Stello U3: async USB to coax & AES/EBU transport <Impressions updated>
Jan 15, 2013 at 4:20 PM Post #181 of 279
Quote:
No probs. That said, would be GREAT to do that usb cable-> psu upgrade.

 
There ya good, my good man: http://www.head-fi.org/t/646363/review-of-the-5v-kingrex-mk2-psu-used-in-usb
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Jan 16, 2013 at 12:34 AM Post #182 of 279
so you say that Teddy Pardo PSU was too colored in comparison?
 
Jan 26, 2013 at 2:22 AM Post #184 of 279
some news you all might be interested in!
 
Found on the April Music Korean website:
 
DP1/U3 0x0330 firmware update
Thesycon 1.61.0 Driver
 
http://www.aprilmusic.co.kr/kor/freeboard/view.php?idx=8265&part=freeboard
 
I performed the firmware update first (using the 1.22 control panel). I decided to install the update via 1.22 rather than 1.43 just to be safe.
I then de-installed 1.22 and installed the 1.61.0 driver
 
At the end it said my device wasn't found but disconnecting/reconnecting it did the trick.
 
So far so good!
 
Jan 26, 2013 at 6:59 AM Post #185 of 279
Oh wow, amazing! How come it's not on the english speaking website?
 
BTW, you can find the 1.63 drivers at http://www.luckit.biz/downloads/Luckit%20WaveIO%20Drivers%20(v1.63.0).rar
 
The .inf files need to be modified of course, same story as with the 1.43 
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It adds the following over 1.61:
Quote:
-----------------------------------------------------
V1.63.0 (December 3, 2012)
-----------------------------------------------------

* New: Support for Latency Control added. Device latency
is now added to latency reported through ASIO.

* Chg: MIDI OUT pipe throughput increased

* Chg: enabled compiler optimizations for debug build

* Chg: merged in current library code

* Chg: improved error handling in case device fails
a set sample rate request.

* New: Statistics enhanced to allow a more detailed
analysis of processing runtime

 
Jan 26, 2013 at 7:16 AM Post #186 of 279
Alright! Just did the following:
-unplug the DP1
-uninstall 1.43
-install 1.22
-update firmware
-unplug the DP1
-uninstall 1.22
-install the modded 1.63, et voilà 
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There's only one silly option that has to be changed, you definitely wanna force it to "always on" instead of "power saving":
 

 
Jan 26, 2013 at 10:04 AM Post #187 of 279
Finally something happened. I just made the firmware update and after that the update to 1.61 and there were no problems in the process.
 
Lately I've had few occasional dropouts while watching movies through my PC. I hope these new drivers are more stable. At least they should be light years ahead of the 1.22.
 
leeperry: Do you have updated list of the driver history. I have bookmarked some old link you pasted here a while ago but it ends in 1.48: http://pastebin.com/nmWumqPK
 
Jan 26, 2013 at 2:44 PM Post #189 of 279
Oh yah, and the 1.61 notes make it clear that "driver operates in event-driven mode now" so enabling HPET has become a good idea more than ever IMHO. The next stop is to force HPET to use 0.5ms resolution instead of the default 10ms, but the rabbit hole always goes deeper heh 
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All this said, Morricone sounds outstanding(off the remastered CD, not this vinyl sourced youtube lossy encode) with the 1.63 drivers
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Jan 26, 2013 at 4:47 PM Post #190 of 279
Quote:
Oh wow, amazing! How come it's not on the english speaking website?
 
BTW, you can find the 1.63 drivers at http://www.luckit.biz/downloads/Luckit%20WaveIO%20Drivers%20(v1.63.0).rar
 
The .inf files need to be modified of course, same story as with the 1.43 
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It adds the following over 1.61:

 
I noticed a while back that the April Music local site had a lot more content than the english one so I have been checking it for this update
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Thanks for the info on 1.63, I have installed that now and it is sounding great!
 
Jan 26, 2013 at 7:43 PM Post #191 of 279
Well done Sherlock and thanks for the heads-up as I had no idea! Yeah, the 1.63 sound most outstanding to my ears....I kinda doubt that the SQ improvement would be placebo when you can read about the zillion improvements the driver went through(and most importantly the firmware as well), especially now that it is using the Event Timer which is a much tighter clock source 
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Jan 26, 2013 at 10:50 PM Post #192 of 279
I've spent many hours listening to the 1.63 drivers and my subjective impressions on the DP1 is that the "watch through the studio cabin window" feeling has drastically increased, so did the 3D imaging(especially the front channel) but the SQ is so much clearer that it's quite a bit more analytic than before and the sweet "magical" sound of the DP1 seems to have suffered in the process? It's far less forgiving than before and it makes small defects in recordings far more audible IMO.......I might roll back to the 1.22 fw + 1.43 drivers just to be sure but I surely enjoy the increased clarity and stereo image layering anyway and you can't blame a transport for sounding too clear I guess huh....gonna have to work on my audio player and find better sounding settings, don't shoot the messenger as they say!
 
I haven't watched movies yet, but I guess Reclock in bit-perfect 24/192 is gonna kill w/ the new drivers
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PS: no J.... word was harmed in this post ^^
 
PPS: stereo imaging is too amazing in this tune(in FLAC): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADMRpwfPHww
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 7:03 AM Post #193 of 279
Quote:
I've spent many hours listening to the 1.63 drivers and my subjective impressions on the DP1 is that the "watch through the studio cabin window" feeling has drastically increased, so did the 3D imaging(especially the front channel) but the SQ is so much clearer that it's quite a bit more analytic than before and the sweet "magical" sound of the DP1 seems to have suffered in the process? It's far less forgiving than before and it makes small defects in recordings far more audible IMO.......I might roll back to the 1.22 fw + 1.43 drivers just to be sure but I surely enjoy the increased clarity and stereo image layering anyway and you can't blame a transport for sounding too clear I guess huh....gonna have to work on my audio player and find better sounding settings, don't shoot the messenger as they say!
 
 

 
After some extended listening I feel the changes are just as you have described. I had never felt my HD650 had imaged all that well unless it was a binaural recording, now they seem much closer to speakers. So 3D and so layered! The sound seems leaner and tighter also, using the DP1 "filter" function seems spot on for HD650 when it was a bit overblown before.
 
Has it gone to far? Not for me using HD650 at this stage, but I can imagine that something as simple as using the wrong USB cable could push it over the edge. I use an SOtM USB card with battery power supply which I think helps keep any noise or grain out of the music.
 
I haven't had a change to try it properly in my speaker setup as my S1 Amps are in Korea getting V2 updates. By all accounts the S1 V2 updates give a fuller more liquid sound so I think it is going to be a good match for the updated DP1.
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Jan 27, 2013 at 9:35 AM Post #194 of 279
Yep I read about the S1 upgrade on the korean speaking official forum you mentioned earlier and they seem to be adding an extra PSU board of some sort?
 
Anyway, I've been forced to finetune my crossfeed and EQ settings but today with fresh ears, yes the new drivers indeed seem to allow hearing even further *into* the recordings...most impressive! I used to both love and hate(sometimes simultaneously, sometimes one day and the other) that "sweet" sound of the DP1 that was very forgiving and focused on playing music instead of making tiny defects audible..but the new software is definitely setting the bar a whole notch higher to my ears, centered vocals sound sooo true-to-life that you could almost tell what microphone/preamp/tube combo was used
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I've been listening to my DP1 on a daily basis for +1 year so I guess my brain would also need to adjust and I often read that J..... can add musicality when OTOH pretty much eliminating it could make the music (too) analytic and sterile sounding. You can't find progress anyway and there is no such thing as a sound that is too "tight"(which is really how it feels as the sound seems more focused/less blurry and to suffer from a lot less random "time based" distortion). I often heard deep funk lovers stating that pretty much only JB was truly tight as a swiss clock and I gotta say that his music has gotten even more amazing. Too bad a lot of sub-par recordings are barely listenable now, and lossy audio is a huge no-no...time to chase for more HD sounding material I guess but I thoroughly enjoy my new DP1 on steroids fosho.
 
Hopefully the new software will yield the same astounding effect on the U3
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PS: the amazing sounding 13 volumes "Mojo Club - Dancefloor Jazz" serie is really up for it!
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 11:33 AM Post #195 of 279
I just rolled back the old software and there is no question that the sound is quite different....I'll try the new firmware with the 1.48 drivers in order to know whether it's the drivers or the firmware that are at play here 
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I also collected the 1.50, 1.53, 1.55, 1.56 and 1.57 so that should keep me busy for a while heh
 

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