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iD4 & iD14 MK II - Audient updated their Audio Interfaces

Cadence

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ID4 mkii has replaced its ADC with ESS ES9822QPRO. The datasheet shows the ESS chip has lower THD+N than previous AKM AK5574EN.
By the way, the DAC chip package also changed, but there's 43199 on the chip. I'm not sure it's different modal or not, because I can't find any datasheet corresponds to 43199.
Do you believe this change may be valid for the ID14 MKII as well? In addition, has the headphone output impedance (22 ohms) been modified for the new revision?
 

Cadence

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No, it still has about 22 Ohms (but more power): Julian Krause Review
Sure, this is valid for the MKI to MKII transition. However, I was wondering whether the impedance was changed when Audient silently replaced the MKII ADC (AKM to ESS) and DAC, as shown by the quoted post with the pictures.
 

Anubis

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Could someone explain 43199 on the dac chip? Official Cirrus dac is CS43198.
Thanks.
 

OHtaru

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Do you believe this change may be valid for the ID14 MKII as well? In addition, has the headphone output impedance (22 ohms) been modified for the new revision?
I don‘t have ID14 MKII in my hand, so I'm not sure about that.
But there are still 22 ohms resistors (R67 R68 R77 R78) in the headphone amp circuit.
1640875251493.png
 

Cadence

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I don‘t have ID14 MKII in my hand, so I'm not sure about that.
But there are still 22 ohms resistors (R67 R68 R77 R78) in the headphone amp circuit.
View attachment 175558
Damn, good catch... this surely does not clear my doubts on whether to choose the ID14 MKII, M4 or Clarett+ 2 Pre. 22 ohms seem to be just too high for my 45-ohm ER4SR. Thanks anyway!
 

tlr125

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which method of unbalanced plug output is correct for Audient: 1) TS mono-RCA or 2) TRS-RCA with ring disconnected . The instruction have no info about that.
 

frankh

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which method of unbalanced plug output is correct for Audient: 1) TS mono-RCA or 2) TRS-RCA with ring disconnected . The instruction have no info about that.
TS mono-RCA is the correct one. Once you insert the 1/4" TS plug into the Audient iD4 or iD14, it's automatically treated as an unbalanced connection. There's no point in using TRS with ring disconnected.
 

Ariamella

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Damn, good catch... this surely does not clear my doubts on whether to choose the ID14 MKII, M4 or Clarett+ 2 Pre. 22 ohms seem to be just too high for my 45-ohm ER4SR. Thanks anyway!
Could be possible to try and swap them to 1ohm resistors or something like that
 

tlr125

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do someone have problems with headphone output? sound from ID4 II is so terrible, low volume and quality is worse than sound from internal soundcard on motherboard, i'm using ID4 with stock usb-c cable from the box, i guess i have low output power for some reason but dunno what's the problem, is that a cable or my usb port, i've tried to change cable and use another one (from my phone) with fastcharge support and up to 10A but no difference, and at the same time there is no difference (with all my usb cables) between connecting to usb2\usb3\usb3 type-c ports, sound is always the same (very bad)
 

wanghao

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desktop PC \w ryzen 5600x, headphones - senheisers 560s, 600, 650
I have ryzen 5600x, B450 tomahawk max, DT990 edition 250Ω and I don't seem to have any problems.
Have you tried it with a different audio interface?
 
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tlr125

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Have you tried it with a different audio interface?
i don't have other interface at the moment (PCI-E soundcards works good though), i've tried with other PC (notebook with type-c port, Intel CPU) and still no improvements, i'll try to get very good and powerfull usb3.1 gen2 type-c cable and test again, some ppl said that in-box type-c cable isn't good to drive headphone AMP so i'm gonna to check it out. Another option is to plug into line-out (with a help of adapters of course), i know the sound will be very quiet but the goal is good sound quality and then i'll try to get some external headphone amp. It's very strange that it works stable with USB2 port (500ma) but on the other hand - sound is awful and usb3 type-c\a connection give me the same results using different PC's
 

Trell

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i don't have other interface at the moment (PCI-E soundcards works good though), i've tried with other PC (notebook with type-c port, Intel CPU) and still no improvements, i'll try to get very good and powerfull usb3.1 gen2 type-c cable and test again, some ppl said that in-box type-c cable isn't good to drive headphone AMP so i'm gonna to check it out. Another option is to plug into line-out (with a help of adapters of course), i know the sound will be very quiet but the goal is good sound quality and then i'll try to get some external headphone amp. It's very strange that it works stable with USB2 port (500ma) but on the other hand - sound is awful and usb3 type-c\a connection give me the same results using different PC's

You could try a powered USB hub to see if that helps. The manuals has the following for power requirements:

1642850569562.png
 
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alucardlin

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Hello everyone.
I consider buying this interface.
I would use it for electric guitar input and monitoring, or maybe additionaly active bass guitar or microphone.
Beside that, but not necesserily, I would like to use optical input from android tvbox to use it as DAC for stereo music/video while connected to low power Windows PC for driver initialization.
Could You help me with two things?
1. Is elevated distortion on multitone test still the case after firmware updates? Specs overall are very good, but I wonder if multitone distortion testing isn't better approximation of real music than single frequency/sweep testing.
2. Does anybody know how interface/software works while/plugged/unplugged/replugged/system restarted:
a) when I restart the system are mixer settings saved (for example monitor out volume of optical in)? I know that monitor and headphone volume is muted on initialization. Is just rising the volume by the main knob enough to get the sound of the system?
b) If I shut the system down but use external powered usb hub is interface functional in its last mixer state or does it switch off?
I also consider Arturia minifuse 2 if DAC side would play cleaner (THD+N/multitone) and give up on optical input if it is too much hassle to use it for ordinary playback.
Thanks

Hello Adrs

Actually I have the same question about the multitone test result...
I bought the id14 MKII before I saw the multitone distortion issue in Wolf's measure. I'm new to the audio interface so I'm also looking for the answer. Can you let me know what is the impact from the multione distortion?
I found another post says "The multitone distortion figure is admittedly not great but it's still 80dB down which is probably totally masked by music.", then I feel a little better, haha..

What do you think? Have you found any other answers or recent measurement after firmware updates?
 

the_brunx

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Did the firmware update also fix the Multitone? Or was it an issue of using USB2 vs USBc?
 

OHtaru

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I noticed that ID4's input signal can be leaked into output, with monitor mix knob being dialed all the way to 'DAW'. The leaking level is quite low though, around -130dB when feed 0dBFS signal on the input side. The knob acts like a digital one so I think it's a bug and can be fixed with an firmware update.
But I noticed this by loopback 'main output 1|2'. Could @Julian Krause or someone measure the analog output to see whether it really leaks into analog output?

Thanks!

Here are some pictures to show the leaking.
pic.1 Play music via Line-in and see the spectrogram of main output 1|2.
1644512076997.png

pic.2&pic.3 Play 1kHz tone via Line-in, adjust gain to get 0dBFS and see the spectrogram of main output 1|2 (I renamed the titles).
1644512378921.png
1644512410625.png
 

LangDuTienTu

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do someone have problems with headphone output? sound from ID4 II is so terrible, low volume and quality is worse than sound from internal soundcard on motherboard, i'm using ID4 with stock usb-c cable from the box, i guess i have low output power for some reason but dunno what's the problem, is that a cable or my usb port, i've tried to change cable and use another one (from my phone) with fastcharge support and up to 10A but no difference, and at the same time there is no difference (with all my usb cables) between connecting to usb2\usb3\usb3 type-c ports, sound is always the same (very bad)

Double check everything where the cable approach. I had the same problem with my DAC as its cable ties with electric cable and some cables from other stuffs, it sounds distortion and sometimes disconnected. Its cable should be isolated, and further more it should get a better cable with better anti-magnetic.
 

cajadas

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So which one sounds better? ID22 or ID14 MKII? I mean AD/DA.

I found the sound of ID14 MKII very good for the price, excellent indeed, but miles away from Antelope Audio Discrete 4 Synergy Core. Wondering if ID22 could get closer.
 
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