Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 8, 2020 Share Posted September 8, 2020 @Ben75 Yes, i tried but not charging at the same time, if that is what you are referring to. There is no point in doing that because batteries last a very long time with either the DAC or the U192... Don't focus too much on batteries. I have still been using a battery for the DAC because I have been moving it back and forth between my living room and home office, and it is simpler that way, but may change my mind after a while. This is not critical. If you purchase the DAC and other units, you can try it, it is simple, but it should not be a decision-criteria for purchasing them. Ben75 1 Link to comment
Popular Post realDHT Posted September 9, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted September 9, 2020 Less than a week since I recieved my ecd combo, I already started doing some modifications 😁 (bye-bye warranty). Since the enclosures are not shielded, except from the aluminium bottom plate, I tested placing them close to my amplifier transformers and could hear very noticable hum/interference pickup. I shielded the rest of the enclosures with 0.2 mm copper foil. This worked wonders, I can no longer provoke any interference pickup from the amp. At the same time I also installed foam vibration damping material under the circuit boards. Qhwoeprktiyns and Ben75 2 Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 5 minutes ago, realDHT said: Less than a week since I recieved my ecd combo, I already started doing some modifications 😁 (bye-bye warranty). Since the enclosures are not shielded, except from the aluminium bottom plate, I tested placing them close to my amplifier transformers and could hear very noticable hum/interference pickup. I shielded the rest of the enclosures with 0.2 mm copper foil. This worked wonders, I can no longer provoke any interference pickup from the amp. At the same time I also installed foam vibration damping material under the circuit boards. Looks neat! I would be interested to know how ECD owners place their devices. Stacking? Weights? Keeping distance between certain devices? I was thinking to stack my U192+UPL96+SVC24 together using something like sugru for added weight and keep them at some distance from the DA96. Is that a good idea? audio system Link to comment
realDHT Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 13 minutes ago, bodiebill said: Looks neat! I would be interested to know how ECD owners place their devices. Stacking? Weights? Keeping distance between certain devices? I was thinking to stack my U192+UPL96+SVC24 together using something like sugru for added weight and keep them at some distance from the DA96. Is that a good idea? I place my 2 devices closely side by side with the aluminium plates in contact. This is only because I find they need the same ground, otherwise I get ground loop hum. This only happens with my iFi power supply, not with the standard one from EC. Probably its a good idea to keep some distance from the DA96 as you say. Had not heard about sugru, checked it out and it looks like a very useful product! Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 I also keep the DA96 at a distance from the other units. I think the U192 emits a little more noise than the UPL. Otherwise, if you stack them, I would put the DA96 on top, just below the SVC - perhaps a small aluminum plate on top of each unit would work instead of applying copper shielding inside ? @realDHT would that be beneficial in your opinion ? Sugru does look like a nice option 👍 Link to comment
realDHT Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 34 minutes ago, hopkins said: I also keep the DA96 at a distance from the other units. I think the U192 emits a little more noise than the UPL. Otherwise, if you stack them, I would put the DA96 on top, just below the SVC - perhaps a small aluminum plate on top of each unit would work instead of applying copper shielding inside ? @realDHT would that be beneficial in your opinion ? Sugru does look like a nice option 👍 I guess a top alu plate could be beneficial. If stacking units, also each bottom plate would shield cross-talk between units, this was probably the designers intent. With my shielding tweak, one needs to be careful so that no piece of foil can fall off and reach circuits. Qhwoeprktiyns 1 Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 1 hour ago, hopkins said: I also keep the DA96 at a distance from the other units. I think the U192 emits a little more noise than the UPL. Otherwise, if you stack them, I would put the DA96 on top, just below the SVC - perhaps a small aluminum plate on top of each unit would work instead of applying copper shielding inside ? @realDHT would that be beneficial in your opinion ? Indeed, so this is my plan, with the UPL in the middle as it emits less noise. And the UPL and U will never be active at the same time. SVC24 UPL96 U192 DA96 (Good to see we also found a tweaking playground in the parallel ECD mini-universe.) audio system Link to comment
Jan.ho Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 Has anyone tried the allo usb bridge yet? On paper this usb transport host looks good. Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 11 hours ago, Jan.ho said: Has anyone tried the allo usb bridge yet? On paper this usb transport host looks good. On paper a lot of things look good. Difficult to know whether the extra price you pay for audiophile features (such as "cleaning up the USB signal") make much of a difference with the U192. Link to comment
Jan.ho Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 4 hours ago, hopkins said: On paper a lot of things look good. Difficult to know whether the extra price you pay for audiophile features (such as "cleaning up the USB signal") make much of a difference with the U192. Where did you geh this Quote from? Maybe I got this wrong, but this bridge is connected to the allo sparky via i2s. So it would not “clean up” the signal, but make the signal itself with help of “good” clocks. Antonelli Caroli (GentooPlayer Linux) even made a distro for this thing. Maybe someone will give it a try. My brother has the former ECD usb-> toslink Converter (the very small one) and we were able to identify a difference between hooking this up to a MacBook on one hand, and to an Auralic Aries Mini on the other. I’m sure Gordon and John have produced a more sophisticated usb elektrotos Converter now, but this allo usbridge still might be worth a try. please do tell, if I got this all wrong. Greetings, Jan Link to comment
matthias Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 30 minutes ago, Jan.ho said: Maybe I got this wrong, but this bridge is connected to the allo sparky via i2s. You are referring to the "old" USBridge which has been replaced by the USBridge Signature. Matt "I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe) Link to comment
Jan.ho Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 3 hours ago, matthias said: You are referring to the "old" USBridge which has been replaced by the USBridge Signature. Matt well, and the new signature uses something else out of the computing module? In my own Defense I never said signature. Have you tried the “old” one? Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 Just received the Paul Hynes SR4T so I tried out powering the UPL as per screenshot. Without the (red) SBooster Vbus2, i.e. when the UPL receives power from the NUC, it works fine. However, when adding the Vbus2 and powering the usb hub separately with 5VDC from the SR4T, the Silicon Labs CP2010x device (which is needed for the UPL) is not recognized. I will try whether it works with the U192 later... audio system Link to comment
realDHT Posted September 12, 2020 Share Posted September 12, 2020 20 hours ago, bodiebill said: Just received the Paul Hynes SR4T so I tried out powering the UPL as per screenshot. Without the (red) SBooster Vbus2, i.e. when the UPL receives power from the NUC, it works fine. However, when adding the Vbus2 and powering the usb hub separately with 5VDC from the SR4T, the Silicon Labs CP2010x device (which is needed for the UPL) is not recognized. I will try whether it works with the U192 later... Hope you will get it working and looking forward to hear what difference it makes to the U192 sound. Link to comment
realDHT Posted September 12, 2020 Share Posted September 12, 2020 I have experimented a little with upsampling using the U192/DA96. I played a few redbook recordings and compared the original 44.1 kHz with upsamling in Jriver to 88.2 kHz. I used the SoX resampling algorithm which is supposed to be the best. Since I don't have an attenuator yet, i'm using digital volume control so the chain is not bitperfect anyway. I found that with the upsampling, much of the magic was gone. It still sounded nice, but not as special as before. Ben75 1 Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 12, 2020 Share Posted September 12, 2020 9 hours ago, realDHT said: Hope you will get it working and looking forward to hear what difference it makes to the U192 sound. Same problem: the U192 is not recognized with NUC => SBooster Vbus2 => usb cable => usb hub separately powered => usb cable => U192 It is only recognized when I remove the Vbus2, i.e. when it receives power from the NUC (with or without separate power). So this was not successful. I think @hopkins did manage to do it this way? Am I doing something wrong? In the mean time I am waiting for the Ghent cable recommended by @Ben75; so will be continued... Ben75 1 audio system Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 12, 2020 Share Posted September 12, 2020 I think it worked with one of my hubs but not the other. I mostly use that AudioPhonics cable, similar to the Ghent, but lower quality. Should recieve a Ghent cable fairly soon as well. Ben75 1 Link to comment
Ben75 Posted September 12, 2020 Share Posted September 12, 2020 I hope you will be able to make the UPL96 work greatly with USB Y-cable ! 🙂 Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 13, 2020 Share Posted September 13, 2020 6 hours ago, Ben75 said: I hope you will be able to make the UPL96 work greatly with USB Y-cable ! 🙂 The UPL sounds great as is. I ordered the cable when I was playing around with the U192. It will certainly come in handy, however. Link to comment
tims Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 On 2/16/2019 at 10:28 AM, hopkins said: Seems they are having issues with the battery. No problem on my side. On the thread about SD card players SLC memory was mentionned. I purchased a 64gb USB SLC. It is quite expensive, but it is much faster than the standard USB keys i was using, which were quite slow on my computer. The SLC last longer, and seem to be more reliable. Anyway, it works well. I have given up on the idea of storing all my music collection on multiple keys, and just copy files on that one key as needed. Here is the key: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00K3XHF66/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_c_D5YzCb50NVGX6 Hi hopkins Are you still using your SLC USB memory for the UPL or found something else as good or better? Anyone else with a UPL try SLC type memory? Thanks Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 1 hour ago, tims said: Hi hopkins Are you still using your SLC USB memory for the UPL or found something else as good or better? Anyone else with a UPL try SLC type memory? Thanks Hi Tims, In the past few years since I first started using the UPL (first model), USB keys have improved and gotten cheaper. Using those (still) expensive SLC keys may no longer be relevant. I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Flash-Drive-Version/dp/B00DQG9OZ2 Also, the current UPL no longer works on batteries and has enough power on its front USB port for larger USB drives. I format drives using Rufus, which lets you format any disk in FAT32. tims 1 Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 On 9/7/2020 at 10:18 PM, bodiebill said: This thread inspired me to try just that. As I have this cable for my TakeT H2 and Hifiman HE-6 headphones (both really hard to drive) , with two 4 pin mini-XLR for the cans and one 4 pin male XLR on the other end, I ordered a 4 pin female XLR to be able to convert to 2 RCA's for the SVC24. I guess this will not work with the Taket (which needs its own special box), but it may well work with the Hifiman. so I finally made an adapter cable for my mini-xlr to 4pin xlr headphone wire: Alas, the Hifiman is much too demanding: directly from the DA96 the sound is much too soft. Ah well, it was worth trying. realDHT 1 audio system Link to comment
bodiebill Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 Anyone knows the minimum sensitivity required for headphones to be used with the DA96 (+SVC24) and produce sufficient volume level? audio system Link to comment
Qhwoeprktiyns Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 58 minutes ago, bodiebill said: Anyone knows the minimum sensitivity required for headphones to be used with the DA96 (+SVC24) and produce sufficient volume level? My Beyerdynamic are 96db and 250 ohm and can be played directly from the DA96 (slightly louder than normal). I just checked, your Hifiman are 83.5 db and 50 ohm, which is indeed unusual for headphones. I would think a minimum of 100db would work, but I think the impedance has to be taken into account as well. realDHT 1 Link to comment
realDHT Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 I checked the Hifiman He-6 spec and the sensitivity is low at 83.5 dB, but I think the real problem here is that it has low impedance, 50 Ohm. The DA96 has 375 Ohm output impedance. 600 Ohm headphones might work well directly, but I think EC modified their DA96 to half output impedance when driving 600 Ohm headphones. Link to comment
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