Gadget Envy, November Edition

Computer based audio was touted as an affordable route to audiophile paradise. Get yourself a USB DAC, rip your CD's to FLAC and bliss out for a relatively tiny investment. Ah but then we were told about jitter. Jitter bad. Enter mega-thousand dollar reclockers and $500 USB cables (not kidding). And those cool 24 bit DVD-Audio files available for download? Well you can't actually PLAY them via USB in their 24 bit glory without investing in an expensive USB transport like the Bel Canto USB Link ($500) or the new Sonicweld Diverter ($1300), not including cables of course.

Times change fast. Enter the M2Tech hiFace:

M2Tech HiFace USB Interface

* High quality digital audio up to 192kHz/24bit,
* Output SPDIF or BNC Audio signal,
* works with PC or MAC
* Extremely low jitter oscillators and proprietary drivers

The hiFace USB interface was designed to relay the highest quality digital audio signal using an ordinary PC or MAC, and transmit it to your DAC with the least amount of jitter possible. Experience resolution up to 192kHz/24bit directly from a PC or MAC USB port. You have the choice of a very high quality S/PDIF stereo audio output, or an equally high quality BNC output. The HiFace looks like a small USB thumb drive, but features very compact, very low jitter oscillators and proprietary drivers that allow for sending 192kHz/24bit audio files with exceptional quality to an audiophile DAC.

HiFace USB Interface Features

Low Jitter, Low Phase Noise, High Stability Oscillators
Most audio interfaces and USB DACs synch the data stream clock to the same USB interface clock, that often suffers from very heavy jitter distortion. Thanks to two quartz precision oscillators used inside the M2Tech hiFace, the clock source for the output data stream features extremely low jitter. A more stable clock is recovered by the DAC S/PDIF receiver; the low jitter produces a very low soundstage/ image distortion and degradation. Phase noise (the main component of jitter) is also very low: This ensures short and long range clock stability, also reinforced by circuit board supply voltage regulation (e.g. jitter at environmental temperature stability is 2-5ppm approximately, compared to 50-100ppm performed by oscillators normally used on commercial CD players).

Proprietary Drivers

The standard audio drivers available on the market (e.g. Microsoft Windows operating system) had severe limitatiions that can now be overcome thanks to the hiFace proprietary drivers. They allow for transferring audio data, and maintaining the original file quality without any loss of resolution. Ssampling frequency constraints are also overcome, while Microsoft and ASIO drivers will operate at no more than 96kHz. When the hiFace USB Interface is used together with a usic file player program such as FooBar, you can stream S/PDIF music files to a D/A converter at 192kHz/24bits maximum frequency/resolution, while avoiding the undesired PC or MAC audio mixer data processing during the data transfer from hard disk to interface. Windows XP, Vista and 7 Windows drivers are currently available. Mac and Linux drivers soon to be available.

Compact Size and Ease of Use

The M2Tech hiFace is compact in size and can be directly (or using an accessory USB A-A adapter, not supplied) connected to a High Speed USB 2.0 port of any computer. A very high electric and mechanical performance RCA gold connector provides the output signal, ready to be connected to a Hi-End audio DAC. No external power supply is required, as the hiFace draws its power from the USB bus itself and regulates it with its internal regulators. The hiFace USB interface connected to a mini PC with a High Speed USB port makes for a complete music transport system at a very low price. Such a system allows for listening any density and resolution music files, or playing one's own CD’s using a CD ROM drive, or listening to streaming web radio, Pandora, etc.

That's right, no $500 USB cable necessary, and playback of 24/192 sources via a tiny little device inserted in your USB port. $150. Available from Tweekgeek.com

Can you dig it? Yes I can.

This Is Chili

Tommy's chiliburgers in southern California were not my favorite, that honor goes to the Jayburger, may it rest in peace. But Tommy's is certainly more than respectible, it's a friggin' institution, and I think we can do a reasonable facsmile in tribute to the original. So I've pretty much finished with the shopping for the fixin's and will spend this next week experimenting with it. We'll go chili fries too.


By the way for those who enjoyed the chili dogs/bugers/fries at Jungle, the difference, as can be see from the above photo, is that this will be a beanless and tomato-less chili, which per the Tommy's forumla, works supremely well like this. We'll keep you posted.

Veterans Day

Another Veteran's Day and we seem no closer to ending the latest debacle in Afghanistan.

As I always do this time of year I offer the most thoughtful and moving tribute I know of to our veterans, John Gorka's "Let Me In". Unfortnately, it never gets old.

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

Give them things they like
Let them make some noise
Give dance hall bands not golden harps
To these our boys
Let them love Peter
For they've had no time
They should have bird songs and trees
And hills to climb
The taste of summer
And a ripened pear
And girls as sweet as meadow wind
And flowing hair
And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Music by John Gorka
Adapted from a poem found in an army hospital in the Phillipines during WWII

Listen here.

New from Nelson Pass

In the audiophile world a new amplifier design from Nelson Pass is akin to a new novel from J.D. Salinger. He's just introduced his 7th amplifier in the First Watt series, the J2. I can't afford one (they're $4,000) but I enjoy the thoughtful insights from Mr. Pass which always accompany such a release. You'll find a review of the new J2 in this month's 6 Moons.

"For over 10 years—the corporation was formed in 1999—FirstWatt has been pushing the design envelope with simple high-performance class A amplifier circuits. When a better transistor like this comes along, it can mean getting the same distortion performance with a lot less feedback; or lower distortion with the same amount of feedback. The J2 amplifier does both and that helps make it a better sounding amplifier than the best of its predecessors. With a device that behaves a little like a tube, it is natural to consider popular tube amplifier design topologies. Single-ended class A tube amplifiers are not very powerful and their measurement numbers are not exceptional but there is no arguing that they have strong musical appeal to much of the audiophile population. The J2 achieves a sound which is warm and relaxed, combining precision and detail without sterility. With a pair of sensibly efficient loudspeakers, it will give you a toe-tapping experience that other solid-state amplifiers do not."

6 Moons audio reviews: First Watt J2

Service Announcement

Garage is now an authorized Harley Davidson service facility. Free beer with every oil change.

Garage Art

Pick out a spot on your walls -- Brian has reworked his Sisamouth-Sothea graphic into a great new poster which we'll have on offer in the next week or so. Ain't it grand? Details to follow.

Promotion Time!

Errata

Garage scores a couple paragraphs in this month's Bayon Pearnik pub page, though from reading it you'd guess the writer didn't actually visit the bar or did so as his last stop when thoroughly soused. So, to correct a few things:

1. Garage is located on street 110, not street 118. That's kind of important.
2. Garage's interior is not "bedecked" in Andy Warhol prints. There is one Sisamouth-Sothea poster, done in a Warholian style, but that's it (until The Big Banana does arrive). There are 11 other graphics on the walls, none of them Warhol.
3. I'm not striving for an "old school" design. I inherited a built-out bar which works just fine. I didn't see any reason to throw money at a bar that didn't need it.
4. I have no plans to offer Tex-Mex cuisine. Maybe some Cuban down the line. Chiliburgers are not Tex-Mex cuisine.
5. Andy Warhol may or may not have been a "pretentious git", but the intended association with the Warhol banana is to the Velvet Underground not to Warhol himself. Garage is not a gallery it's a music bar. I find it hard to label the VU's music but you could call them pioneers of "garage" rock. I would have thought the author could have asked me about the connection rather than speculating for a full paragraph about it.

The article does say "it promises a warm and friendly drinking atmosphere". Ok, got that one right.

Just thought I'd clear that up. Thanks.