I've been trying to play 352 (DXD) files - I get 44 showing instead. (The file properties show they are the correct sample rates) Is that because Decibel/OSx won't deal with these sample rates?
I'm trying to play the samplers from 2L which download as WAVs, then I used dBPoweramp to convert to AIFF keeping everything as it was. (I can't play the WAVs either). They don't even show in iTunes - I have to load from finder.
I've been told that the drivers might not yet support 352 files, but there is a manual work-around: Disable exclusive access in decibel, as well as automatic sample rate adjustments. Then manually select 384 in apple's audio-midi window.
I'll try this (probably tomorrow), as I doubt my ability to hear the enormous - and possibly unnecessary (?) - increase in resolution. The 2L recordings in question I already have (well, the one by Trondheim Solistine) in 192, and they are quite simply beautiful.
Alan, I converted them to 24/384 for that reason, for auto sample rate switching (Marco said the driver accidentally skipped 352 but that 384 would work...or you could force Audio Midi to 384 and it should work for 24/352 files without conversion). Another reason i am surprised the drivers haven't been updated!
I went through the rigmarole this evening & didn't really get anywhere. Although the sample rate displays correctly, and I got 10 seconds of music on my first play, I can't make any progress playing these DXD files.
Decibel shows the files, says it is playing, but the slider just won't move - this is with memory play disabled and active.
Perhaps I'll wait for new drivers, although it looks more like a player issue at this point.
Monty, sorry crossed wires I thought the Napsc was 27v for some reason, thinking about it i believe that was a modded unit a friend had
I've been having a poke around inside the Young today looking at the switching regs and the power supply lines. There's very little to be done inside there without removing three switching regs, and their attendant filters. It scopes out remarkably cleanly.
All I'd do is remove the shit electrolytic and replace it with a lower ESR cap, the rest of it would require serious attention to make any inroads.
Alan, switch off 'adjust sample rate for best quality' in Decibel then close Decibel, switch the Young off with the left hand switch on the front panel, then deselect it for output in audiomidi, re-select it and then switch it back on.
In udiomidi, set sampling to 384. Close audiomidi and fire up Decibel, then click 'exclusive' off and on a couple of times leaving a few seconds between each one.
Then it should work fine- it looks like there's a little glitch with exclusive mode in the new release of Decibel if you use a Young and this stops you selecting and forcing 384 as it doesn't appear to let go of the Young for audimidi to do it's thing.
That's nice to know, Simon. I know it reduces the scope to make the thing sound better, but from what you're saying it sounds as if Marco has done a good job with the hardware.
Today HD Tracks offer early Rolling Stones in 24/176 (and 24/88) FLAC. I doubt that there is much of a sound quality difference between the two resolutions, but I am ready to learn otherwise. I bought the 24/176 albums and they are ever so slowly downoading at the moment.
I'm trying to arrange a Young listening session here in Aarhus, Denmark. No luck so far. I suspect that I will have to travel to Copenhagen or Odense.
I went tolisten to the Rega DAC without luck as the dealer had no idea how to play back hi res material from a Mac. He was trying to use VLC player. I pointed him towards Amarra and Pure Music. He promised me I could borrow it at some point in time. so that was ok.
Really enjoying listening to the Young DAC tonight. What a great piece of kit this is....never heard my favourite tracks sound so good.
I've compared the Young to my Lavry DA11 and with the Hiface Evo into Lavry configuration. The Evo + Lavry combination while good, is not quite up there with the Young for USB. Through any other input I struggle to hear much of a difference between the two DAC's. It seems to me that M2Tech has focused on optimising the USB input. This means that my Sonos will be retired to another room, as for the last two years I've been using this as my main transport. Media Monkey has a poor interface compared to the Sonos....in fact I've yet to find any PC/Mac software which gets close to the Sonos in terms of usability. Anyway I digress....
So what do I prefer about the Young? There's a complete absence of digital edginess that could occasionally thwart the Lavry. It's a smoother, more relaxed sound yet with more detail retrieved from each track.....does this make sense? I also think there is greater realism in the upper registers compared to my Lavry - cymbals and brass sections in particular sound more natural.
Sound staging sounds more precise with the Young....voices aren't just between the speakers as with the Lavry. I'm listening to a track from Radio 1's latest Live Lounge album and the singer is clearly not centre stage, but just off centre to the left.
Other points worth mentioning....cosmetically I prefer the Young. I also like the fact that there are only two buttons....the Lavry has the ergonomics of an Allegro and possibly the most confusing user interface in history. Not that either point would matter one jot if the Lavry sounded better.
As a slight aside I've ordered a Lightspeed Attenuator and will be using this instead of my Croft preamp. That's why I'm using an audio buffer from Burson in the chain....not needed right now but there's an impedance mismatch between the Lightspeed and my Arcam power amp. Will post a separate review when this arrives.
I think the Young DAC will be in my system for a long time to come. Just need to decide on which software to use on my PC now.
Great stuff - and a great review too! Thanks for sharing. FWIW, I agree with everything you've said, you have managed to elucidate much more clearly some of what I wanted to say.
Please post a new thread concerning the Lightspeed when it arrives - myself and Uglymusic (Dave) are using EVA II (also LDR passives) with new power supplies, and your thoughts on a lightspeed will be most interesting to us.
I agree with everything you've said, and would add how well the Young deals with rhythms and interlocking rhythmic lines. It's beyond mere foot-tapping and drive, the Young is great at showing what the musicians are playing and how they're interacting.
I don't want to know about the Lightspeed, unless there's a new version with a remote control ;-)
Thanks Alan and Dave. I'm looking forward to receiving the Teddy power supply and the attenuator.....I wonder which will arrive first....place your bets B-)
Until the Lightspeed arrives I'm using a direct sound driver for Media Monkey. I can't switch to full flavour kernel streaming until I can attenuate the volume....although I did accidentally test my Arcam power amp's safe mode by forgetting to switch off kernel streaming....doh! was waiting for my speaker drivers to be blown clean out their enclosures #-O
@ted_b - I see ya lurking! Did you get your revised Young board yet?
Do you think the Young is of sufficient interest to ask Chris Connaker to review it? He must get deluged with review requests, but the Young does what almost no other DAC does - for sensible money (It's substantially cheaper here in the UK than in the USA - for a change!).
It also does what normal DACs do extremely well - even on redbook I reckon it's special.
I all just signed in, surfing for some other happy young owner I found this forum!! let me start with a question: how can I play dxd (i.e. 32/352) files with the Young via a Win7 pc?? in the audio panel the max resolution I find is 24/192.......
Hi Mike - great to have you on-board. I am afraid I use mine with a MAC. As does Dave. And Andy, Simon, Keith, probably Papa & Ted too....
Do you have the driver installed from the M2Tech webpage? In my AudioMidi window (on the MAC) I can see the huge sample rates, which weren't there before the driver was installed.
Also, what player are you using? Does the software support higher sample rates?
Comments
(Sorry Ted,,,,)
:">
Is that because Decibel/OSx won't deal with these sample rates?
I'm trying to play the samplers from 2L which download as WAVs, then I
used dBPoweramp to convert to AIFF keeping everything as it was. (I
can't play the WAVs either). They don't even show in iTunes - I have to
load from finder.
What am I missing?
I'll try this (probably tomorrow), as I doubt my ability to hear the enormous - and possibly unnecessary (?) - increase in resolution. The 2L recordings in question I already have (well, the one by Trondheim Solistine) in 192, and they are quite simply beautiful.
Decibel shows the files, says it is playing, but the slider just won't move - this is with memory play disabled and active.
Perhaps I'll wait for new drivers, although it looks more like a player issue at this point.
I will have another go, purely for curiosity's sake. It sounds just great on 44, 96 & 192.
I'm trying to arrange a Young listening session here in Aarhus, Denmark. No luck so far. I suspect that I will have to travel to Copenhagen or Odense.
I went tolisten to the Rega DAC without luck as the dealer had no idea how to play back hi res material from a Mac. He was trying to use VLC player. I pointed him towards Amarra and Pure Music. He promised me I could borrow it at some point in time. so that was ok.
Best wishes,
Peter
I've compared the Young to my Lavry DA11 and with the Hiface Evo into Lavry configuration. The Evo + Lavry combination while good, is not quite up there with the Young for USB. Through any other input I struggle to hear much of a difference between the two DAC's. It seems to me that M2Tech has focused on optimising the USB input. This means that my Sonos will be retired to another room, as for the last two years I've been using this as my main transport. Media Monkey has a poor interface compared to the Sonos....in fact I've yet to find any PC/Mac software which gets close to the Sonos in terms of usability. Anyway I digress....
So what do I prefer about the Young? There's a complete absence of digital edginess that could occasionally thwart the Lavry. It's a smoother, more relaxed sound yet with more detail retrieved from each track.....does this make sense?
Sound staging sounds more precise with the Young....voices aren't just between the speakers as with the Lavry. I'm listening to a track from Radio 1's latest Live Lounge album and the singer is clearly not centre stage, but just off centre to the left.
Other points worth mentioning....cosmetically I prefer the Young. I also like the fact that there are only two buttons....the Lavry has the ergonomics of an Allegro and possibly the most confusing user interface in history. Not that either point would matter one jot if the Lavry sounded better.
As a slight aside I've ordered a Lightspeed Attenuator and will be using this instead of my Croft preamp. That's why I'm using an audio buffer from Burson in the chain....not needed right now but there's an impedance mismatch between the Lightspeed and my Arcam power amp. Will post a separate review when this arrives.
I think the Young DAC will be in my system for a long time to come. Just need to decide on which software to use on my PC now.
Cheers,
James
Please post a new thread concerning the Lightspeed when it arrives - myself and Uglymusic (Dave) are using EVA II (also LDR passives) with new power supplies, and your thoughts on a lightspeed will be most interesting to us.
Until the Lightspeed arrives I'm using a direct sound driver for Media Monkey. I can't switch to full flavour kernel streaming until I can attenuate the volume....although I did accidentally test my Arcam power amp's safe mode by forgetting to switch off kernel streaming....doh! was waiting for my speaker drivers to be blown clean out their enclosures #-O
The return of the prodigal Young...tmrw.
Will anyone be taking pics of Scalford who could do a show report for us here?
:0&
Voyd turntable/Alphason HR100S arm/Shelter 901 cartridge
Tribute 1:10 MC step-up transformer
Audio Innovations P2 phono stage
CEC TL53Z CD Player (used as transport)
M2 Young DAC
Kondo Audio Note M7 line stage
New Audio Frontiers 845SE 20wpc SET power amp
Living Voice OBX-R2 loudspeakers
Silver Litz cables by Audio Note UK and Kondo.
Vb Keith.
Do you think the Young is of sufficient interest to ask Chris Connaker to review it? He must get deluged with review requests, but the Young does what almost no other DAC does - for sensible money (It's substantially cheaper here in the UK than in the USA - for a change!).
It also does what normal DACs do extremely well - even on redbook I reckon it's special.
>:/
just signed in, surfing for some other happy young owner I found this forum!!
let me start with a question: how can I play dxd (i.e. 32/352) files with the Young via a Win7 pc?? in the audio panel the max resolution I find is 24/192.......
many thanks in advance!!!
mike
Do you have the driver installed from the M2Tech webpage? In my AudioMidi window (on the MAC) I can see the huge sample rates, which weren't there before the driver was installed.
Also, what player are you using? Does the software support higher sample rates?