ESI Juli@ or HiFace USB?

Posted by: Graham Russell on 02 January 2010

I ordered an ESI Juli@ last week, but had a phone call over the weekend to say it was out of stock until end of Jan.

After reading more about the HiFace USB interface I'm at a crossroads - order another ESI Juli@ or a HiFace?

Has anyone tried both and can offer advice?

I am building a dedicated silent PC (XP SP2) for playing music stored on a Buffalo Raid box.

Thanks
Graham
Posted on: 03 January 2010 by Occean
I use a Juli@ and find it fantastic paired with foobar. I would not swap for anything, dts/dd pass through, native asio, 2 dig outs.

Any specific questions please ask.
Posted on: 03 January 2010 by paremus
Graham,

The hiFace is an excellent solution for me - because I cannot get a card into the Mac Mini - i.e. limited to using the provided USB, Firewire or optical.

If I were building my own computer - I'd probably try out something like ESI card.

Cheers.
Posted on: 03 January 2010 by Mr Underhill
Hi Graham,

Have you looked at the CMP2 site?

The ESI is discussed in a lot of detail there, including mods to improve it.

Like paremus I had an exiting PC and this was a way for me to cheaply and quickly test the CMP2 software, outputting to my Benchmark via the USB.

My suspicion is that the HiFace improves the USB output via its internal clocks.

However, I am now considering doing the full CMP2 build, including the ESI card. If you decide to continue can you report back on what you hear please.

If you are not going the CMP2 route do you have any links on sites you are using as a reference?

Thx,

M
Posted on: 03 January 2010 by Graham Russell
I have looked around the CMP2 site which I where I got the inspiration to buy the bits to make a silent PC.

I have played a bit with CMP and Cplay a bit on another system too.

My dilema started yesterday when I read lots of good reports of HiFace. From comments so far it seems the Juli@ PCI card is a better solution. HiFace is a good solution for systems with no PCI slots.

THanks
Graham
Posted on: 03 January 2010 by Graham Russell
Another ESI Juli@ ordered Big Grin