shamu144
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2007
- Posts
- 1,151
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- 38
I am myself a happy owner of a HiFace, bought back in february this year. I have nothing but the highest praise for this great little piece of gear.
However, recently and after easter, more and more users having just bought a HiFace raised some worries about its sonic performance, one of them beeing Chris Connaker, founder of computeraudiophile. It seems as if the HiFace did not perform as expected and created some tensions between HiFace users.
Regal - who was not overwhelmed with his HiFace performance - first pointed out in this forum that the 22.592Mhz clock in its HiFace was not the same as the original HiFace batches with larger MEC clock, and that it could have been a reason explaining the differences in opinions among HiFace users:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/446375/usb-24-192khz-m2tech-hiface/1215#post_6708753
Because a friend of mine was not happy with the performance of his HiFace, I recomended him to open up his HiFace and he discovered that his unit indeed came with a small oscillator as shown in Regal's picture above. See picture of my friend's Hiface below.
To avoid any doubt, he sent me over his HiFace unit and I have been able to A/B them with my own stock HiFace, bought back in february, with the larger MEC oscillator.
I had the opportunity to compare myself in my own system a "small clock" HiFace unit with my "original MEC clock" unit, and there is no doubt it was indeed a night and day difference, the "small clock" performing very poorly in terms of perceived sonic qualities (thin, harsh sounding, no soundstage, etc...). I then sent him over both HiFace so he could also test them with its own system, and came to the exact same conclusions. I think Regal also had the opportunity to do the same comparison, and experienced the same results.
I then contacted Marco at M2Tech to get some clarifications, and he explained that the original oscillator supplier - MEC - was not able to cope with the demand and they experienced a shortage of oscillators. They did look for a "suitable" substitute in the form of the smaller oscillator and did produce a few batches, before switching back to the larger and original MEC oscillators. Hiface are now shipping with the MEC oscillator, as confirmed by Marco.
My point is that they seem to be some bad apples among HiFaces currently on the market. And apparently, the only way to find out wether your HiFace is affected or not is to open the device, or by listening... If you find your HiFace just sounds regular compared to your former transport, chances are that you have a bad one... The HiFace when working properly is trully a fantastic USB/SPDIF converter, and you can tell it from the very first moment, at least in my experience, and that is without mods...
In case your Hiface is coming with the smaller oscillator, I strongly recommed you to contact Marco at M2tech to look for the best solution to this issue. In my opinion, users should not be charged for parts or labor costs, since no comunication was done by the manufacturer on this specific matter and substitution costs should be their responsability.
I hope this information was usefull to some of you... For the rest who are already enjoying their HiFace, well, keep it that way
EDIT 08/31/2010: How to determine wether your Hiface is affected without opening the device and voiding the guarantee.
At this stage, I still believe the best way to determine wether you have or not a small clock unit is to be able to A/B with 44.1khz material your Hiface unit with another HiFace that you know for sure has a large clock. Differences will show up immediately if any because they are very noticeable. But of course, very few will have the opportunity to test that.
That is why an alternative method is the use of the SoX resampler in Foobar, said to be one of the best resampler available out there. That is what I have done earlier, following Xdanny suggestion, and I find it a very valid method.
Just chose some 44.1 material to play, and listen A. Then, load the resampler SoX in Foobar DSP panel to resample at 48 and listen B. Repeat as much as you want. Oh BTW, the Lavry allows to display the incoming sample rate, and I have been able to check that the resampler was indeed at work when selected. If A sounds better than B (and it does, even though someone said that the SoX resampler was absolutely transparent, it is not to my ears and in my system), you have a large clock. But if B sounds better than A (and it does as well), then you obviously have a small clock at 44.1khz.
I have done this experiment with both unit of the HiFace in my possession, the small clock unit and the large clock unit. I choosed Diana Krall, The Look Of Love, S'wonderful, for I find it a good recordings technically speaking with Diana Krall's voice very easy to isolate, and an accompanying orchestra.
With the small clock unit, the resampled version at 48khz sounds better, with Diana Krall's voice fuller and richer, with more weight and better articulation. You will also notice that the violins are more realistic sounding, with better pace and with details and intonations that you simply miss at 44.1khz.
With the large clock unit, the resampled version at 48khz sounds worst than at 44.1khz by a fair margin. Diana Krall's voice sounds thinner, more aggressive, lacking emotion. Violins in the background will make you feel unconfortable, as they stop abruptely, unnnaturally, lacking decay.
I shall say that with both units, the resampled version at 48khz sounded identical to my ears. So it really goes like this:
large clock 44.1 > large & small clock resampled SoX 48 > small clock 44.1
EDIT 08/31/2010: users reports
Users so far who have reported relevant differences either in A/B two different units, or through the SoX resampler tests:
Regal, Shamu144, Picodeloro, USG
However, recently and after easter, more and more users having just bought a HiFace raised some worries about its sonic performance, one of them beeing Chris Connaker, founder of computeraudiophile. It seems as if the HiFace did not perform as expected and created some tensions between HiFace users.
Regal - who was not overwhelmed with his HiFace performance - first pointed out in this forum that the 22.592Mhz clock in its HiFace was not the same as the original HiFace batches with larger MEC clock, and that it could have been a reason explaining the differences in opinions among HiFace users:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/446375/usb-24-192khz-m2tech-hiface/1215#post_6708753
Because a friend of mine was not happy with the performance of his HiFace, I recomended him to open up his HiFace and he discovered that his unit indeed came with a small oscillator as shown in Regal's picture above. See picture of my friend's Hiface below.
To avoid any doubt, he sent me over his HiFace unit and I have been able to A/B them with my own stock HiFace, bought back in february, with the larger MEC oscillator.
I had the opportunity to compare myself in my own system a "small clock" HiFace unit with my "original MEC clock" unit, and there is no doubt it was indeed a night and day difference, the "small clock" performing very poorly in terms of perceived sonic qualities (thin, harsh sounding, no soundstage, etc...). I then sent him over both HiFace so he could also test them with its own system, and came to the exact same conclusions. I think Regal also had the opportunity to do the same comparison, and experienced the same results.
I then contacted Marco at M2Tech to get some clarifications, and he explained that the original oscillator supplier - MEC - was not able to cope with the demand and they experienced a shortage of oscillators. They did look for a "suitable" substitute in the form of the smaller oscillator and did produce a few batches, before switching back to the larger and original MEC oscillators. Hiface are now shipping with the MEC oscillator, as confirmed by Marco.
My point is that they seem to be some bad apples among HiFaces currently on the market. And apparently, the only way to find out wether your HiFace is affected or not is to open the device, or by listening... If you find your HiFace just sounds regular compared to your former transport, chances are that you have a bad one... The HiFace when working properly is trully a fantastic USB/SPDIF converter, and you can tell it from the very first moment, at least in my experience, and that is without mods...
In case your Hiface is coming with the smaller oscillator, I strongly recommed you to contact Marco at M2tech to look for the best solution to this issue. In my opinion, users should not be charged for parts or labor costs, since no comunication was done by the manufacturer on this specific matter and substitution costs should be their responsability.
I hope this information was usefull to some of you... For the rest who are already enjoying their HiFace, well, keep it that way
EDIT 08/31/2010: How to determine wether your Hiface is affected without opening the device and voiding the guarantee.
At this stage, I still believe the best way to determine wether you have or not a small clock unit is to be able to A/B with 44.1khz material your Hiface unit with another HiFace that you know for sure has a large clock. Differences will show up immediately if any because they are very noticeable. But of course, very few will have the opportunity to test that.
That is why an alternative method is the use of the SoX resampler in Foobar, said to be one of the best resampler available out there. That is what I have done earlier, following Xdanny suggestion, and I find it a very valid method.
Just chose some 44.1 material to play, and listen A. Then, load the resampler SoX in Foobar DSP panel to resample at 48 and listen B. Repeat as much as you want. Oh BTW, the Lavry allows to display the incoming sample rate, and I have been able to check that the resampler was indeed at work when selected. If A sounds better than B (and it does, even though someone said that the SoX resampler was absolutely transparent, it is not to my ears and in my system), you have a large clock. But if B sounds better than A (and it does as well), then you obviously have a small clock at 44.1khz.
I have done this experiment with both unit of the HiFace in my possession, the small clock unit and the large clock unit. I choosed Diana Krall, The Look Of Love, S'wonderful, for I find it a good recordings technically speaking with Diana Krall's voice very easy to isolate, and an accompanying orchestra.
With the small clock unit, the resampled version at 48khz sounds better, with Diana Krall's voice fuller and richer, with more weight and better articulation. You will also notice that the violins are more realistic sounding, with better pace and with details and intonations that you simply miss at 44.1khz.
With the large clock unit, the resampled version at 48khz sounds worst than at 44.1khz by a fair margin. Diana Krall's voice sounds thinner, more aggressive, lacking emotion. Violins in the background will make you feel unconfortable, as they stop abruptely, unnnaturally, lacking decay.
I shall say that with both units, the resampled version at 48khz sounded identical to my ears. So it really goes like this:
large clock 44.1 > large & small clock resampled SoX 48 > small clock 44.1
EDIT 08/31/2010: users reports
Users so far who have reported relevant differences either in A/B two different units, or through the SoX resampler tests:
Regal, Shamu144, Picodeloro, USG
