[alxw0w]

OK this is a shout out to folk with brains, my Nuc, which is a dedicated Roon Server, it does not have a optical output, usb out only, so I was thinking, what is a good USB A-A or A-B to optical converter.

Basically, I just want a decent converter box that takes a usb out connection from my nuc and converts it so that I can have an optical cable coming out of said converter box and going in to my mscaler, instead of the usb a to b cable which I’m using now.

So does anyone know of a good one ? Oh and I don’t want to spend £££s for one.

Leave NUC as just Roon server.
For optical output buy raspberry pi 4 + HiFi Berry digi pro plus (or newer version digi pro 2 I believe)
You will be surprised how good it is.
Once me and @Ragnar-BY did a comparison of such streamer vs optical rendu + farad3.
Many audiophiles would be shocked with the outcome.

Oh and yes the stack was M scaler + Dave.

 

[Reactcore]

So does anyone know of a good one ? Oh and I don’t want to spend £££s for one.

Ive built this PCB in my music server:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32857979420.html?

Cmedia Spdif USB chip 32b/192k
Real cheap and works perfectly.

Also boxed available.

 

[SoundeScapes]

OK this is a shout out to folk with brains, my Nuc, which is a dedicated Roon Server, it does not have a optical output, usb out only, so I was thinking, what is a good USB A-A or A-B to optical converter.

Basically, I just want a decent converter box that takes a usb out connection from my nuc and converts it so that I can have an optical cable coming out of said converter box and going in to my mscaler, instead of the usb a to b cable which I’m using now.

So does anyone know of a good one ? Oh and I don’t want to spend £££s for one.

I use this one. It’s very simple and works great:
https://www.futureshop.co.uk/cyp-au-d6-192-usb-digital-audio-converter-192khz-24-bit

 

[Progisus]

OK this is a shout out to folk with brains, my Nuc, which is a dedicated Roon Server, it does not have a optical output, usb out only, so I was thinking, what is a good USB A-A or A-B to optical converter.

Basically, I just want a decent converter box that takes a usb out connection from my nuc and converts it so that I can have an optical cable coming out of said converter box and going in to my mscaler, instead of the usb a to b cable which I’m using now.

So does anyone know of a good one ? Oh and I don’t want to spend £££s for one.

I got this on Amazon

https://doukaudio.com/en-ca/product...al-converter-xmos-xu208-digital-interface-dsd

Here it is in a Frankenstein portable stack.

 

[Meridian7]

After a laptop or cell phone usb, those douk's are very good price/quality! Have 2 of those.

Just fail to get them to work with Roon ARC app somehow.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

Once me and @Ragnar-BY did a comparison of such streamer vs optical rendu + farad3.
Many audiophiles would be shocked with the outcome.

You forgot about the AudioQuest Diamond USB cable. Which alone cost me more than rpi + hat

I would like to say something in defense of my very expensive Rendu + Farad + Diamond, but honest direct comparison left no chance. Sure, HQP upscaling, DSD files or CDs might be better, but for regular Qobuz/Tidal experience rpi + optical is is already as good as it can possibly be.

 

[Amberlamps]

Leave NUC as just Roon server.
For optical output buy raspberry pi 4 + HiFi Berry digi pro plus (or newer version digi pro 2 I believe)
You will be surprised how good it is.
Once me and @Ragnar-BY did a comparison of such streamer vs optical rendu + farad3.
Many audiophiles would be shocked with the outcome.

Oh and yes the stack was M scaler + Dave.

I had a rasp pi 2 which I gave away to an internet buddy, bought it years ago, it quickly became obsolete so I put it back in its box and then, one of my internet buddies house got hit with lightning and it blew up every single electronic device that was plugged in to the mains.

He only had his phone to get online with, so I gave it to him as a way for him to get back online properly, also gave him some cash and a couple of hard drives and ssd to help him build a new pc. He never had any house insurance and he was in a eastern european country, I forgot which one it was, but it wasn’t russia.

But a rasp pi is a cheap and easy solution, plus I used to and still do at times dabble with debian.

Cheers

 

[Drewligarchy]

Hi All -

Long time not talk - I hope you all are well. I've been almost exclusively listening to my Martin Logan 13as, so haven't been around for awhile - but planning on doing some serious listening to my headphones soon - and jumping back into head-fi.

Anyway, I have a small problem and need a recommendation. Mu Uptone LPS 1.2 failed, which I was using to power the RX side of my Opto DX? I saw on Uptone's site that the 1.2 is no longer being manufactured do to supply/parts. Anyway, can anyone recommend a suitable alternative? I don't want to use batteries, and don't want to spend a ridiculous amount because I was quite happy with how my system sounded with the Uptone. I just ordered an ifi ipower as a temporary solution(I also use it on the tx side), but I'm curious if any of you had success with other quality liner power supplies with Opto, that are at least don't have crazy prices, as I haven't been around for quite some time.

Thank you!
Andrew

 

[doraymon]

I am not familiar with the device.
But electrically speaking, noise of any nature needs an entry point AND an exit point to flow. by giving devices multiple earths, you cause the very thing you want to avoid.
If you think you got noise issue, disconnect earth connections, instead, use pieces of wire to connect each device metal body to a common device, say the Amp.
so preamp to Amp, DAC to amp, DAP to amp.
This is basics of star grounding. works for lower frequency noise .
Noise does not seek the ground wire specifically , so sticking a long copper rod into the earth, does not mean you get less noise .
Noise needs the ground wires to flow, from one ground wire to another ground wire, deny it.

Sorry to go back more than a year...
The noise I was referring to in my post was the one mentioned by Rob Watts HERE.
When redoing the electrical system at home I was trying to take any measures to isolate my HiFi gear from the rest of the house, so I asked the electrician to dedicate a separate switch on the panel only for my expensive boxes, which he did. Also, the earthing of the system has been redone following the latest safety rules.

All of this, as I understand now, has nothing to do with the kind of RF noise mentioned by Rob Watts in this old post.

My Dave is feeding directly the Omega CAM Speakers; no amp needed in my close range setup.
The signal path is UpTone Audio EtherREGEN > Lumin U1 Mini > Dave, so technically I have 3 boxes with their own mains power.

Now, will an electrical connection among the metal housing of the 3 boxes help, as you wrote?
Or I have to first get rid of the ground for all the 3 of them?
Sorry, I am confused...

 

[Amberlamps]

I got this on Amazon

https://doukaudio.com/en-ca/product...al-converter-xmos-xu208-digital-interface-dsd

Here it is in a Frankenstein portable stack.

I was actually looking at that one on amazon.co.uk, but it looks like I will have to get a usb A to C cable as my nuc only has 1 usb C port and it’s being used with a M.2 external SSD, but that looks to be the winner.

 

[Kentajalli]

Sorry to go back more than a year...
The noise I was referring to in my post was the one mentioned by Rob Watts HERE.
When redoing the electrical system at home I was trying to take any measures to isolate my HiFi gear from the rest of the house, so I asked the electrician to dedicate a separate switch on the panel only for my expensive boxes, which he did. Also, the earthing of the system has been redone following the latest safety rules.

All of this, as I understand now, has nothing to do with the kind of RF noise mentioned by Rob Watts in this old post.

My Dave is feeding directly the Omega CAM Speakers; no amp needed in my close range setup.
The signal path is UpTone Audio EtherREGEN > Lumin U1 Mini > Dave, so technically I have 3 boxes with their own mains power.

Now, will an electrical connection among the metal housing of the 3 boxes help, as you wrote?
Or I have to first get rid of the ground for all the 3 of them?
Sorry, I am confused...

How do you know you got noise issues that Rob Watts was touching on? What he is talking about is mighty difficult to detect. one needs lab equipment.
Is Dave driving your speakers directly? If that's the case, you are very unlikely to be suffering from that kind of RF noise.
If you are, it would be so minuscule, a lab equipment would have difficulty detecting it, let alone be audible. And to make matters worse, I don't think you can eliminate it.
Unless you have some other type of noise! describe your issue first, as best as you can.

 

[alphaman]

Ummmm ... Mr. Watts ... since you know about taps and LPF, what did NEC, in the mid 80s, mean by: "a 73-tap ND (non-delay) filter, which is supplemented by an FDNR (frequency-dependent negative resistance) low-pass filter. "

Please see this review of the CD-810 nec cd player (late 1986 model with 2x oversampling):
https://www.hifi-review.com/153665-nec-cd-810.html

 

[audio_1]

Hi All -

Long time not talk - I hope you all are well. I've been almost exclusively listening to my Martin Logan 13as, so haven't been around for awhile - but planning on doing some serious listening to my headphones soon - and jumping back into head-fi.

Anyway, I have a small problem and need a recommendation. Mu Uptone LPS 1.2 failed, which I was using to power the RX side of my Opto DX? I saw on Uptone's site that the 1.2 is no longer being manufactured do to supply/parts. Anyway, can anyone recommend a suitable alternative? I don't want to use batteries, and don't want to spend a ridiculous amount because I was quite happy with how my system sounded with the Uptone. I just ordered an ifi ipower as a temporary solution(I also use it on the tx side), but I'm curious if any of you had success with other quality liner power supplies with Opto, that are at least don't have crazy prices, as I haven't been around for quite some time.

Thank you!
Andrew

Hi, I am using the Farad Super 3 on both the Opto DX RX and TX. I also have one powering my Melco S100 switch. I experience absolutely no brightness or fatigue with my system. I am using the original power supply on the Mscaler, as recommended by Rob Watts.

 

[Rob Watts]

Is the current plan DAVINA still an 8ch input + 8ch output interface?

And separately - do any of the pro audio AoIP protocols interest you?

What if a recording engineer wanted 3x DAVINAs - how will clocking work ?

At the moment the ADC is just a simple 2 ch unit ideal for Blumlein recording with ribbon mics. Once I am happy with this then I can start thinking about something more appropriate for pro usage. But a solution to separate clocking without the usual loss in SQ has been sorted out.

Ummmm ... Mr. Watts ... since you know about taps and LPF, what did NEC, in the mid 80s, mean by: "a 73-tap ND (non-delay) filter, which is supplemented by an FDNR (frequency-dependent negative resistance) low-pass filter. "

Please see this review of the CD-810 nec cd player (late 1986 model with 2x oversampling):
https://www.hifi-review.com/153665-nec-cd-810.html

So a non delay FIR filter is an asymmetric filter, so the FIR equivalent of an IIR filter. Transient reconstruction would be very poor, much worse than a symmetric FIR. So it's certainly not a good idea, just marketing driven way to make something different.

The FDNR is just a fancy name for an analogue filter using op-amps, resistors and capacitors.

 

[doraymon]

How do you know you got noise issues that Rob Watts was touching on? What he is talking about is mighty difficult to detect. one needs lab equipment.
Is Dave driving your speakers directly? If that's the case, you are very unlikely to be suffering from that kind of RF noise.
If you are, it would be so minuscule, a lab equipment would have difficulty detecting it, let alone be audible. And to make matters worse, I don't think you can eliminate it.
Unless you have some other type of noise! describe your issue first, as best as you can.

My main issue is called OCD…
Jokes aside, I did not identify any specific issue but years in this hobby thought me that you don’t know you have an issue until you hear the difference.
It has happened to me several times also with the DAVE when I moved from feeding it from my PC to using the Lumin U1 mini. The sound did improve to my years and I liked it a lot.
Then I added the Etherregen and again another improvement.
I didn’t know I had any problems until I tried and achieved an improvement. No idea which problem I fixed with the Lumin and the Regen, but it worked.
So now I am just trying to understand if it can get even better.

I should probably use my iPad to feed the Dave directly and A/B vs the current configuration to see if I hear any difference.
A battery operated source should cut away any RF induced noise injected through the USB.
As you say it will probably be impossible for me to even perceive it, which is ok if that’s the case!