Balthazar2k4

Received my Loki today and I must say that I am a little disappointed with the build quality. The housing has some small scratches and the push button is way off center. Seeing as this is $149, I am discounting the exterior based on that. Based on some very quick listening this evening the unit sounds quite good, but I am not really able to compare it to anything as my Oppo 105 is used in another room on different speakers. For $149, it seems to be the quick and dirty way to get in the DSD door and sound pretty good doing it.

Ordered mine today. I am going to run mine through the analog input on my Emotiva DC-1. Can't wait to experiment.

Absolutely shocked in that the Emotiva XDA-1 blows away the Xonar Essence One. The Essence One was lacking the detail and overall "enthusiasm" of the XDA-1. I really did not expect that to be the outcome. Makes the XDA-1 a steal of a deal at less than half the price of the Xonar. Printed out the RMA label and shipping it back out tomorrow. No point in keeping it around as I have made up my mind. I guess now I know.

Received the Xonar Essence One today and in a WTF twist, it came with a power cord for Europe and Asia, but nothing for the US. Am I missing something here? This product is meant to be sold in North America, right? Fortunately, it is a standard IEC connection so I just need to round up an old PC power cord. I will report further once I get it hooked up. I will be interested to compare it to the Rega DAC and Emotiva XDA-1.

I went ahead and bought one on Amazon. I figure I have nothing to lose as I can always send it back if I don't like it. Will report back with findings.

Thanks Chris. I am very curious to get your impression of the unit. I am curious as to why you say the "BitPerfect" light is a misnomer? I would have thought it would be with an ASIO driver in use. Out of curiosity, does the unit accept 176 via USB?

Just curious if anyone had tried the Xonar Essence One. Seems to be well received in the PC community, but I would like to find someone who has auditioned it in a more "high end" environment and how it might compare to mainstays like the Benchmark.

Potentially, but I really would not consider it unless you are just plain unhappy with your V-Link. You might get lower jitter and less noise, but it could be imperceptible depending on your other equipment. I probably wouldn't spend the $400 unless I had some 24/192 material.

Thank you very much Downrange. I have Googled reviews till I am blue in the face and came up empty. Wow. This unit even comes with an ASIO driver. Very cool. I am not to sure about the reviewers comments regarding the questionable galvanic isolation. I really have a hard time believing that MF is lying about the feature. I agree with Mark Powell's assessment above.

Yeah, I used to have a V-DAC II and remember the manual was pretty much a joke. I remember there being a few specs in the back so I thought it might be the same in the V-Link 192. Thanks for the help and I am glad you are starting to like it more. I am starting to lean towards it over the Audiophilleo due to the overall perceived value. I am glad to hear that it uses dual clocks. Do you happen to have a reference for that?

I am afraid there is not a single converter made that has zero jitter. The Audiophilleo is among the lowest and it has 2.6ps phase jitter. I only asked because I thought maybe the manual would have some additional specs not listed on Musical Fidelity's rather crappy website.

Any chance Downrange if you could tell me if it lists the phase or period jitter in the manual or whether is uses dual clocks? I am really intrigued by the V-Link 192 and if it can save me a couple hundred over the Audiophilleo2 then I am all for it.

While not classified as "high end", the Emotiva XDA-1 has 24/192 capability with coax and XLR inputs. It performs quite well even in comparison to my recently departed Rega DAC. At $249 it is a steal. Check out Darkos review here: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/index.php/audio-reviews/digital-source-reviews/item/292-emotiva-xda-1-dac

While it is true that you have an optical interface on your Macbook, many in these forums would probably recommend using the hiFace. The jitter should be lower on the hiFace, but I could be wrong.

It is not inconceivable that you could experience better sound via analog than digital. Many things come into play. The Hiface is nothing more than a digital bridge to the AVR. While it can influence the quality of sound, the DAC and its implementation in the AVR will be much more influential. Does the AVR offer a direct mode to bypass "enhancements"? That might help.