[christmclean]

Thank you good idea. I asked Kingwa about the I2S working with the North star DAC but he said he said he did not know. But I sent a request asking if the unit will upsample to 24/192 on the I2S output.

 

[mowglycdb]

It's definitely an upgrade over the stock USB32,  more clarity, naturality and details on the mid and highs  but I feel something strange with the bass, it doesn't go that low or hit that hard, it has loss presence (it's tighter though and has more SQ to it), I think it may have to do with the DI-2014 not being burned in at all or the i2s cable. When I asked for my unit they shipped it in two days.

 

[Denys]

I bought mine on July 31st....was sent on August 22nd and arrived in Montreal 4 days later....

The unit becomes very very hot (which surprised me).... I'll ask Kingwa if I may leave it on the REF5 without problems.....

Not burned yet, but I know there's an improvement over the original DI I own....

More to come

Denys

 

[christmclean]

Got an update from Kingwa. They are willing to remap the I2S output to match the I2S input on my North Star Design 192 DAC. That is some true customer service that you do not see from many companies. I thought I would have to build a custom cable to do the remapping.
 
Kingwa also stated that the unit does not do up sampling but does pass the signal up to 394. So I would have to do the up sampling in the media player, which Sonos does not do. The NSD 192 DAC needs a 24/192 input to enable the I2S input so I am out of luck here using a Sonos as an input.
 
So I thought I had a solution to use the I2S input on my DAC but looks like the up sampling has changed that.  I guess I could just use the spdif input but was really hoping for an I2S solution.

 

[hostrup]

Hi 

1. christmclean

 
I have owned the North start dac 192 - a couple of year ago - i was using it with the Teralink X2. 
I just used a short rj45 cable - and plugged it in to the DAC 192 - it worked flawless. 
It did not require the signal to be 192 - the only difference between the i2s input and the other inputs was that the i2s input would not be upsampled. 
So when i got the sound from i2s i would be eg. 44.1 and the upsample button did not work. 
 
So unless northstar has changed this (my was a revision 1) it should work with the audio-gd. 
 
I am acutally considering buying a North start dac 192 again and the DI 2014 - and them make kingwa reconfigure the i2s output - 
 
I will post if i managed to get everything in line  
 
br 
Ronni 

 

[bballas]

Last weekend i modded my usb 32 (master 7).
-install one pcs lt1129cst for firmware chip,one more tcxo,connect this unused 5v usb ,my computer inside install linear board and r core transformer these things
 -find I/0 or pll, powered via unused rj45 socket with audio gd psu a 3.3v-linear lt 1084-r core transformer.
-Also use original master 7 3.3v power for these rest component.
-Find the  best usb signal directly in the pci e,or mini pci  motherboard socket,without any chip,or card-extremly short signal path.(motherboard have separate 3.3v linear rail)so i no need other pci e usb3 card  reclock,or filter.
The sound??

 

 

[christmclean]

I decided to stick with coax inputs and outputs on my North Star Dac 192. I found a nice Empirical Audio Synchro-mesh and went with it. It was really tempting to try the new Audio-GD DI 2014 and it would have worked with the I2S input. It does put out 3.3V and not 5V like the North Star would like so it was not ideal. Hopefully someone else will try out the new DI 2014 and report back.

 

[mowglycdb]

After having the DI-2014 during about 2 weeks, I can say that the bass has got much better than at the begining. The slam must be about what it was before but the sub-bass is stronger and more defined. It's an upgrade in all aspects. My drive must be in about 100 + 70 hours burn in.

 

[gevorg]

Last weekend i modded my usb 32 (master 7).
-install one pcs lt1129cst for firmware chip,one more tcxo,connect this unused 5v usb ,my computer inside install linear board and r core transformer these things
 -find I/0 or pll, powered via unused rj45 socket with audio gd psu a 3.3v-linear lt 1084-r core transformer.
-Also use original master 7 3.3v power for these rest component.
-Find the  best usb signal directly in the pci e,or mini pci  motherboard socket,without any chip,or card-extremly short signal path.(motherboard have separate 3.3v linear rail)so i no need other pci e usb3 card  reclock,or filter.
The sound??  

Very interesting! Can you please post more details/pics/links? In particular, the part about best USB signal directly from PCIe.

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

After having the DI-2014 during about 2 weeks, I can say that the bass has got much better than at the begining. The slam must be about what it was before but the sub-bass is stronger and more defined. It's an upgrade in all aspects. My drive must be in about 100 + 70 hours burn in.

Sound great,could you plz let us know what dac you are pairing with the di? And did you try all output?

 

[mowglycdb]

Sound great,could you plz let us know what dac you are pairing with the di? And did you try all output?

 
 
I've only tried one output,  and two inputs,  USB from my PC and optical from my PS3. I'm conecting it the Master-7 i2s.

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

   
 
I've only tried one output,  and two inputs,  USB from my PC and optical from my PS3. I'm conecting it the Master-7 

so are you using the i2s cable from audio-gd? have you tried another i2s cable?
i also looking for shipping the same combo di2014+m7

 

[mowglycdb]

Yes I'm using the 30cm cable from audio-gd, I'm looking into getting another i2s cable about 4" long.

 

[mowglycdb]

So,  listening to music again yesterday, I noticed the bass slam is gone yet again. I think it's all over the place like Dacladder said, maybe it's the i2s. I wouldn't know for sure.

 

[ciphercomplete]

I really wonder why I2s when implemented using the rj45 standard/connections has problems with stability. Might be a good question to ask Steve at Empirical audio.

I wish Kingwa would just use the ps audio/HDMI standard.