New 24/192 USB Transports are excellent

[jkeny]

Thanks Fran,
I appreciate your short write-up & thoughts on this modded HiFace USB transport "yoke". It was great to hear it through Ivor's high-end playback system, I had only listened via cheap Sony headphones or my Tripath class D amp.

Just to let people get an idea of the size & how it all fits together here's a pic of the unit with battery attached



We didn't do any listening to the plugin ESS DAC that I brought as we didn't have the connectors. Here's the technical bit, this DAC is being fed I2S from the HiFace USB transport which is superior to SPDIF as a means of digital audio connection.

Here's the DAC (in raw form) plugged into the HiFace


One interesting discovery - I borrowed Sennheiser HD650 headphones & Millet Hybrid Max headphone amplifier from Fran to have a listen. As I said I'd mainly listened to cheap Sony MDR XD200 headphones up to now. This ESS DAC when connected directly to the HD650s drove them beautifully which surprised me so I plugged in the Millet headphone amp and ran the DAC output through it into the HD650s - no difference in sound that I could discern!

This combination is an amazingly good portable USB transport/DAC/Headphone driver!

As Fran says more testing will be entered into with various DACs & headphones - More to come :)

[jkeny]

Derek, just saw another review of the HiFace http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e ... ce_usb.htm

[Thor]

Bought a Hiface a few months ago and consider it the best 100 quid I ever spent.

Keith in Purite Audio was incredibly pleasant and helpful- highly recommended.

Mine feeds into a Musical Fidelity V-Dac and sounds very nice indeed

[jkeny]

Bought a Hiface a few months ago and consider it the best 100 quid I ever spent.

Keith in Purite Audio was incredibly pleasant and helpful- highly recommended.

Mine feeds into a Musical Fidelity V-Dac and sounds very nice indeed

Yes it's a great value device & can be even greater :)

Have a look here https://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/ for a boxed up version of the above modified Hiface
This pic shows it in relation to an iPhone. The box contains the modified Hiface & 2 batteries. This side has BNC out, On/Off switch/led & DC socket for charger to plug in

In a couple of weeks I should be able to allow some people to "try before buy" option so you can hear it in your own system at home on a trial basis.

[jkeny]

A preliminary review of my modded Hiface has been posted here http://www.head-fi.org/forums/6557756-post1185.html
abstract:

I was totally floored by what I heard. The improvement was real and big compared to the other converters. What impressed more about the modded hiface vs. the other converters is that the modded hiface made everything sound real while the others struggled at various degrees to portray a poor copy of the real thing.
I just didn't have the strength/will yesterday night to switch to another dac to confirm my findings. I was able to just sit back and listen to the music without analyzing it ... which is a rare thing for me.

These are only my preliminary findings. I will wait a few days before posting a full review of jkeny's modded hiface (and comparing it to the stock hiface). However, since jkeny has done such a good job, I couldn't keep quiet about it.

[Ivor]

Fair play John.

[jkeny]

Thanks Ivor

[Fran]

Some more review stuff for john:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/review ... ce-483900/



Very impressive John, you might retire on this one yet!!

Fran

[jkeny]

Thanks Fran & fair play to you :)

The new Sabre DAC from Acko is out & I have a Hiface board for it & the Buffalo feeding it I2S http://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods ... ts/AckoDAC