leeperry

Hiya dudes and dudettes, I've posted a review of JCAT femto USB on https://www.head-fi.org/threads/929549/ Feel free to chime in

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Hi there, anything you'd fancy as a trade (+$ if needed)? https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/845886/

Hi there, anything you'd fancy as a partial trade + $? https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/845886/

hi there, up for a trade for a mint barely used 5V Bakoon BPS-02?

Actually, there's been a drivers update meant to fix playback issues: SOtM - Resolved tX-USBexp & Playback compatiblility issue I also read some people inquiring about MacOS compatibility, so here's the exact chip model of the SOtM tX-USBexp board: <picture> BTW, I've recently been quite obsessed with USB and a local audiophile fellow allowed me to try his "uncompromising" USB rig and I gotta say that it's been quite a blast! The family picture is visible at <picture> He told me that he went through a lot of brainstorming, trial & error and came to the conclusions that a perfect USB rig would go as follow: -the USB transmitter in the computer should run off a low jitter clock with linear voltage regulators, and with as little USB hubs as possible so there won't be any sharing -the computer USB controller board should also provide an external PSU connector so the noisy computer power and ground won't become a bottleneck(by coloring the sound) and allow him to input a third party clean PSU of his own -the USB power and data lines should be completely separated from the computer to the audio device, for the least interferences and crosstalk -the power fed to the audio device should be pure DC without any ripple whatsoever All this to say that the SOtM tX-USBexp board appeared as the solution to his requirements, and I'm sharing my experience here as there doesn't seem to be much discussion about it as far as I can see? BTW, here's the page of the tX-USBexp manual that explains the jumpers configuration and all if anyone's curious: <picture> He decided to feed a 12V/1.2A linear regulated PSU via the onboard molex of the SotM board, in order to power the board with clean power After a lot of real-world testing he chose the Kingrex UPower that appeared as the best bang/bucks for perfect DC power. Its user manual is extremely clear on this point: <page 1> <page 2> <page 3> After trying a few cheapo Y USB cables from here and there, he finally ordered the "Unanimous uArt Y USB cable" from Kingrex that was designed to be used in conjunction with the UPower(no synergy issue this time) and is made from WireWorld cable that's been cryoed and everything.....the whole shebang without sourcing NASA grade material basically It comes with symbols on the A plugs so you'll know what end go into the Upower and into the computer: <picture> So I plugged all those goodies between my computer and my beloved USB-powered "Stello Eximus DP1"(whose USB input takes care of the whole USB to I²S convertion), installed the latest drivers from the aforementioned link and watcha! That's what I call "high-end audio" 8) Extremely impressive clarity, soundstaging became even more 3D sounding(especially the "phantom" front channel), deep bass sounded more articulated and simply put more percussive. The DP1 is famous for its "live stage" sound color but its native spaciousness gets drastically amplified through this rig, hard to believe.......I guess the "uncompromising" approach does pay off! I can't say that I spent the afternoon trying with and without each and every component of this rig but I did try the Kingrex combo off a Belkin USB2 PCI board and it seemed rather clear that the SotM did improve resolution by quite a margin......weakest link yada yada, you know the drill I seriously didn't expect to hear such an improvement with USB but I guess that's what happens when you mix low jitter USB and pure DC power into a high grade Y USB cable that keeps both of them completely separated from start to end. Anyway, it seems rather clear that I'm gonna have to get myself one of those.....that's the cruel world of audiophile gear, once you've heard better there's no turning back

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Hah, this thread was indeed very interesting! I've been lent a Y cable from Kingrex together with their UPower battery brick, I'll give it more critical listening with my "Stello Eximus DP1" DAC and will chime in with impressions in due time

any internal pic yet?

I think a good DAC boils down to: -async USB input with two low jitter discrete clocks for 44.1 and 48kHz multiples, and if possible not USB powered... -internally wired via I²S in order to avoid the usual S/PDIF clock recovery mumbo-jumbo -a short signal path, possibly in a dual mono design from start to end -a proper I/V stage, no cheapo voltage output DAC chip(with low quality built-in I/V) -rollable opamps if possible, so you can try your luck with the usual suspects(OPA627, etc).....OTOH, too many manufacturers ship units with swappable low quality opamps when the real reason is that they didn't want to buy expensive chips and they couldn't be hassled to find a great sounding combo either........so most of the time swappable opamps only mean that they didn't care much about SQ and are simply selling datasheets full of awesomtastic figures(ooooouh 0.00000000000001% THD oh my oh my). I've heard quite a bunch of DAC's following those simple guidelines, they all sounded quite different from one another and all were a far cry from the usual Tenor TE7022L/SPDIF/voltage output DAC crowd.

Toslink is worthless, jitter's too high...even when using 50 strands silica glass cables. Jitter is excellent on the Essence's FWIR, but their coax output is not galvanically isolated so it's a mixed bag.......sure, isolation adds jitter/distortion and what-not but it also separates the ground planes: https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/which-digital-isolators-for-i2s-or-not/ Whether the pros outweight the cons is open for debate I guess I wouldn't spend too much money on S/PDIF because it's an obsolete and utterly flawled protocol: Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - SPDIF vs. Word clock question

The coax output of the Essence's is not galvanically isolated BTW.

Both cards share the same broken drivers, and the same random loud noise issue unfortunately: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- sudden loud "beep" noise It seems to happen randomly, and nobody really knows why....not even Asus apparently.

The C-Media audio drivers packaged by Asus should be avoided like the plague: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- High Pitched "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" noise Run while you still can ^^

You don't say: The Well-Tempered Computer Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - SPDIF vs. Word clock question We're not in the 80's anymore, S/PDIF needs to die....especially Toslink.