Experience with this DIY DAC ?

Hi there.

I bought a Gigawork DAC last year (New 24/192 DAC DA CONVERTER CS8416+CS8421+CS4398 USB) (PCB says LAR Audio Ver. 1.5) which i am happy with as it DOES play music, but in Windows i can't set it to anything higher than 16 bits/48Khz.

- I am using USB (3 meter cable). USB port on pc = fullspeed (USB2.0 / 480 Mbps) mode.

- Not using the upsampling card at the moment but problem is same w/wo.

- I have tried the different DIP settings, actually i have tried ALL combinations and i turn off the power to the DAC before i make any changes.

None of these attempts have made it possible to change to any other modes than 16bit 44.1Khz or 16bit 48Khz. (right-clicking on speaker icon near Windows clock) - Playback Devices - (double-clicking on the DAC) - Advanced.

What am i doing wrong?

Here is a link to imageshack where i have uploaded a pic of the DIP settings. Are these correct for 24/192?
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/9256/dacdips24192.jpg

Correct me if i am wrong here, but the available settings in the playback devices-dac-advanced windows shows which modes the DAC currently supports with the current DIP settings, right? I don't need to be currently playing a 24/192 melody to be able to set these settings higher?

or... Doesn't USB support more than 16/48Khz?

I've installed ASIO drivers as well, the version number can be seen in the pic above.

ALL help will be highly appreciated as i have had this DAC for some time now but i have never stopped being frustrated about this and i've only gathered energy to try to do something with it every now and then. This is one of those times.

Please help as this is starting to really frustrate me. :-(
 
The USB on this DAC is an old adaptive implementation and as such it does not go over 16bit, 48Khz. You can use an external USB --> SPDIF converttor and use the SPDIF input on this board.

How about the optical line in? Can i trust that the onboard audio on my Asus P6TD Deluxe motheaboard can deliver 24/192 from it? Also when not connecting through USB, there are no ways to check the settings right? I will have to trust that it does the job right based on the DIP settings?

I think the DIPS are confusing as there are both "ON" and "1/0" and i notice people mix these terms.

When looking on the PCB while holding it so the USB connector is at the top right corner, should the jumpers be:

UP, Down, Down, Down for 24/192?

Also, when do i want to use the upsampling board? When playing normal cd's or all the time? I mostly play FLAC files and 24 bit as often as i can. Can i have it in all the time or will it somehow reduce the performance when playing REAL 24/192 music or have some other negative effect?
 
Ok, going for that then. Just wondering still, does most / all optical (toslink) support 24/192 (even onboard audio)? and the DAC will take care of all switching between modes itself if i use optical, right? Since i have no means of controlling what mode it's currently in when using only optical.
 
Hi, guys! I'm another owner of the Lars Dac and I like how it sounds, but I have a slight problem - buzzing noise coming out from it. I'm using only the USB input, the buzzing is not that loud, but it's audible when not playing music. Tried the dac with several amps and cables - the same thing, tried my system with other dacs - no buzzing noise. I'll try to find something in this thread about my problem, but it's so massive that I just couldn't resist asking a question first. Any comment will be appreciated.
 
Maybe its not the dac causing the buzz, I think it can be the noise coming from the computer power supply. And this Dac input could be very sensitive to power supply noise. You can use a USB-isolator with ADUM4160 chip, there is a small PCB available at circuits@home for about 50$. Better sound also.
You can try to run a laptop on battery supply first, and if noise is reduced, you know its coming from the computer and not from the dac.
 
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