Usb 24 192khz M2tech Hiface

[crhodes64]

Folks

I've just spent all morning trying to purchase the hiFace fro delivery to the UK. So far I've emailed everyone at M2tech as well as tried to call their phone number multiple times, but this just seems to ring out.

Any advice? Are they still in business? Do they sell via any reseller here in the UK?

Many thanks


Colin

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crhodes64 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Folks I've just spent all morning trying to purchase the hiFace fro delivery to the UK. So far I've emailed everyone at M2tech as well as tried to call their phone number multiple times, but this just seems to ring out. Any advice? Are they still in business? Do they sell via any reseller here in the UK? Many thanks Colin

As far as I know, they have a reseller only for Italy.

Usually, they respond relatively quickly to emails but since it is a very small company it is not surprising that no one is responding. I would start worrying if you don't get any answer by tomorrow.

 

[tosehee]

I also little wodner about the method of measurement.

I can see that you can attach the device with SPDIF. But how do you test the async usb?

 

[crhodes64]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slim.a /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as I know, they have a reseller only for Italy. Usually, they respond relatively quickly to emails but since it is a very small company it is not surprising that no one is responding. I would start worrying if you don't get any answer by tomorrow.

Thanks Slim.a - They've responded now and I've ordered it.

Hope it works as I expect - I'm planning on plugging it into a DACmagic box from Cambridge Audio and squirting 24/96 at it. Anyone any comments on my planned rig?

24/96 FLAC - Monkey Audio - PC - USB - M2Tech hiFace - electrical RCA SPDIF - Cambridge Audio DACmagic - Phono - AVI PreAMP - ATC SCM 50A active speakers ( Iknow no Headphones yet but I'm working on that).

Main concern is what the DAC ig going to do to 24/96 stuff, it says that it upsamples everything to 24/192khz, any thoughts?

Cheers

Colin

 

[FauDrei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crhodes64 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hope it works as I expect - I'm planning on plugging it into a DACmagic box from Cambridge Audio and squirting 24/96 at it. Anyone any comments on my planned rig? 24/96 FLAC - Monkey Audio - PC - USB - M2Tech hiFace - electrical RCA SPDIF - Cambridge Audio DACmagic - Phono - AVI PreAMP - ATC SCM 50A active speakers ( Iknow no Headphones yet but I'm working on that). Main concern is what the DAC ig going to do to 24/96 stuff, it says that it upsamples everything to 24/192khz, any thoughts?

Do not worry - DacMagic benefits significantly from good SPDIF input. I've had excellent results with Monitor 01 USD and DacMagic. According to hiFace (p)reviews here - it should do at least as good with DacMagic.

Yes, DacMagic accepts up to 24/96 and upsampes anything accepted to 24/192 and then converts it to audio. It does it good - nothing to worry about again. Very clean and detailed.

 

[joost_db]

I'm considering ordering a hiFace to feed 24/96 into my DAC.

However one thing worries me from a design point of view. It seems like (with a heavy coaxial cable attached to it) it would put a lot of stress on the USB socket of my PC. Is this an issue I should be worried about? Are people using this with a USB extension cable? Is there an audible SQ difference?

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joost_db /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm considering ordering a hiFace to feed 24/96 into my DAC. However one thing worries me from a design point of view. It seems like (with a heavy coaxial cable attached to it) it would put a lot of stress on the USB socket of my PC. Is this an issue I should be worried about? Are people using this with a USB extension cable? Is there an audible SQ difference?

A heavy cable might put some stress on the unit, but it doesn't seem to affect its perfomance. As for using a USB extension cable, it might very well decrease the sound quality of the device. You might want to write to m2tech to ask about using an extension, they are usually very helpful.

 

[joost_db]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slim.a /img/forum/go_quote.gif A heavy cable might put some stress on the unit, but it doesn't seem to affect its perfomance. As for using a USB extension cable, it might very well decrease the sound quality of the device. You might want to write to m2tech to ask about using an extension, they are usually very helpful.

I just read the following in their FAQ:

Quote:

21)May I use an USB joint cable with hiFace? Yes, but attention must be paid to cable’s length: over 4 meters the performance of an USB connection worsen and it may happens that 192kHz file transfer is impeded.

So seems if I get a short USB extension cable this should not cause any problems... good news.

On a second note, my DAC has a RCA SPDIF input. Would it make any sense to go for the BNC version of the hiFace and then use a BNC-RCA digital cable? I guess the RCA would be the bottleneck and this wouldnt have any SQ improvements?

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joost_db /img/forum/go_quote.gif On a second note, my DAC has a RCA SPDIF input. Would it make any sense to go for the BNC version of the hiFace and then use a BNC-RCA digital cable? I guess the RCA would be the bottleneck and this wouldnt have any SQ improvements?

I think that BNC is useful only if you have a BNC to BNC cable and a BNC input in your DAC. Otherwise, there might not be a significant improvement in ordering a unit with BNC ... unless you intend to upgrade your DAC and digital cable later

 

[tosehee]

Having BNC connector allows you to have a true 75ohm. there is no conversion of ohm with RCA. I'd go with BNC and get BNC to RCA connector for now. If you ever decided to upgrade your DAC that has BNC, you do not need to buy anothrer hiface..

On top of this, BNC to RCA connector is like $3.00.

 

[tosehee]

Little update on the 1.02 driver.

The 1.01 driver seems to have some stability issue with windows 7 32/64bits. I will be getting 1.02 driver that are updated to have better stability.

On top of this, this version will have a direct sound support up to 96khz. It supports 192khz too, but there are some stability issue that right now. I will update along with OSX drivers in coming weeks as I continue to stress test this. i will report with DS vs. KS sound comparison (if any).

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosehee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Little update on the 1.02 driver. The 1.01 driver seems to have some stability issue with windows 7 32/64bits. I will be getting 1.02 driver that are updated to have better stability. On top of this, this version will have a direct sound support up to 96khz. It supports 192khz too, but there are some stability issue that right now. I will update along with OSX drivers in coming weeks as I continue to stress test this. i will report with DS vs. KS sound comparison (if any).

The support for DS is good news. Do you know when they will issue there 1.02 driver ?

 

[tosehee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slim.a /img/forum/go_quote.gif The support for DS is good news. Do you know when they will issue there 1.02 driver ?

I can't predict their schedule, but from the sign of stability of the driver, I can see it coming out very soon. I think they want to add more features into it before releasing it, like DS support and possibly some form of OSX driver.

Don't quote me on the latter part though. While it's progressing along the line, I don't know much about the actual dev progress.

If I hear anything, I will update here. I should be getting a 1.02 driver very soon, so I will update about the DS and other features and the stability issues in Windows 7.

 

[Patu]

DS support is great news. Shouldn't it work with youtube videos and stuff like that when it supports DS?

 

[slim.a]

I asked Marco yesterday at m2tech to send me the beta pre-release drivers to try on my system and after a short try yesterday night, it seems that they are working fine with the added support of DS drivers.

First, with KS, the 1.02 drivers seem to have solve an annoying visual bug specific with foobar 0.8.3 where the time tracker was always stuck at the beginning of the song.

As for the DS drivers, they worked fine on my Windows XP Media Center (32bits). I tried playing music and videos with VLC, Windows Media Player and the Windows Media Center interface and it worked fine.

While the DS drivers are not as good as KS, it is still the best sound I got using Windows Media Player.

It also works with youtube.