Vale, Guido, or anybody that has opened up a HiFace - is there a non-destructive way to get into the unit. It seems to be a hard plastic casing that is glued together - anything that dissolves this glue - acetone, alcohol?
I just got mine today & after doing some listening I intend to open it up for:
- I2S tapping
- external PS
but I want the option of reverting back to stock!
I just got mine today & after doing some listening I intend to open it up for:
- I2S tapping
- external PS
but I want the option of reverting back to stock!
FYI, the I2S may cause you problems depending on which chip you intend to interface it to. It does not conform to the usual I2S spec, in particular the timing of the L/RCLK. Marco is aware and working on fixing this.
Can you tell me any more about the timing issue - I'll be interfacing it to a Sabre ES9022 DAC initially.
L/RCLK changes state 1/2 clock cycle late I believe. Use a multichannel scope to see this.
There's no way of knowing which DAC will work with out-of-spec I2S without trying it, I presume?
Isn't that the same Left justified/right justified mode? the LRCK is 1/2 cycle different from I2S. Most DAC would support that mode along with I2S. Unless the data is half a cycle late, but how can you tell?
You can tell if rising edge of SCLK happens at same time as L/RCLK changes state.
SDATA and L/RCLK should both change on the falling edge of SCLK for both I2S and right-justified. I2S has L/RCLK changing one clock cycle later than right-justified.
Since this works fine with CODEC on the HiFace module, it may not change. With the current HiFace, you may need to reclock the I2S to bring things into alignment.
Has Guido gotten the I2S working with a particular D/A chip?
Last edited:
I emailed Marco & he replied that I2S is perfectly compliant to standard , as it's generated by the S/PDIF transmitter which operates as master with respect to the CPLD.
So I'm not sure what Steve is talking about?
Thanks for interesting info.
My hiface is connected to wm8742 by tapping i2s, no reclocking in place, it works any rate from 44.1Khz to 192Khz.
Guido tried also pcm1794 via i2s without any problem.
ciao
Valeriano
Hi John.
I emailed him, too
He confirmed that stock hiface is not having any issues related to i2s.
afaih Steven is using a different implementation not for end-users.
ciao
Valeriano
See here: M2Tech HiFace 24/192 USB->S/PDIF penstyle interface
But it's very difficult that you'll need to revert to the standard version
Hi all.
I finally received the Musiland.
I ear your question: do you compared it with HiFace?
First of all, a consideration: if we consider it as a "black box", The Musiland is not bad at all, for the price, and for the fact that (the US 01) goes with a DAC, so a good solution for a "no-brainer". With some (slight) issues: it doesn't appear to appreciate long USB cables and it's quite consuming in terms of PC resources (with 192KHz files, up to 80% or CPU utilization on a Sempron64 laptop).
HiFace is quite another beast: it assumes that the owner own a DAC, that (should) mean another "level" of enduser (and of cost).
I used it with a 5 meter long USB cable, with no issues at all, and the CPU utilization rarely goes up to 10% (meaning that you can use it with a cheap netbook).
And about sound?
Frankly, modded HiFace vs. stock Musiland are not even comparable: I don't know if it's a jitter matter (the DACs are very different) , but - for me - HiFace do sound better.
And the technical aspects?
HiFace has two (low jitter) oscillators instead of a (standard) one, the drivers appear to be "better" (DS, KS, Asio, and Mac support).
Last but not least, HiFace is italian
But, here we are on DIYAudio: I don't expect that any of the readers will resist to the modding, therefore any of your (my) mods will become your device as the "best of the world" (beatle's syndrome...)
I finally received the Musiland.
I ear your question: do you compared it with HiFace?
First of all, a consideration: if we consider it as a "black box", The Musiland is not bad at all, for the price, and for the fact that (the US 01) goes with a DAC, so a good solution for a "no-brainer". With some (slight) issues: it doesn't appear to appreciate long USB cables and it's quite consuming in terms of PC resources (with 192KHz files, up to 80% or CPU utilization on a Sempron64 laptop).
HiFace is quite another beast: it assumes that the owner own a DAC, that (should) mean another "level" of enduser (and of cost).
I used it with a 5 meter long USB cable, with no issues at all, and the CPU utilization rarely goes up to 10% (meaning that you can use it with a cheap netbook).
And about sound?
Frankly, modded HiFace vs. stock Musiland are not even comparable: I don't know if it's a jitter matter (the DACs are very different) , but - for me - HiFace do sound better.
And the technical aspects?
HiFace has two (low jitter) oscillators instead of a (standard) one, the drivers appear to be "better" (DS, KS, Asio, and Mac support).
Last but not least, HiFace is italian
But, here we are on DIYAudio: I don't expect that any of the readers will resist to the modding, therefore any of your (my) mods will become your device as the "best of the world" (beatle's syndrome...
)Thanks Guido,
Now let the modding begin if your up for it? It would be interesting to compare it modded against your modded HiFace. I'm not surprised with the long cable issue on the Musiland - it appears to be down in SPDIF output - see here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diy-...ver-computer-transport-hop-4.html#post2013478
I'm starting from the other side - a modded Musiland so it will be interesting to compare it to an unmodded HiFace. Unfortunately, it won't be a completely fair comparison as I'll have to use the Toslink out of the Musiland Vs the SPDIF out (RCA or BNC) of the HiFace. Won't be able to do this for a number of days though.
My real comparison will be between I2S from the Musiland Vs I2S from the HiFace into the same Sabre DAC - have to break into the HiFace for this!
Now let the modding begin
if your up for it? It would be interesting to compare it modded against your modded HiFace. I'm not surprised with the long cable issue on the Musiland - it appears to be down in SPDIF output - see here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diy-...ver-computer-transport-hop-4.html#post2013478 I'm starting from the other side - a modded Musiland so it will be interesting to compare it to an unmodded HiFace. Unfortunately, it won't be a completely fair comparison as I'll have to use the Toslink out of the Musiland Vs the SPDIF out (RCA or BNC) of the HiFace. Won't be able to do this for a number of days though.
My real comparison will be between I2S from the Musiland Vs I2S from the HiFace into the same Sabre DAC - have to break into the HiFace for this!
Hi Valeriano,
Do you happen to know the MCK fs with 44.1 sample rate? 128? 256? The reason I ask is that the Wolfson DAC wants 256fs for 44.1 sample rate. It works with 128fs but the highest internal upsampling is disabled.
Hi all.
...
Frankly, modded HiFace vs. stock Musiland are not even comparable: I don't know if it's a jitter matter (the DACs are very different) , but - for me - HiFace do sound better.
And the technical aspects?
.....
Hi GuidoR, are you comparing the analog output of the Musiland 01-US? What is your other DAC? Thanks for the report.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.