I don't have a DI-V3, but a Reference 10.32 with the DI-V3 built in (pretty much everything from audio-gd now uses usb-32). Same drivers everyone else is using but also a dac/hp amp/pre-amp. I'd tried to use firmware #3 on the spare firmware chip sent with my unit before, but it my computer wouldn't recognize it at all, so I went back to firmware #4 chip. When I went to firmware #7 I flashed it onto the non-functioning #3 driver chip because I figured if that didn't work I'd just stick with firmware #4. As for the software/driver versions I ran with success, I've used 1.22, 1.3, and now 2.0.
As for asynch vs adaptive, after reading some threads I thought Kingwa commented that all firmwares were asynch. Maybe I read that wrong, but that was the impression I was under. Even if that's not true I have no idea which mode it's actually running in. As for the separation of instruments, it is definitely there on the previous drivers but what I'm hearing on #7 (for my setup at least) was a game changer in realism. Things sounded accurate and right, and there was plenty of separation with depth, but everything is much more defined on #7. To put in another set of words, everything sounds like bubbles floating around (when mixed that way) that pop and play the specific notes in time in a holographic dome. Even on complicated passages with multiple instruments playing literally everything is in it's own detailed little bubble, meaning you don't even have to think to listen to specific passages. Not only that, but everything just sort of "pops" as if it was the only thing playing. Each instrument is so detailed that each section could be it's own solo piece if everything else were to stop, but the thing is everything is playing at once. Parts of this explanation might be due to my specific setup however, but i'm hearing all these things after a simple driver update. I've never heard anything like it before this.
Based on reviews I've read on the DI-V3 beating audiophilleos and losing only to the berkeley alpha usb (google that for a price check), I believe that firmware #7 might have actually propelled the DI-V3 to or over the berkeley unit. Just from a free driver update. What the V3 has is great musicality but not as much detail as other usb boxes. Firmware #7 fixes that in my mind.
(For the record, I'm running on a oc'd ivy bridge rig in a fractal design full tower case (because I almost can't hear it))
(Probably Final Edit: It's much easier to hear the differences on speakers over my denons at least. Not that I use my denons much anymore.)
I don't have a DI-V3, but a Reference 10.32 with the DI-V3 built in (pretty much everything from audio-gd now uses usb-32). Same drivers everyone else is using but also a dac/hp amp/pre-amp. I'd tried to use firmware #3 on the spare firmware chip sent with my unit before, but it my computer wouldn't recognize it at all, so I went back to firmware #4 chip. When I went to firmware #7 I flashed it onto the non-functioning #3 driver chip because I figured if that didn't work I'd just stick with firmware #4. As for the software/driver versions I ran with success, I've used 1.22, 1.3, and now 2.0.
As for asynch vs adaptive, after reading some threads I thought Kingwa commented that all firmwares were asynch. Maybe I read that wrong, but that was the impression I was under. Even if that's not true I have no idea which mode it's actually running in. As for the separation of instruments, it is definitely there on the previous drivers but what I'm hearing on #7 (for my setup at least) was a game changer in realism. Things sounded accurate and right, and there was plenty of separation with depth, but everything is much more defined on #7. To put in another set of words, everything sounds like bubbles floating around (when mixed that way) that pop and play the specific notes in time in a holographic dome. Even on complicated passages with multiple instruments playing literally everything is in it's own detailed little bubble, meaning you don't even have to think to listen to specific passages. Not only that, but everything just sort of "pops" as if it was the only thing playing. Each instrument is so detailed that each section could be it's own solo piece if everything else were to stop, but the thing is everything is playing at once. Parts of this explanation might be due to my specific setup however, but i'm hearing all these things after a simple driver update. I've never heard anything like it before this.
Based on reviews I've read on the DI-V3 beating audiophilleos and losing only to the berkeley alpha usb (google that for a price check), I believe that firmware #7 might have actually propelled the DI-V3 to or over the berkeley unit. Just from a free driver update. What the V3 has is great musicality but not as much detail as other usb boxes. Firmware #7 fixes that in my mind.
(For the record, I'm running on a oc'd ivy bridge rig in a fractal design full tower case (because I almost can't hear it))
(Probably Final Edit: It's much easier to hear the differences on speakers over my denons at least. Not that I use my denons much anymore.)
