Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

[Grave]

You should control the volume via the amplifier.

 

[helloworld]

You should control the volume via the amplifier.

If I use the amplifier, do I still need to set the pc volume to maximum?

 

[Grave]

Yes, more digital volume = better.

The exception is the audio files themselves though, you should use replaygain.

 

[willow]

Their site is very nicely done visually but it is really short on information for people that aren't familiar with their products. If I hadn't gone to forums like this to read about the board I'd probably still be confused about what a 'generic' version is.

Yes, you are right. The Khadas Tone Board is developed based on our other ODM project, so we thought out an idea. Why not add one more member to our Khadas family? There is the audio board's birth, and it comes about 8 months for developing. As our engineer requires High processing, firstly we hope tone board can be one of the accessories of Khadas VIMs. But certailnly we consider about the generic users, there is the Generic Edtion of Tone board.

 

[Roen]

No frequency response graph to 20 KHz showing dB deviation wrt frequency?

 

[bunkbail]

No frequency response graph to 20 KHz showing dB deviation wrt frequency?

Not a graph but from the official site it shows "Frequency Response: ±0.08 dB @ 10Hz~20KHz."

 

[invaderzim]

Yes, you are right. The Khadas Tone Board is developed based on our other ODM project, so we thought out an idea. Why not add one more member to our Khadas family? There is the audio board's birth, and it comes about 8 months for developing. As our engineer requires High processing, firstly we hope tone board can be one of the accessories of Khadas VIMs. But certailnly we consider about the generic users, there is the Generic Edtion of Tone board.

And I for one will always welcome better technology over good marketing.

However it may be worth renaming it from "Generic Edition" to "USB/SPDIF Edition"

Not only would that make it clear what that version does but the term "generic" tends to have a meaning of 'lower quality' to many people since generic products are typically not as good but cheaper to buy compared to name brand products rather than the 'works with other inputs' meaning that is being used here.

I'm going to be showing my age but when I hear generic I think of the generic food of the 80's that came packaged like:

 

[rdodev]

Does this unit require any special drivers for Win 10 flac/dsd support?

 

[Nango]

You need Thesycon 2.4.

 

[rdodev]

You need Thesycon 2.4.

Thanks. Where can I download from? The official site doesn't seem to allow for downloads.

 

[rdodev]

Thanks. Where can I download from? The official site doesn't seem to allow for downloads.

Never mind. Noticed you linked to the file Thanks.

 

[Transpareo]

Wait, can I choose not to install these drivers and use win 10's native usb audio 2.0 instead? Installing custom drivers kinda beats the idea of transparent audio device, which can't get affected by software rot/bugs, for you PC.

 

[amirm]

Wait, can I choose not to install these drivers and use win 10's native usb audio 2.0 instead? Installing custom drivers kinda beats the idea of transparent audio device, which can't get affected by software rot/bugs, for you PC.

I am 99% sure you don't need any drivers unless you need ASIO interface for high-rate DSD and such.

 

[rdodev]

Wait, can I choose not to install these drivers and use win 10's native usb audio 2.0 instead? Installing custom drivers kinda beats the idea of transparent audio device, which can't get affected by software rot/bugs, for you PC.

It will use a driver regardless, whether 3rd party or OS native. Since it's all in digital domain, it should not affect transparency at all.

 

[Transpareo]

I meant transparency in "it just werks" sense. Thanks for the asnwers. Also, I just assumed that it's a usb audio 2.0 device, but is it?

 

[rdodev]

I meant transparency in "it just werks" sense. Thanks for the asnwers. Also, I just assumed that it's a usb audio 2.0 device, but is it?

heh, you meant "plug and play". I believe the xmos controller supports both modes.

 

[Nybto]

Am I right that dsd/DoP is not implemented, or am I missing a setting in picoreplayer (Pi/Hifiberry digi pro +)?

 

[bakker_be]

Am I right that dsd/DoP is not implemented, or am I missing a setting in picoreplayer (Pi/Hifiberry digi pro +)?

Hi there, I think you'd best ask this question in https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?109404-ANNOUNCE-piCorePlayer-4-0-0, that's the official piCorePlayer support thread, and the developpers (and the community as well) are very reactive. It's probably some kind of TinyCore module not present ...

 

[Nybto]

Thanks for the reply but the question is for owners of the board on here. The Pi combo can definitely deliver it, no question (and does so for me into a DAC2).

 

[Jave]

Did anyone find an existing enclosure which works for the Tone Board?
Did anyone try the one for the O2 amp?
https://www.jdslabs.com/products/94/aluminum-enclosure-for-objective2/