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USB to I2S/SPDIF - Edel USB Audio Class 2 transport card


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Guest blueixus

Guys

Just to let you know I have got I2S off this board running into my Dac.

At the end of the day I did not use that awful Molex socket but took the feeds directly off the board from 3 surface mounted resistors just in front of the Molex and a ground that is easily accessed. It went surprisingly well.

I am extremely impressed with the performance. I don't have a direct comparison available with the HiFace but when I compare SPDIF with HiFace (non Kenny) the Edel wins by a huge margin.

In my view the Edel can probably match the Kenny when battery powered (it is designed with this in mind) but I think the Edel board my have better clocks than the HiFace which is something beyond the scope of the Kenny modified board.

Of course Steve Nugent's product should be better still as it has clean power and very high spec clocks. But in the mid price world the Edel is very very good , but a little fiddly.

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Guys

At the end of the day I did not use that awful Molex socket but took the feeds directly off the board from 3 surface mounted resistors just in front of the Molex and a ground that is easily accessed.

The smd resistors are they 33r?

If you change the resistors for another type like takman (same value ) it will change your sound

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Of course Steve Nugent's product should be better still as it has clean power and very high spec clocks. But in the mid price world the Edel is very very good , but a little fiddly.

Just so people know the latest status on this board Terry who posts under Zenelectro is a digital expert and had offered to look into hot rodding this board up with some very top quality clocks (he calls them Killer Clocks) and other stuff. He thinks when he is through it will stack up against anything. From my perspective it is far too fiddly as it stands to be put in a DAC - yes you can almost certainly get it working but whether as it stands it is worth the effort is another matter.

What I am looking at is a shootout sometime down the line between the modified M2Tech, what Terry comes up with, and the Off-Ramp. I have been experimenting with the Off-Ramp with Turboclocks. It really is amazing - Steve Nugent describes what it does best IMHO:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95464.20

Turboclock - dynamic, detailed, very analog sounding. Vocals are rich, 3-D and not hissy.

This is into the Burson and WFS DAC's using SPDIF. It makes even the WFS sound good - yes the WFS I am so critical of - gone is the glare, sibilance and coldness. I fact is sounds quite similar to the Burson. I conjecture once you get to this level of Jitter performance DAC's tend to sound the same - differences still exist but they are less marked. What I would really like to see with the Off-Ramp is a simple battery powered DAC with I2S input costing something like say $500.00 which would give excellent results.

Thanks

Bill

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Just so people know the latest status on this board Terry who posts under Zenelectro is a digital expert and had offered to look into hot rodding this board up with some very top quality clocks (he calls them Killer Clocks) and other stuff. He thinks when he is through it will stack up against anything. From my perspective it is far too fiddly as it stands to be put in a DAC - yes you can almost certainly get it working but whether as it stands it is worth the effort is another matter.

What I am looking at is a shootout sometime down the line between the modified M2Tech, what Terry comes up with, and the Off-Ramp. I have been experimenting with the Off-Ramp with Turboclocks. It really is amazing - Steve Nugent describes what it does best IMHO:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95464.20

Turboclock - dynamic, detailed, very analog sounding. Vocals are rich, 3-D and not hissy.

This is into the Burson and WFS DAC's using SPDIF. It makes even the WFS sound good - yes the WFS I am so critical of - gone is the glare, sibilance and coldness. I fact is sounds quite similar to the Burson. I conjecture once you get to this level of Jitter performance DAC's tend to sound the same - differences still exist but they are less marked. What I would really like to see with the Off-Ramp is a simple battery powered DAC with I2S input costing something like say $500.00 which would give excellent results.

Thanks

Bill

Just a quick note - firstly I feel a bit uncomfortable being referred to as a digital expert,

this is not the case at all. I do the best I can with the knowledge I have and

constantly try to improve on it.

Having said that there are certainly a lot of hi end products that have digital

implementation which are less than optimal - maybe it's cost or time constraints maybe

it's the designers (audio freq) analog slant to dig design - who knows.

WRT Edel - we will just have a look at the board, see if it is a good base to work with

and above all will result in something that offers a definite performance / value option.

There are quite a few people that -are- experts such as Steve Nugent of Empirical and

Gordon Rankin of Wavelength that are offering very cutting edge products, albeit at

upper price points.

cheers

T

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WRT Edel - we will just have a look at the board, see if it is a good base to work with

and above all will result in something that offers a definite performance / value option.

Look forward to hearing the outcome of your investigation.

Would also like to know what everyone's opinion is on the design being worked on here - http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/188902-xmos-based-asynchronous-usb-i2s-interface.html

Appears to be a tweaked version of the xmos reference design, not a lot of info available at present unfortunately.

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Guest blueixus

This looks excellent - a step forward over the EDEL board I have battled to get I2S from...i just need to get my head round the power options

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