M2Tech HiFace 2?

[Acix]

Hubee, sounds like a big change in the sound. Have you guys connected both units to the same USB hub?

 

[Acix]

Audiofunboy, great work man! I cant wait to see the final self discharge version. I think I'll try first the 5VUSB power injector with a nice Jemko Euro like transformer.

 

[Audiofanboy]

LSD batteries might wait a few days, since my current batteries seem to be doing fine for now. I've already powered the Hiface for 4-5h from maybe 80% full batteries, I'm just hoping I can get at least 10-15h before the voltage drops too much, enough for like a few evenings of music and movies basically.
 
I'm still curious how a linear PS fares compared to batteries though. Since, the best both options give is a stable 5V input, which is still going to go through a DC-DC converter once in the Hiface (and probably still be quite inferior to direct 3.3V input). Please don't hesitate to post impressions when you get to try the 5V injector!

 

[hubee]

Quote:

Hubee, sounds like a big change in the sound. Have you guys connected both units to the same USB hub?

Yes we used the same Mac, the same USB port. One or two songs listened with one Hiface, and then pulled it out and changed to another Hiface.
Yes, i think it's a relative big difference. And more if i think that these are the same device... at least theoritically..

 

[hubee]

Quote:

My hiface two has a 05xx serial number and *sounds* quite like you describe in general terms, intimate realistic soundstage and very musical and balanced frequency response.
 
I  haven't had a chance to hear an other unit, but I wouldn't be surprised to find hardware differences. After all, the first hiface had that one revision at some point with the poor smaller 44.1 clock that sounded like crap, and eventually reverted to a large quality clock generator, after trying to cover up the problem for a while. So, the differences could be on the board and not in the firmware (never found firmwares for the hiface two anyway, and wouldn't be from Thesycon like the drivers, and not from m2tech, so with no real variety compared to other XMOS based chips?).

Thanks for your reply. And.. on windows why is there a firmware tab in the driver ? This should be there with a reason i think. It could be a hardware difference, but i hope not :S

 

[Chodi]

Quote:

Thanks for your reply. And.. on windows why is there a firmware tab in the driver ? This should be there with a reason i think. It could be a hardware difference, but i hope not :S

The driver is as oem product sold to several vendors. That was probably put there by the software designer to create a selling point to the various oem customers. It is not something that M2Tech requested for their own purpose (although they might have thought it potentially useful).

 

[Audiofanboy]

Quote:

Thanks for your reply. And.. on windows why is there a firmware tab in the driver ? This should be there with a reason i think. It could be a hardware difference, but i hope not :S

Yes, there is a firmware upgrade tab on the windows driver. But again, bear in mind that this is a Thesycon driver and not M2Tech, which means the firmware upgrade tab doesn't necessarily mean the firmware is upgradeable on the Hiface Two, or that M2Tech intends to make their firmwares public. I know I've read of cases for the Hiface 1, where someone had to send his unit back to M2Tech to get "his firmware changed" for whatever reason.
 
For the record, my firmware upgrade tab shows: "Device: M2Tech USB Audio 2.0 (VID: 0x249C PID: 0x930B)"
Don't know if that's even useful or not, but just in case...

 

[Anda]

Quote:

For the record, my firmware upgrade tab shows: "Device: M2Tech USB Audio 2.0 (VID: 0x249C PID: 0x930B)"
Don't know if that's even useful or not, but just in case...

 
VID: Vendor ID
PID: Product ID
 
This is just used to identify the USB device.

 

[Audiofanboy]

Quote:

 
VID: Vendor ID
PID: Product ID
 
This is just used to identify the USB device.

Any chance the Product IDs could be ever-so-slightly different *if* different revisions of the Hiface Two were made, you think? More like, do you think it could be a way to check if that's actually the case?

 

[Anda]

Quote:

Any chance the Product IDs could be ever-so-slightly different *if* different revisions of the Hiface Two were made, you think? More like, do you think it could be a way to check if that's actually the case?

 
I don't know if this would be the case. I guess it's up to the vendor. I don't know if they would change product ID for new revisions. Mine has 06xx serial and same ID as yours:
 
Quote:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 249c:930b

 

[Jmstrmbn]

Would this work to power the Hiface 2?
 
http://www.amazon.com/OEM-UTStarcom-USB-Adapter-Cable/dp/B002W8EDOM/ref=pd_sim_cps_4
 
I have a powered USB hub which I thought would do the trick but it is only powered when not plugged into the computer so had no real benefit.  I thought this would allow me to plug the HIface into the hub for power and computer for signal simultaneously.  
 
Any thoughts?
 
Thanks in advance for the help

 

[Somnambulist]

Got my eye on a cheapish 2nd hand one of these. Combined with external power (e.g. AQVOX power supply) do people using these with a SBT + EDO really notice a big difference? I have the John Swenson PSU for mine which gives it rock solid voltage and zero noise, and was planning on just using either a well-shielded coax cable or glass optical... but I'm tempted to dip my toes with a reclocker without paying crazy prices.

 

[Acix]

Quote:

Got my eye on a cheapish 2nd hand one of these. Combined with external power (e.g. AQVOX power supply) do people using these with a SBT + EDO really notice a big difference? I have the John Swenson PSU for mine which gives it rock solid voltage and zero noise, and was planning on just using either a well-shielded coax cable or glass optical... but I'm tempted to dip my toes with a reclocker without paying crazy prices.

 
Right now I'm using the Klotz VL06L/37 with great results, I also need to finish the Vandamme cable, and the Klotz V06/37H, I'll compare them soon after some burn in. I usually go for the pro studio cables first.

 

[Acix]

My DIY spdif 75 ohm cable, green Klotz VL06L/37 with a black Amphenol RCA connectors.
 

 

 

 

[Somnambulist]

Very nice. Truth be told I'm kind of jonesing for a used Stello U3 which I could use with an XLR adapter to directly connect it to the M51 at the back. At £365 new it's too much though, so it'd have to be 2nd hand. The other option will be to see if the new JKenny converter is compatible with the SBT as it's USB Audio Class 2, but that's about £330 as well, although it won't need an AQVOX or some such, which I'd have to buy for the U3.