cables. The cables may need time to burn-in and I need time to assess the subtle differences of the SQ. It is a much different story for the HDMI I2S connection. Holy Hi-Fi Batman, the difference was immediately obvious. It takes a jazz, blues or rock studio recording and makes it sound like a live performance with the listener sitting in the VIP section. Great imaging and separation. I am now listening to a recording of a concert performance of On The Radio by Cheap Trick and now it is so much more alive than before. I am 72 years old and even when I was young I couldn't dance but earlier a 24/96 remix of Bonnie Raitt's I Will Not be Denied had me moving around in my chair. The MFSL remix of Muddy Waters' Good Morning Little Schoolgirl from the Folk Singer album gave me goosebumps. Brubeck's Blue Rondo a La Turk, Cannonball Adderley's Dancing In The Dark, Art Pepper's Holiday Flight, Holding Back The Years by Little Jimmy Scott, Gerry Mulligan's For An Unfinished Woman, jazz music I have long enjoyed has something new to offer me. I thought orchestral recordings were great already but now that old cliche rears its ugly head, I heard things I never heard before in those great classical concert halls.

It may be a tad rough sounding now waiting for burn-in improvement. The 500-hour mark will be 23 January and the 1,000-hour mark happens 13 February.

Tomorrow I will take the DDC out of the chain and check back in every few days.

 

[JaMo]

Well, I'm proud of myself to say I actually lasted five hours.

Ha ha.. The DI20-HE is a piece of art but it need some patience. The first hours are fantastic followed by a less glowing period...but that magic comes back
/Jan

 

[FredA]

@Tango Sierra Congrats! Passed 500 hours, burn in is mostly done. I am burning the usbridge signature now so i still have slight sound fluctuations by i believe my di has reached maturity at passed 650 hours. You will need a fully burned unit to pick your favorite output. The differences are quite subtle but there and they make a difference.

Thanks for mentioning these jazz albums, always looking for good ones.

 

[hifiks]

Is it possible to improve the digital signal of a CD player with the Di20 via SPIDF?
I haven't read about it here in the forum.
Thanks a lot!

 

[Tango Sierra]

@hifiks Placing the DI-20 between your CD player and an external DAC might give you some improvement depending on the DAC. If you don't have an external DAC the DI-20 won't work with your CD player because the DI-20 doesn't have an analog stage or outputs.

 

[REAN1MAT0R]

I am burning the usbridge signature now

Can you set this usbridge as default audio output device in windows for all sounds output through it?

 

[FredA]

Can you set this usbridge as default audio output device in windows for all sounds output through it?

Windows has to support upnp or airplay. Under Volumio (installed on the usbridge), you have both options. Anyone using upnp on Windows?

 

[REAN1MAT0R]

Windows has to support upnp or airplay. Under Volumio (installed on the usbridge), you have both options. Anyone using upnp on Windows?

I mean does it appears in this settings as option for default sound output?

Guys
One question is in my head
DI-20HE recives usb signal, reclock it by its Accusilicon 90/98M and converts to i2s
but Ping Faun i2s bridge has ultra oxco clock as an option. It have no need to convert from usb signal - it makes i2s initialy. If pink Fauns "ultra ocxo" clock is better then Di-20HE internal clock.. may be we does not need Di-20 at all ?

 

[Tango Sierra]