[Clemmaster]

You do not need to swap pinout when used with Off Ramp 5, PS Audio, Wyred4Sound, CI Audio, DI-2014 HDMI mod, etc.  Just use a standard, off-the-shelf HDMI cable.  Only Pink Faun seems to be rogue with inversion of the L/RCLK from the PS Audio method. 

It seems Audiobyte made the same mistake...
They're coming out with a revised Hydra-Z which will feature polarity invertion for all signals.
Should have my X+ exchanged in the future.

 

[DACLadder]

It seems Audiobyte made the same mistake...
They're coming out with a revised Hydra-Z which will feature polarity invertion for all signals.
Should have my X+ exchanged in the future.

 
Selectable polarity reversal would be a nice feature to have.  Let the customers easily set it up for their needs. 

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

just got my replacement di with hdmi and hdmi kit for m7, really good result
the most noticing that hdmi seem to fix sib issues which was reported by few di users
overall better imagine sense than built in usb32 and more natural feeling, no more harsh sounding in the highs
all agd users who wish to buy the di should definitely change to hdmi interface

 

[frizzup]

  just got my replacement di with hdmi and hdmi kit for m7, really good result
the most noticing that hdmi seem to fix sib issues which was reported by few di users
overall better imagine sense than built in usb32 and more natural feeling, no more harsh sounding in the highs
all agd users who wish to buy the di should definitely change to hdmi interface

 
What brand/model of HDMI are you using?
 
What's your source that connects to the USB32/DI-2014 ?
 
Have my Di-2014/HDMI on the way from Audio-GD for connection into my M7 so interested in your setup
 
Frizzup

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

   
What brand/model of HDMI are you using?
 
What's your source that connects to the USB32/DI-2014 ?
 
Have my Di-2014/HDMI on the way from Audio-GD for connection into my M7 so interested in your setup
 
Frizzup

just use a generic cheap hdmi cables, 3m length to test the di and m7 , having a qed cable on the way
before this i was using audio quest pearl 0.5m cat7 cable.
with hdmi interface, even the cheap 3m cable outperforms audioquest 0.5m cat7 cable ^__^
using wyrd with seperate 2 heads usb cable, power line from linear psu, data line from laptop, another usb cable with +5v line cut-off to di2014

 

[DACLadder]

  just got my replacement di with hdmi and hdmi kit for m7, really good result
the most noticing that hdmi seem to fix sib issues which was reported by few di users
overall better imagine sense than built in usb32 and more natural feeling, no more harsh sounding in the highs
all agd users who wish to buy the di should definitely change to hdmi interface

Happy to hear a good report !

 

[Articnoise]

Have anyone some knowledge on the optimal length for the HDMI cable, if one needs to have longer than 30 cm, (for Ethernet cable it seems to be 75, 150 cm). I also like to know from peoples that have tried different HDMI cables, if the quality of the cable make a difference?  

 

[Benny-x]

 
Have anyone some knowledge on the optimal length for the HDMI cable, if one needs to have longer than 30 cm, (for Ethernet cable it seems to be 75, 150 cm). I also like to know from peoples that have tried different HDMI cables, if the quality of the cable make a difference?  

There's only 1 HDMI cable to get, and that's the PS-Audio I2s-12. The one with solid silver conductors that got discontinued a couple years back. It comes in several lengths, up to 3m, but I've got a 1m version. There were also very limited, special ones made at 0.5m too. I'd try one if I could, but so far this 1m one has outclassed anything else I've had from 0.5m to 3m.
 
As for a generic optimal length, I've tried to stick with Steve Nugent's take on digital cables needing to be either absolutely short, <0.15m, or just about ~1.5m to avoid negative affects of reflections. So far so good, but HDMI and ethernet are also pretty complex, multiple signal cables; so who knows if there's really any merit to an "optimal length"?

 

[Articnoise]

  There's only 1 HDMI cable to get, and that's the PS-Audio I2s-12. The one with solid silver conductors that got discontinued a couple years back. It comes in several lengths, up to 3m, but I've got a 1m version. There were also very limited, special ones made at 0.5m too. I'd try one if I could, but so far this 1m one has outclassed anything else I've had from 0.5m to 3m.
 
As for a generic optimal length, I've tried to stick with Steve Nugent's take on digital cables needing to be either absolutely short, <0.15m, or just about ~1.5m to avoid negative affects of reflections. So far so good, but HDMI and ethernet are also pretty complex, multiple signal cables; so who knows if there's really any merit to an "optimal length"?

Witch other HDMI cables have you tried Benny?

 

[DACLadder]

  There's only 1 HDMI cable to get, and that's the PS-Audio I2s-12. The one with solid silver conductors that got discontinued a couple years back. It comes in several lengths, up to 3m, but I've got a 1m version. There were also very limited, special ones made at 0.5m too. I'd try one if I could, but so far this 1m one has outclassed anything else I've had from 0.5m to 3m.
 
As for a generic optimal length, I've tried to stick with Steve Nugent's take on digital cables needing to be either absolutely short, <0.15m, or just about ~1.5m to avoid negative affects of reflections. So far so good, but HDMI and ethernet are also pretty complex, multiple signal cables; so who knows if there's really any merit to an "optimal length"?

HDMI is less tweaky than RJ45 I2S.   Steve N. commits were taken from varying the RJ45 cable lengths to help tune out signal reflections and aberrations from perfect to get best performance from a less than ideal interface.  In contrast HDMI is a true transmission line with 100 ohm characteristic impedance which means if all the parts are well designed you do not need to tune anything.  There should be little/no signal reflection just normal attenuation as the cable length is increased.  HDMI is analogous to S/PDIF as the coax version has 75 ohm characteristic impedance.  Never hear anyone varying lengths of coax to get maximum smoke from S/PDIF.  So keep HDMI cables as short as you can to minimize signal attenuation and use one that is well designed/ tested.  I am not entirely sure cheap HDMI cables have a true 100 ohm impedance.  But I bet someone will come along eventually and say they can't tell much a difference between a short $6.00 HDMI cable vs. a mega buck cable.  On the very longest cables (3 ,4, 5 meter) though you really need the best design/ quality you can get.      

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

HDMI is less tweaky than RJ45 I2S.   Steve N. commits were taken from varying the RJ45 cable lengths to help tune out....      

This is what i have experienced, replaced the 3m generic hdmi with 0.5m qed graphite hdmi and could not tell the difference

 

[DACLadder]

Today for grins I'm using a 6 ft (2m) cheap, generic HDMI cable.   Got it with my $100 Blu-Ray player.  It sounds remarkably good.  May be slightly less soundstage and detail versus the 1 ft. Wireworld.  But not much difference and nothing glaringly obvious.  YMMV but experimentation is always a good thing.
 
6 hrs. later...  I went back to the 1 ft. Wireworld Silver Starlight 7 HDMI cable and it sounds a bit better.  A little crisper and improved clarity.  But very subtle differences in a positive sense.    

 

[frizzup]

So my Audio-GD DI-2014 with installed HDMI output and the replacement HDMI input board for my Audio-GD M7 arrived.
 
Fitting the HDMI input board was relatively easy, only slight hitch was that the existing RJ45 board and its I2S wires had a brown gluey substance holding the plug into the onboard socket. Sharp knife to cut away the glue, then a bit of leverage with a flat blade screwdriver freed the plug from the socket. Putting the new HDMI input board into the M7 took all of 5 mins.
 
Then it was down to loading the Audio-GD supplied USB32 driver onto my JPLAY Audio-PC and hooking the DI-2014 input through my existing Double-Helix USB cable and using a new loaned 1m Wire World Ultraviolet V7 HDMI cable between the DI-2004 output and M7 input. Did this with both DI-2014 and M7 powered down as advised by Kingwa.
 
Then it was onto the Control-PC and trying JPLAY settings to get music to stream.
 
- JPLAY settings panel recognized the USB32 driver as KS-AUDIOGD
- JPLAY settings panel needed 44.1kHz Buffers set to 128 to play music and 96kHz needed 256 to play music. While my Audiopilleo 2 with Pure Power Battery pack will work with all JPLAY buffers set to DIRECT
- JPLAY worked with those buffer setting for Beach, River and Extreme. But as advised by JPLAY Ultrastream will not work with Buffers greater than 32. While my Audiopilleo 2 with Pure Power Battery pack will work with all buffers set to DIRECT and therefore Ultrastream engine works.
 
Out of the box the DI-2014 --> HDMI/I2S ---> sounds brittle on buffers = 128 and the extreme engine compared to the A2/PP. We'll see how a few hours on the Di-2014 and the new Wire World HDMI cable sounds but fair to say I would miss the JPLAY ultrastream engine and the lower buffers it can operate with unless I can find a tweak of the JPLAY/USB32 settings that get me under Buffers = 32.
 
frizzup

 

[drez]

Have you tried different USB cable and USB ports?  Does USB32 sound any better with a larger buffer?  I usually increase slightly beyond the point where it sounds brittle.

 

[frizzup]

  Have you tried different USB cable and USB ports?  Does USB32 sound any better with a larger buffer?  I usually increase slightly beyond the point where it sounds brittle.

 
The USB cable is a custom built by Double Helix worth about US$350. Had no problems with this cable with AP2/PP. It was a significant step up from my previous Kimber USB cable. Still have the Kimber so will try it out as well. The USB port is one of two on a custom built PCiE card from PPA Studio (Paul Pang) and is compared with similar cards from SOTM and JPLAY. But I will try one of the motherboard based USB2.0 and USB3.0 ports.
 
Buffer for 44.1kHz = 128 and 96kHz = 256 are the smallest buffer I can get jplay to work with. I have not tried increasing the settings through to 512 or 1024 but they are the only settings left given settings of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 do not work at all.
 
I am running Windows Server 2012 R2 in Core mode on both the Control and Audio PC's (double PC setup for streaming). Also running Audiophils Optimiser V1.30 which does have a setting Y/N for optimising USB ports so I will try that = N, current set to Y. Again works OK with AP2/PP. 
 
So initial conclusion is that the VIA USB32 driver provided by Audio-GD for the DI-2014 does not provide the same level of performance/optimisation as the standard Microsoft USB driver built into Windows Server 2012 R2 when using my AP2/PP combination.
 
frizzup