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Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

randing

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No - the Tone Board doesn't decode MQA.

Got it, thanks. I suppose MQA isn't crucial as it's just the current fad, just nice to have when you're already paying for Tidal. Any other suggestions? The designers newer unit, the LA-QXD1 looks like it might support being bus powered and still has volume control while measuring a little better.
 

dsnyder0cnn

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Got it, thanks. I suppose MQA isn't crucial as it's just the current fad, just nice to have when you're already paying for Tidal. Any other suggestions? The designers newer unit, the LA-QXD1 looks like it might support being bus powered and still has volume control while measuring a little better.

I'd suggest using the Khadas Tone Board with Roon as I'm doing. You can then have Roon handle MQA Core Decoding, which I understand delivers ~80% of the benefits of MQA. You can then experiment with having Roon Server upsample to DSD64, which seems to sound ever so slightly nicer with this DAC. If you do all of that, your Roon Server is going to get pretty busy, so I recommend connecting the DAC to a dedicated endpoint device, like a Raspberry Pi, Allo USBridge, Sonore microRendu, SOtM sMS-200, or the like. As Roon says, "plan for wired ethernet connections between your Core and Output components." Check out this post for a parts list.
 

randing

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I'd suggest using the Khadas Tone Board with Roon as I'm doing. You can then have Roon handle MQA Core Decoding, which I understand delivers ~80% of the benefits of MQA. You can then experiment with having Roon Server upsample to DSD64, which seems to sound ever so slightly nicer with this DAC. If you do all of that, your Roon Server is going to get pretty busy, so I recommend connecting the DAC to a dedicated endpoint device, like a Raspberry Pi, Allo USBridge, Sonore microRendu, SOtM sMS-200, or the like. As Roon says, "plan for wired ethernet connections between your Core and Output components." Check out this post for a parts list.

lol, like minds... I'm trying to find a straightforward bus powered DAC that I can plug into a Pi (with hardwired ethernet) running RoPiee . I want the DAC to have volume control so I can use Roon to manage volume but still remain bitperfect. Hardware MQA would just be a plus, I'll just have Roon do the rendering. The Tone Board checks a lot of those boxes, measures well, it's cheap, and everyone seems pretty happy with it.

I've got a Schiit Saga as well so I'll probably pick up a Modius and attempt to use a FLIRC on the Pi to still have Roon to control the Saga's volume via IR. So many cheap but good options now, I really think this site has a lot of influence on us/consumers which in turn influences industry trends.
 

Poultrygeist

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Picked up a KTB last week on sale at Amazon. Very impressed.

P1010006.jpeg
 

hoverdonkey

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Hi


I am running my Toneboard via USB from an RPi3 running PiCorePlayer-Squeezelite (v6.0.0). I have had it on default settings (IIRC) for some time but am beginning to wonder if there might in fact be better settings. Problem is that I do not really understand the settings and so would be really grateful for some pointers :facepalm:

I suspect that I might not have "ALSA settings" perfect as I have blanks - for example, reading through this thread I feel I should have "sample format" set to 32 rather than blank.

My current ALSA settings:

80:4:[blank]:1:[blank]

where:

<b>:<p>:<f>:<m>:<d>

  • b = buffer time in ms or size in bytes
  • p = period count or size in bytes
  • f = sample format (16|24|24_3|32)
  • m = use mmap (0|1)
  • d = opens ALSA twice (undocumented) i.e. ::::d

All other settings on the "Change Squeezelite settings" config page are blank, including "Output setting" (except, of course, "Name of your player"). All "USB Audio tweaks" on the "Tweaks" page are also on default.

Any pointers would be very much appreciated. I would consider alternatives to PCP if there is something better for the Pi. I have LMS running on another RPi (DietPi OS), if that is useful information!

Thanks.
 
Last edited:

ngs428

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My KTB randomly disconnects from USB. I have to unplug and replug for it to work. Anyone else experience this? Doesn't happen too often, but enough to make it annoying. I am on Windows 10. It may just be my PC, it isn't the newest machine out there.
 

dwalme

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My KTB randomly disconnects from USB. I have to unplug and replug for it to work. Anyone else experience this? Doesn't happen too often, but enough to make it annoying. I am on Windows 10. It may just be my PC, it isn't the newest machine out there.

Happens to me any time my computer goes to sleep. Try switching the USB port you plug into. I've found it makes a difference.

Problem is with the tone board. I have several other DACs and none of them have this issue on any computer regardless of usb port used.
 

ngs428

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Happens to me any time my computer goes to sleep. Try switching the USB port you plug into. I've found it makes a difference.

Problem is with the tone board. I have several other DACs and none of them have this issue on any computer regardless of usb port used.

Thanks for the reply. So this is present in all KTBs (mine isn't defective) is what I am understating..
 

dwalme

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I can't speak to every single one made - only mine.

But I've seen others report the issue as well.

And outside this usb disconnect issue the board works well.
 

Pdxwayne

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I got mine a few days ago. Connected to Node2i via coaxial. I have noticed multiple times in the beginning of song it would have a skip or two, then ran fine the rest of song. Anyone noticed the same?
 

ngs428

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I got mine a few days ago. Connected to Node2i via coaxial. I have noticed multiple times in the beginning of song it would have a skip or two, then ran fine the rest of song. Anyone noticed the same?

I have never experienced that, I am connected via USB.
 

Pdxwayne

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I have never experienced that, I am connected via USB.
Thanks. I now wonder if that is an issue of node2i coaxial out...I noticed it when using Tidal. I will try coaxial from my Blu-ray player to compare.
 

Veri

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My KTB randomly disconnects from USB. I have to unplug and replug for it to work. Anyone else experience this? Doesn't happen too often, but enough to make it annoying. I am on Windows 10. It may just be my PC, it isn't the newest machine out there.
I heard reports of people getting one with a pretty faulty usb cable. Have you tried any other cable besides stock one?
 

somebodyelse

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@hoverdonkey PCP is my preferred option. The default settings are usually all that's needed - if you don't have a specific problem then there's no reason to change them, and you're more likely to create a problem than improve anything. The settings are there so that you can override the automatic or default values if there's a problem, such as a USB device with a quirk that's been identified but not yet been added to the linux kernel driver, not because they usually need changing.
 

hoverdonkey

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@hoverdonkey PCP is my preferred option. The default settings are usually all that's needed - if you don't have a specific problem then there's no reason to change them, and you're more likely to create a problem than improve anything. The settings are there so that you can override the automatic or default values if there's a problem, such as a USB device with a quirk that's been identified but not yet been added to the linux kernel driver, not because they usually need changing.

Okay, I'll leave alone! Thank you!
 

Pdxwayne

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Curious, anyone noticed any differences in sound when playing a song right after first powered on KTB vs playing same song again after KTB already sits and/or played for hours?
 
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