Wyred 4 Sound Dac2SE Upgrade Revisited & Findings -- The Best Decision Unequivocally!

[JohnDonaldson]

... After Steve Stone mentioned the CIA USB to I2S bridge improved the W4S DAC-2 sound, I purchased the bridge and the power unit a couple days later. ...

 

Could someone please give me a link to this bridge? My searches have come up empty.

 

Thanks

[JohnDonaldson]

My W4S Dac2dsdse and Asus Rampage IV Extreme play together perfectly. Just hooked them up with an inexpensive AudioQuest Forest usb cable, didn't do anything special and they sounded fine right away. I have used both the WASPI and ASIO audio devices with out problem. Sorry I don't have a solution for you, the combination worked out of the box here.

 

I am using JRMC 19 with many hundred hours without any problem.

 

Maybe your DAC is having a problem?

 

Hi All,

It seems that my W4S Dac2dsdse does not want to play well with my Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard plugged directly into the back. So I was wondering will the SOTM tx-USBexp pcie usb card work with the W4s Dac? I'm a little hesitant to purchase the card since I heard the card would not work with the older Dac 2. Has anyone used this card to feed their Dac2se?

[JohnDonaldson]

I understand your frustration and sympathies with you, I have been in similar boats from time to time. My R4E is using BIOS 43.10. Previously I used every BIOS back to 41.02 and possibly 40.04 with my Dac2dsdse without any problem. Most of the time I gently overclock my R4E (1 bump up of CPU and RAM) as well as occasional stock speeds. I have used both AMD and nVidia video cards with a variety of their drivers. If the R4E BIOS update does not help I would think about any changes to the stock R4E setup in BIOS you have made, mine is pretty much standard except for changes made to accommodate booting multiple OSs. WIN7 SP1 and WIN8.1 both work with my Dac2dsdse.

 

Please let us know how you make out.

 

Best Wishes

 

Hi John

Thanks for the info, Can't be the Dac, Clint at W4S checked it out for me and he said it was working just fine. May I ask what Bios version you have installed on your R4e? Mine is 4004. Have you OC'd your CPU or have you left it stock? For some unknown reason the Dac will lose lock on whatever data rate currently playing after a short while. It's been very frustrating, PC passed all benchmark tests like Prime 95, Memtest86, IBT. I just noticed that Asus just released new Bios 5 days ago I'm going to give that a try. If you have any other ideas on what could be the culprit I would love to hear them. Oh and I did try other usb cables even a W4S usb cable with no success. I'm going to try using Fidelizer also to see if maybe a system process is causing my problems.

 

Desperately seeking Stability.....

[JohnDonaldson]

Any word? Got the emails but I'm getting antsy here for sure.

 

Emailed Tony Holt yesterday asking what is going on. His reply was they are making progress but not fully resolved yet, and hoping it won't be much longer.

[JohnDonaldson]

Got my modified DAC-2V2se back today. Sounds good right out of the box.

[JohnDonaldson]

On 3/18/2017 at 3:33 AM, spockfish said:

 

Yeah the last one is the same issue I have with my DAC2v2. It requires first a firmware update, and secondly a change to the Linux kernel. The last part is the easy one: this is done in the community, and in general the guys from Sonore pull these patches in.

 

The biggest problem here is the firmware update. I've asked W4S multiple times when, but I did not get a definitive answer or even confirmation that this will be taken care off.

 

 

I too have been contacting W4S about supporting native DSD with a microRedu since last May.  Periodically EJ updates me on his efforts but the bottom line is he is not making much progress.  I think we DAC2 users who want this need to keep reminding W4S that native DSD support with the microRendu is important to us. 

[JohnDonaldson]

8 hours ago, spockfish said:

 

We're talking specifically about native DSD via a Linux endpoint (as the microRendu). I'm still amazed (and frustrated) that W4S is not providing this, as any other DAC supplier does. And furthermore, the supplier of the OEM USB module probably already does. So it's a matter of priority I guess...

 

 

I understand that W4S is a small operation with limited technical resources so they must use them wisely. I also understand native DSD through the microRendu and their DAC2 is not a high priority issue for them. Even so, given the time gone by and the number of W4S customers requesting this I am disappointed and frustrated they have not been able to make this happen yet. I know Tony monitors this thread so hopefully he will tell EJ about the recent discontent of W4S customers in their posts here and that will raise the priority for support of native DSD through the microRendu.

[JohnDonaldson]

On 3/24/2017 at 10:02 PM, lexicon1 said:

I can understand your frustration, however, how many companies have you ever called and been able to talk with the chief figure ? I have several W4S components and they do what they are supposed to do. i have also met EJ at the Newport audio show . I called him with a few questions on my previous dac upgrade. Look......, early adopters usually have growing pains and that is whats going on here. EJ is a stand up guy and patience is necessary to get every  variation being requested to  adapt to the new Dac configuration. Wish you well with your new dac. they will take care of you. 

As a long time early adapter of new technology I am painfully aware of the challenges that can result and can deal with them. What disappoints and frustrates me is that I first contacted W4S about this last May. I do appreciate there are significant challenges as Tony describes in his later posting but never in in my experience has it taken this long to resolve an early adapter problem. I know EJ and W4S are among the good guys in this industry so I am sorry to be so harsh about this, my frustration has just got the better of me.

 

[JohnDonaldson]

On 3/24/2017 at 10:34 PM, Wyred 4 Sound said:

Regarding the microrendu, this is something we also want to work as much as many of you. Just as we recently worked tirelessly to fix the 9038 chip DSD issues in just a couple weeks' time, if this were a strictly local (in-house) issue, it certainly would have been resolved long ago. However, anytime there are multiple platforms involved, it’s a collaborative effort between parties to resolve any inconsistencies. Our USB implementation should be compatible, but the issue is with linking our DAC with the microrendu’s OS. EJ has spoken personally with many of you on this, as well as spoken to Jesus of Sonore on multiple occasions. It’s been a bit of a moving target and the team effort of the involved parties needs to continue to work to come to a resolution. It's important to also keep in mind that what we've been told is that native DSD support is meant to work with XMOS devices, others by nature are incompatible with the driver at this point. You can read on Sonore's page the following: "Native DSD playback can produce noise between tracks, change in rate, and when playback is paused/stopped/resummed. This noise is expected and depends on your DAC's firmware. The noise can be at full volume. For best results select DoP for DSD playback."

 

 

In my search for my next DAC I have auditioned a couple DACs that can do native DSD with the microRendu and am well aware of the “noise” problem. From what I read this “noise” is nearly universal among DACs capable of native DSD with the microRendu. I am not asking W4S to fix this since many folks, much more knowledgeable in digital audio the me, suggest the most likely cause of the “noise’ is within Linux. While I would be overjoyed if W4S could also fix that problem I am only asking for my W4S DAC2 to support native DSD with my microRendu.

[JohnDonaldson]

@Wyred 4 Sound Could you please give us an update on where the effort to get your DACs compatible with miroRendu in native DSD is now?  Many of your customers are really hoping you can resolve this issue in the near term.  Thanks.