[Jon L]

I received the Chime demo today, and a few questions:

1.  Has anyone been able to successfully use Chime's USB input OR HagUSB? I cannot get my PC (Win XP Pro) to recognize either unit, no matter which USB port I use and how much I turn on/off the units and PC.  I know the last demo person (Dave) couldn't get the USB working, either.  

2.  I noticed that L and R output of Chime's reversed, the "red" output actually puts out left signal, confirmed by Stereophile test CD2 channel test.

3.  The phase switch.  Which is default/correct position, left or right?  Strangily enough both positions give the correct result (solid center image) with Stereophile Test CD2 phase test.  

4.  Jim, can the middle tube slot (12AU7) take E80cc (double the plate current)?  

Good news

Even with Sovtek tubes, Chime sounds great, not sounding like tube CDP/DAC's I've heard in the past, not sounding dark or slow or bass-mushy.  

I'm currently feeding it digital signal from Empirical Audio Freeway (w/ SLA battery) from my audio PC/foobar, but I was hoping to compare the Empirical to Chime's own USB, which I can't seem to get working.  

I have tons of 12AU7/ecc82 tubes to roll, but if anyone has any good 12AX7 or 5Y3GT to lend me or bring to my house (Fullerton, CA) to audition, let me know.

[hagtech]

Word has it the USB section in the 'tour' unit is no longer working.  The HAGUSB should be ok.  Note, the silkscreen on this initial production run unit is also backwards, 'cd1' swapped with 'usb'.  

I forget, but I think the phase switch to right is correct.  You will always get a solid center image as long as both channels have same phase.  The test CD detects only if channels are different.

Not sure about E80CC - sounds like a mismatch.  Correct heater voltage depends on current.

jh

[flocchini]

My CHIME is a hybrid that uses a 6SN7 instead of the 12AU7. I also have a HagUSB. THe CHime was built to "match" my hybrid Cornet2

The CHime works beautifully with my Acurus transport. The sound is fantastic

It works great using a MAC USB as input.

I have yet to get it to work using either my Sony Vaio notebook or my home brew desktop using direct input to the USB section or through the HagUSB. Both use XP Pro

I have EAC generated FLAC files and Foobar 2k. I dowloaded the appropriate asio.dll files (Jim has posted the site) and both the freeware asio4all and a commercial asio wrapper.

I believe that the problem lies in that XP Pro puts out a 48k signal This is not based on a direct measurement but more on process of elimination.
Does your current Empirical front end put out 44.1k only?

The HagUSB does work when inputted into another DAC I have - Crystal receiver, AD1890 and Suponix (I think) filter BB63 Dacs.

I was thinking about using a Squeezebox as the front end  of the CHIME. The CHIME is very, very good and I am determined to hear the FLAC files on it

[Jon L]

Why would XP Pro output 48kHz only if ASIO dll is used, the whole point of which is to bypass the k-Mixer?

Even if 48kHz is put out, why would Chime NOT be able to receive 48kHz since the PCM2704 USB chip is capable of 44.1 or 48kHz?

This is why I'm asking if somebody has been able to use USB of Chime or HagUSB with PC (not Mac)..  

I am using the Empirical Freeway w/ SLA in 44.1 mode into spdif input of Chime right now, but this just goes into Crystal spdif receiver of Chime.

P.S.  I had NO idea Electroharmonix Ecc82 was such a great-sounding tube.  After rolling some pricy NOS tubes in there, I'm back with EH.  Chime must be voiced with tis tube..

[Jon L]

OK, I finally got HagUSB to work, but I'm unable to bypass the K-mixer b/c in Foobar only directsound or waveout will recognize HagUSB, not ASIO dll or KS.  Hoping to bypass K-mixer, I looked at USB-ASIO.

Anyone using it successfully?
http://www.usb-audio.com/download.html

I downloaded the free demo, but I can't seem to get it to work with Foobar. First of all, only waveout and directound will even recognize my USB DAC (2704 based HagTech Chime or HagUSB). Foobar ASIO dll or kernel streaming won't even recognize the USB DAC.

What's worse, even with Foobar in waveout or directsound, foobar will freeze up and not make any sounds no matter which settings. If I unstall the USB-ASIO driver, then foobar in directsound/waveout does make music. Still nothing recognized in ASIO dll or KS.

I was hoping the USB-ASIO driver would work with foobar to bypass K-mixer, but no luck so far...

[hagtech]

The problem isn't XP Pro, I have three machines using it up and running with the HAGUSB.  My guess is that it is something about the VAIO hardware.  But that doesn't explain the custom built desktop.  Unless it has some odd soundcard.  

The only way I got ASIO to work in foobar was to run the asio4all wrapper application.  Then foobar has asio show up as an output choice.

Heard rumors that maybe this isn't necessary, something about read-only attribute, or correct version of ASIO for each type of pentium extended instruction sets, etc.  Too much to sort out.  

jh

[flocchini]

http://www.propellerheads.se/ is the place to download the Reason demo. You need it to change the parameters in usb-asio. Even though I set the sampling rate at 44.1k I didn't get it to work. Jim has suggested that maybe my Sony Vaio has something in hardware that resets the output back to 48k.  That would explain what happens with my laptop but not my desktop unit That's an old Intel board with the sound electroncs built on the board and I can't find any info on that at this time.

You did download the asio.dll file and put it in your Foobar component folder.

I know I will get the FLAC files to the CHIME and it will be worth the effort.

Best

Bob

[Yoda]

I had trouble with the USB input, but thought it was because I was using 2000 Professional at the time and it wasn't critical for me so I didn't pursue. XP recognized the HagUSB without a problem and it sounded great through headphones.

So where is the test Chime these days?  Another Decware user bought one and there is a brief review over on their bboard.
Matt