[johangrb]

1.03 is the latest drivers. I don't think the problem is w the HiFace. I saw a post on here somewhere that early NFB7's had a problem w 192k - patch in works.

 

[mrspeakers]

The latest driver for OSX 10.6 is very stable on my system.  I decided to keep the card.  It's a Mac Mini as a music server, so there's no hot swapping, which was related to the crashes.

 

[upstateguy]

Have they made any new XP drivers?

 

[ccschua]

the NFB 7 is confirmed to run 24/192. this unit was tested by audio-gd
 
m2tech email me a driver version 1.03. (still)
 
yesterday I tried mediamonkey as a player and it can now play 24/192 or 24/96. It only allows me to choice SPDIF 1.03 driver  but the volume is definitely softer with WASAPI.
 
so I went back to try foobar2k. now instead of WASAPI (hiface 1.03 24/192) I choose DS (hiface 1.03 24/192) as the output.
 
it can play 24/192 and 24/96 but still the volume is definitely softer (even at max volume). what I know is DS is directsound which is window based. Why I cant use WASAPI or KS even i downloaded the latest KS and WASAPI

 

[johangrb]

Did you d/load the WASAPI plugin for Foobar?
 
I'm running Win7, Foobar WASAPI and m2tech (Evo & Hiface) with Audio gd Ref1 dac - no problems.

 

[ccschua]

yes. downloaded from foobar component.

 

[ccschua]

yes. downloaded from foobar component.

 

[todd77]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed as I've yet to go through all 127 pages (still on page 29) of this thread but I'd like to ask if the Hiface can help in eliminating the pops and crackles I'm currently getting with my audio setup, which is:
 
laptop (2.8GHz dual core, 8GB RAM, nVidia 8800M GTX, Vista x64) -> Foobar2k (WASAPI) -> Yulong D100 DAC (via USB) -> FiiO E9
 
While I understand that such problems would occur if my laptop is under heavy load, they also occur during menial tasks such as web browsing (especially when loading web pages) or even simply scrolling web pages. Through the help from other Headfiers as well as the DPC latency checker utility, it seems that these tasks cause large latency spikes which in turn, result in the audio pops. From here on, I've down a few tweaks on my laptop - updating drivers, disabling CPU and GPU throttling, altering the MCSS registry settings, not using Google Chrome (for some reason, the pops occur more frequently on Chrome than on other browsers like Firefox particularly when scrolling web pages), etc, etc. Also, the DAC is connected to the single dedicated USB slot on the right side of my machine (the other 2 are a shared hub). While I've managed to reduce their occurrence by a fair margin, the odd pop and crackle would still occur, particularly when loading heavy web pages. As such, I'd like to ask if using the Hiface can help reduce their occurrences further or better yet, eliminate them completely. Thanks.

 

[monoethylene]

Maybe it is worth that you try another sound advice firstly like Kernelstreaming and/or Asio4all instead of WASAPI regarding the pops and crackles to see if it still happens. You can also try to increase the buffer length. Nevertheless it seems not necessary IMO when I look at your Laptop features but no one knows and sometimes a change may help

 

[todd77]

I've tried Asio4All and I've tweaked the buffer lengths for both WASAPI and Asio4All (as well as Asio's buffer size) but although they do minimize the occurrence of crackles (by increasing the buffer length - for WASAPI, max I can go is 1000ms, anymore and the playback is fast forwarded; for Asio, I put the max allowed for both buffer length and buffer size), they don't eliminate them completely

It seems that minimizing the buffers makes audio playback more prone to pops for my setup.

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

I'm not sure if this has been addressed as I've yet to go through all 127 pages (still on page 29) of this thread but I'd like to ask if the Hiface can help in eliminating the pops and crackles I'm currently getting with my audio setup, which is:
 
laptop (2.8GHz dual core, 8GB RAM, nVidia 8800M GTX, Vista x64) -> Foobar2k (WASAPI) -> Yulong D100 DAC (via USB) -> FiiO E9
 
While I understand that such problems would occur if my laptop is under heavy load, they also occur during menial tasks such as web browsing (especially when loading web pages) or even simply scrolling web pages. Through the help from other Headfiers as well as the DPC latency checker utility, it seems that these tasks cause large latency spikes which in turn, result in the audio pops. From here on, I've down a few tweaks on my laptop - updating drivers, disabling CPU and GPU throttling, altering the MCSS registry settings, not using Google Chrome (for some reason, the pops occur more frequently on Chrome than on other browsers like Firefox particularly when scrolling web pages), etc, etc. Also, the DAC is connected to the single dedicated USB slot on the right side of my machine (the other 2 are a shared hub). While I've managed to reduce their occurrence by a fair margin, the odd pop and crackle would still occur, particularly when loading heavy web pages. As such, I'd like to ask if using the Hiface can help reduce their occurrences further or better yet, eliminate them completely. Thanks.

No it won't.
 
You shouldn't be getting all that interference.  Do you get the interference if you are just listening to music without any applications open?
 
The Buffer idea was a good one.  Increase the foobar buffer to 2000.  See if it helps.

 

[todd77]

Quote:

You shouldn't be getting all that interference.  Do you get the interference if you are just listening to music without any applications open?
 
 

There are no pops or crackles when nothing is running (well, except Foobar). I can even do processor intensive work like 3D modeling and large file copying with hardly any hiccups. It's only when I'm using a web browser that the problems become more apparent. Simply loading web pages or even scrolling them either with a mouse wheel or the keyboard would cause the most problems. The latency reading from DPC latency checker confirms this as there are huge latency spikes when these activities take place. Based on what I can find from Googling, the problem may be attributed to outdated graphics card drivers. Unfortunately, I have no way to test this since support for my graphics card (which is an older nVidia hybrid type), I believe, has been abandoned for sometime and the latest stable build that I could use is over a year old (186.82 vs 26x.xx). Oh well, I guess I'll look for other options...

 

[todd77]

Well, I believe I've solved my problem by... simply avoiding it altogether. I've assigned all music playing duties to my 6-year old desktop PC running 32bit Windows XP. So far, everything's running without any problems, even when running upsampling DSPs which would usually result in nasty static cut offs with my laptop (well it should be since the PC doesn't do much else other than running Foobar). Anyway, I'm still interested in getting the Hiface and I'm wondering which version would be best for me. My DAC has a coaxial input with an RCA connector. I remember reading from one of the earlier posts in this thread stating that the developers recommend choosing a Hiface that has the same connector as the intended DAC. However, based on Hiface's user manual, choosing the BNC Hiface and then using a cable with both BNC and RCA connectors to an RCA DAC could yield slight improvements. Is this true? Which would you guys recommend for my setup? As I have no coaxial cables at the moment, I'll probably get one (likely a Blue Jeans one too) based on the version of the Hiface that I'm considering of getting.

 

[leeperry]

 

 
based on the version of the Hiface that I'm considering of getting.

I don't mean to threadcrap or anything, but why not moving on to newer async transports? the V-LINK costs more or less the same as the Hiface, supports 88.2kHz as well, and doesn't require drivers: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Musical-Fidelity-M1DAC-M1HPA-and-V-Link-Async-USB-Converter-Review
 
This UK reseller even has a coupon that's good until the end of the month: http://www.avforums.com/forums/bargains-special-offers-our-advertisers/1412440-0-off-musical-fidelity-v-link-usb-coaxial-optical-convertor.html
 
I think I'm gonna pull the trigger and compare it against the Firestone Bravo...what's holding me back is that it's bus powered and god knowns whether there's a discrete clock for 44.1. Also, the manufacturer has made damn sure that you can't send them any email.

 

[Justin Uthadude]

My V-link just went out Fed-Ex. Unfortunately, I don't have a Hiface to compare it to, so I won't be able to help.