M2 Tech Hi-Face

M2 Tech Hi-Face any ideas on price and place to purchase google turns up lots of hi-fi forum threads

 

Chris Hi, I can help you with that if you are in the UK, do you need BNC or RCA, a new delivery is expected this week, Keith.

 

Hi Keith

RCA would be good thank you i have no idea on price what do they run at roughly ?

 

Chris Hi RCA is £100 and NC £105 both include vat and 'special delivery' Keith.

 

I'd like to know a little more about how the Hi-Face actually works.

My setup at the moment is a netbook (Windows XP) running Foobar2000 with the ASIO4All plugin (music files are on a network drive). My understanding is that ASIO4All does the "bypass kernel mixer" thing. Output from the netbook is USB into a DacMagic.

My music files are almost entirely 16/44.1 (there are a very few at 16/48) - this is a situation that I don't see changing in the foreseeable future (been wrong before).

So, I assume that the Hi-Face comes with drivers that are an alternative to ASIO4All - is the Hi-Face doing anything else in terms of preparing the data stream that goes to the USB port?

I also understand that there are two (more?) ways to run a USB stream and that the Hi-Face is using the more audio-capable. At this point I'm not aware of deficiencies in my setup - maybe I would be if I'd tried other stuff.

As I see it, the other differentiating feature is that the HiFace would let me push higher-resolution files out of my netbook's USB port. But I don't have any such files and don't foresee getting any.

So, in this situation - how much does the Hi-Face bring to the table (and what's the additional cost of an adequate - no fancy wires here - digital interconnect)?

I'm still feeling my way into computer-sourced audio.

 

There's a lot of info here: http://www.m2tech.biz/products.html though I'm not sure if it will answer your questions fully. For me the immediate appeal was that my dac doesn't have a USB input so the HiFace provided an SPDIF output from the PC. Some have said that USB inputs to dacs are of variable quality and sometimes better sound is possible via the SPDIF input so that may be a consideration. In my system the HiFace and its drivers brought about a very noticeable improvement over previous USB-SPDIF converters I'd tried with Foobar/ASIO4ALL.

And for me, an adequate digital interconnect would be a piece of 75ohm co-ax from Maplins and a couple of cheap phonos, so pennies.

 

Dick Hi, the hiface has two crystal oscillators and a tiny isolation transformer, as well as it's own proprietary software, you would really have to try it and see whether it makes an improvement.
New delivery next week. Keith.

 

Dick I was doubtful it would make any difference on my Mac, replacing the Toslink out. It did. it's difficult to pin down the exact change, soundstage seems a little better defined and treble a touch more sparkly.