Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 & original V-Link comparison video

[HiFiInsider]

I thought you guys may be interested in the NEW Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 and my thoughts on it comparing to the original V-Link. The new 192 box is amazing....

 

[video=youtube;VF-yJkxwn4I]

[powelb]

Just wanted to say thank you for this. With me, you're preaching to the converted, as I think this little box is great. One of the other great advantages is that it opens up the option of DACs that only support 96kHz over USB but do support 192kHz over coax, potentially saving you lots of money.

 

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for your effort. One of the things that makes the internet so fantastic, is all the user-generated content, like your video or some of the great written contributions people make to sites like this. Without people taking the time to give, we would all be worse off.

[tubesound]

Thanks for doing this. Just to clarify that the original V-Link doesn't need a specific driver for Windows to support 24/96.

[HiFiInsider]

tubesound, thanks for letting me know. My 192 does come with a Drivers CD, but I didn't use on my Mac. I don't have a Windows PC so I don't know if the 192 will work without the drivers.

[tubesound]

tubesound, thanks for letting me know. My 192 does come with a Drivers CD, but I didn't use on my Mac. I don't have a Windows PC so I don't know if the 192 will work without the drivers.

 

V-Link 192 has the XMOS USB receiver which conforms to the standard USB 2.0 protocol. Mac and Linux supports USB 2.0 natively but Windows does not which means you have to install the driver that comes with V-Link 192 for a Windows system.

[Downrange]

Coupla things: there's no Mac driver, 'cause Mac's have it built-in, and, there's no TOSLINK 'cause TOSLINK's limited to 96khz.

 

Ahh, another oppo to wax (gush) about this little box. It really doesn't make sense that a 399 dollar bridge can make this much difference in my highish-end system, but it does. I have the V-Link II, and thought it was really good. Then this little baby showed up, and OMG. Words like revelatory, and "quantum leap" come to mind. Mind you, now, I'm using this with a very high end DAC, the Electrocompaniet ECD-1, as turbomodded by Steve Nugent, into a high end preamp (Electrocompaniet 4.7) and a great SS amp (John Curl-designed Parasound Halo A-21, all feeding big Maggies (with the full size ribbons). This is also balanced connected from V-Link 192 to the Halo.

 

I really thought this system sounded great with the V-Link II, so I was totally unprepared for the revelations that awaited me with the advent of the V-Link 192 in this system. A few things it has taught me:

- forget using a MAC LION platfrom - they're just not as musical as the good old Dell/XP system here...

- convert everything to .wav - playing .flacs is cheating yourself out of 1/3 of the musicality that's there (and only heard through the new VL192, never with the VL II).

 

It's more than paid for itself (several times over) just with those two bits of uptake, but, ohh... the MUSIC this produces. Even older CDs I'd mostly forgotten about, once I get the full 1411 bitrate from them, are often quite listenable. But there's just nothing like Diana Krall's "The Girl in the Other Room" downloaded from Chesky, and upverted to 4608 bitrate... If my ECD-1 would do 192, I'm sure there'd be yet another level of improvement with 24/192, but the performance of this at 24/96 is simply mind-boggling on the best material.

 

Best bargain of the new millenium, in my book.

[HiFiInsider]

It's the BEST $300 I've spent for my music server system.

[rodrigoeliedson]

Hello,

 

Anybody knows where can I download this drivers????

Think I lost my CD.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

tubesound, thanks for letting me know. My 192 does come with a Drivers CD, but I didn't use on my Mac. I don't have a Windows PC so I don't know if the 192 will work without the drivers.

[Audio_ELF]

Hello,

 

Anybody knows where can I download this drivers????

Think I lost my CD.

 

Thanks!

Is this any use? V-Link-192 USB Audio Driver - Musical Fidelity Software Informer.

[aarraes]

The manual says:

"For Windows, it is necessary to install a driver for this unit before

connecting the input.Insert the disk into the computer to be used and follow the oncreen

guides to setup the driver software.

 

Apple OSX or later has the necessary funcinality built-in and does not require driver disk."

[No Disc]

I would be interested to know which DAC everyone is using with their v-link and the SQ differences you hear with it in place.

[Boy Howdy]

HiFiGuy:

Thanks, your video was interesting. I saw that Music Direct and Amazon.com have the V-Link for half-price right now. Don't know if this is a temporary sale or the new retail price...

Mike

[PewterTA]

Have any of you guys messed with the USB Latency setting in the driver? If you turn it to minimal Latency.... WOW the difference is amazing over standard. There's a realism to the music that you just don't get with the USB driver in standard latency mode. I tried all the different buffer settings and none of them made a difference so I went with 8K. This is with use ASIO in foobar2000.... Definitely try it... it'll blow your mind how just changing that can make the already very good sounding V-Link 192 sound even better! One might have to mess with some settings on the computer to get it to work without skipping (go into the power options in the control panel and set it to Maximum performance) and that should take out all the skipping.

[Anaksulnamun]

I just purchased this from audioadvisor... and without the driver CD ...

Could someone kindly upload the driver CD, please?

[PewterTA]

It looks like the link above still works.... I'd try that.

[Anaksulnamun]

V-Link192USBV1.48.EXE

Here comes the driver file...

V-Link192USBV1.48.EXE