Asus Xonar Essence One

[Deleted]

Excuse my stubborness but I can't see the need for mounting connectors on the fiber itself or splicing when short length ready made F.O cables can be easily purchased with any standard connector or a combination of different ones on each end, we are talking very short distances here. The only problem would be if Frans receivers used some non standard connectors or he means soldering the optical receiver part on the board.

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2011 22:36:17 GMT @javier said:

Excuse my stubborness but I can't see the need for mounting connectors on the fiber itself or splicing when short length ready made F.O cables can be easily purchased with any standard connector or a combination of different ones on each end, we are talking very short distances here. The only problem would be if Frans receivers used some non standard connectors or he means soldering the optical receiver part on the board.

Javier
I could be well out of the loop these days.Are you talking here about premade lengths of glass fibre optic cable, as distinct from the cheap plastic Toslink stuff ?

Alex

[Deleted]

Yep, optic fiber with ST, SC, etc. as easy to source as CAT5 patch cables only more expensive.

[XTRProf]

Aug 22, 2011 22:50:29 GMT @javier said:

Yep, optic fiber with ST, SC, etc. as easy to source as CAT5 patch cables only more expensive.

Btw, out of interest, how much are you getting for the glass optic with Toslink connectors? I bought a 1 m one for my LD player (please, don't laugh as I collect LDs ) and is not cheap.

[Deleted]

You could mux it... it's called encoding and is what SPdif does.
This has the clock and datasignals signals combined and are separated again in the SPdif IC.

The 850nm multimode emitters and receivers I mostly use have ST connectors (HFBR-1414 and HFBR-2416).
I can make any fiber-optical cable length desired (from 10 cm patchcords upto several kilometers).
Splicing and setting certain connectors I can do, as long as they are not angled (E2000, AC/PC e.t.c.)
Can do single mode and multimode.

Standard lengths of optical cable can be store bought, even Farnell has them.
In this case it will be multimode and could be 50/125 or 62.5/125.

The PCB's are ECL in and out and would have to make an interface to go from and to the proper voltages/impedances.
Don't know it will do any good non-subjectively.
The idea you have a fast non-smearing connection could envoke subjective differences though.

[XTRProf]

Aug 23, 2011 5:24:52 GMT @solderdude said:

You could mux it... it's called encoding and is what SPdif does.
This has the clock and datasignals signals combined and are separated again in the SPdif IC.

The 850nm multimode emitters and receivers I mostly use have ST connectors (HFBR-1414 and HFBR-2416).
I can make any fiber-optical cable length desired (from 10 cm patchcords upto several kilometers).
Splicing and setting certain connectors I can do, as long as they are not angled (E2000, AC/PC e.t.c.)
Can do single mode and multimode.

Standard lengths of optical cable can be store bought, even Farnell has them.
In this case it will be multimode and could be 50/125 or 62.5/125.

The PCB's are ECL in and out and would have to make an interface to go from and to the proper voltages/impedances.
Don't know it will do any good non-subjectively.
The idea you have a fast non-smearing connection could envoke subjective differences though.

This will be interesting going to a none std interface for hifi but the real higher std glass fibre optic data transmission one. Hey, why don't those in the know connect one up for hifi bypassing the SPDIF and see how it sounds. Sure work for hifi dac, right?

Btw, those at Farnell is glass optic with Toslink connectors and not plastic?

[Deleted]

I do not consider TOSLINK fiber(fibre) optics.
We (those in the know) call this light sewers or light pipes and have no relation to real fibre optics.
The only thing they have in common is they use light, and not even the same wavelength.

I meant Farnell code 1863363 for instance a 2 meter 62.5/125 multimode patchcord with ST connectors.

Glass core TOSLINK cables do exist but are in fact simply a 'bundle' of MM fibers.

[Deleted]

Frans
Have you ever tried making a short Toslink cable using the "real deal"?
Bend radius would of course be a major drawback though.
Alexc

[XTRProf]

Frans,

If it works with a dac chip, and it does improve the subjective sound, which I have a strange feeeeeeeeeeeling it will , I think all here at Rockgrotto will be interested to make a switch for their dac. Just another input interface for all to try. I'm real excited at this opportunity and we should be the first hifi nuts to do this. The free wheeling and beyond all boundaries .............

Well, a first at Rockgrotto. Really unique to change the SOTA for hifi. What interface should we call this? Please, please, not the usual American ways of naming their products. ;D Remember? The free wheeling and beyond all boundaries?

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2011 5:24:52 GMT @solderdude said:

You could mux it... it's called encoding and is what SPdif does.
This has the clock and datasignals signals combined and are separated again in the SPdif IC.

Bummer again.
Hadn't thought of that.Mmmmmmmhhhh.....
So to have any "theoretical" advantage in using I2S it'll have to be 4 lines (master clock, bit clock, word clock and data (L/R)) or else we'll be sitting on the same boat?
Are this receivers plus their PCB bulky?


Last minute thought, and time based muxing were only one line is sent at a time to a buffer at the other end? I don't even know if this is possible at all.

[Deleted]

Are this receivers plus their PCB bulky?

Nope, all SMD everything except a power supply should easily fit in an altoids tin... and have some room to spare.

Time will have to be spent making the RCA to ECL interface and back.

Not something I can whip up in a few days as our company is moving house in the coming weeks and everything needs to be operational again.

and yes it certainly will give the usual sonic subjective improvements.
(more air between instruments, better focussed bass e.t.c)
When looking at the retrieved data there will be litytle differences.
Perhaps jitter will be slightly lower.

It is more interesting if you want to transport the digital signal over greater distances than 10m.

I did not bundle fibers to create a TOSLINK as we do not need/use light sewers ;D
bend radius of MM cables is not that bad a few cm minimum is already O.K.
We made sensors based on various radius bendings b.t.w.

[Deleted]

Back to the Essence one, an early buyer has posted loads of extremely explicit Pr0n in this link (pages 169-171) : my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=147355
By its looks it could turn out to be one of the best <300$, I'm already impatient to read some reviews.

Some examples but there is a ton more there :

[mrarroyo]

This is a nice looking unit. I wish I had the funds to buy it and the Emotiva XDA1 ( emotiva.com/xda1.shtm ) to compare them.

[Deleted]

I've doing some googling about the XDA-1 and there is nothing 100% conclusive but the fact the Emoiva doesn't need drivers makes its USB input suspect. So if you want to connect either using USB the Asus should be a much better choice, the Emotiva being limited to 16/44 or 16/48 (I suspect a PCM270x inside). If you plan on sticking to SPDIF then it'll be an interesting comparisson.

[xerxes]

I've doing some googling about the XDA-1 and there is nothing 100% conclusive but the fact the Emoiva doesn't need drivers makes its USB input suspect.

Windows can play up to 24/96 without drivers. However, if it does use one of the PCM270x receiver chips, then it will be limited to 16/48.

There were just a handful of USB DACs two or three years ago, now there are hundreds of them, but it seems that with many of them the USB input appears to be a bit of an afterthought, using a PCM270x receiver.

[xerxes]

Looks like the XDA-1 is limited to 16/48:

Some other observations. The Streamer is recognized by the default Apple drivers in "Audio MIDI Setup" as capable of 24 bit/ 96KHz. I have to operate it at 24 bit/ 44KHz for smooth playing, probably because the 1.1 USB is a little too slow to play the 96KHz rate well. None the less, the Streamer sounds smoother when "Audio MIDI Setup" is set to 24 bit rather than 16 bit. The XDA-1 on the other hand is only capable of 16 bit output with the default drivers and 44 or 48KHz.

Original: emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=preampdac&thread=13151&page=2

[Deleted]

There a more DACs with a 270x than one would expect, specially when prices over 200USD are asked. Most probably is due to ease of implementation, cost and no need for drivers but is far from being the best chip.

I posted about this in the Windows 8 Developing Team USB page (blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/22/building-robust-usb-3-0-support.aspx), most probably it'll be ignored or go unnoticed but who knows... It'll help manufacturers very much if MS updated its usbaudio.sys and support dll's to UAC2, as now is a PIA for them to develop drivers and adds to cost.