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[timewart]

Anybody used the above to get 24 bit 92khz to their DAC?

I have a beresford TC-7520 - lovely DAC but its USB connector is limited to 16 bit/48 Khz, whilst its coaxial and optical inputs run through a different set of internal chips and offer full 24 bit/96 Khz.

I am looking to convert the USB output to Coaxial/Optical and the Musical Fidelity VLINK 2 does this (and asynchronously to boot!).

Has anybody tried the VLINK USB convertor? Any views about it? Any alternatives?

I looked into the idea of inserting a pci card with a coaxial output, but this seemed plain silly - I do NOT want Dolby surround sound and I am not playing Doom Slayer 10 - the return of carnage! I just want pure digital signals to my lovely DAC.

Thanks in advance for anybody replying to this request  

PS

Using Windows 7 64 bit

[Marlene]

The Musical Fidelity is supposed to be very good from what Iīve read.

But the Soundblaster X-Fi HD USB does the same for half the price (not that cheaper is always better). And it looks better... well, in my opinion of course.

[timewart]

Thanks Marlene - will look into that.

I must set up my own blog now....

[pcstockton]

I dont know anything of the Soundblaster product but I would recommend staying within the hifi community for this piece.

In addition to the V-Link (which I hear is nice), Also check out:

- Hi Face (M2Tech) - Dongle-style to coax or BNC
- Halide Bride - All in one cable coax or BNC.  No temptation to buy an additional expensive spdif cable.
- Weiss INT202 - Firewire and spendy.  But it may be the absolute best box out there.

Good luck!
Patrick

[Marlene]

I dont know anything of the Soundblaster product but I would recommend staying within the hifi community for this piece.

In addition to the V-Link (which I hear is nice), Also check out:

- Hi Face (M2Tech) - Dongle-style to coax or BNC
- Halide Bride - All in one cable coax or BNC.  No temptation to buy an additional expensive spdif cable.
- Weiss INT202 - Firewire and spendy.  But it may be the absolute best box out there.

"Stay within the hifi community"? I donīt mean to bold but thatīs probably not the best thing to say. I know of the bad reputation of the Soundblaster cards - itīs well earned. But this Soundblaster is an exception - good sound in every situation and no jitter. One just has to ignore all the software crap Creative offers with this card and then one will be fine.

The Halide Bride would be a typical product for audiophiles: too expensive ($ 395) for what it does and not better then anything else. Just look at the USB cable: standard wire for 0.50/m. And the Weiss certainly is the best (they have gorgeous products) but itīs also the most expensive and is more aimed at professionals.

[pcstockton]

to each their own.

I personally use an ESI Juli@, which I would suggest if the OP had asked for a sound card solution.

I figured the Halide Bridge would be popular here given its all-in-one nature which means you wont be on the hunt for expensive USB and SPDIF cables.  Also, for a Gordon Rankin async USB converter this is relatively inexpensive.

Yes the Weiss is gorgeous and the most expensive on the list.  Neither of those are are my point though.  Weiss DACs sound amazing and that is all that matters.  If you can afford it, you should demo it.  AS WITH ANY PURCHASE. 

let your ears (not the white paper) tell you what's what.

Demo an ultra high end DAC up against the Beresford and see if you appreciate the upgrade.  If so work backwards to your budget and ask the same question.  If none are worthwhile then pick the cheapest that has the functions you need.

Good luck!
Patrick

[timewart]

Funny you should mention the ESI Juli@. I had listed that as a possible solution.

Would you recommend this then?

All I want is to get clean usb out to my beresford and to use coaxial spdif.

At the moment, I seem to be getting clicks and pops when carrying out mildly intensive graphical activities on Windows 7 eg viewing BBC iPlayer or scrolling a largish Word doc or a website with graphics/flash content.

It's irritating to say the least - I am using the Wasapi event driven interface in JRiver. Have the usb audio in "hog" mode (as us apple people say), but I am still getting the clicks which I think must be system interupts.

Would an asynchronous USB dac cure this? Would the ESI Juli@ get rid of this issue?

HELP!!!!

PS

It's a pretty bog standard graphics card, but more than enough for my needs - Nvidia Geforce 210 - which has a decent enough Windows 7 experience figure (4.1 for Aero and 3.5 for Games - which I don't need!).

[Marlene]

Funny you should mention the ESI Juli@. I had listed that as a possible solution.

Would you recommend this then?

All I want is to get clean usb out to my beresford and to use coaxial spdif.

At the moment, I seem to be getting clicks and pops when carrying out mildly intensive graphical activities on Windows 7 eg viewing BBC iPlayer or scrolling a largish Word doc or a website with graphics/flash content.

It's irritating to say the least - I am using the Wasapi event driven interface in JRiver. Have the usb audio in "hog" mode (as us apple people say), but I am still getting the clicks which I think must be system interupts.

Would an asynchronous USB dac cure this? Would the ESI Juli@ get rid of this issue?

An asynchronous USB dac wouldnīt cure this Iīm afraid, asynchronous USB devices only have a much better jitter performance. Before you buy something you should check the latency of your system with this: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Do you use an USB device for audio now? Or do you use the built-in sound solution of your motherboard? In any case Iīve had some problems with my ASUS Xonar Essence ST in the beginning: I didnīt have latency problems, I got BSODs instead. The solution was to move the soundcard to another PCI-slot. The problem was that it shared an interrupt with my graphics card. The same is possible for your system but you cannot move the internal sound solution around so maybe another interface (PCI or USB) would cure this.

If you use an USB converter with latency problems it might help to use another USB hub. Normally many devices connect to this hub, you can have a look at the hub that is used with the device manager in Windows. Maybe 4-5 USB devices use this hub together with your audio card. There a possible solution would be to move all the other USB devices to ports coming from another hub. I did the same, I bought a USB bracket so that I could use a dormant hub on my mainboard.

[timewart]

Yup - put in a spare pci usb card I had and this reduced the problem to a degree. However, I could still hear slight clicks when the graphics processor did a bit of work.

Solution - I put in an older graphics card with lower specs but still capable of driving the aero interface. This got rid of any clicks. Just goes to show - you can't turn a sows ear into a silk purse.

Thank you for all of your advice to date, Marlene - it was both sensible and relevant! Much appreciated.

[pcstockton]

It's irritating to say the least - I am using the Wasapi event driven interface in JRiver. Have the usb audio in "hog" mode (as us apple people say), but I am still getting the clicks which I think must be system interupts.

Screw wasapi.  Use ASIO.

[JimH]

WASAPI should be fine.  But there are two types.  Please try the other one.  Try adjusting the buffer size.

[timewart]

ASIO, WASAPI or WASAPI event ... all have no effect whatsoever on the interference caused by the Geforce 210 graphics card - the clicks/pops happen come what may and the best I ever managed was to insert a usb hub on a spare pci slot.

Moving down to an old Geforce 7300LE completely removes the problem.

I tested for latency with both cards and BOTH came up as OK.

It would simply seem that the Geforce 210 card is like vacuum cleaners of old - interfering with radio reception!

I think I will stick with my current set up and just let the cpu make up for the shortcomings of the 7300LE's gpu.

Thanks again for all of your contributions - much appreciated.

[jcw]

Hi
Is anyone else using the Vlink II with Windows XP?  if so which audio input mode and parameters do you recommend?  I'm using Direct Sound but there seems to be no way to guarantee bit perfect delivery and it doesnt seem to sound quite as good as my EMU 0404USB (on ASIO).  Admitedly it is very hard to distinguish.  The Vlink doesnt seem to work with Kernel Streaming and there is no ASIO driver.  Have tried it with and without the version 17 upsampling options.  The rest of my system (Meridian DSP3100 speakers, which contain their own DACs) does recognise the different 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96kbit options.

thanks
John

[stewart_pk]

Try using version 2.10 of ASIO4ALL from http://www.asio4all.com

I'm using it with my V-Link V1 and Windows 7.