new USB to HD optical device = Superb !

[phantomaussie]

Yes! thankyou,full factory reset done and its all good again .

It may just a a coincidence but the crashes happened when playing 176khz or 192khz files ( 44.1 or 48 khz tracks upsampled in Foobar ). allthough, i did also identify and fix an internet connection problem my netgear router was having. That my have caused it not sure yet..

Last night, as a test, i just played files upsampled to 96khz and it didnt drop out once.

I will try going above 96khz again today and see what happens then.

Re Hifimediy returns , i dont know , ive never had to return anything yet.

[jaykay1967]

Thanks Phantomaussie, unit arrived today... my macbookair is now throwing itunes via Amarra and Amarra SQ+ (Spotify was the big win) through USB, converted to optical via this little beauty , and then fed to one of my silver phantoms. All good.

[iliapas]

Just to clarify something.
When you play something using Spark, the file is sent as is. If it's a FLAC file, it will be sent as a FLAC file.
Decoding of container is done on the Phantom itself, and uses whatever output the internal Application processor has to the DAC, which is probably as good, or even better than optical input, because of possible clock sync issues with optical connection. Then again, unless someone can comment on that DAC connection, won't know for sure

[Audiofan]

I have a Hifime 9018D DAC for 110 euros, Toslink cable by Lifatec, works extremely perfectly with DIALOG up to 32/192, DSD32, with higher rates has DIALOG problems, when players have Audirvana on MacPro.
Sound quality has become very much better! But soldering quality of Hifime 9018D is very very bad, I would have already DAC repair itself.

[phantomaussie]

I have a Hifime 9018D DAC for 110 euros, Toslink cable by Lifatec, works extremely perfectly with DIALOG  up to 32/192, DSD32, with higher rates has DIALOG problems, when players have Audirvana on MacPro.
Sound quality has become very much better! But soldering quality of Hifime 9018D is very very bad, I would have already DAC repair itself. 

Great that you found the sound quality to be as good as i did,
 But, sadly yes, my Hifime 9018D  has  a problem too, it drops out at random.  vvery annoying ! 
 I went back to using my previous little Hifime dac  ,i forget the model number , it is also an ESS  chip but only accepts up to 96khz.
 It does not drop out at all and the sound is fabulous .

 I am not great at soldering so i will be returning my bad 9018D for a new one.






. 

[ashishpascal]

Hifime 9018D uses  first generation ES9018K2M chip by ESS. This year in Jan 2015 ESS came up with upgraded version of it  ie SABRE9018AQ2M. 

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...%E2%80%99s

Would have been nice if Hifime would have included this latest chip in their models...

BTW, LH LABS Geek Out V2 USB Dac has this upgraded chip and have read that its better than hifime 9018D but then its costing $249 and looks like they dont have optical out...

[rmb867]

I have to confess that this thread confuses me.

You're taking a digital signal from a PC (USB), running it through a DAC, but using the digital output (optical), running that into the Phantom where the Phantom has its own DAC.

And this is improving the sound?

I don't get it. Please help.

[phantomaussie]

I have to confess that this thread confuses me.

You're taking a digital signal from a PC (USB), running it through a DAC, but using the digital output (optical), running that into the Phantom where the Phantom has its own DAC.

And this is improving the sound?

I don't get it. Please help.

 OK, It is not using the Dac  at all  ( a Dac by definition has analog out and is no use here )
 It is  the optical output only that is used.
 hope this helps!