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Hi Guys, Lately I've decided to set up a dedicated audio PC using my MF v-link2 24/96. It seemed to work without a hitch under windows XP to supply my old Theta DAC with a clean digital signal. After reading the articles on Windows server 2012 I decided to have a go at that OS even though I haven't been on a command line since the DOS days. I'm using Foobar and it seems to work just fine but I can't get the MF v-link to work. I am starting to think it is the USB drivers under window 8/server 2012 that is the issue. Have any of you guys tried to use this USB to SPDIF convertor with Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012. And if so, how did you get it to work. I see that there is a new device driver for the MF 24/192 v-link which is designed for windows 8 and should work in server 2012. Is it possible this driver would be compatible with the older v-link 2. Also, any suggestions for other USB drivers that might work in this regard. Thanks for any feedback you might have.

Thanks Jud. The Theta Prime and Basic were fairly similar DAC's so I think it would work. At this point I'm still not sure about the PC. I've tried this cheap USB to SPDIF convertor that I have and it has only worked on 1 of my PC's. A single core AMD 64. I have had trouble with it on 3 out of 4 pc's. So I know that it has problems. Yet the same problems existed with the single core AMD. It's just that I finally got it to work. Since for the time being the PC used for the music server is going to be what it is. I'm thinking of trying out a cheaper USB to SPDIF unit like the TerraLink-X instead of the V-Link which should be better than the 20 dollar unit I have. I was impressed with the sound that I was finally able to get with the AMD PC. Very liquid sounding via: Muse Digital PC link -> Theta TLC -> Theta Pro Prime 2a -> Rotel preamp -> Rotel Monoblocks. So this has encouraged me regarding the USB to SPDIF approach. I now just need an inexpensive solution for that old PC that will be the music server.

I'm looking for an inexpensive solution to getting decent USB audio on a music server I'm building. So far I've only been able to get some decent sound on two newer computers that I have. But these won't be able to be used as the music server and have been frought with problems of their own. The motherboard for the server is an older Shuttle AK32a motherboard. It claims to have USB 2.0 ports but every thumb drive that I plug in says they are only operating in 1.1 mode. As far as I can tell this is the reason that I cannot get the datastream to work on this motherboard with the USB/SPDIF converter that I have. The Windows drivers for 2.0 USB are installed as it is SP3 XP. The only thing that I can see is that the ports are not fully 2.0 compliant or I need to flash the bios with the most modern bios data. I have also been thinking about a high speed PCI USB I/O card. This would add more drivers and noise to the computer which I don't want but it may also add the stability and functionality that I need. Has anyone used this approach before. It seems that putting the data on the PCI bus might solve some problems. The built-in USB ports seem to be highly effected by various memory resident programs that run in the background. Even on a new motherboard I am having trouble with audio dropouts and fading.

Hello, I am in the process of building my second music server. The first was primarily a headphone station and my attempt was to get the highest sound quality I could on a strict budget. I was reasonably successful using a Chaintec AV710 as an SPDIF output and a Chinese 24/96 external DAC and headphone amp. The sound was pretty good through my Grado SR150 headphones. This time around I am planning to build the server around a USB to SPDIF converter. I have an older Theta Pro Prime 2a external 16bit DAC that can put out some really good sound when fed a good low jitter signal. I have experimented with an inexpensive USB to SPDIF unit that I got on ebay for 20 bucks. The unit was very picky about working with the old DAC. And very difficult to get working with the claimed generic drivers. Virtually no tech support in english. Finally, I got it to work on a newer test computer. The older computer I am using for the server is an AMD XP 2 gig CPU. Before the x64 instruction set was added. On this CPU I have been unable to get the USB to SPDIF converter working. It is a Muse audio DigitalPClink. With the same drivers that worked on the newer PC it would not work on the older one. Well, let my be more specific. It won't work with the Theta DAC but it will work with the 24/96 Headphone DAC that I have. Even when I force the drivers to output in 16/44 code it won't lock to the DAC. So I'm thinking of a better converter that might be a little more flexible in being able to drive this older DAC. I though that I might spring for the Musical Fidelity V-link. I'm going for first rate sound quality here since it will be hooked up to my main music listening system. The V-link seems to be a good value for the money. I'm curious if anyone has used the V-link with one of these older 16 bit DACs.