[FredA]

Thanks for the suggestion Fred. I'm not that computer savy. If the USB Blaster does not appear in the Device Manager, are there addional manual steps to get the computer to recognize the blaster?

You can try following this procedure, and choose the option to find the driver in the altera folder. This should work. To determine which device it is in the list, if not obvious, unplug the blaster and try determining which device disappears from it or reappears when pluging it back.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wi...properly-update-device-drivers-windows-10?amp

 

[517269]

Can't get USB Blaster to appear on Device Manager on two different PCs to try the R8HE upgrade.
Tried all three USB ports on laptop and all four USB ports on my wife's PC.
There's not much "grab" on the connector into the rear USP Upgrade port on the R8HE.
Could it be I'm not getting the electrical connection? as the connector is recessed from the rear panel...
I was thinking of shaving a 1/16" of rubber off the cable connector to see if it needed to connect deeper into the upgrade port.
Suggestions welcomed.

I took 1/16" of rubber off the end of the connector that plugs into the R8. Now the Device Manager responds to plugging and unplugging the USB on the PC.
But still no USB Blaster" under Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Fred - Thanks for the Google Tutorial. I'll start that next.

 

[FredA]

@AudioBang Follow the procedure i just linked to install the driver from the altera folder.

 

[517269]

You can try following this procedure, and choose the option to find the driver in the altera folder. This should work. To determine which device it is in the list, if not obvious, unplug the blaster and try determining which device disappears from it or reappears when pluging it back.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.windowscentral.com/how-properly-update-device-drivers-windows-10?amp

OK got it! Thank you Fred!

 

[comzee]

Wow I missed the dsdclk firmware, this thread moves so fast.
Well, I guess people are saying even tho it's a dsd fix revision, it still improves PCM, so I flashed it this morning.
After listening for a few hours it's my favorite OSx8 since VA3.

I was never able to go back to VA3 because it had i2s issues for me. I'm glad now with dsdclk it's just as good without the i2s issues.
On "P_2" I thought OSx8 was a little brittle and slightly wonky in stage. (still way better than the original asy OSx8 tho, that was horrid imo)
dsdclk on OSx8 is very natural to me, while giving me the holographic sound.

I've always like NOS mode, but to me it's always made the sound warmer, it sacrificed what I consider a holographic sound for a more natural one.
OSx8 on dsdclk now sounds holographic without sounding unnatural to me, again for the first time since VA3.

I can see NOS still being to some peoples tastes, to me it's extremely defendant on what amp / speaker + headphones ones using.
But, if you're somebody that likes OSx8, I'd give dsdclk a try, it's worth it.

 

[anroj]

Can't get USB Blaster to appear on Device Manager on two different PCs to try the R8HE upgrade.
Tried all three USB ports on laptop and all four USB ports on my wife's PC.
There's not much "grab" on the connector into the rear USP Upgrade port on the R8HE.
Could it be I'm not getting the electrical connection? as the connector is recessed from the rear panel...
I was thinking of shaving a 1/16" of rubber off the cable connector to see if it needed to connect deeper into the upgrade port.
Suggestions welcomed.

I had the same issue and came to find out that my blaster was defective. Not sure that’s your issue but after purchasing a new blaster it works fine.

 

[DACLadder]

@AudioBang I had a bad Blaster as well. The cheap blasters sell for about $3.00 on Ebay so lowest quality. Had to buy a better clone like this. Next step up is a Terasic blaster for $50+.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-R...681777&hash=item1a1e37de2b:g:X-8AAOSwHMJYCqgY

 

[517269]

@AudioBang I had a bad Blaster as well. The cheap blasters sell for about $3.00 on Ebay so lowest quality. Had to buy a better clone like this. Next step up is a Terasic blaster for $50+.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-R...681777&hash=item1a1e37de2b:g:X-8AAOSwHMJYCqgY

Thank you to everyone's assistance on this.
I may have caused some confusion with my terminology.
On my new R8HE, I have the built in Upgrade Port.
The issue was in fact that the male connector on the provided USB cable was not reaching the electrical contacts of the recessed Upgrade Port connector on the R8HE.
I used a razor to trim a little over 1/16" of the rubber off the end of the provided cable and it worked.
R8tda Asy P.jic successfully downloaded.
Static reported on 24/192 files is gone and Static on DSD256 file is gone with new load.

 

[anroj]

Thank you to everyone's assistance on this.
I may have caused some confusion with my terminology.
On my new R8HE, I have the built in Upgrade Port.
The issue was in fact that the male connector on the provided USB cable was not reaching the electrical contacts of the recessed Upgrade Port connector on the R8HE.
I used a razor to trim a little over 1/16" of the rubber off the end of the provided cable and it worked.
R8tda Asy P.jic successfully downloaded.
Static reported on 24/192 files is gone and Static on DSD256 file is gone with new load.

Glad you got it sorted out.

 

[DACLadder]

@AudioBang. Good job!

 

[517269]

Wow I missed the dsdclk firmware, this thread moves so fast.
Well, I guess people are saying even tho it's a dsd fix revision, it still improves PCM, so I flashed it this morning.
After listening for a few hours it's my favorite OSx8 since VA3.

I was never able to go back to VA3 because it had i2s issues for me. I'm glad now with dsdclk it's just as good without the i2s issues.
On "P_2" I thought OSx8 was a little brittle and slightly wonky in stage. (still way better than the original asy OSx8 tho, that was horrid imo)
dsdclk on OSx8 is very natural to me, while giving me the holographic sound.

I've always like NOS mode, but to me it's always made the sound warmer, it sacrificed what I consider a holographic sound for a more natural one.
OSx8 on dsdclk now sounds holographic without sounding unnatural to me, again for the first time since VA3.

I can see NOS still being to some peoples tastes, to me it's extremely defendant on what amp / speaker + headphones ones using.
But, if you're somebody that likes OSx8, I'd give dsdclk a try, it's worth it.

TotalDac, which is also a NOS Filterless DAC utilizes a FIR filter solely for the purpose of adding gain at the rolloff so the NOS response is flat to 20Khz.
Maybe DacLadder or another Senior contributor on this thread could suggest trying this out to Kingwa and if successful, load that into NOS 2 as an option....

 

[FredA]

TotalDac, which is also a NOS Filterless DAC utilizes a FIR filter solely for the purpose of adding gain at the rolloff so the NOS response is flat to 20Khz.
Maybe DacLadder or another Senior contributor on this thread could suggest trying this out to Kingwa and if successful, load that into NOS 2 as an option....

I am pretty sure Kingwa does this already, would have to confirm with him..

 

[gk2013]

OS8. Not from what i hear. It seems like Kingwa has retuned the sound overall. Or that the first time i listened to p2, there was some other issue with my setup. I would be very surprised i Kingwa had only changed DSD.

Os8 soundstaging is now very similar to NOS.

I was sceptical (about R7tda_Asy_P2_dsdclk) but you're right OS8 with PCM sounds different and good, so good! Its closer to NOS now.
OS8 has a wider soundstage compared to NOS, OS is filling the room. NOS also has its qualities though. Now I can't chose
I'll stay on OS8 for a while ...

 

[barbas]

I was sceptical (about R7tda_Asy_P2_dsdclk) but you're right OS8 with PCM sounds different and good, so good! Its closer to NOS now.
OS8 has a wider soundstage compared to NOS, OS is filling the room. NOS also has its qualities though. Now I can't chose
I'll stay on OS8 for a while ...

Do you find NOS same in P_2 as in DSDCLK?

 

[gk2013]

Do you find NOS same in P_2 as in DSDCLK?

I could not hear huge differences between NOS between the firmwares P2 and P2_DSDCLK