Musiland Monitor 01 USD 24/192 USB to SPDIF

[TheShaman]

Looks interesting, to say the least!
XILINX, pulse transformers, drivers etc and the price is certainly right (at the moment)...
There is also the "Monitor 01 US" (not USD) version with a DAC and headphone amp.

Manufacturer's website.
Ebay auction ($75).

 

[Mik]

At that price, it looks tempting. I'll try it out.

 

[TheShaman]

It certainly does!
Please report back if you do try it out.
Looks like a nice match for my Buffalo DAC!

 

[Mik]

Will do. I bought one from ebay just now. I'll compare it to my Trends converter when it arrives.

 

[Cankin]

All I need now is a USB to SPDIF converter and my rig is done

I'm considering this one or M Audio Transit

 

[hrjacob]

Does any of you know if it'll work in Mac OS X?

 

[Mik]

I only see Windows drivers on the site for now.

 

[ericj]

fwiw "xilinx" is a vendor of programmable gate arrays. how "good" the part on the board is, is determined by how good the program it's running is.

The other major chip on the board looks like a Cypress EZ-USB interface.

My guess is that the musiland people took some notes from the other high resolution usb audio devices on the market and just configured the ez-usb chip to behave as though it's a standard usb audio device that happens to support some higher bandwidth modes -- this is how the M-Audio and Tascam devices work, at least.

Also, both of these chips don't have to be programmed at the factory - there's a fair chance that these are just so much digital playdough until the device driver uploads some firmware files.

So, since I use linux more often than windows, until i see an alsa driver for these, I'm not interested. plus i already have an m-audio transit anyhow.

 

[Lil' Knight]

So does this transport can truly support 24/192?

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif So does this transport can truly support 24/192?

That's the claim. It's all custom though - no off the shelf spdif transmitter - so who knows for sure?

 

[Lil' Knight]

hmmm, one question.
If I want to feed my external DAC (which doesn't have USB input) by optical, which is better? Using the USB transport (this one or the M-Audio Transit) or optical out of the Sound Card Blaster Audigy 2 ZS?

 

[dukja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Will do. I bought one from ebay just now. I'll compare it to my Trends converter when it arrives.

Please please let us know how does it go. I am also looking for low jitter USB->coax converter to feed my Audiosector NOS DAC. I was thinking about trends but really dislike getting a full DAC along (plus its size). This Musiland may be the solution with its small size if it sound great.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fiber404]

Let us know how it goes - I'm interesting in picking one up.

If you could take some pictures - that'd be nice too.

 

[Mik]

Will do. It hasn't arrived yet. Maybe in a week or so.

 

[glt]

Very interesting little device. Uses "ASIO" type of driver. Lets us know if it works with iTunes...