The M2Tech HiFace will do 24/192. It is a USB to S/PDIF interface and does require a special driver. It then has to connect to a DAC. I just looked at the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC to do 24/192 (over S/PDIF) with a HiFace. The M1 DAC accepts 192 on S/PDIF, but the output seems to only go to 40 KHz with either 96 or 192 input. Higher end 192 DACs (e.g. Berkeley) output 60 KHz + with 192 input. My point is that even though an entry level DAC accepts 192 KHz input, it may not output anything better than it would with a 96 KHz input. If you are OK with 24/96, then their are a large number of used DACs that will do that over S/PDIF. The M2Tech will do the USB to S/PDIF conversion. I use a Musical Fidelity A3-24 and it does fine with 24/96 over S/PDIF. Note : the output freqency numbers above come from the bench tests from Stereophile.
I got the USB DAC per everyone's sugguestion BUT..
Oh well, I got the V-Dac..., but am returning it. There's a limitation on most of these DACs out there that they will only take a max of 16bit 48khz sample rate through USB. It is definitely the case for this V-DAC. I also called Emotiva and they said the USB will limit the bit depth no matter what brand I use because most high-end DACs don't have a 3rd party driver. I tried to stream a Vinyl rip at 24bit 192hkz with the V-DAC and it wouldn't play no matter what. I also tried without the USB Cable, using "pass through" from on board sound to the DAC through a coaxial cable. but was unable to get any sound. Any of you ever gotten a DAC to operate at 24/192 under Windows 7?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Nuforce Icon HDP http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconhdp/index.php Will do 24/96 using stock Windows drivers, and up to 24/192 with S/PDIF, optical. Cost around $450 |
I see. Thanks for all your suggestion. All the brand names mentioned here, did you guys actually tried it and confirmed that it will work at 24/96 in Windows 7? Anyways, after weeks of trying, I finally got the V-DAC to work at 24/192. These are my findings: USB -- limited to 16/48, doesn't matter if you have USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 Optical S/PDIF -- limited to 24/96, it won't pick up any signal beyond that as the green light goes dark.... Coaxial S/PDIF -- to my very surprise, this actually does the magic. Plugged in a good quality Coaxial Cable and ah-ha~ there goes the magical 24/192. While the M2Tech HiFace is probably a very good solution, it's too expensive for a USB to S/PDIF converter. I just gave up on using this for my laptop and wire it to my desktop that has a good sound card configured as "digital pass through". I got to say though, damn... this V-DAC REALLY good. It's an unbelievable deal for the price. Too bad it uses a cheap USB chip. |
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