Reputable dealer for M2Tech Hiface USB/SPDIF & Interconnect

m2 is £100. cheap but good quality cables try mark grant cables .co.uk

Agree with Allen - dealt with Keith a number of times and he's very good.

also, the importer will deal directly with you.

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Agree with Allen - dealt with Keith a number of times and he's very good.

Thirded - nice chap.

M

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Underhill:

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Agree with Allen - dealt with Keith a number of times and he's very good.

Thirded - nice chap.

M

Make that four.

Joe

Huw,

I ordered my Hiface from Keith at Purite Audio on Monday evening, it arrived Wednesday morning. I am now listening to music via my Mac / DAC as I type ! Most enjoyable it is too.

If funds don't allow for a DC1 at this stage, then you could google Fuzion Kelsey and ring Paul Richardson; he will make you a 75ohm cable BNC-BNC at a price that is exceptional VFM.

I have a DC1 for my CD5XS but am using the Kelsey cable for the Mac for the time being and I am not unhappy with it at all. The other benefit is that you can have a cable longer than 1m if you need it.

Dasher

quote:

Originally posted by Dasher:
Huw,

I ordered my Hiface from Keith at Purite Audio on Monday evening, it arrived Wednesday morning. I am now listening to music via my Mac / DAC as I type ! Most enjoyable it is too.

If funds don't allow for a DC1 at this stage, then you could google Fuzion Kelsey and ring Paul Richardson; he will make you a 75ohm cable BNC-BNC at a price that is exceptional VFM.

I have a DC1 for my CD5XS but am using the Kelsey cable for the Mac for the time being and I am not unhappy with it at all. The other benefit is that you can have a cable longer than 1m if you need it.

Dasher

Dasher,

How do you rate the HiFace upgrade compared to raw Mac SPDIF? Compared to your CD5XS? What ripping/playback are you using on the Mac?

quote:

How do you rate the HiFace upgrade compared to raw Mac SPDIF? Compared to your CD5XS? What ripping/playback are you using on the Mac?

I have only had the HiFace for 2 days and have had very little time to experiment and compare against other sources, and I'm not sure how I compare against raw Mac SPDIF as I have no other way of connecting my Mac to the DAC.

However, my initial impression is that the SQ of the Mac & DAC and the CD5XS & DAC is very close to each other, and so far switching between the two playing the same track (CD V AIFF) I couldn't determine one better than the other. They both sound wonderful to my ears.

I am primarily ripping in iTunes to either AIFF or ALAC, but I have also done some files on WAV which I play either from the USB or an iPod Nano. I have not experimented with XLD or EAC or any of the other different ripping software available mainly because I don't feel confident in loading them onto my Mac and setting them up properly. Also both AIFF & ALAC sound pretty damn good to me, and if the odd "bit" is missing here and there "am I really bovvered", not really, to my ears it is no more annoying than hearing snap, crackle and pop when I occasionally give my vinyl a spin ! Personally, I consider from what I have read on the forum that a lot of my fellow Naimistas spend too much time fiddling & tweaking & trying to wring the odd "nuance" of music out of their systems, rather than sitting back and enjoying what they have got.

As a small experiment the other night I connected my DAC to my original set up of a 62 /90 and Chartwell LS3/5a's and used the Nano to play AIFF and ALAC files. It sounded amazing, admittedly not as good as my 82/HiCap/250.2 set up but I honestly thought that if I had to revert to my earliest Naim system including the DAC it wouldn't be a hardship, just a small re-adjustment for my ears. But I would insert the HiCap for good measure.

As far as I can tell, from what I have read here, a lot of people have been very dismissive of the SQ from other sources into the DAC other than WAV / USB source, which IMHO is ridiculous. Despite spending hours trying to work out which source is superior to any of the others I find that they are all so close to each other. In reality why would Naim produce the DAC where one source input was vastly superior to any of the others. The answer, so far as I am concerned, is that they haven't.

Perhaps I am cloth-eared ? But what I do know is the DAC is a big step up in SQ and I am so far happy to play around with my Mac, USB, iPod, and CD5XS and enjoy them all. But it has dawned on me that I might be able to survive without the CDP. There is no doubt the HiFace works very well indeed, but I need a bit more time to determine whether this sounds significantly better than anything else. In the meantime the only thing I need is more time to kickback and enjoy the music.

Dasher

Thanks Dasher.

I am also a little baffled by the apparent superiority of the USB stick over the SPDIF feed on the new DAC. Naim make a big deal of why they chose SPDIF as the main input type, and how they believe they have dealt with the issues associated with this standard. Seems odd that they would have got it so very wrong, eh?

If you do ever get an optical cable to let you feed the DAC direct from the Mac, I'd be really interested in hearing your veiws. Or does your Mac not have an SPDIF output?

Winky

Winky,

I agree with your first comment. Naim haven't got it wrong and what they have achieved IMHO is that regardless of source, be it USB, CDP, Mac or Ipod they have managed for them all to sound as good as each other. Although perhaps through exceptionally revealing speakers, or through much higher end pre-amp, power amp, power supplies etc etc, it might be possible to determine one source better than another. Anything is possible if you chuck enough cash at it.

However, even the humble iPod with AIFF or ALAC punches above its weight which does surprise me. When I first got my DAC my initial hearing tests suggested that it lagged behind the other sources. But I have revised my views on this. Frankly, why would Naim have gone to the expense of buying a license from Apple and then to end up with sound quality that was noticeably inferior to the others. As far as I'm concerned they haven't. But I am continuing to play around with this and will keep an open mind but it does not spoil my enjoyment of the DAC.

What I think has really changed with the introduction of the DAC is that in the past the source was always determined by the TT set up, get that right and you got terrific audio replay. The big change here IMHO is that what now really counts is the original recording, if the recording is poor quality then the DAC will reveal this. As long as WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC files are played the source delivering them to the DAC is of less importance. The DAC seems to have levelled the playing field so far as the source is concerned; and from what I have read on the Forum if you then want to up the ante on the SQ then you need to add a beefy power supply, HiLine etc.

When my Dealer installed the DAC we did try a QED purple optical cable on my Mac Book Pro. It sounded, in the short time I had, very acceptable. However, at about £60 for this cable I decided to spend a bit more and go for the HiFAce, as it was only another £45 and by all accounts it is much better than optical. So I am unable to really answer your question as I am not going to bother to buy an optical.

Dasher

Thanks a lot for your input guys.

Regards,
Huw