[Fujak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been using a 9V nimh battery and doing some listening tests. I can hear a very slight difference between the battery and laptop usb. (...)

I can confirm your description. I have made my experiences with an ordinary stabilized wall power supply. First I have had doubts, whether I can suceed in an audible improvement by such a 10$-solution - but it works.
My other idea for a high quality power supply: tapping the power supply of the Dac - probably a further increase of quality.

Fujak

 

[leeperry]

having second thoughts, XP users might very well not need KS at all...apparently in S/PDIF if you keep the WAVE slider at 100% you do get bit-perfect and bypass any windows resampling(it would be impossible on Vista/W7, though...but they have WASAPI anyway).

I've had an opamp OCD, so maybe I'll soon be like you guys and also hoard S/PDIF interfaces

so far I've ordered the NG COAX, I will try the ploytec drivers for KS...and if it fails or forces me to close the player when I wanna play a different sample rate, I'll try bit-perfect DS.

some ppl also reported that bit-perfect DS would sound different from KS...hah

 

[thoppa]

Hi,

I guess you are not a fan of asio, but for me, I don't have any particular preference. I just want a driver that allows the data to get to the device unmolested by the PC.

I got this device because I hoped it would do just that - get the data from Foobar and deliver it in an IIS format in the most accurate way.

I'm quite content that it does exactly that.

One thing about this though, all that time and money spent on the Asus ST and Onkyo SE-200PCI, while lots of fun for me, could have been saved and I could have just got a silent Asus EE PC desktop thingamy and hooked this up to it.....

But it's like op amp rolling....once you start.....you gotta try them all right ?

 

[m.massimo]

I received my X2 from Taiwan this morning. This is my first attempt in the computer based music. My Pc is a Asus F5VL notebook (Foobar 1.0) Vista noSP based and my audio system is a tube based in large part diy (Shigaclone CD player, TP Opus dual mono DAC, Broskie Cathode Follower output stage, Aikido preamplifier, commercial PP6550 power, Opera Quinta speakers).
The first try was without specific USB driver, a no-name USB cable and SPDIF DAC fed through a 5m Belden1694a CanareRCP RCA plugs.
A plug and play test without any previous burning-in.
I have to say that I was quite impressed from the beginning, cause I was expecting less quality with this starting setup.
I compared CD player to same tracks ripped. Cd player is better by safe margin but X2 is a serious contender taking into account that Shigaclone is very good.
After few days of burning-in I'll try 96/24, different usb drivers, different USB cable, spdif vs. i2s, external regulated power supply.
A question for you. I cannot check sample rate and bit at DAC level, so if X2 is fed with 192/24 I can listen music, but what is it? A downsampling?

 

[thoppa]

Hi Massimo,

I think the x2 asio driver is essential for Windows. It makes a significant difference. PM me if you don't have it.

I didn't think the x2 supports 192. How did you get this to work ?

cheers,

Tom

PS your first post ? Welcome !

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif I guess you are not a fan of asio [..] One thing about this though, all that time and money spent on the Asus ST and Onkyo SE-200PCI, while lots of fun for me, could have been saved and I could have just got a silent Asus EE PC desktop thingamy and hooked this up to it..... But it's like op amp rolling....once you start.....you gotta try them all right ?

well, I need KS for Reclock...as it doesn't support ASIO...only KS/WASAPI, and I happen to be XP resilient

and yes, most of the internal soundcards are worthless due to the nasty ATX SMPS...but it was all great fun, there's no place for regrets

oh, good opamps sound amazing and it's great fun when you can roll them w/o taking the PC apart each time

 

[erin]

Hi All,

I realise that the main advantage, and selling point of the x2 over the original is the ability to playback high sample rates over USB.

I see that many people are upsampling or using higher samplerate source material to review, but would appreciate some feedback as to the sound quality of the Teralink-X2 vs the Teralink-X (original) for 44.1Khz playback?

(The reason is that I cant use higher sample rates with my DAC - not complaining though)

Has anyone compared the two yet?
Is there a consensus on the matter?

Much appreciated if anyone could advise me before I buy one, if there is no massive improvement over the original I'd rather save my money (as I'm sure others would)
Thanks

 

[m.massimo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Massimo, I think the x2 asio driver is essential for Windows. It makes a significant difference. PM me if you don't have it.

Hi Tom, you sent X2 Asio to me by mail and I installed it. My X2 is improving through the burning-in process, so I prefer not to make a judgement about it until the unit is stabilized (first impression is very good, though), but Asio seems to be the better confronted with DS and Wasapi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't think the x2 supports 192. How did you get this to work ?

X2 doesn't support 192 indeed. I get error message with Wasapi and Asio, but with DS I get music, maybe there's a downsampling at pc level to meet the max samplerate allowed by X2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Massimo, PS your first post ? Welcome !

Thank you. I usually take a look at this forum, but this is the first time I post a message.

 

[Fujak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.massimo /img/forum/go_quote.gif X2 doesn't support 192 indeed. I get error message with Wasapi and Asio, but with DS I get music, maybe there's a downsampling at pc level to meet the max samplerate allowed by X2.

Ciao m.massimo,

indeed the sound routing via DS could produce downsampling - generally to 48KHz (not to the highest rate of the TeraLink X2, 96/24). So I would suggest, to use the ASIO option. I also compared Asio4All and Tenor-Asio-Driver and the result for me is preferring the Tenor-Asio-Driver due to its cleaner sound in the bass-range (in the mid and high a couldn't notice any difference). I would be interested in your experiences with both drivers (of course after burning-in .

Ciao
Fujak

 

[m.massimo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fujak /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would be interested in your experiences with both drivers (of course after burning-in .

Hi Fujiak, I'll post a feedback for sure. Is there a way to check samplerate and bitspersample that usb actually delivers? I see that Tenor-Asio CPL status bar is not always correct, sometimes shows 24bit and track is 16bit, sometime the opposite. Samplerate is usually correct. I'm not able to check the input signal at dac level (it accepts up to 192).

 

[Fujak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.massimo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there a way to check samplerate and bitspersample that usb actually delivers? I see that Tenor-Asio CPL status bar is not always correct, sometimes shows 24bit and track is 16bit, sometime the opposite. Samplerate is usually correct. I'm not able to check the input signal at dac level (it accepts up to 192).

I think, it's difficult to check it. The best way would be a display/LED at the DAC, but my DAC hasn't.

Ciao
Fujak

 

[m.massimo]

After 48hrs of continuosly burning-in, I tested usb drivers and external power this afternoon. Vista noSP, foobar 1.0, no name printer usb cable.
My preference is for X2-ASIO (the beta driver Tom sent to me), second WASAPI very near and last DS that sounds too much bright, sometime harsh (i.e. cymbals), for my taste. ASIO confronted to WASAPI delivers a more credible soundstage, more air around instruments and voices. I didn't get any booming bass frequencies, they're correct.
All of this in my opinion, obviously.
However all the three sound worst than my reference shigaclone CD player when I run CD ripped material (pcm or flac converted).
24/96, 24/48 or 44.1/16 master is another story.
I should add that sometime I got a great level of noise with Wasapi that forced me to change the usb driver in foobar.
My great surprise was with external power. I built a simple AC filtered regulated power supply based on LM7808 that delivers stable 8Vdc, nothing extraordinary, but it should be better than usb 5Vdc. I was expecting an improvement in sound quality, maybe slight, but nothing. I can't say I heard any difference between the two.
It was quite disappointing cause I took for granted that better ps means better sound quality, but it has not been the case.
Next test will be I2S. I've no experience with I2S, I never owned digital sources with I2S output, SPDIF only, so I don't know what to expect.

EDIT: tests with coaxial SPDIF, a 5m Belden 1694a CanareRCP RCA plugs

 

[Fujak]

Hi m.massimo,

thanks for your after-burning-in-review. It is similiar to my impressions - except the power supply: I use a simple wall plug power supply (10 €), which I have had for another purpose. I can't say: "Wow what an improvement!" But I can notice a slight improvement by switching between USB-Power and external Power. I'm using it at 9V. I think improvement depends on how much jitter is in USB-power coming from a specific PC/Notebook. So it might realistically be, that you and me come to different results regarding the external power supply.

Fujak

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

I ordered this converter but i have a stupid question : If the converter and my DAC are on 24/96 and if i play a 16/44.1 song (like 99% of my music) does it apply any kind of upsampling or oversampling ? or does it just play 16/44 without modifications ?

 

[Fujak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega17TheTrue /img/forum/go_quote.gif I ordered this converter but i have a stupid question : If the converter and my DAC are on 24/96 and if i play a 16/44.1 song (like 99% of my music) does it apply any kind of upsampling or oversampling ? or does it just play 16/44 without modifications ?

Hi Omega17TheTrue,
your question is not as stupid as you think: The DAC switches - in most cases/modells automatically - to the correct samplerate/bitrate depending on the samplerate/bitrate of the receiving signal. The same does TeraLink X2. So no need to worry about.
However: if there is a switch at your DAC to change samplerate manually and this is switched to 96/24 while your signal is 44.1/16 then it will be upsampled by the DAC to the switched target rate (in this case 96/24) - so in this case it would be better to adapt manually the samplerate to receiving signal in order to avoid loss.

I hope this answered your question.

All the best
Fujak