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[JazzDoc]

I think I may, with the help of Keith at Purite Audio and Marco at M2Tech, have resolved the issues with the Hiface and JRiver Media Center 15. The comments below are based on my own use of the products in my system which comprises:

Acer Laptop (Windows 7 x64) (JRiver Media Center 15: Full Version)
Samsung 1.5 TB USB External Hard Drive
M2Tech Hiface
Naim Audio DAC / Naim XPS Power Supply
Naim NAC52 Pre-Amplifier / Naim Audio Supercap Power Supply / Naim Audio NAP250 Power Amplifier
Naim SBL Speakers

Marco sent me the beta driver (1.03.140) and I installed it having previously removed the driver available from the M2Tech website (1.03.141). It didn't appear to make any difference. I was still getting error messages when I tried to play 24-Bit/96kHz FLAC files and 24-Bit/192kHz FLAC files.

I then started to work my way through the dCS Guide to Computer Audio and made sure that my installation of Windows 7 was correctly configured. I changed quite a few things in the Windows audio configuration! The setup procedure for Windows 7 can be found on Pages 26-28 of the guide. Having completed this, I reinstalled the 1.03.140 driver that Marco supplied and configured JRiver Media Center 15 to work in WASAPI mode. This process is described in Pages 34-37 on the guide.

16-Bit/44.1kHz FLAC files and 24-Bit/44.1kHz FLAC files would now play with the 'Open device for exclusive access' box checked (I had not managed to get sound output with this box checked before). I thought that everyone was OK until I tried playing 24-Bit/96kHz FLAC files and 24-Bit/192kHz FLAC files. The sound was breaking up badly. I managed to resolve this issue by returning to the DSP Studio settings and changing the Prebuffering setting from its default value of 6 seconds to 2 seconds.

Everything now seems to be working well. The only problem I have experienced is changing from one 24-Bit/192kHz album rip to another without first stopping playback. This could however, be due to the fact that I have a USB rather than a NAS drive.


If you need Marco's beta driver or the dCS Guide to Computer Audio, I have posted them in my Hotfile account. Links are as follows:

http://hotfile.com/dl/56760438/e9363ab/dCS_Guide_to_Computer_Audio.pdf.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/56760085/99006ff/win7vista103.zip.html



I hope this works for you if you are experiencing difficulties. I have to say that the sound of JRiver Media Center 15 in WASAPI mode is superb. To my ears, it is preferable to Foobar2000. In JRiver, the WASAPI mode sounds less 'hot' than ASIO and more detailed than kernel streaming. I also much prefer the GUI of JRiver Media Center to Foobar2000/DarkOne 2.1, but that is down to personal taste.

Finally ... Thanks to Keith at Purite Audio and Marco at M2Tech. They have both been so helpful in working with me to resolve the difficulties.

[Matt]

Thank you for all your work on this and for this nice post.

[HiFiTubes]

I thought that everyone was OK until I tried playing 24-Bit/96kHz FLAC files and 24-Bit/192kHz FLAC files. The sound was breaking up badly. I managed to resolve this issue by returning to the DSP Studio settings and changing the Prebuffering setting from its default value of 6 seconds to 2 seconds.

Very interesting. I played around with lowering the buffer here too.

What happens exactly when you try switch to another 192kHz file? Are you using any DSP settings for Crossfading like Gapless, Smooth, or Aggressive.

I'm also curious if you can control the system volume fot the HiFace via the Windows Sound controls (where you set exclusive mode), as I have found I can do so with EMU WASAPI/ASIO in Windows 7, but not Lynx AES16-E in WASAPI (haven't checked ASIO yet).

Does the HiFace auto-change sample rates? Or, are you using any fixed sampling in MC, and upsampling lower sample rates to 192kHz?

[JazzDoc]

What happens exactly when you try switch to another 192kHz file? Are you using any DSP settings for Crossfading like Gapless, Smooth, or Aggressive.

It goes from smooth playback to jerky playback. There are not gaps in the sound. The sound just breaks up. I am not using any DSP settings. I do not have gapless playback (It plays just the same as the original CD) and I don't use crossfading. I think it's probably got something to do with my Samsung 1.5TB USB external hard drive as it has to move from one set of large files to another. It would be good if someone tried this using a NAS drive as they are much faster in their access times I believe

I'm also curious if you can control the system volume fot the HiFace via the Windows Sound controls (where you set exclusive mode), as I have found I can do so with EMU WASAPI/ASIO in Windows 7, but not Lynx AES16-E in WASAPI (haven't checked ASIO yet).

I haven't checked this out

Does the HiFace auto-change sample rates? Or, are you using any fixed sampling in MC, and upsampling lower sample rates to 192kHz?

Yes it does, although I set the sampling rate at 24-Bit in DSP settings. I have no idea why I needed to set it this way but a number of people who have posted about this on the Internet have used this setting. I thought it was worth trying. Keith at Purite Audio informs me that Marco's preference is for a 32-Bit setting in DSP but when I tried this I got the error message about incompatible hardware again. I don't think there is actually a fault with either the driver or JRiver Media Center 15. I think it's just the synergy between the two. The new Evo looks like it will ship with the same driver. Perhaps Marco will update the driver to give a greater chance of it working 'straight out of the box'. Having said that, all the fiddling that I have done has been worthwhile. It sounds superb!

[HiFiTubes]

My Maverick D1 DAC can play at both settings 24bit package vs. 32bit whereas my Lynx card requires 24bit only.

The reason I asked about the volume control is that my home office setup, which I rarely use except for cleaning up vinyl rips, has an EMU0202 and I thought it was busted, as the Grado headphones' volume was so low (they are low impedance too).

The systray icon at max and using ASIO, I would have never thought to look in the Windows Sound settings at the Master volume as pre-Windows 7 (and Vista?), the cards in ASIO driver mode, would never be controlled by Windows.

And I seem to be having the same problem as you with garbled (lost sync) playback?It took me awhile to reproduce it again today, but I was using 96kHz material the whole time now that I think about it. I'll try again tonight with the (3) 192kHz albums I have.