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I don’t know about expensive analogue, because I haven’t been exposed to it that much, but for me the modded hiface, the modded USB cable, is almost too good for words. It’s knee-tremblingly good. I woke up this morning thinking about whether I should listen to ABC Classic FM, or my other CDs. I downloaded high res samples, so this lets me listen to high res too. Fabulous price, fabulous sound, for peanuts in the scheme of things, with enough technology to see me through the next 10 years. All on a journeyman’s laptop, with no esoteric settings let alone tweaks.I didn’t know John from Adam but I took a punt. His work is DIY – you won’t get something as well finished as an iphone. But I have found him to be a gentleman. The stock hiface is a product with a brilliant concept and execution, and John’s mods and cable takes this up to a stellar maxed out level, which is critical to us anal retentive audiophools.Before I embarked on this journey, I just wanted something that was at least as good as my previous Wadia6 as a transport. The modded hiface has exceeded that objective magnificently for me, in my set up, and for my tastes and hearing faculties.
Contrary to what I am used to, I have made very few musical examples simply because it is very dependent on the associated DAC. The modified Hiface is a very transparent device. It doesn’t have a sonic signature of its own. As far as I could tell, the overall sonic signature will depend more on the associated equipment and the recording itself than on the modified Hiface itself. For more details about musical examples, I invite you to read my review of the DAC19DSP for which I used the modified Hiface as a transport. (See here: Review of the Audio-gd DAC19DSP & C2 amp - The ACSS connection). While the modified version that jkeny sent me is still a prototype, I can say that it by far the best converter I have listened to in my system. I was expecting a small improvement (since I considered the stock one being excellent) but I was totally surprised by the level of performance of the modified Hiface. Its effect on the sound was not subtle at all. jkeny described the sound of the modified Hiface as similar to that of expensive analog and I couldn’t agree more: his modified Hiface make the other converters sound broken. Personally, I have already asked jkeny if I could send him my stock Hiface to have a similar mod done to it.
jkeny, what's the pricing? I didn't see it on the website.ThanksJim
Extract from an email - given permission to reproduce hereI primarily listen to classical music through headphones. I have balanced HD800's driven by a Headroom ultra desktop stack (I don't know if you're familiar with Headroom's stuff). Some major things that I have noticed even during my short time with your mod: 1. The bass extension and texture is amazing. I can clearly hear the bow strokes on string basses and the attack reminds me of sitting in an excellent concert hall. 2. The soundstaging is bar none the best I've heard. The width has improved greatly but the depth even moreso. Placing of the instruments is breathtaking. 3. Tonality seems spot on. I am a classically trained violinist and the instrument presentation reminds me of playing in an orchestra. 4. Clarity is greatly improved so that I hear subtle nuances that I did not notice previously. Overall, this is the best money I've spent on tweaking my system. I don't know exactly what these batteries are doing, but this mod is a terrific transport and for the price a no-brainer.
Industry Ad's are for dealers and manufacturer ad's as stated here. Which one are you jkeny? Cheers,Robin
Sorry, I find it hard to keep up with the different rules on different forums. I modify a standard Hiface USB transport which is manufactured by M2Tech - as stated in the first post. So I offer a modification service for people. Does this make me a manufacturer - no, not really, Does this make me a dealer - no. I guess you will have to make up your mind which it is I will PM you the prices & options roscoeiii
Which leads me to the modification of the M2Tech by sort of gutting it to run partially on batteries (about $330 in US dollars) by one John Kenny who aptly names the converter the JKM2Tech HiFace. What John does is to open up a HiFace, place it in a box and use rechargeable ion batteries to supply power to specific parts. Specifically, the modifications are performed on circuits normally supplied by the internal 3.3V regulator (USB powered). John bypasses the regulator and the required 3.3V is supplied externally from batteries. The USB still supplies power to some of the chips within the unit and the remaining 1.8V regulator. A charge will last you a good day or so but will only charge when the switched off. Oh, well… that is a fair amount of playing time.Going the battery route clearly alters the sound in terms of becoming warmer and richer, with an overall more organic and 'substantial' sound while still retaining all the positives of the stock M2Tech. You still the 'tinkle' but with more decay and air… the 'tinkle-ness' now sits more 'among the group' as opposed to standing out from the crowd. The Upgraded M2Tech presents music with a greater sense of density and heft… reminds me of other battery-powered devices. Yeah, running batteries does have a house sound as well, but this is still cool. Sweet!Now what you have is actually an M2Tech HiFace with all the benefits (24/192), but the computer still needs the driver installed meaning that it works just like a stock HiFace, except it is now sitting in a box… a plastic box that now needs a male A to female A USB cable. You might be able to plug it directly to your computer if everything lines-up just right, in my case it doesn't. So a generic USB cable to the rescue. All things considered this is clearly a step-up over that from the stock M2Tech, which suggests that getting better power to the right circuits/parts is just as important as getting the bits from A to B. Yeah, nice indeed and not for a lot more money though it is a simply plastic box so no points for being glitzy and fancy. Big deal so it is not eye-candy, but it does address some of the perceived faults of the stock unit. It is less aggressive and in a way, more organic. Gee, who would have thought that power noise and whatnot would be such an issue? But yeah that is exactly what noise can sound like… a bit more aggressiveness, more perceived resolution via etch caused by there being more grain that is riding along with the music. Take that away and you actually hear more while hearing less: more music and less fatigue and whatever. Of course I am only speculating here that by going the battery route over 100% USB power is removing or mitigating to some degree noise or whatever that is mucking up the sound in terms of the stock unit having more this or that… or less whatever. Which is not to say that the stock M2Tech is not good, yeah, it is quite amazing for what it is and for what it does, but at $150 obviously trade-offs and compromises had to be made… so as good as it is, going with a $140 upgrade in terms of how the device receives power moves the M2Tech up quite a few meaningful notches on the musical scale. Highly recommended.
It is interesting though in how both the Bridge and the M2Tech are quite small and appear to feature similar approaches to passing the bits and yet while sounding so much alike, clearly sound different. Could it be the issue of the Bridge being at the end of a USB cable without the need for a digital cable as opposed to the opposite with the M2Tech? Or is it more an issue of the higher output of the M2Tech that pushes things a wee bit too much? Since the M2Tech has a higher than normal SPDIF signal voltage perhaps what I am hearing here is some artifact caused by this signal? Kenny suggests trying the M2Tech (and his version as well) with some attenuators to reduce this. From John Kenny, "What they do is reduce the SPDIF signal voltage level in the HiFace. The attenuators bring the SPDIF signal down to standard level BUT (this is the important bit), it doubly reduces reflections on the SPDIF cable. These reflections normally give rise to jitter & by reducing them you reduce the jitter on the cable."Okay… so in goes an attenuator and… yeah less of the glare and presence. More air, more space, more decay, more music and less of the stuff that was getting in the way. Nice and at only $12 a pop an easy fix. Will they work with other devices? Not sure, but next time as I have enough here on my plate already… no seconds just yet.
