[corndog71]

Anyone familiar with this device.  I read the recent Stereophile review and it sounds like a great bargain.

I'm curious if it just works for music files or if it works for all of the audio of the connected PC.

[firedog]

My understanding is that you have to define it as the "Output" in your OS or player output settings and then audio will go through it

[Mxyzpltk]

It'll work as any usb sound card, that's what the OS will see, if you have other sound cards in the system then you need to configure the OS to use the one you want, if it is the only one then it'll use it as default.

I'm also very interested in some opinions about this little device, it seems to be a very good usb/spdif interface with the features I wanted the most, asynch transfer mode and driverless (linux user), so if anybody has listened to one, please let us know what you think about it, it sure sounds cheap and cheerful.

[corndog71]

Cool.  As soon as I can spare the change I'll get one and report back .

[pelliott321]

There is also a review in Absolute Sound last month that gave it a fairly good review. I am waiting for Twisted Pear since I am using their DAC

[wushuliu]

I'll offer a dissenting voice and say that it worked and sounded fine but was not wowed by it. Somewhat similar performance to the Hiface, which I tried out last year. I have tried to like those two because everyone buzzes about Async but so far it seems that just like every other component it's the implementation that counts, and the better ones don't come cheap. Somehow it's in the ether that if a converter is async it's automatically better and other options are not even considered. I much prefer a modified or even stock Teralink X2, and it's much cheaper to boot. Short of a Jkeny modified Hiface, the Audio-GD Digital Interface is probably the one to beat in the <$300, and it's not async either (look at the internal pics and tell me it doesn't scream top-notch performance)...

Neither of those can be ordered from Amazon, etc of course. So trade-offs as always. Mind you the V-link didn't suck or anything. If I had not heard the teralink or Hiface, I would have been perfectly happy with it.
 
http://audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/USBface/Digital1EN.htm

http://www.ab-system.hk/USB.html


just my .02

[toxteth ogrady]

Here's another one for $175 from the maker of the Paradisea and Havana dacs:

http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/USBridge.htm

[Noseyears]

Another alternative to add to the list:
http://www.m2tech-hiface.com.au/index.php/hiface-evo

[Mxyzpltk]

For what is worth, stereophile posted a review of the V-Link today
http://www.stereophile.com/content/musical-fidelity-v-link-usb-spdif-converter-0

[Mxyzpltk]

Hi guys and gals, I just wanted to mention that I got the V-link a couple of days ago, and wanted to share that the little thing improved the sound out of my pc very very much (I was using the motherboard's spdif out before). It's still burning in, but right out of the box I can hear much better soundstage, wider that the speakers, tons of air between the instruments, but also a lot more resolution,micro detail, I don't know how to call it, across the hole range, and that same thing makes the bass sound full, powerfull and with impact, also makes the female voices shine like never before in my humble system, and the highs clear, crisp and most importantly (to me at least) non fatiguing.  The other aspect that I don't know how to describe with words is that it doesn't have that annoying sound that digital devices usually have (at least the cheap or mid-fi ones that I've tryied so far), some kind of sharp edge between notes or something like that, instead the sound is round and full, but with a lot more detail than before, I could not be happier, Ray Brown and Gene Harris never sounded this good before 

Also the device works great with linux, if anyone's interested in that little fact, async mode and everything, it is one little device I can recommend to anyone looking for a good way to get sound out of a computer.

[corndog71]

Thanks for your review.  I still haven't gotten one but your review throws another check in the plus column.