M2Tech HiFace DAC, 24/384
- Thread starter gavreid
- Start date
The best system that I ever heard used a turntable. But oh my goodness - the hiss! USB DACs are coming very close to extracting the same level of detail as a TT but with the music coming from an inky black background.
And lest ye have forgotten - there was just as much angst over getting a TT/arm/cartridge/stylus set up properly as there now is with computer audio!
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
There is no angst with computer audio , and digital getting close to extracting the same amount of details as vinyl!
Keith.
Keith.
Nuuk,
Glad you got somewhere in the end. Pietro from M2Tech's advice seems to have been essentially the same as mine. Your results are curious. With only live AP-linux working prior to an update. The clue is in the difference between live and installed AP-linux v2. I wonder what changed? Kernel config or something else? All very odd. It's not really satisfactory that you can only use ap-linux with your hiface DAC.
I can find no reports elsewhere of no sound from the Hiface DAC using Linux, and I can't believe they didn't at least test the device with some popular distros.
Glad you got somewhere in the end. Pietro from M2Tech's advice seems to have been essentially the same as mine. Your results are curious. With only live AP-linux working prior to an update. The clue is in the difference between live and installed AP-linux v2. I wonder what changed? Kernel config or something else? All very odd. It's not really satisfactory that you can only use ap-linux with your hiface DAC.
I can find no reports elsewhere of no sound from the Hiface DAC using Linux, and I can't believe they didn't at least test the device with some popular distros.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
We have only sold a few units to Linux users but so far no problems whatsoever, and there have been no reported problems with the HiFace 2.
Keith.
Keith.
There's something odd about Nuuk's experience. The changes made to ap-linux seem unrelated to his specific problem. Perhaps it came down to just plugging the device into a different USB port. Attaching the device after booting rather than before. It's hard to say. Yes all reports I've read say the hiface2 works well in Linux, but perhaps not when using something like the raspberry pi.
I spoke too soon! PegLeg, if you are still watching this here is what is happening.
I install Audiophile Linux and the hiFace DAC works and plays music (with both Audacious/ALSA and DeadBeef/Jack). I then reboot the computer and there is no sound although it looks like it is playing music.
If I reinstall the OS again it plays sound until I do the first reboot.
As before, the Miniwatt N4 DAC works fine (before and after the reboot).
I install Audiophile Linux and the hiFace DAC works and plays music (with both Audacious/ALSA and DeadBeef/Jack). I then reboot the computer and there is no sound although it looks like it is playing music.
If I reinstall the OS again it plays sound until I do the first reboot.
As before, the Miniwatt N4 DAC works fine (before and after the reboot).
This morning I received an email from M2Tech with a fix to the sound issue on Linux systems. I have tested it and it appears to work - even after a reboot.
It appears that something called udev is muting the two clock selectors. To fix this:
Open a terminal and type in alsamixer
When the ALSAMIXER settings panels appears click on F6
Select the hiFace DAC from the list of soundcards.
Use the M key to toggle the mute function so that you see the following:
You should now get sound, and even after you reboot, the sound should still be there.
Bizarrely, this doesn't work for the iFi iDAC!
Many thanks to Pietro at M2Tech for sorting this out, and I can confirm that the hiFace DAC sounds very good with Audiophile Linux (Jack/Deadbeef)
It appears that something called udev is muting the two clock selectors. To fix this:
Open a terminal and type in alsamixer
When the ALSAMIXER settings panels appears click on F6
Select the hiFace DAC from the list of soundcards.
Use the M key to toggle the mute function so that you see the following:
You should now get sound, and even after you reboot, the sound should still be there.
Bizarrely, this doesn't work for the iFi iDAC!
Many thanks to Pietro at M2Tech for sorting this out, and I can confirm that the hiFace DAC sounds very good with Audiophile Linux (Jack/Deadbeef)
Hi,
Muting was something I asked about back at #20. It's not confined to these new USB DACs. Typically you find the onboard SPDIF out of motherboards muted until you use "alsamixer" to set the levels. Once you exit "alsamixer" a program called "alsactl" should store these levels which are preserved between boots.
With your ifi iDAC try going through the alsamixer setting first and immediately follow it with this command as root:
"alsactl store"
Does this preserve levels between boots?
PS Were you getting error messages like this in your logs?
udev[16025]: failed to execute '/usr/sbin/alsactl' '/usr/sbin/alsactl restore 0': No such file or directory
Muting was something I asked about back at #20. It's not confined to these new USB DACs. Typically you find the onboard SPDIF out of motherboards muted until you use "alsamixer" to set the levels. Once you exit "alsamixer" a program called "alsactl" should store these levels which are preserved between boots.
With your ifi iDAC try going through the alsamixer setting first and immediately follow it with this command as root:
"alsactl store"
Does this preserve levels between boots?
PS Were you getting error messages like this in your logs?
udev[16025]: failed to execute '/usr/sbin/alsactl' '/usr/sbin/alsactl restore 0': No such file or directory