[Grey Massacre]

Hello,

Recently I have upgraded my sound sound card. I had a Philips Aurilium for a while, this external soundcard was powered by the USB cable. Now I have gotten a used M-audio Audiophile USB with upgraded PSU. I noticed the bass definition is much better and it seems to go lower as compared to the Aurilium. I would suspect is the power supply is greatly helping there.

The sound quality is clearly better, the highs/mids/bass are more defined. I use Audiophile USB to power my Darth's straight from the headphone jack and I find the sound quality is excellent! Oh and I am using the Native ASIO driver in 96/24 with SRC resampler to 96000hz in Foobar and I do not use equalizer.

So I took my M^3 to test out the the RCA outputs of the Audiophile. I do not have a good quality cable at the moment so I am using a 30 years old RCA IC cable. (Marantz 2275 era ) I was quite surprised to notice that the headphone out of my M^3 is not as clear/good sounding as the Audiophile. It could it be my interconnect?! I do not want to start the a cable debate, but I think I need silver or anything else since this cable seem really poor quality!

Both headphone outs are good, but when I compare one to the other the m^3 seem to hide details just slightly but I notice it, the sound signature is more rounded. The bass quantity/impact is better on the M^3 but the Audiophile seem to have better mids/trebles and definition.

I have some op-amps coming, currently using 8065's in L/R/G. I will change the op-amps so and see if the sound signature improve. I am getting some 637BP for L/R and 627BP for ground.

I am looking forward to testing a new cable to see if my suspicions will be confirmed!

Charles

 

[CyberTheo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grey Massacre /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello, Recently I have upgraded my sound sound card. I had a Philips Aurilium for a while, this external soundcard was powered by the USB cable. Now I have gotten a used M-audio Audiophile USB with upgraded PSU. I noticed the bass definition is much better and it seems to go lower as compared to the Aurilium. I would suspect is the power supply is greatly helping there. ... Charles

I'm upgrading as well. My Audiophile Firewire has just arrived this morning. It will replace a 4-year old Soundblaster USB MP3+ which served me well but the sonics was just so-so. I'm looking for significant improvement with this M-Audio. I'll post my findings about its sonics over the next little while.

This is brand new unit and probably a late-production one (the vendor said he had to wait one week for M-Audio factory to fill my backorder). Out of curiosity I cracked open the case to see what kind of components are used.

ADC/DAC: AKM AK4628
Opamps: JRC4580 for line in and line out, JRC3414 for headphone out
Caps: G-Luxon

Initially I thought the two models are very similar except for the USB and Firewire interface difference. I've seem photos of components of an Audiophile USB and found the components and layout are not quite the same as those in my new Audiophile Firewire. Now I'm wondering about the sonic difference between the two.

 

[Grey Massacre]

Interesting!

 

[CyberTheo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grey Massacre /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interesting!

Hey Charles,

What PSU upgrade does your M-Audio USB have? I heard that some users use a beefier wall-wart. I thought wall-warts don't do any power filtering. I have a 15V-100mA filtered/regulated power supply from an old preamp. The stock wall-wart for Firewire Audiophile is 12V-1000mA. I don't want to fry anything. Is it safe to use?

Theo

 

[FallenAngel]

You might simply have a problem in the ground channel of the M3 - AD8055 isn't the most stable ground opamp (at least in a few other designs), switch it something else and try. Of course try going through all the biasing on the M3 to make sure you're all set up.

 

[Grey Massacre]

I installed 637BP in L/R and 627BP on G, what a change. Details and the sound signature is a bit more laid back, softer, bass is better. My M^3 really shine now.

Charles