Thank you very much. It's what I wanted to hear before dishing 450 bucks.
I do hope you like the result, I was able to compare the two and the Exa was definitely better. The DAC that was used was a Buffalo II and may be the WaveIO was in disadvantage because I was using foobar on Windows, may be it is better suited to the MAC OS X but I had no chance to find a MAC based computer at the time.
Actually it will be very interesting to compare the two devices on Mac:
exaU2i - Custom FPGA firmware /custom OS X diver
vs.
WaveIO - Optimized XMOS with standard driver
exaU2i - Custom FPGA firmware /custom OS X diver
vs.
WaveIO - Optimized XMOS with standard driver
I sold my Powerbook otherwise it would have been done immediately... The ExaU2I gives me everything I want at the moment and I am not motivated to experiment with anything right now, if you get what I mean 😉 And I am one of those "must-try-them-all" type of guys...
I cant do this either, unless some friend of mine has a mac.
I do not like the lack of custom WDM drivers for w7 and w8, as i prefer kernel streaming to anything else. Do you have plans for? The software reroute you recommend doesnt sound too nice to me. :/
The comparison i'll do will be with foobar 1.1/wasapi out
The Exa was the reason I sold the Powerbook which was bought because I expected the XMOS to be the best USB>I2S solution, if that is an indication of the difference between the two. I do feel however that the WaveIO is a bargain.
Telstar,
In my experience ASIO provides better subjective results than kernel streaming. With our ASIO drivers the automatic sample rate switching, the bit-perfect operation and the asynchronous mode are guaranteed.
There are performance issues with KS at extreme sampling rates and 32bit resolution. exaU2I ASIO works on an Atom netbook at 8 channels / 384 kHz / 32bit.
We are primarily interested in sound quality, so we've taken the ASIO road. Please do a patient comparison between exaU2I ASIO and KS on other devices. Sometimes the initial reaction is mixed - you don't get what you expect to get. The exaU2I sound is not an improved version of the sound of your old device. It is different, brighter, more detailed and more dynamic. Depend on the recording, this may not be "more musical".
I can guarantee you one thing - exaU2I is transparent. You will get exactly what is recorded - nothing added, nothing taken away.
Best regards,
George
Hi George,
My favourite player is xxhighend which uses KS (with no issues up to 768khz).
But I can use ASIO with Signalyst, and upsampling to 176khz (higher not supported by waveIO).
The waveIO has no asio drivers, so I have to use the provided WDM drivers from Thesycon, but i'll keep all other settings the same, except eventually buffer size.
ASIO has no direct access to the hardware, the reason it's preferred in pro audio is the capability of port routing.
Lastly, I will be using a dedicated pci-e usb3 controller to avoid port sharing.
My favourite player is xxhighend which uses KS (with no issues up to 768khz).
But I can use ASIO with Signalyst, and upsampling to 176khz (higher not supported by waveIO).
The waveIO has no asio drivers, so I have to use the provided WDM drivers from Thesycon, but i'll keep all other settings the same, except eventually buffer size.
ASIO has no direct access to the hardware, the reason it's preferred in pro audio is the capability of port routing.
Lastly, I will be using a dedicated pci-e usb3 controller to avoid port sharing.
I wouldn't touch, or support or discuss xxhighend.... there is too much black magic involved. I prefer to stay on the rational side of audio.
No black magic, it's a different upsampling algorithm which works very well IMO. But i'll use another player (beta doesnt work on my pc, i'll try another version)
USB Optical Isolator
Has anyone tried this product?
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Over Fiber Optic Expansion System:Amazon:Electronics
Has anyone tried this product?
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Over Fiber Optic Expansion System:Amazon:Electronics
Thank you for the link, Bunpei. Unfortunately this device costs as much as a good USB to I2S interface. exaU2I solves the ground isolation issue. There is no need to go overboard on one particular feature. Look at the exaU2I measurements - www.exadevices.com > exaU2I > Measurements. There is no trace of USB induced noise. There is no evidence if the impact of GMR phase noise either.
-Best,
exa065
-Best,
exa065
Hi George,
I'm checking the beginning of the thread, and I would like to know if you have abandoned the development of a WDM or it's just posponed for the future?
Also, when you'll move to usb3 (likely next year or even later), will it be possible to upgrade the board or a new pcb will be needed?
I'm checking the beginning of the thread, and I would like to know if you have abandoned the development of a WDM or it's just posponed for the future?
Also, when you'll move to usb3 (likely next year or even later), will it be possible to upgrade the board or a new pcb will be needed?
Just curious, why do you need USB3? The exa-unit can already handle 32bits and 384kHz with 8 channels. Need more?
(( Per
At the present time the WDM development is on hold. USB 3 will require completely new design.
The reason that there is no new development around exaU2I is that we've reached the point of diminishing returns. WDM will appeal to new customers, but in our experience there is no quality improvement compared to ASIO. It is just another, more difficult and more risky way of doing the same thing. Doubling the sampling rate for two channels is possible within the bandwidth of USB 2, and also with USB 3. A 768 kHz device will appeal to a very limited group of owners of very high-end systems.
With other words exaU2I is not the bottle neck in our systems.
Remind me/us, how you can listen to lossless multichannel audio using Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player, Arcsoft TMT, VLC or MPC-HC with an ASIO driver.
Isn't there another application that you have to run that supports multichannel playback with these non-ASIO applications? How is that working, are there any problems with audio/video sync?