[leeperry]

They start using new FPGA yesterday
They use it in Monitor 01 USD

 
http://www.musiland.cn/Attachments/200908/20090807_160615_120.jpg
 
XC3S50A has 50K system gates: http://www.xilinx.com/publications/prod_mktg/extended-spartan3a-product-table.pdf
 
their newer cards run a 250K gates FPGA(including the Monitor 01PS): http://www.soomal.com/pic/10100004679.htm

 

[regal]

Quote:

So... m2tech is able to become an extremely high end transport just by changing the power supply - but without it... it's not even as good as a soundcard? :
 

 

 
 
Being as good as a PCI soundcard is quite a feat for USB,  the studios are using firewire not USB and for good reason.  The Mtech is for laptop mac and win7 users who want decent SQ in a small package.  If they wanted to compete with firewire or PCI,  it would have had a better power supply and been kept at 96khz max so it could have been galvanically isolated on both ends.  MTech chose feature (192khx wow!) over SQ (galvanic isolation.)  Its all marketing.   And thats what modding is for,  its a good platform to mod the way I see it.
 
As far as XP drivers being beta,    anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist.
 

 

[dishkyun]

Hello hiface experts! I currently have a BNC modded Peachtree Nova. Will there be a substantial benefit of adding hiface to the chain?
 
[size=x-small]According to a Peachtree webpage, "The ESS Sabre DAC’s patented jitter reduction circuit re-clocks the digital signal to almost 0 jitter before passing it through a high-resolution 24/96 upsampling processor that’s also capable of 122dB s/n ratio."[/size]
 
Right now I've connected only using USB. I'm happy with the sound. But a product like hiface or devilsound's bridge will let me hear at higher resolutions - is that the only benefit?

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

As far as XP drivers being beta,    anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist.
 

Any suggestions for those of us stuck with XP platforms?
 
USG
 

 

[GreenLeo]

Quote:

 
 
Being as good as a PCI soundcard is quite a feat for USB,  the studios are using firewire not USB and for good reason.  The Mtech is for laptop mac and win7 users who want decent SQ in a small package.  If they wanted to compete with firewire or PCI,  it would have had a better power supply and been kept at 96khz max so it could have been galvanically isolated on both ends.  MTech chose feature (192khx wow!) over SQ (galvanic isolation.)  Its all marketing.   And thats what modding is for,  its a good platform to mod the way I see it.
 
As far as XP drivers being beta,    anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist.
 

Does Jkeny's mod make the HiFace outperform the galvanic isolation?
 
Also, why  anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist?  Is it the SQ of foobar using in XP is worse than that of the Win7?  I use XP and would like to learn more about this.
 

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

Does Jkeny's mod make the HiFace outperform the galvanic isolation?
 
Also, why  anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist?  Is it the SQ of foobar using in XP is worse than that of the Win7?  I use XP and would like to learn more about this.
 

I can answer the first part of this. The stock Hiface is not galvanically isolated from the PC until it's output stage. It uses a SPDIF transformer on it's output (no connection to ground) which is driven by the differential (no ground connection) line drivers of the DIT4192 chip. So you can see that it isolates the DAC from any noisy PC grounds.
 
So this focus on galvanic isolation is mute really as it happens at the SPDIF output stage.   
 

 

[regal]

Wrong the clocks aren't galvanically isolated,  thats critical
 
Quote:

I can answer the first part of this. The stock Hiface is not galvanically isolated from the PC until it's output stage. It uses a SPDIF transformer on it's output (no connection to ground) which is driven by the differential (no ground connection) line drivers of the DIT4192 chip. So you can see that it isolates the DAC from any noisy PC grounds.
 
So this focus on galvanic isolation is mute really as it happens at the SPDIF output stage.   
 

 

[FauDrei]

Quote:

Also, why  anyone listening to music from an XP computer is a masochist?  Is it the SQ of foobar using in XP is worse than that of the Win7?  I use XP and would like to learn more about this.

Perhaps not masochist, but XP OS architecture is not multimedia oriented/optimized as opposed to 7. Not to bother you with details - 7 has audible improvements over XP in equivalent (f.e. KS) foobar2000 setup.
 
I was reluctant to upgrade my 'ol trusty, "optimized to the bone" XP and mentioned SQ improvement was one of reasons I've done it.

 

[Patu]

I couldn't hear any notable difference when I changed from XP to win7. I used KS output + foobar already on XP. I don't know why there would be any difference using the same output method in win7. 

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

Wrong the clocks aren't galvanically isolated,  thats critical
 

 

OK, maybe it is critical but my modded Hiface clocks do not suffer critically in this regard.
 
I also would imagine that breaking the ground loop (galvanic isolation) between transport & DAC is worthwhile & counts as a large benefit, no? 

 

[leeperry]

I couldn't hear any notable difference when I changed from XP to win7. I used KS output + foobar already on XP.

heheh, the amount of bs this regal guy can put up is astounding...the odd thing is that I think he really believes in what he says

 
OMG XP sounds horrid, OMG the clocks on the HiFace don't get a clean ground signal(and I prolly forgot others as he's on my ignore list, so I only get to read his fantastic posts when ppl quote him) 

 
if something had to be done...rest assured that jkeny would be modding it, duh.

 

[FauDrei]

Quote:

I don't know why there would be any difference using the same output method in win7. 

Because 7 has several OS related audio improvements over XP?
 
Quote:

heheh, the amount of bs this regal guy can put up is astounding...the odd thing is that I think he really believes in what he says

 
OMG XP sounds horrid, OMG the clocks on the HiFace don't get a clean ground signal(and I prolly forgot others as he's on my ignore list, so I only get to read his fantastic posts when ppl quote him) 

This is quite offensive and not constructive at all.

 

[regal]

 
Quote:

OK, maybe it is critical but my modded Hiface clocks do not suffer critically in this regard.
 
I also would imagine that breaking the ground loop (galvanic isolation) between transport & DAC is worthwhile & counts as a large benefit, no? 

 
 
Yes,  And you would have galvanically isolated the front end if you could have but there is no way to do that with  with current opto-isolator technology. 
Of course Mr. Lee has done no research on the subject and wouldn't understand that.
 

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

 
 
 
Yes,  And you would have galvanically isolated the front end if you could have but there is no way to do that with  with current opto-isolator technology. 
Of course Mr. Lee has done no research on the subject and wouldn't understand that.
 

I would have tried it as an experiment but I have an open mind about whether it would have sounded any better. I cleaned up the PS to the clocks & this cleaned up the sound enormously. The clock ground is still connected to the PC/laptop ground so maybe there is still some more to be gained?
 
The only way to test this is to do a similar cleaning of the clock(s) on another DAC that can use an ADUM & test it with/without USB galvanic isolation. Then one has to ask what noise/distortion/jitter does the ADUM itself introduce, etc?
 

 

[sleepy dan]

Hi dishkyun,
 
My ESS Sabre based DAC certainly benefited when using the Hiface.  The Sabre in theory is immune to jitter, but practice seems to be another thing.
 
Quote:

Hello hiface experts! I currently have a BNC modded Peachtree Nova. Will there be a substantial benefit of adding hiface to the chain?
 
[size=x-small]According to a Peachtree webpage, "The ESS Sabre DAC’s patented jitter reduction circuit re-clocks the digital signal to almost 0 jitter before passing it through a high-resolution 24/96 upsampling processor that’s also capable of 122dB s/n ratio."[/size]
 
Right now I've connected only using USB. I'm happy with the sound. But a product like hiface or devilsound's bridge will let me hear at higher resolutions - is that the only benefit?