[stoutblock]

Hi Stoutblock,
The AudioGD DI-U8 was said to be a very good interface. If the Breeze XU208 is better than the DI-U8, that's pretty cool !

Modifying the Breeze :
I haven't seen info about Breeze mods, thus I tried some basics mods by myself. I'm a noob in electronics, so this could be done in a smarter way.
The idea is that its internal PS & especially the regulators that power :
1. the main board in 5V
2. the clocks in 3.3V
are not good.

So, I tested DIY PS to power externaly these parts.
This is photos of my Breeze DU-U8 & the way I power it : the board with 5V, & the 3 clocks with 3.3V
=> view from above : https://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/99925520170121223952.jpg
=> view from below : https://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/71951620170121203203txt.jpg

My laptop is my source. This is the layout of the DIY power supplies I tested, to power the different parts :
1. Corning 3.Optical : 10m usb cable from PC to hifi setup
2. W4S Recovery : well known very good USB "cleaner"
3. Breeze : main board 5V & clocks 3.3V
=> layout is there (hope it's clear...) : https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf593b1ko6t99u0/2017 12 06 - Layout external PS.pdf?dl=0

FIY this is the thread on a French forum where I posted the last mods of my DIY PS & results on SQ => http://forum-hifi.fr/thread-380-post-121867.html#pid121867
I haven't finished testing of these PS on the Breeze, I'll keep posting on this FR forum my results. When it is more or less done, I'll make a review of all this in a ENG forum to make it clearer (hope Google translate is fine !).

The thing is that the Breeze XU208 looks pretty the same as the DU-U8. Except the implementation of the XU208 chip, the way the board is powered & the clocks are powered looks the same.
Thus if the XU208 Breeze sounds better than ths DU-U8, I think that implementation of external PS like I did is easy, leading to a very very different SQ from the stock version.

By the way Stoutblock, do you use a W4S Recovery or another USB "cleaner" ? If not, you should.
Rgds

Very interesting. I am a firm believer in the significance in the PS in all audio components including digital components (one of the big reasons I own so many Modwright components).

I have not tried the W4S Recovery but I did try the Regen in my setup a few years back. If it made a difference, I could not hear it in my system. I’m not saying they don’t work or don’t make an improvement, I’m just saying I could not hear it in my system at the time. Back then I had the Master 7 with the DI-U8 and quite honestly I could not hear a difference with and without the Regen. Maybe my current setup would benefit with a Regen or similar product?

I also know there are opportunities in what you use to process the digital files. Right now I am using a dedicated ASUS EeePC with Atom processor, 2 GB RAM and 1TB SSD Running Windows 10 and JRiver. Cables are Neutral USB (blue) and Avanti Chaz RCA. It actually works great!

 

[phile1]

Hi where did you buy breeze xu208 from? I had to return my F1 because of the issues I was having.

I'll buy mine (silver version) from the manufacturer, here => https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Bre...chronous-USB-coax-fiber-XMOS/32499738639.html

 

[phile1]

I have not tried the W4S Recovery but I did try the Regen in my setup a few years back. If it made a difference, I could not hear it in my system. I’m not saying they don’t work or don’t make an improvement, I’m just saying I could not hear it in my system at the time. Back then I had the Master 7 with the DI-U8 and quite honestly I could not hear a difference with and without the Regen. Maybe my current setup would benefit with a Regen or similar product?

If you want to try the Recovery, note that it should be powered with a external linear PS (its wall wart PS is crap, difference is huge when powered with a linear PS).
I've never had Audio-GD products, they are told to be really good.

"Master 7", it reminds me something => FYI, please look at the signature of Roberto on this forum => http://forum-hifi.fr/thread-974-post-125598.html#pid125598
He's a 100% reliable guy, he's got a Master 7... and he's got a Recovery upstream (powered with I don't know which good PS... not the wall wart for sure, he can tell you which one ; Recovery needs a 9V PS).
A nice upgrade for you I think !
Rgds

 

[Jazz.Khan]

It looks good but don't have same clocks as F1. Looks more comparable to x1. How much it will effect the sound?

 

[phile1]

Hi Jazz.Khan,
The key point is the way is design & above all : powered. The Breeze has a rather nice linear PS & regulators, fine for me.
The Breeze (silver) has TXCO clocks, good enough.
I like the Breeze design because the PCB is quite "clear", spacy, not too "compact" to enable soldering, so you can mod it.
Like I described before, you can play with it, acting on the power of the card, the power of the clocks, leading to a complete new Breeze (night & day / SQ). I could have replace the TCXO clock of my Breeze U8, but a few months I did replace clocks by Crystek on another device (streamer) : the SQ improvement was tiny. To me, modding a digital interface should be done first on the power of the different parts ; changing clocks should only the cherry on the cake, but with a rather bad quality improvement/price ratio.
The Singxer F1 is (for me) too compact, thus impossible to tweak... a shame, knowing than clocks are pretty good.
And Breeze is cheaper than the F1... why bother ?
That's my view.
Rgds

 

[gvl2016]

Folks, please enlighten me. Does the Breeze XU208 come with any sort of drivers for Windows so that it can work as USB Audio Class 2 device on Windows 7? I don't think you can get them directly from XMOS.

 

[stoutblock]

Folks, please enlighten me. Does the Breeze XU208 come with any sort of drivers for Windows so that it can work as USB Audio Class 2 device on Windows 7? I don't think you can get them directly from XMOS.

I think this is an issue with the Breeze and one of the reasons it may be as cheap as it is? Not a problem with Windows 10 because it recognizes USB 2.0 and will automatically load the xCore WASAPI drivers for it.

 

[gvl2016]

I think this is an issue with the Breeze and one of the reasons it may be as cheap as it is? Not a problem with Windows 10 because it recognizes USB 2.0 and will automatically load the xCore WASAPI drivers for it.

I think we've just talked about it on that other forum too, lol.

 

[phile1]

Here you've got a driver for the Singxer SU-1 : https://www.shenzhenaudio.com/singx...nterface-with-xmos-xu208-cpld-dsd256-dop.html
The SU-1 uses the same chip, so it should work, no ?
Rgds

 

[gvl2016]

Here you've got a driver for the Singxer SU-1 : https://www.shenzhenaudio.com/singx...nterface-with-xmos-xu208-cpld-dsd256-dop.html
The SU-1 uses the same chip, so it should work, no ?
Rgds

I suspect it ain't that easy, common sense tells me the fact XMOS isn't giving their driver away to general public means you can't just load a driver from any device, there is likely some sort of enforcement scheme in place, like hardware makers program their customer ID to the chip and driver only loads if it knows about that ID, or something similar you get an idea.

 

[Jazz.Khan]

Ask the seller about the drivers. They should provide you one. When I bought F1 the seller emailed me the drivers after asking for it. I think Drivers for X1, F1 Su1 are all same and should work with this device as well.

 

[carlmart]

OK, can someone tell me what is the complete setup (DAC + Breeze) you are talking about and using?

By DAC I mean one you can also feed SPDIF coaxial from CD/DVD source and also add the XU208 board for USB decoding.

The Breeze XU208 board being cheaper than the F1 and more mod prone sound irresistible qualities, and maybe it's what I'm looking for.

 

[stoutblock]

OK, can someone tell me what is the complete setup (DAC + Breeze) you are talking about and using?

By DAC I mean one you can also feed SPDIF coaxial from CD/DVD source and also add the XU208 board for USB decoding.

The Breeze XU208 board being cheaper than the F1 and more mod prone sound irresistible qualities, and maybe it's what I'm looking for.

It depends on what inputs your DAC has. The Breeze has SPDIF RCA, SPDIF AES, SPDIF optical and i2s RJ-45 outputs. So I assume you only have SPDIF RCA from your CD/DVD? So does your DAC have any of the other inputs? If so, you can use them.

 

[stoutblock]

Ask the seller about the drivers. They should provide you one. When I bought F1 the seller emailed me the drivers after asking for it. I think Drivers for X1, F1 Su1 are all same and should work with this device as well.

I tried this with the seller but he just sent me a link to the XMOS website where only the evaluation drivers are available. I did not experiment with other drivers once Windows 10 loaded xCore drivers fine.

 

[Jazz.Khan]

I

I tried this with the seller but he just sent me a link to the XMOS website where only the evaluation drivers are available. I did not experiment with other drivers once Windows 10 loaded xCore drivers fine.

I have the drivers for f1 if you want and drivers are available at shenzhen website as well. Someone posted the link above. If windows generic driver is working then f1 driver should work as well.