[Luckbad]

I have about 7-8 hours on my SU-1 which has one hour w/ a aes/ebu cable. So far the coax soulds the best and the aes/ebu doesn't sound good at all....

Has anyone tried the bnc cable?

 
I've used BNC and RCA and both sound great. 

 

[tedzz]

  You never want to swap in a smaller capacitance than what is used unless you know exactly what you're doing. You can swap in a larger value, but not smaller.

Thanks for the heads up

 

[FredA]

Looks like a great bargain, considering the design and the 2 cases. Missing a Talema transfo however. Rj45 i2s, very tempting to me.

If anyone wants my crystek talema breeze, pm me. I will let it go at a fair price.

For now, i am delighted with my rj45 i2s f-1 driven by a wyrd. It's so good with the highs, it is almost ridiculous considering i paid less than 200usb all material included. But you need a good supply and good usb cables as well, so one has to take this into account.

But then again, this interface use rather ordinary kds oscillators. Two weak points with the bingze transformer. I don't see the high-quality output transformers for spdif, not that you need any for i2s. But for the price, it is very interesting.

 

[ccschua]

  Now some of the new folks here may have missed one of the greatest addons to USB.  I still run a USB chain in my office system.
 
This is the use of a GB LAN ethernet ISO audio USB extender made by ICRON and rebranded as well by Startech.  This unit made a huge improvement in USB SQ and is what lead me to AOIP.
 
http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/lan/usb-2-0-ranger-2304ge-lan/
 
Here is my current USB chain:
Just the data chain:
PC>PPA V2 USB card (TeraDak X1 - Nichicon HW caps)>LH Labs 2G Split USB cable>Startech LEX>BJC CAT6 UTP 550Mhz>Startech REX (with one Jitterbug - Breeze 24VDC LPS+DC iPurifer)>LH Labs 2G split USB cable (data only leg)>W4S Recovery(TeraDak LPS DC-30W+Cerious Graphene PC+ DC iPurifier)>Curious 200mm USB Link>iPur 2>F-1>Audio Sen Silver Statement SPDIF 1.5M RCA>APL DAC
 
 
Here would be my current ratings and rankings (the numbers are just a relative number - they are not percentages).  The Breeze Audio (Talema) DU-U8 = 100
 
Obviously these are my subjective ratings YMMV - and yes I have owned (had a loaner) all these for an extended period of time:
 
REDNET 3/Cerious Graphene/Mutec 3+ USB (SPDIF)/Antelope OCX (RN wClock)           270
REDNET 3/Cerious/Mutec 3+ USB/Audience au24 se digital cable                               250
REDNET 3/Cerious/Mutec 3+ USB (SPDIF reclocker)/AS Sliver Statement dig cable        240
REDNET 3/Cerious Power Cord                                                                               220
Singxer F-1 DC30W/Cerious/Recovery/DCiPur/ iPur2/Startech GB LAN Iso USB               170
Mutec 3+ Smart Clock USB/Cerious Power Cord                                                        155
Singxer F-1 DC30W/Cerious/Recovery/DCiPur/ iPur2                                                   145
PUC2 Lite TeraDak DC30W/Cerious/Regen                                                               135
Singxer F-1 DC30W/Cerious                                                                                   135
DXIO Silver/TeraDak DC-30W/Cerious                                                                      130
Singxer X-1 DC30W/Cerious/Recovery/DCiPur/iPur2                                                    125
PUC2 Lite - USB power                                                                                          110
Singxer F-1  Stock feed                                                                                          110
Breeze/Cerious Graph/WBT RCA Nexgen                                                                   109
Breeze DU-U8 with Cerious Graphene                                                                      108
 Breeze DU-U8 (Talema version)                                                                              100
Breeze DU-U8 (BingZi version)                                                                                 95
Hydra Z with LPS                                                                                                    92
Melodious MX-U8 (upgraded caps)                                                                             85
Melodious MX-U8 (stock)                                                                                          81
Gustard U12 (upgraded caps)                                                                                    76
Gustard U12 stock                                                                                                   72
iDAC DAC2 (used as a DDC)                                                                                      65
Musiland USB3.0 US Dragon                                                                                      65
M2Tech EVO with LPS                                                                                              60
Audiophileo 2  USB Power                                                                                         50
M2Tech Hiface                                                                                                         40
 
Note the two major leaps - one by adding the ICRON/Startech GB LAN Iso Audio USB Extender into the chain.  Then the bigger leap away from USB completely to the REDNET3 Dante AES67 AOIP.  The Mutec 3+ did not help as an ext Word Clock to the RD3 - but after the RD3 as a SPDIF reclocker - excellent.

 
HI Rob
 
Adding a Mutec mc-3+ after the F-1 (reclocking spdif signals) where will it sit in the table ? or rather its better to go for Rednet D16.
 
the reason I am suggesting mutec is because dante is still evolving.

 

[rb2013]

   
HI Rob
 
Adding a Mutec mc-3+ after the F-1 (reclocking spdif signals) where will it sit in the table ? or rather its better to go for Rednet D16.
 
the reason I am suggesting mutec is because dante is still evolving.

Great question - it did about the same as for the RN3 - I would rate at 190.  I had a W4S Remedy -  which was good too but not near the Mutec as SPDIF reclocker.
 
Even with the ICRON GN LAN USB isolating the USB and the Mutec 3 as SPDIF reclocker - the F-1 did not match the RN3 alone.
 
For me - I'd say a RN3 + a Mutec 3+ USB would be better then a RND16 for approx the same money.  I have not had a D16 - but imagine it sounds about the same as a RN3.

 

[jabbr]

   
... because dante is still evolving.

could you explain how Dante is evolving?
What changes in Dante have you heared of?

 

[rb2013]

  could you explain how Dante is evolving?
What changes in Dante have you heared of?

The latest was the move to full AES67 compatibility.  This was part of the move to the Brooklyn II card from the Brooklyn I.

 

[jabbr]

 
The latest was the move to full AES67 compatibility.  This was part of the move to the Brooklyn II card from the Brooklyn I.

do you know of plans to evolve any further?

 

[Luckbad]

  do you know of plans to evolve any further?

 
@ccschua: Of course it will evolve further. Dante is evolving, as is USB. This entire thread was created after USB evolved from XMOS U8 to XMOS XU208, which to me was pretty huge step up in quality. There are half a dozen legitimate USB solutions that are constantly evolving.
 
Dante is just one of the AOIP solutions and it's not nearly in the infancy that we like to think it's in. It's been available for years, we just didn't use it as audiophiles until a few months ago.

 

[rb2013]

   
@ccschua: Of course it will evolve further. Dante is evolving, as is USB. This entire thread was created after USB evolved from XMOS U8 to XMOS XU208, which to me was pretty huge step up in quality. There are half a dozen legitimate USB solutions that are constantly evolving.
 
Dante is just one of the AOIP solutions and it's not nearly in the infancy that we like to think it's in. It's been available for years, we just didn't use it as audiophiles until a few months ago.

Yes - to compete with Ravenna - Dante will expand the SR through 384k.  This is driven from the studio side.  A coming update to Dante in the fall will be an upgrade to control center to allow SR following to be unlocked by a security code.  BURL told me that many studio engineers want this.  It was locked out by the needs of concert engineers - as a SR following allowance could wreak havoc on a concert system by an inadvertent SR change by one of the LAN devices.  The two main constituents for REDNET gear are concert/auditorium/churches and recording studios.

This is not part of the AES67 std - as that is only 96k now.  But AES67 is only a min set of std and most important a common communications protocol on a shared LAN.
 
Of course Ravenna has already exceeded this as has Dante, but Ravenna is ahead in the race.
 
But the most important bottomline is Ravenna is only available as part of very expensive DAC  - Horus and NADAC.  Where as Dante has a turnkey DVS for only $30 and the Brooklyn and Ultimo turnkey cards and chips.  So it's a much easier solution for DAC and DDC manufacturers to implement.
 
And Dante is the only DDC higher res AOIP available now through the REDNET series.
 
Also the BURL DAC is way cheaper (like 1/4) of the cost of an NADAC.  Available right now.

 

[InsanityOne]

Off-Topic: So with the advent of fairly rapid "upgrades" to USB audio, does anyone think we will see similar upgrades to AOIP anytime soon? (e.g., Rednet V2 hardware or something like that?)
 
- InsanityOne 

 

[rb2013]

  Off-Topic: So with the advent of fairly rapid "upgrades" to USB audio, does anyone think we will see similar upgrades to AOIP anytime soon? (e.g., Rednet V2 hardware or something like that?)
 
- InsanityOne 

Over on the AOIP thread much has been reported on ext OXCO WClocks, FMC fiber ethernet, SPDIF reclockers - the upgrading is already fully under way.

 

[kazsud]

My impressions of the aes/ebu not sounding good was because I had put the su-1 right on top my dac. 
 
Now the aes/ebu sounds a little better than the coax.

 

[kazsud]

So now I'm trying to figure out how to get my fios tv audio and Apple TV audio to go through the su-1. Only thing I can think of is optical of those going optical in my mbp then usb out to su-1.
 
Has anyone done something similar to this yet? All of my equipment is in one place at my tv.

 

[mordicai]

Ive got an F1 coming. Should I put my Regen between the Mac and the F1 or just sell the regen. Its a bit of a steep leaning curve for me.