[parkjyh]

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[WiR3D]

Quote:

Are there any cheaper alternatives to 'Vaunix USB Hub' that can deliver a similar type of performance when it comes to supply clean power to a USB device?

look a few pages back, there was a Linear power supply link

 

[CanMad]

I received my O2 + ODAC from Epiphany a week and a half ago.  I find the sound very accurate and neutral and love the sound with my Etmotic ER4P's with P->S cable.
 
I feed it with lossless files via foobar.  As it is 96khz capable I have started ripping my DVD-Audio collection.  Today I tried an 88.2 rip of "The Soft Bulletin" by the Flaming Lips.  As it is 88.2 I was expecting silence without use of a resampler (such as the SoX DSP in foobar) to 44.1, however I got sound.
 
My question is this, does Windows XP detect that the ODAC cannot accept 88.2 and automatically re-sample to 44.1 or is all of my hi-res music being re-sampled and I am not getting bit perfect playback?  I have followed all the XP and foobar set-up steps from on the Benchmark Engineering Wiki pages.  

 

[wdahm519]

Quote:

I received my O2 + ODAC from Epiphany a week and a half ago.  I find the sound very accurate and neutral and love the sound with my Etmotic ER4P's with P->S cable.
 
I feed it with lossless files via foobar.  As it is 96khz capable I have started ripping my DVD-Audio collection.  Today I tried an 88.2 rip of "The Soft Bulletin" by the Flaming Lips.  As it is 88.2 I was expecting silence without use of a resampler (such as the SoX DSP in foobar) to 44.1, however I got sound.
 
My question is this, does Windows XP detect that the ODAC cannot accept 88.2 and automatically re-sample to 44.1 or is all of my hi-res music being re-sampled and I am not getting bit perfect playback?  I have followed all the XP and foobar set-up steps from on the Benchmark Engineering Wiki pages.  

 
Usually it downsamples for you, however doing it as a DSP might have more accurate downsampling. I don't have an 88kHz tracks, only 96, or else I would try it on my Squeezebox Touch to see if it also figures it out on that device.

 

[Funky-kun]

I had the chance to A/B today against the Xonar Essence STX (/w LME49720s) for an hour in a quiet listening environment.
 
I think overall the ODAC is a step up from the STX's DAC. 
 
ODAC is clearer sounding in the mid frequencies and lets more of the recording's details through. As such the sense of ambience in recordings is enhanced.
 
I think it is a question of the brain getting used to it, but absorbing more information from the mids tends to create the illusion of lesser bass presence in terms of quantity. However, when tested with bass notes, the ODAC clearly has no deficiency. In comparison the STX sounds like the sound has more body, but it is muffled.
 
The ODAC's highs are the biggest improvement over the STX. They just seem more realistic on good acoustic recordings - clear, extended and with remarkable resolution. In contrast the STX is harsh and sibilant at times. 
 
I wouldn't say the STX sounds bad, but the ODAC seems to offer better fidelity. The differences weren't night and day, but obvious enough to be clearly noticed in a short listening session.
 
I also noticed that the ODAC did produce a high-pitched noise when connected to a switched off desktop PC. Strangely this doesn't happen when connected to my laptop.

 

[Kayk]

Quote:

I had the chance to A/B today against the Xonar Essence STX (/w LME49720s) for an hour in a quiet listening environment.
 
I think overall the ODAC is a step up from the STX's DAC. 
 
ODAC is clearer sounding in the mid frequencies and lets more of the recording's details through. As such the sense of ambience in recordings is enhanced.
 
I think it is a question of the brain getting used to it, but absorbing more information from the mids tends to create the illusion of lesser bass presence in terms of quantity. However, when tested with bass notes, the ODAC clearly has no deficiency. In comparison the STX sounds like the sound has more body, but it is muffled.
 
The ODAC's highs are the biggest improvement over the STX. They just seem more realistic on good acoustic recordings - clear, extended and with remarkable resolution. In contrast the STX is harsh and sibilant at times. 
 
I wouldn't say the STX sounds bad, but the ODAC seems to offer better fidelity. The differences weren't night and day, but obvious enough to be clearly noticed in a short listening session.

 
I was about to do a mini-writeup but you said it better than I could have. I'll add that the highs of the ODAC come off as 'diamond-tipped'. This is coming in comparison with my previous DAC, the Audio-gd Sparrow, which is $240 :0
 
The box doesn't get hot at all, I wish the Audio Poutine version had a blue LED as opposed to red, but perhaps I can fix that. The lack of a physical volume knob my Sparrow had is very much missed, but the ODAC does one thing and it does it extremely well, so I'm sticking with it. I'm not using it in a headphone setup, but rather connected to a pair of AudioEngine A5+'s for those interested to know.
 
I also purchased a Kimber Kable USB mini Cu, and while I didn't do any A/B testing, I think the premium USB cable squeezed out an extra 2% in sound quality when replacing my monoprice cable. This definitely falls under the threshold of placebo, but I feel assured that any factors diminishing performance in that part of the chain has been eliminated.

 

[muad]

To be fair the audio-gd sparrow is also an amp...

 

[Kayk]

Quote:

To be fair the audio-gd sparrow is also an amp...

It is a preamp, from what I read most of the talk about it's design that led me to buy it was regarding the DAC portion of it.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

It is a preamp, from what I read most of the talk about it's design that led me to buy it was regarding the DAC portion of it.

 
Nope, the Audio-GD Sparrow is a dac/headamp combo unit. Hence why it only has a TRS plug for output and no RCAs, it can be used as a pre amp sure, but its defintiely a headphone amp.

 

[CanMad]

Quote:

 
Usually it downsamples for you, however doing it as a DSP might have more accurate downsampling. I don't have an 88kHz tracks, only 96, or else I would try it on my Squeezebox Touch to see if it also figures it out on that device.

Thanks for your reply.  Are you saying that you think Windows just down samples the 88.2 (44.1 or 48khz?) by detecting that the ODAC can't play these or that all my files are probably being downsampled? I'm going to try some 192khz today and see whether that results in sound or not.

 

[chouck]

ODAC + O2 combo portable mod

http://www.head-fi.org/t/616331/o2-amp-odac/45#post_8527670

 

[dwk]

I got the O2/ODAC combo from JDS last week. I've only had a chance to do some brief sporadic listening over some HD280s, but my impression is that it is a substantially better combo than the Sparrow I used to have (Rev A I think - the upgraded version). I found the HD280s to be rather 'blah' on the sparrow, but with the O2/ODAC they actually sound very good. This is for a work setup, and if the clamping force on the 280s wasn't so high I'd be perfectly happy with the setup for it's intended purpose - as it is, they just aren't comfortable for longer term listening. I'm either going to mod my T50rps, or else send them in for the mad dog mod - if the modded versions are anywhere close to what the buzz indicates, I think the overall setup for ~600 will be very very good.

 

[chouck]

If someone (like me) have problems with Windows Drivers and ODAC working you can use this Tenor TE7022 drivers set, that works!
 
If use ASIO please go to this web site download Asio driver:
http://www.ab-system.hk/product_driver/usb3pkg_v0p7p3p2a_20100401.zip
Teralink X2 Win7 64bit drive ( 03-03-2012):
http://www.ab-system.hk/product_driver/TeralinkX2Win764Bitdrive.rar

 

[jono454]

I'm assuming people have had enough time to burn-in their ODACs so would anyone have any updated impressions on how this stacks up against other DACS like the bifrost or HRT MSII+?

 

[Kayk]

Quote:

I'm assuming people have had enough time to burn-in their ODACs so would anyone have any updated impressions on how this stacks up against other DACS like the bifrost or HRT MSII+?

 
Read the earlier posts in this thread. The consensus is that the ODAC is a smidge better than the MSII+ and a smidge lesser to the Bifrost.