FauDrei
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Post by FauDrei on Sept 24, 2009 22:29:12 GMT
For a couple of years now I've been using HagUsb for USB to SPDIF conversion and was generally satisfied with it. HagUsb regularly sounded better than appropriate USB inputs on DACs that I came accros. Thought - this is it, nothing more to improve there in the USB to SPDIF conversion... Well - I was wrong... Won't bother you much with the specs: Musiland Monitor 01 USD does bit-perfect 24/192, USB input - BNC, RCA and optical outputs, aluminum case, feeds on USB power, uses proprietary USB 2.0 asynchronous drivers (Mac & Linux not supported yet), driver integrated WDM and ASIO support, cca. $80 through eBay to your door. Was it jitter, was it slow/lossy USB to spdif conversion or something else - I don't know. I know though, that just by swapping HagUsb with Monitor 01 USD (and installing its drivers) my music gained on playback quality - especially the bass region and those delicate "space cues" that your brain decode as ambient information. It was like I upgraded all my DACs at once.  If you listen music through computer and external (USB) DAC - try this Musiland converter. There is a good chance it would improve music playback in your system too. (s*it, I do sound as Musiland's marketing...  ) |
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Post by coolfungadget on Oct 15, 2009 15:49:57 GMT
 Now here comes the Musiland's marketing...
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leo
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Post by leo on Oct 21, 2009 16:57:56 GMT
I've been looking at the Musiland Monitor 01 USD's with great interest, wouldn't mind actually modding the hell out of one, re-regging etc
Should be good to test with the Buffalo32s dac, basically for 24/176.4 HRx
I heard the s/pdif output is attenuated at 75R, is this true?
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 21, 2009 20:54:53 GMT
I've been looking at the Musiland Monitor 01 USD's with great interest, wouldn't mind actually modding the hell out of one, re-regging etc Should be good to test with the Buffalo32s dac, basically for 24/176.4 HRx I heard the s/pdif output is attenuated at 75R, is this true? Leo, I think you should design your own DAC mate.... you've got the skills  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2009 21:15:42 GMT
I've been looking at the Musiland Monitor 01 USD's with great interest, wouldn't mind actually modding the hell out of one, re-regging etc Should be good to test with the Buffalo32s dac, basically for 24/176.4 HRx I heard the s/pdif output is attenuated at 75R, is this true? Leo, I think you should design your own DAC mate.... you've got the skills Mike Yes, but to do that, he would need a financial backer. Married men usually don't have the time or the money to indulge in such activities . ;D Alex |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 21, 2009 22:00:00 GMT
It wouldn't cost "too" much for a run of, say, "500" LEO-DAC boards ;D Tell me about it, what with the nagging, the attention seeking, the dizzy fits, the constant demands and the "time of the month" your average "married" man is pretty much FCKED' as a human being with no mind of his own..... I have sampled a pre marriage "relationship" for the past 18 months and if that's what's it's all about I'd rather stay single or go "gay". I've had the life sucked out of me with an expectation to conform to "somebody else's" idea of how I should behave...... Fortunately, I have a brain and have told her to go raffle herself..... no marriage for me, I like myself too much too share with a hormonal mad bitch. Anyways...... I'm more than happy to go 50/50 with leo on the LEO-DAC |
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leo
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Post by leo on Oct 22, 2009 0:28:23 GMT
Yes, a dac based around 32bit Sabre using fancy arsed regs onboard, some smart output stage with both spdif, I2S and 24/192k USB inputs would be nice  bloody lot of expense and time needed to get it going though  Its a lot to take on doing it from scratch, If I had the time and money I'd jump at it , its quicker to cheat and buy the ready designed and built stuff , then its just a case of swapping out the shit First thing to go on the Musiland would be that noisy voltage feed from the USB and those suspect looking pulse traffo's No comment regarding the other bit mentioned , I like my nuts where they are ;D |
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Spirit
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Post by Spirit on Oct 22, 2009 5:05:35 GMT
Yes, a dac based around 32bit Sabre using fancy arsed regs onboard, some smart output stage with both spdif, I2S and 24/192k USB inputs would be nice Surely you could do 32/xxx over usb3? Smart man. |
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Sol
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Post by Sol on Oct 22, 2009 8:27:51 GMT
bloody lot of expense and time needed to get it going though Its a lot to take on doing it from scratch, If I had the time and money I'd jump at it , its quicker to cheat and buy the ready designed and built stuff , then its just a case of swapping out the shit First thing to go on the Musiland would be that noisy voltage feed from the USB and those suspect looking pulse traffo's How much time and how much money? Enquiring minds al all that! |
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FauDrei
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Post by FauDrei on Oct 22, 2009 10:24:38 GMT
I heard the s/pdif output is attenuated at 75R, is this true? Hi Leo, do not know the answer (have not dissassembled my Monitor yet). But here you will find your answer... |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 22, 2009 12:33:08 GMT
bloody lot of expense and time needed to get it going though Its a lot to take on doing it from scratch, If I had the time and money I'd jump at it , its quicker to cheat and buy the ready designed and built stuff , then its just a case of swapping out the shit First thing to go on the Musiland would be that noisy voltage feed from the USB and those suspect looking pulse traffo's How much time and how much money? Enquiring minds al all that! Yes..... I'd like to know too Leo.... maybe we could get a group of Grotto investors to back you..... |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 19:39:43 GMT
I heard the s/pdif output is attenuated at 75R, is this true? Hi Leo, do not know the answer (have not dissassembled my Monitor yet). But here you will find your answer... FauDrei If you want further information from John, he is also an RG member,(and DIYAudio) and should be contactable via a PM. SandyK |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 19:46:16 GMT
How much time and how much money? Enquiring minds al all that! Yes..... I'd like to know too Leo.... maybe we could get a group of Grotto investors to back you..... Hey Mike I don't think that Leo wants to join the ranks of the unattached males any time soon.  I know from many conversations with Leo, that he often finds it hard to even find the time to post here. Much of the time lately, Leo is knackered from present work and other commitments. Alex |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 22, 2009 20:55:30 GMT
Yes..... I'd like to know too Leo.... maybe we could get a group of Grotto investors to back you..... Hey Mike I don't think that Leo wants to join the ranks of the unattached males any time soon. I know from many conversations with Leo, that he often finds it hard to even find the time to post here. Much of the time lately, Leo is knackered from present work and other commitments. Alex Since when has Leo been unable to talk for himself? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 21:05:39 GMT
Fine . Pile the combined pressure on Leo. With all due respect, you have no idea of the time involved in a major project such as this. Even redesigning the simple JLH for commercial PCB manufacture, took several months of work by Jon and Will, and Greg as well as rechecking by others.Even then small errors were sometimes missed,such as the incorrect orientation of the BC639/BC640 due to reliance on the published data of one manufacturer. This had to be corrected at the assembly stage by the end user.This project would also involve extensive use of SMD devices, which are far trickier again. You only need to look at the many variations of the JLH by Dave Mitchell to realise that, and as it turned out, Dave caused more than a few headaches too. P.S. I would be one of the first to construct such a design by Leo, as I have great confidence in his abilities, but to expect him to take on such a time consuming project involving MANY months of hard work ,IMHO is grossly unfair. |
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insomniac
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Post by insomniac on Oct 24, 2009 15:55:22 GMT
Yeah they look like the tops have been melted off, filled with potting compound and reprinted. Something not just right with that |
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leo
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Post by leo on Oct 24, 2009 19:13:18 GMT
Those pulse traffo's may not be specified for 192k, a replacement with a decent one from Newava wouldn't cost too much
Regarding starting a dac from scratch, I understand people would be interested but its not really convenient for me just yet
Also a few things to consider
Biggest part of the dac would be SMD components , if this is diy it needs to be soldered up starting from a bare pcb, are people really confident doing this ? it also needs to be tested , the ES9018 has something like 64 pins, its bloody tiny ! theres then all the smd resistors, caps, IC's etc
NO bleeding way am I sitting here doing a load of dacs by hand, its hard enough doing one for yourself ;D
The layout for something like this is far more complex than an average headphone amp, triple layer board would be much better and gives more freedom, also more expensive.
Theres user support to help people with build issues etc, no offense but I can already see how much time that would take
Doing this as a small run the costs for boards and BOM is going to be higher than buying a Buffalo32s
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jkeny
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Post by jkeny on Nov 1, 2009 1:46:26 GMT
I just noticed this thread & saw my name mentioned - yes, I've modded this DAC as per the thread linked to. One Last mod to do is changing the 24MHz crystal for a low jitter clock with decent PS. Actually, those output transformers turn out to be fine - search for fmak & Musiland on audioasylum - he has done a number of tests & measurements on the USD which prove this. The on-board regs seem fine - I tried a replacement with battery to no noticeable improvement - an area I will be revisiting, however Leo, there is a Sabre tweakers board (not from TP) coming out shortly which will be very affordable,as I think you know  |
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leo
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Post by leo on Nov 1, 2009 17:09:27 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it!  |
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insomniac
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Post by insomniac on Nov 1, 2009 17:36:43 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it! Nice Leo.. I'm currently on the fence about one of these ;D Is there a 01 USD Tweak thread on the horizon? |
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leo
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Post by leo on Nov 1, 2009 17:46:38 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it! Is there a 01 USD Tweak thread on the horizon? More than likely either on here or elsewhere |
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insomniac
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Post by insomniac on Nov 1, 2009 17:55:24 GMT
Is there a 01 USD Tweak thread on the horizon? More than likely either on here or elsewhere Cool |
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jkeny
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Post by jkeny on Nov 1, 2009 18:01:18 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it! I had to get Jeffrey (Coolfungadget), whom I bought the unit from , to register me on the Musiland site as it needs some Chinese characters for validation BTW, best mod is changing to external PS instead of USB PS. Changing crystal to low jitter clock may be a valuable mod, haven't done it yet? |
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FauDrei
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Post by FauDrei on Nov 1, 2009 18:17:47 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it! Leo try this (from here): Username: headfi Password: headheadfifi |
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leo
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Post by leo on Nov 1, 2009 18:48:24 GMT
I've ordered a 01 USD to play about with I tried joining Musilands forum but trying to sign up to be a member proved to be a real pain in the arse, in the end I thought sod it! I had to get Jeffrey (Coolfungadget), whom I bought the unit from , to register me on the Musiland site as it needs some Chinese characters for validation BTW, best mod is changing to external PS instead of USB PS. Changing crystal to low jitter clock may be a valuable mod, haven't done it yet? Yes, I intend on going external for the supply, I may knock up a ALW based supply for now with a cap multiplier pre reg Regarding the crystal I presume the stock fitted one is a cheap two pin job, if so it'll be worth looking into for improvements I didn't bother ordering the version of the 01 with internal dac mainly because I'll be using co-axial s/pdif , the pc is too far away from the system to be using I2S Whats the preferred program to use for playback with the Musilands? I currently use Creative media source 5 at the moment with the pc's s/pdif out |
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I know from many conversations with Leo, that he often finds it hard to even find the time to post here. Much of the time lately, Leo is knackered from present work and other commitments.
