Hiface Impressions

[AUDIODIDAKT]

Thanks Mani. I've got a cable on order. Not being in a position to audition them, I am willing to defer to an Audiodidact  .

I didn't forgot you,
Will build this week and one for myself too, I still have a six-pack WBT next-gen lying around.
So I will mod my juli@ with a WBT spdif output and use coax instead of Toslink.
I always have used this cable myself, but since the juli@ has no decent RCA connection.
so therefore I stayed on Toslink connection.
I think the change will be pretty dramatic.
Hope you will experience the same and that your next digital cable will be an I2S

Roy

[boleary]

Gotta save my nickels and dimes for that Dac.......

[boleary]

Am a little confused here.....nothing new really. Did more testing this morning and "achieved" the following regarding Device Buffer size, Core appointment schemes and Q1 value of 1,, which was the setting for each of the schemes below:

Scheme   Buffer Setting

1. No Appmt           2048
2. Scheme 1           4096
3. Scheme 2           2048
4. Scheme 3           4096
5. Scheme 4           2048

In establishing these values I used the exact procedure described in the tool tip. Today is the first day I can get a Q1 value of 1 without "too many buffer errors" occurring.  Now others, Peter and Mani, set Q1 to 1 with a buffer size of 1024. Tool tip and release notes make it clear that you must establish the correct device buffer for Adaptive Mode to work properly. How can the same device, the Hiface, have a different buffer size depending on the Scheme chosen or depending on the type of processor in the particular computer? It's early here so I can't really test for sound quality between these settings. Just wondering. 

[PeterSt]

Uhm ... mine is equal to this :

3. Scheme 2           2048

or IOW same as yours ...
(see earlier in this topic)

[boleary]

Oops, you are, of course, correct; at 5 a.m., keeping the facts straight is sometimes like herding cats. So, theoretically, should one of the settings I posted above sound better than the others? Again, its still too early here to turn up the volume.

Just wondering, though, I do understand that, in my case, knowing "just enough" sometimes proves to be dangerious. 
 

[PeterSt]

I guess it doesn't matter much whether it is 5am or 1pm when I wrote my last post, because I got confused with your sequence numbers and Scheme numbers. So, I come up with 2048 at Scheme-3 ! (and not 2 as I said before).

Why can it be different per system ? because it largely depends on the system itself. The ultra low latency requires processor power, and (merely) responsiveness (which is something different). This is why you see the Schemes matter.

What sounds best ? I really don't know in the HiFace case. I would still pick te lowest, but it isn't so low (because the buffer size doesn't seem to be). Now, in that case I'd hop over to Special Mode, because (I know) that can go low. Or at least I used it at 22 samples, and didn't hear strange things during the two tracks I tried it. Keep in mind : for KS Special Mode 22 samples = 22 samples, and the Device Buffer Size does nothing else than allowing you to select the 22 (or not).

Apart from whether you may use a lower latency with Special Mode, I'd me (more) interested in knowing whether it sounds really different from Adaptive Mode (remember, I don't have a decent DAC to use the HiFace with, so I never could/can try).

Peter

[boleary]

Apart from whether you may use a lower latency with Special Mode, I'd me (more) interested in knowing whether it sounds really different from Adaptive Mode (remember, I don't have a decent DAC to use the HiFace with, so I never could/can try).

In the "Thoughts On Sound Quality"  thread I posted the following under 9y-8:

Adaptive or Special Mode? Boy would I like to have more problems like this; they're both fantastic. I do think, for the moment, I'm tending more toward adaptive, where it seems one is several steps closer to the stage. Adaptive is a cleaner, less "warm" sound but I seem to hear more of the detail and richness of Eva's voice in Fields of Gold. And the cleaner sound is not harsh, just more "present". 

So far, I'm still preferring Adaptive but its a close call!

[GerardA]

Finally, my HiFace is working super too!
The higher buffervalue (2025) makes XXHighEnd work flawlessly on the laptop.
I was not really convinced untill I replaced the rca-to-bnc adapter with a real bnc-plug on the spdif-wire.
Now the BNC-hiFace connects through bnc with Belden 1505 wire to BNC to DAC.
It is a big  difference, before I was missing the depth which is now back together with the detailed highs.
And perfect PRAT!
I guess an adapter close to the source is worse what you can do.

Now I'll wait to see if the ASrock pcie-to-usb3.0 will make the AMD-htpc work too.

Btw, listening to special on y9-8c, sounds better then never before!

[Marcin_gps]

GerardA,

Did you compare integrated motherboard USB controller to one of those PCI-to-USB controllers, especially on PCI-Express?
I use Belkin's PCI-to-USB adapter and this way I get much better SQ out of my M-Audio Transit (compared to 4 different motherboards and PSUs). Now I consider upgrading to PCI-Express controller. I wonder if there is any sonic difference...

[GerardA]

Marcin,

I have to wait for the card to arrive this week...
Because I only have one slot available it had to be pci-e.
Since USB pcie cards are very rare the prices are high, 50 euro for a Belkin and then it's not real pci-e but pci converted to pci-e.
That's why I decided for a USB3-card for 20 euro. (Alternative would be to buy a new mobo).
I read the controllers on these cards are much better then the mobo-chipsets like the amd-southbridge.
So I hope it will work and sound good.
You make me already very happy with your message that pci sounds better already!
When I have it working I'll report again!

[boleary]

Good review of the Hiface in 6moons: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/m2tech/hiface.html

[earflappin]

Good review here as well by Mike Galusha.  http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0210/m2tech_hiface_usb.htm

Also, for those wanting to take the HiFace to a higher level of performance, John Keny (jkeny alias) who posts on the DIY, CA and this forum as well (!), has modded the HiFace to: (1) pull off i2S to feed directly to his DAC and (2) use 2 lithium batteries to provide the critical 3.3V to the clock and output circuits versus feeding them via the onboard regs which are fed 5V from the USB port.  I'm going to buy one from him to try with my BADAC.

Another interesting experiment would be to directly connect the HiFace to the BNC port of your DAC using a USB cable from your PC/MAC AND compare that to plugging the HiFace directly into the USB port and using a SPDIF cable.  Anybody tried this?

[Robin Hood]

Also, for those wanting to take the HiFace to a higher level of performance, John Keny (jkeny alias) who posts on the DIY, CA and this forum as well (!), has modded the HiFace to: (1) pull off i2S to feed directly to his DAC and (2) use 2 lithium batteries to provide the critical 3.3V to the clock and output circuits versus feeding them via the onboard regs which are fed 5V from the USB port.  I'm going to buy one from him to try with my BADAC.

How will the modded HiFace connect to the BADA, how ugly does it look and how much does the modded HiFace cost?

Another interesting experiment would be to directly connect the HiFace to the BNC port of your DAC using a USB cable from your PC/MAC AND compare that to plugging the HiFace directly into the USB port and using a SPDIF cable.  Anybody tried this?

Won't this experiment just vary with your choice of cable, whether USB or SPDIF?

P.S. - I thank boleary and earflappin for the links to the excellent HiFace reviews.  I can't think of a better way to spend $150 on computer audio.

[GerardA]

Received my ASRock PCIe to USB 3 card yesterday and after installing, updating the bios and finding new drivers still not working.
So I read the nice small box and it says it only works with ASRock mobo's.
No information about this on the internet or the supplier....
So now I'll try a sharkoon. Good thing is there are a lot of different brands now, although with the same NEC-chip.

About the upgrades by JKeny better read what he has to say on Headfi and diyaudio.
It seems he does not like the sound of I2S-out anymore. Still a better (battery) powersupply can be nice to try.

I'll report again when I have news.

[earflappin]

Robin Hood, the modded HiFace will connect to the BADA via S/PDIF BNC (the BADA has a S/PDIF BNC connector in addition to AES/EBU and toslink).  Here's a link to pictures of jkeny's mods: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4880&page=5.  If you don't do the i2S mod (I will not being doing that) then there will be no hole in the case).  So basically there is just a white plastic clip out of which the wires go to the lithium batteries.  He uses two batteries - one for the clock and one for the output circuitry.  He charges 50 euros for the mod.

Regarding the cables I'm not sure.  I hope jkeny has experimented and can let us know.  The question is what degrades the signal more - a USB cable or a SPDIF cable.  It will be easy enough to experiment with once I get it.