Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

[hyperknot]

Could anyone make the KTB 1 work with USB-C cables? On my Macbook it doesn't even power on. With a USB C-A and A-C adapter it works well.

 

[Sokel]

Could anyone make the KTB 1 work with USB-C cables? On my Macbook it doesn't even power on. With a USB C-A and A-C adapter it works well.

It's not the only one.Lots of dacs have the same limitation,they need C-A.

 

[hyperknot]

It's not the only one.Lots of dacs have the same limitation,they need C-A.

No matter what C cable I use?

 

[Sokel]

No matter what C cable I use?

I'm afraid so.
Haven't tried a hack to connect a striped C straight on the 2.3.4.5 pins though,maybe I try it some time,I already have a USB-B case connector connected there.

 

[staticV3]

No matter what C cable I use?

Actually, there are some C-C cables that get around that limitation somehow.
I have two of them:
-Xduoo X-C12
-a DIY solution I made by cutting the Type-A female end off a OnePlus OTG adapter and replacing it with a Type-C male end

Both of these allow me to use USB accessories that don't normally work with C-C cables (KTB, PO100, 9038S G1) without an adapter.

 

[DEleassar]

I changed the original USB cable for a higher quality one last week. Now I don't have any clicks anymore with ASIO. USB-A to USB-C.

 

[Sokel]

Played around a little with external PS's trying to suppress the grass on highs.
What's funny is that except for better results with external (Salas in this case) what makes the big difference is grounding this little thing (through one of it's little stand holes).

(and measurements or didn't happened)

blue with ground-red no ground.

and on paper:

left with ground-right no ground

SINAD is 104.8dbr (not A weighted) for grounded and 103.3dbr (the same) for not grounded.

 

[Sokel]

The next funny thing is that when testing with DSD256 (DoP) signal the grass is completely gone but at the cost of elevated noise as you can see.

Blue PCM-yellow DSD256

and that is a broader view of the whole bandwidth:

Both this and the previous post results are absolutely repeatable and to interpret them is beyond my pay grade .

 

[Sokel]

What grounding does can be seen in the below measurement.
The improvement is near 15db on highs,compare it with the stock version (blue line) in Amir's measurement:

Stock

Grounded

The same at 48Khz and 90K bandwidth for fair comparison

 

[DrFG51]

Evening - whilst I've regularly dipped into this forum for curiosity, I've now registered. I like what you do here
I'm a furniture maker, and I'm sketching out some plans for a one box streamer/amp. This Tone Board is really close to the top of the list for the DAC. The box will contain a Raspberry Pi, a DAC (tbc) and then hopefully just directly connected to a pair of power amp modules. I've looked at the Pecan Pi and like that a lot. It functions as a pre-amp, and can have a physical volume knob. But I'm in the UK, so by the time I've got it here, I'm looking at most of £500. This is 1/6th of the cost IF it'll do what I need..! I saw a few pictures in this thread from a French forum where someone does seem to have done it, but my French isn't up to it..!! I've also seen in mentioned a few times that a firmware update may activate it, but not sure if that's definitive. So. Can I use this board as a pre-amp with a physical volume control, and if not do you have any other bare board recommendations? I'm building a lovely walnut box to house it all, so bare cards are perfect. Thank you - apologies if this isn't in the right forum, but it is related to this board..!

 

[scruffy1]

khadas make their own boards for computing as well, which are designed to go with the tone board (and tone board 2)

have a look : https://www.khadas.com/

you'll need to address ventilation to use these in a wooden case; metal provides a passive heatsink as a container

 

[kchap]

Evening - whilst I've regularly dipped into this forum for curiosity, I've now registered. I like what you do here
I'm a furniture maker, and I'm sketching out some plans for a one box streamer/amp. This Tone Board is really close to the top of the list for the DAC. The box will contain a Raspberry Pi, a DAC (tbc) and then hopefully just directly connected to a pair of power amp modules. I've looked at the Pecan Pi and like that a lot. It functions as a pre-amp, and can have a physical volume knob. But I'm in the UK, so by the time I've got it here, I'm looking at most of £500. This is 1/6th of the cost IF it'll do what I need..! I saw a few pictures in this thread from a French forum where someone does seem to have done it, but my French isn't up to it..!! I've also seen in mentioned a few times that a firmware update may activate it, but not sure if that's definitive. So. Can I use this board as a pre-amp with a physical volume control, and if not do you have any other bare board recommendations? I'm building a lovely walnut box to house it all, so bare cards are perfect. Thank you - apologies if this isn't in the right forum, but it is related to this board..!

I had a Khadas Tone Board with a RPI4 running Volumio. It sounded the same as any other DAC, what you expect these days. The only problem was a pop in the speakers. I had to remember to turn the RPi off and on last. Some DACs mute the output during power on/off e.g. the Topping D10B.

 

[johnk]

> Can I use this board as a pre-amp with a physical volume control, and if not do you have any other bare board recommendations?

I would say yes, although I am sure somebody here will correct me if I am wrong
I have done this with my tone board without any issues so far.

I would also consider something like a rotary encoder connected to the pi to control the volume. If you are using volumio then there is a plugin available here.

Rotary Encoder II - Volumio Documentation

The Audiophile Music Player

volumio.github.io

 

[Sokel]

I have done some silly comparison between Tone powered as is (throught it's USB-C connector) and powered through it's onboard pins with USB-B connector,external PS and grounded.
A bit cleaner with the external but nothing to worry about even as-is.

1Khz SINAD - Red USB-C,Blue USB-B - external PS.

Multitone32 Blue USB-C,RED USB-B external PS.

CCIF 19/20K Blue USB-C,Pink USB-B external PS.

 

[scruffy1]

i love my pair of these dacs; even though i massacred a component of the one i use in my study when i was mounting it in a cae

the manufacturer personally reassured me the diode i trashed would not be of consequence unless i was measuring things - my hearing could not detect the deterioration

dunno if that's true, but i do know it sounds gorgeous

 

[porotikos]

after so many years, i love this dac.
Buuuuut.
I just purchased a xiaomi mi box s 2nd generation. when i connect it to khadas toneboard via usb, sound is muted. no sound either from tv or my amp. any ideas what might be the solution?
dunno if thsi si the correct thread, but thsi community is so helpful so....

 

[Sokel]

after so many years, i love this dac.
Buuuuut.
I just purchased a xiaomi mi box s 2nd generation. when i connect it to khadas toneboard via usb, sound is muted. no sound either from tv or my amp. any ideas what might be the solution?
dunno if thsi si the correct thread, but thsi community is so helpful so....

The little I read Xiaomi's USB only supports Ethernet(?) and Flash disc for playback,don't think it's suitable for a DAC.

 

[porotikos]

ok thank you my friend.
so i will stick with rpi4 for my amp and mi box s for my tv in bedroom. cheers

 

[scruffy1]

does it have a driver? the khadas won't work natively i think

check out the specifications here : it says generic edition : Windows PC Linux PC macOS Raspberry Pi [2]
[2] Will also support other Single Board Computers (SBCs).

i know it won't work with my android phone, and it seems the xiaomi is based on android (tv) 11, so that may be the issue - no android compatibility?

 

[porotikos]

well so it seems it isnt supported. no worries guys thank you