Eastern Electric DAC

bravophase · « **Reply #300 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 07:00 am »

Hi Randy,

Oh I am sorry, the EE DAC USB input does support 192KHz !! I kept thinking of the old chips.

Cheers !!

Alex

Quote from: Audioclyde on 23 Feb 2010, 07:08 pm

Alex, thanks for clearing that up, and I'm glad to learn that indeed the DAC handles 96kHz.

Is there any 'easy, non-technical' answer to my earlier question re why so many USB inputs (including the EE DAC) are limited to 48Khz?

Thanks again,

Randy

tubesound · « **Reply #301 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 09:33 am »

Quote from: doctorcilantro on 22 Feb 2010, 07:44 pm

stop wasting our valuable time with your utterly vapid speculation. I'm wondering who you work for w/ 20 posts here on AC. Nuforce?

Well your statement is a speculation too

I'm glad Alex confirmed EE DAC has a true tube output stage.

I believe Nuforce's uDAC and HDP both use Sabre chips as well but I won't buy them. I could've waited for W4S DAC-1.

As a matter of fact, right now I'm trying to buy a >10 years old DAC (with those 1-bit or 18-bit or 20-bit chips).

Audioclyde · « **Reply #302 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 01:39 pm »

Quote from: bravophase on 24 Feb 2010, 07:00 am

Hi Randy,

Oh I am sorry, the EE DAC USB input does support 192KHz !! I kept thinking of the old chips.

Cheers !!

Alex

Awesome news Alex!! Now I don't know what my excuse can be for not trying one of these little jewels

!! Last question--any plans for units with silver faceplates in the near future??

Thanks again; you and Bill have been very patient and helpful with replies to all the queries in this thread.

Randy

srb · « **Reply #303 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 02:33 pm »

Quote from: bravophase on 24 Feb 2010, 07:00 am

Oh I am sorry, the EE DAC USB input does support 192KHz !! I kept thinking of the old chips.

Sorry for my confusion, Alex. Did you really mean to say the USB input supports 192KHz, as earlier in the thread you did say it was limited to 16bit/48KHz for USB.

Could you tell us which USB receiver chip you did end up using?

Steve

Bill O'Connell · « **Reply #304 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 03:49 pm »

Quote from: bravophase on 24 Feb 2010, 07:00 am

Hi Randy,

Oh I am sorry, the EE DAC USB input does support 192KHz !! I kept thinking of the old chips.

Cheers !!

Alex

Hi Guys,

I think Alex's head is spinning and just was confused for a moment when he posted this.
The USB only supports 48KHz not 192KHz,
I just emailed him so he might still not have gone to bed but he will clarify with certainty. I just think he misposted this by mistake,

sorry for the confusion but english is not his first language, and he may have been tired or had a glass of wine but he will set the record straight in a bit.
sorry,
Bill

bravophase · « **Reply #305 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 07:36 am »

Hi Steve,

Yes the USB input supports 192KHz. The USB receiving chip is Burr Brown PCM2706. There are different data about this chip, we however have tested it with professional industrial grade 192KHz signal and it works perfectly.

Cheers !

Alex

Quote from: srb on 24 Feb 2010, 02:33 pm

Sorry for my confusion, Alex. Did you really mean to say the USB input supports 192KHz, as earlier in the thread you did say it was limited to 16bit/48KHz for USB.

Could you tell us which USB receiver chip you did end up using?

Steve

srb · « **Reply #306 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 05:04 pm »

Quote from: bravophase on 25 Feb 2010, 07:36 am

Yes the USB input supports 192KHz. The USB receiving chip is Burr Brown PCM2706. There are different data about this chip, we however have tested it with professional industrial grade 192KHz signal and it works perfectly.

The TI PCM270x family is capable of 16-bit resolution and sample rates of 32KHz, 44.1KHz and 48KHz. So if it is fed a higher bit and/or sampling rate, then it must somehow be truncated and/or downsampled, or .......?

Thanks,

Steve

TomS · « **Reply #307 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 05:33 pm »

Quote from: srb on 25 Feb 2010, 05:04 pm

The TI PCM270x family is capable of 16-bit resolution and sample rates of 32KHz, 44.1KHz and 48KHz. So if it is fed a higher bit and/or sampling rate, then it must somehow be truncated or downsampled, or .......?

Thanks,

Steve

Yes, and I'd think the drivers would need to accommodate that too...

doctorcilantro · « **Reply #308 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 11:01 pm »

The DAC does not do 192kHz in WASAPI, but does in DirectSound leading me to believe it is downsampled. Also, see Windows Sound Device Properties.

It does however, sound GREAT via BNC (with Musiland transport - Lynx cables aren't here yet to test AES). I will be A/B'ing against the Nova soon hopefully. We do have a new member in the family, very new, so at worst, it will make to a 5 DAC shootout next Tuesday.

DC

sfox7076 · « **Reply #309 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 12:44 pm »

I cannot get the DAC to hold the signal from the Airport Express TOSlink. The audio plays for a second, the signal is lost and then it finds it again. Anyone have that problem with TOSlink? If I have more time, I will try to hookup my CD player that has TOSlink and see if it is a TOSlink issue or an Airport Express issue. Other than that, the DAC sounds very good. It's very transparent.

ajayrav · « **Reply #310 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 03:14 pm »

FWIW, I've connected my Squeezebox via Toslink and am not having any problems....

Cheers,
Ajay

PeteG · « **Reply #311 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 03:28 pm »

I went from my directv receiver to the EE dac via Toslink with no problems also.

doctorcilantro · « **Reply #312 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 04:08 pm »

Peachtree had to do a firmware update to the Nova as the n Airports weren't compatible. Anyone using g versions?

John151 · « **Reply #313 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 04:42 pm »

I watched a BluRay DVD last night using TOSLINK (Oppo-83) with no issues. I did an A/B comparison between TOSLINK and analog outputs from the Oppo just to make sure the EE DAC was sending all of the channels into the L/R. Both sounded excellent, but the Oppo was clearly warmer/darker (not that I really care for movies). Most importantly, the audio track from the EE DAC was clear and audible, and the background noises (surround tracks) had great imaging (darn impressive for only two channels).

Next up, I will try connecting the Comcast cable box via a conversion cable from Coax to AES/EBU. The motivation here is not to get better sound per se, but to simplify the logistics as the DAC would then handle all source switching, where I currently use the PreAmp to switch between the ComCast and DAC sources.

srb · « **Reply #314 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 04:45 pm »

Quote from: doctorcilantro on 27 Feb 2010, 04:08 pm

Peachtree had to do a firmware update to the Nova as the n Airports weren't compatible. Anyone using g versions?

Very interesting. And here I thought a Toslink output was a Toslink output. Any idea what was different about them?

I don't have the Minimax DAC yet, but I have three Airport Express N. On one of them I tried to use a Y-connector to sum an analog mono signal, but it was greatly distorted. Apparently the AE G version was able to do this without any degradation. So it appears that one more thing has changed between the G and N versions (beyond the wireless speed).

Steve

roscoeiii · « **Reply #315 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 04:46 pm »

Thanks for the report John151,

Look forward to hearing how the Oppo and EE compare when used with music.

doctorcilantro · « **Reply #316 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 05:48 pm »

I think the problem was the n version. I think they claimed it was Apple's fault; the device has considerably more jitter iirc.

Audioclyde · « **Reply #317 on:** 28 Feb 2010, 03:41 am »

Did Alex ever comment on the confusion regarding whether the USB input was capable of more than 48kHz?

srb · « **Reply #318 on:** 28 Feb 2010, 04:00 am »

No, but since

- the TI 2706 USB chip is a 16bit/48KHz chip

- doctorcilantro reported that 24bit/192KHz doesn't work under the WASAPI driver (although that resolution would require special drivers under USB, but I'm sure he would have the same result with a 24bit/96KHz file)

- under Windows DirectSound, 16bit/48KHz is the highest possible setting

anything above 16bit/48KHz is obviously downsampled through the USB input.

Steve

doctorcilantro · « **Reply #319 on:** 28 Feb 2010, 04:07 am »

Yes, it's capped at 48; not sure what the DAC does with it though.