PDA

View Full Version : USB DAC for £40



Labarum
12-09-2009, 20:53
May be worth a try. Saw it recommended on another forum.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MUSILAND-Sound-Card-24-192-Digital-Monitor-01-US-USD_W0QQitemZ130329521694QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Com puting_ComputerComponents_SoundCards?hash=item1e58 3eae1e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Specifications :

1. Interface: USB 2.0

2. Maximum sampling rate: 24bit/192kHz

3. Digital output: Optical toslink, RCA and BNC coaxial

4. Digital S/N: 140dB (A-weighted)

5. Digital dynamic range: 140dB (A-weighted)



PACKAGE

1x Monitor 01 USD

1x USB cable

1x Driver CD

Marktdac
12-09-2009, 21:03
How does that work the outer shell looks toally different to the circuit board inside?

Mark

Labarum
12-09-2009, 21:07
I only know what I have posted. The Scale of the pictures is different.

The digital in sockets are shown on the board, but not the analogue out at the other end.

Beechwoods
12-09-2009, 21:07
The picture of the PCB is missing the connectors for the RCA and BNC's you can see in the top images (you can see the empty spots for them on the board though). The external images don't properly show you the angle where you can see the optical and USB inputs that are there on the PCB.

It is a bit confusing I'll give you that!

Beechwoods
12-09-2009, 21:08
Like he said ;)

Marktdac
12-09-2009, 21:11
See what u mean now ,thought they would of taken a photo of a finished circuit board

Labarum
12-09-2009, 21:14
Mind you, the M-Audio Transit can be had for £50 and might be the safer bet if you dont need 24bit/192kHz

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/3012-m-audio-transit-usb-hi-resolution-mobile-audio-interface-.html/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=base

brainz2000
25-09-2009, 19:26
I've bought one of these and use it for spdif out into a Beresford.

It does a good job of getting me a digital out.

If you've any questions, I'll try and answer them? Drop me a line.


Tim

leo
17-10-2009, 18:08
Been thinking of getting one of these to play with

leo
11-11-2009, 21:28
Well the Musiland 01 USD arrived, I installed firmware 1.0.6.0 and enabled ASIO drivers in Foobar

Currently listening to some 24/96 material feeding a B Caiman and Sabre dac which is working fine:)
I feel the power supply from USB definitely needs disconnecting and then run it from an external supply, I'll do some mods later but for now I'll let it run in

Rare Bird
12-11-2009, 12:01
Well the Musiland 01 USD arrived, I installed firmware 1.0.6.0 and enabled ASIO drivers in Foobar

Currently listening to some 24/96 material feeding a B Caiman and Sabre dac which is working fine:)
I feel the power supply from USB definitely needs disconnecting and then run it from an external supply, I'll do some mods later but for now I'll let it run in

Anyone listern to this musiland with 96kHz encoded FLAC's? Seems this seller aint got none left

leo
13-11-2009, 20:19
Flac and WAV play fine through the Musiland as long as playback software can play it

Rare Bird
13-11-2009, 22:44
Flac and WAV play fine through the Musiland as long as playback software can play it

No auto software loading then leo??

leo
16-11-2009, 18:18
I just use Foobar with ASIO drivers

BTW I nearly always find Flac to sound different to WAV IF using a soundcard or a USB dac/converter , only time I've found flac and WAV to sound about the same is if using a device like the Squeezebox.
To me Flac sounds smoother less dynamic than WAV, edges are softer, this maybe down to the PC or the software, I dunno yet, I'm still new with PC audio so need to look into it

Anyway the Musiland offers 1 x optical and 2 x co-axial output (1 x BNC the other RCA).
I decided to play about with the RCA co-axial out circuit, its been mentioned the pulse transformers inside these Musilands are not that great so I decided to remove one from one in the RCA output, I adjusted the attenuation and also changed the RCA socket to a 75R BNC

Comparing the now modded co-axial output against the stock co-axial output gave quite a difference, the adjusted one sounded less compressed and the bass goes noticeably lower, these differences are clearly heard using all my dacs including the Caiman

Next thing I want to try is disconnect the USB DC source and run an external PSU, USB tends to be noisy so I'm interested to see if cleaning that up improves performance

I'll also look into better pulse traffo's later to replace the dodgy looking one which is left for the other co-axial output

Rare Bird
16-11-2009, 23:19
Keep us updated Leo, i don't believe in spending mega bucks on DAC, mostly uncalled for.., like to investigate these cheap ones.