[zybar]

Right now, I am using JRiver v19 to feed the DAC via a custom Windows PC.

I have JRiver set up to play DSD natively and to upsample all PCM to DSD64.

This was the setup that worked best with my Auralic Vega DAC and I am just starting to experiment with the LIO DAC.

George

[Vinnie R.]

Hi George,

I tend to use the native rate of the file, and all the rates should work fine so I recommend you play around and see
what you prefer.  In other words - no one playback rate is optimized over the others.

Vinnie

[4003]

Hi,

feeding
not having mine yet, but i was wondering... the USB socket seems a USB-B square type, for which there are only cables to USB-A devises (computer).
Digital out on these would go through the onkyo digital player app (e.g.)
Now, (besides on the rockboxed imod (which is just perfect analog)), I'm keeping my flacs on tablets and cellphones, which only connect through micro USB-b's.
I haven't seen any cable that connects a USB-b to a USB-B.

So how would i hook these things up to the Lio-DAC?

thanks so much,

-wolfgang

[Vinnie R.]

Hi,

feeding
not having mine yet, but i was wondering... the USB socket seems a USB-B square type, for which there are only cables to USB-A devises (computer).
Digital out on these would go through the onkyo digital player app (e.g.)
Now, (besides on the rockboxed imod (which is just perfect analog)), I'm keeping my flacs on tablets and cellphones, which only connect through micro USB-b's.
I haven't seen any cable that connects a USB-b to a USB-B.

So how would i hook these things up to the Lio-DAC?

thanks so much,

-wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,

Something like this is highly recommended and might be the best way to go with your tablet or cellphone:

http://www.sonicorbiter.sonore.us/

http://www.microrendu.sonore.us/

You would have to contact Sonore about which apps would work best for this application,
but the general idea is that you connect  your cellphone/tablet to your wireless router, and connect the Sonore renderer of your choice to the network as well. The output of the Sonore product is USB (male - A) and you use a USB (male - A to B) to connect to the LIO DAC.

Tablet/phone wirelessly streams to your router, which goes to the Sonore device, which goes to the LIO.

You could also connect a NAS drive to the router, and simply use your phone / tablet to navigate your music collection stored
on your NAS drive.

All the best,

Vinnie

[4003]

Thanks for the quick reply!

IC. Very interesting.
So whats needed is a bufferer / streamer to feed the DAC, external mostly to be inert against all the other chatter a regular computer does all the time? Which is why i won't want to run this off a window's pc.
I've been thinking doing this off a dedicated offline android, that has the files, the RAM and the cpu, and connects directly.
But then, why not externalising all this in such a little box?

Need to spend some cycles into this.

thanks again for the thought.

C,-w

[Vinnie R.]

Thanks for the quick reply!

IC. Very interesting.
So whats needed is a bufferer / streamer to feed the DAC, external mostly to be inert against all the other chatter a regular computer does all the time? Which is why i won't want to run this off a window's pc.

You certainly can use a small computer (e.g. Macbook Air laptop) and feed the USB output directly to the LIO Dac.  I've been doing this for a while using Audirvana Plus software and it works and sounds great and is very simple!  I can't think of an easier way to do it.  Load music onto Macbook (rip from CD, download online, and even stream via Tidal), play it and enjoy with Audirvana, JRiver, etc.  Small laptop with a big enough SSD can store plenty of music, can run from its internal battery, and takes up little space. 

But since you mentioned that you wanted your music to reside on your phone/tablet, streaming it out to your wifi network and then to a streamer like the Sonore products (or others... e.g Auralic) is probably the way to do it.  I'm not sure what App to use, as I don't
have experience storing and playing back the music from the tablet/phone.  I just use those devices as a remote...

Besides here on audiocircle, another forum that has a wealth of information regarding all things computer audio is www.computeraudiophile.com

NOTE:  I am currently using a pre-production version of the Sonore microRendu now.  So now my signal chain looks like this:

Macbook Air running Roon software >> Belkin wireless bridge >> microRendu (powered by LIO) >> Vinnie Rossi LIO (LIO DSD/PCM dac).

It adds some more complexity (vs. just connecting the macbook air to the LIO via a USB cable), but the benefits are:

1) The microRendu is a dedicated board that has audiophile clocks and linear regulators for the processor, and cuts out all the
non-audio related circuitry for an improved signal out of its USB jack to the LIO dac

2) The microRendu runs on 6V - 9V, so it can be ran from LIO's isolated power supply.  See:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=140850.msg1515058#msg1515058

So in this case, the added device (microRendu) results in a noticeable boost in sound quality vs. the Macbook Air's USB out. 
I did a quick post about it here as well:  http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f26-sonore-sponsored/sonore-microrendu-ethernet-universal-serial-bus-industry-standard-cables-connectors-and-communications-protocols-between-computers-and-electronic-devices-output-27389/index41.html#post528513

The other advantage is that one can connect their computer to their network and locate it outside of their audio room, and connect/control it from their tablet/phone.  Only the ~ 3" x 2" microRendu is connected to the LIO's dac in this case. 

Different strokes for different folks - but both ways (as well as many others) work well and can deliver excellent results! 

Vinnie

[hubi]

Hi

for the connection with usb from a computer to the LIO-DAC, will the VBUS Isolator or similar be compatible with the LIO DAC?

https://www.sbooster.com/sbooster-tweaks/sbooster-vbus-isolator

Or is the power from the usb needed for the DAC? - If not, then it will be worth to try it.

[mirekti]

Interesting product. After reading other thread related to this on another forum I found following:

"1) The return current of the data is now flowing through the shielding of the USB cable. In this case cutting the ground pin makes no sense, because the negative wire of the USB cable is of a better copper quality then the shielding thus might give you a better sound quality.
2) Some USB receiver chips automatically switch back to USB 1.0. For USB 1.0 no ground current return pad is needed. The result is that the bit rate of the DAC will be limited to 24/96 max. and that the data transfer will not be asynchronous anymore."

With VBUS Isolator pin 1 (+5V) is dropped.

So just to expand your question. If it works, would it work in 1) or 2) ?

[mirekti]

Vinnie,

I've been checking some things and just realized this was somehow skipped.
Does LIO DAC require 5V from the source USB?
Will it be the same with the new DAC?

[Vinnie R.]

Vinnie,

I've been checking some things and just realized this was somehow skipped.
Does LIO DAC require 5V from the source USB?
Will it be the same with the new DAC?

Hi mirekti,

Yes, you still need the 5V and GND from the source USB.  And then we galvanically isolate them (USB GND is not tied to LIO GND),
and supply our own linear regulated power for everything (e.g. the re-clock circuits, d/a chips, analog output stage, etc.), where power comes from LIO's internal ultracapacitor supply.

Cheers!

Vinnie