[bimmer100]

  For sure: I do not doubt that the HiFaceII was way down on your list for a good reason.  I am still using the HiFace2. And I am looking forward the getting the Pro3A, - to test against.
 
Edit: adding, - I meant that I have no doubt that the Pro3a will beat the HiFace.
 
Cheers,

will you be using a linear power supply with the Pro3a?
 
you'll get the best results... but on usb power it's good. if your usb is super clean power than it should be great!
 
but most people have 20mV noise on their USB line. that's...uhm. bad.
 

 
low noise psu's like corsair are around 8-12mV, and thats "acceptable"
 
cheapo linear psu's like teradak dc30w are around 1mV which is "good"
 
and high end psu's like Paul Hynes, IFI iUSB 3.0, Mojo, and obviouslys the Uptone Audio JS-2 will have ultra low noise from .1uV - 40uV
 
anything in the low microvolt range is excellent.
the pro3a has regulators that are 1uV so it cleans up most of the signal, so feeding it something from a teradak dc30w is usually ideal and will be sufficient for near max performance.
definitely cheapest route.
 
I'm going to add a belleson regulator to my Teradak DC30w to get 5uV noise output.  I'm installing a SPJ17 5V regulator. down side is that i'm going to be limited to 5V if I use that regulator. thats ok, I considered using it only for 5V anyhow.  The DC30w is awesome since you can easily switch voltage by opening it up and using the adjustment screw to change voltage. use a voltimeter to verify.

 

[Albrecht]

Thanks again!!
 
I am ordering the Pro3A today, - but will likely wait for a bit on the PSU until I see what and how I'll be powering the Sonore microRendu. It has not been released yet, and I currently am just spinning CDs/SACDs. My MacMini died a rather dramatic death & was planning on moving to a network digital file player anyway. So, - I'll consult with Sonore as to whether it would be best to get one power supply to power both, or to get two separate LPSs, or perhaps I can run the Pro3A off of the microRendu's power.
 
I am "watching" the DC30 in my EBAY list. But, I must admit to being a bit intimidated that I'll get the wrong thing.
 
Cheers,

 

[bimmer100]

  Thanks again!!
 
I am ordering the Pro3A today, - but will likely wait for a bit on the PSU until I see what and how I'll be powering the Sonore microRendu. It has not been released yet, and I currently am just spinning CDs/SACDs. My MacMini died a rather dramatic death & was planning on moving to a network digital file player anyway. So, - I'll consult with Sonore as to whether it would be best to get one power supply to power both, or to get two separate LPSs, or perhaps I can run the Pro3A off of the microRendu's power.
 
I am "watching" the DC30 in my EBAY list. But, I must admit to being a bit intimidated that I'll get the wrong thing.
 
Cheers,

Ask the ebay seller for a DC30W set for 5V output and ask for a DC cable that is 2.5mm inner and 5.5mm outer.
 
done dilly.

 

[Albrecht]

Awesome!! Thank you so much!!
 
Cheers,

 

[bimmer100]

   
I received my Cerious Graphene Extreme digital cable (w/ Furutech Rhodium BNC plugs) last week and have been breaking it it. My initial impression with zero break-in was ... WOW.
 
More on this later.

 
I love HDMI i2s but am excited to give this Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme digital rca/coax cable a try. Purty cable! Although I kind of wish I got it in gold now...silver is cool either way...also comes in red and blue.  It will feed my Vanatoo T1's more than likely. Also have a Mad Scientest Audio Heretic carbon fiber cable to test too. 

 

[hugoboss]

@ Bimmer
 
 i curious about that pro arc 3 u mention but i can only find its on diynhk. where did u get it?
i am looking at taobao but no luck finding that.
also  i saw the price at diynhk its really cheap juat below $170, just like the new melodius mxu8 version 1.6 with new case
i saw some of ur chart , is the new melodius version 1.6 also sound worst than pro arc 3?
thanks
 
 
btw i just saw xmos website regarding the new x core 200
the link is here
 
http://www.xmos.com/blog/xmos/post/xcore-64-bit-accumulator-and-memory-bus
 
i quote some from there which i see this x core 200 is a interesting chipset
 
XMOS xCORE-200 devices are built around a 32-bit fixed point architecture, which includes a 64-bit accumulator for enhanced dynamic range. This architecture was chosen because it gives flexibility to implement many different forms of fixed-point and integer arithmetic efficiently.
In addition to the raw 32/64 bit performance of the xCORE-200, the device family can scale in terms of processor cores and MIPS. At the lower end the 8-core 500 MIPS device (250 MMACS sustained) is ideal for High Resolution stereo audio I/O and processing applications, while the high-end 32-core 2000 MIPS device (1000 MMACS sustained) can support up to 64 channels of time division multiplexed (TDM) audio.

 

[bimmer100]

@ Bimmer

 i curious about that pro arc 3 u mention but i can only find its on diynhk. where did u get it?
i am looking at taobao but no luck finding that.
also  i saw the price at diynhk its really cheap juat below $170, just like the new melodius mxu8 version 1.6 with new case
i saw some of ur chart , is the new melodius version 1.6 also sound worst than pro arc 3?
thanks

I assume you are talking about the dxio pro3A. Which is exclusive to DIYinhk since they produce it. It will be hard to beat for the price! Usually what I would still recommend to anyone who wants ultimate bang for buck. And consider getting a decent linear psu for it, especially if your USB power is dirty. But the regulators on board are quite good. rated for 1uV of noise. The NDK's are pretty much the best oscillator all around. The crystek957's are really similar and about as good, just a little different.

 

[bimmer100]

Recently I had taken on the project to mod my audio-gd DIU8 and get the most out of it and it's great design. I love that it has more practical use than other designs. It includes for outputs and inputs than any other DDC on the market. I prefer i2s HDMI as well.
The stock diu8 was pretty good, albeit behind the pro3a in detail retrieval. But the diu8 modded win crystek 957's quickly jumped up about 2-3% to get closer to the pro3a at the point it's hard to tell which one is better. I recently went a step further and modded the DIU8 with the infamously hard to solder NDK oscillators. They are audibly the best oscillator, especially in the bass region. Check out the comparison of NDK's, crystek 957 and ocxo oscillators. The graphs show how impressive this tiny little guys are. The downside is how difficult they are to solder. I've found the only way to solder them with with a hot air gun and sra low temp solder paste. Otherwise.... They burn up in a flash due to their strict solder reflow process and uber sensitivity to heat.... Obviously they are small and can't handle much.


I also added to the adapter boards a really good murata 1% bypass cap... Even tinier than the NDK's. Photos can show a good comparison of the stock crystals on the diu8, crystek and NDK's. As well as the bottom of the board with the little murata bypass caps.

Anyhow. How does it sound? Well I'm keeping the NDK's! They are my preference, although the 957's are pretty darn close.

Modding is a bit of fun. If you just want the performance and don't care about input and outputs, the pro3a is a good route. Albeit to get the most out of it, I highly recommend to not use USB power. Get linear power. 2.5mm/5.5mm DC 5V is sufficient.

 

[hugoboss]

@ bimmer yes i refer to that diyinhk product.
 
 
today i found another ddc these one using xmos plus fpga procesosor xiliink sprtan i think
and it can use eksternal linear psu ,
any expert here can u see the component inside and the crystal is that good component inside?
 
the link
http://world.taobao.com/item/35754687661.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.WeHBHA#detail
 
 
the pic
 



 
 
spec is
24BIT USB transferoptical fiberCoaxial AES / EBU digital interface
HIGH-END decoder and PCHIFI perfect combination
 
Technical Specifications Features
Use XMOS USB top chip
Using 1.0PPM TCXO
FPGA phase-locked loop jitter-less Function
USB Audio 2.0 (high speed)
High accuracy active crystal + FPGA clock circuit efficacy
WaltzdigitalUsing a high-accuracy temperature compensated crystal oscillator 13M 22.5792M 24.576M crystal clock accuracy rate 1PPM  precision audio oscillator digital transmission provides an accurate clock sourcePhase-locked loop circuit utilizes the efficacy of complex logic circuitsWhen the total elimination of jitter
Support 192khz / 24bit
Provide ASIO / WASAPI drive
High-quality filter capacitor
Waltz digital using OS-CON high quality filter capacitor, the elimination of power supply noise, providing clean power for high-quality output music.
 
Support AES / EBU
 
 

 

[Janis]

Hi,
 
does XMOS require Vbus from source (PC)?

 

[hugoboss]

yes almost all xmos require 5volt . except some ddc that can use eksternal psu 5volt

 

[abartels]

Recently I had taken on the project to mod my audio-gd DIU8 and get the most out of it and it's great design. I love that it has more practical use than other designs. It includes for outputs and inputs than any other DDC on the market. I prefer i2s HDMI as well.
The stock diu8 was pretty good, albeit behind the pro3a in detail retrieval. But the diu8 modded win crystek 957's quickly jumped up about 2-3% to get closer to the pro3a at the point it's hard to tell which one is better. I recently went a step further and modded the DIU8 with the infamously hard to solder NDK oscillators. They are audibly the best oscillator, especially in the bass region. Check out the comparison of NDK's, crystek 957 and ocxo oscillators. The graphs show how impressive this tiny little guys are. The downside is how difficult they are to solder. I've found the only way to solder them with with a hot air gun and sra low temp solder paste. Otherwise.... They burn up in a flash due to their strict solder reflow process and uber sensitivity to heat.... Obviously they are small and can't handle much.


I also added to the adapter boards a really good murata 1% bypass cap... Even tinier than the NDK's. Photos can show a good comparison of the stock crystals on the diu8, crystek and NDK's. As well as the bottom of the board with the little murata bypass caps.

Anyhow. How does it sound? Well I'm keeping the NDK's! They are my preference, although the 957's are pretty darn close.

Modding is a bit of fun. If you just want the performance and don't care about input and outputs, the pro3a is a good route. Albeit to get the most out of it, I highly recommend to not use USB power. Get linear power. 2.5mm/5.5mm DC 5V is sufficient.

 
 
Hi Bimmer,
 
Very nice job! Finally the long awaited comparison between the Crystek's and NDK's, and, yes, as expected, the NDK's DO sound better 

 
Thanks for clearing this up for us!
 
Btw, I can't see the decoupling caps on the NDK pcb's, did you put them on the bottom of the pcb? They need o.01uF
 
Keep up the good work,
 
Regards,
Alex

 

[bimmer100]

Hi Bimmer,

Very nice job! Finally the long awaited comparison between the Crystek's and NDK's, and, yes, as expected, the NDK's DO sound better :wink_face:

Thanks for clearing this up for us!

Btw, I can't see the decoupling caps on the NDK pcb's, did you put them on the bottom of the pcb? They need o.01uF

Keep up the good work,

Regards,
Alex

I used http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Murata-Electronics/GRM2195C1H103FA01D/?qs=llZZn2%252bGHG7fuZsd9N3alg%3D%3D

1% tolerance 50V 0.01uF muratas. A fine little bypass cap for this project. Many have used ones with 5% tolerance, but went with these guys this time. I have many different pcbs board for dip14 sockets... Some rhea, some from Ian at DIY, but I kinda like the rhea boards the most.
Really the hardest part of this project was to mount dip14 sockets to that audio-gd xmos board with smaller traces for smaller oscillators. It worked quite well with low temp solder paste and 3mm tip hot air. Takes a bit of precision.


You can see the other components around the oscillators are in the way for a direct connect. Hence the long lead dip14's with customs bent pins are needed. Fortunately the ones I bought allowed for bending without much loss in strength. They feel very secure now.

 

[sealykojac]

I did reach an agreement from Breeze where they refunded me the full purchase price minus shipping for my faulty DU-U8 and I did not have to ship it back to them. So being out just shipping and getting to keep it I cracked it open to see if I could see anything obviously wrong inside but nothing jumps out. I will add that even with the crackles and pops you can noticeably tell this has better bass and clarity than my Gustard X12 run off its USB.
 

 

[robertsong]

   I will add that even with the crackles and pops you can noticeably tell this has better bass and clarity than my Gustard X12 run off its USB.

 
 
It's totally true. Sound quality is several steps above.
 
To me, the Gustard sounded extremely veiled in the high freq's. I only had it for about a week.