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Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

peanuts

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do they ship out old boards and assume the customer will do firmware flashing, or are new shippings updated?
the usb2 standard says max 16ft. cable, does that work?
thanks.
 

g29

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do they ship out old boards and assume the customer will do firmware flashing, or are new shippings updated?
the usb2 standard says max 16ft. cable, does that work?
thanks.

One thread indicated some stocking location(s) had some older flashes, but they are trying to keep them current.

With that being said, they appear to have had 3 updates in the last 5 months so it would probably be a good idea to be able to flash the units yourself.

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Khadas_Tone_Board_dfu-2018-1226-Upgrade-Firmware.zip 2019-01-05 08:06 25K​
As for USB cables, I have always heard shorter is better.
 

Aibo

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Where's the pre-order button? :D If they make a complete final product with a case under $150 I will personally forbid all of my friends and acquaintances to by anything else ever.
 

Nango

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I meant $99 the board + xlr + Case extra so at the end around $120-130 p&p included and I need to pay then the taxes in my country, no way I will pay more than $200 including taxes for such a board having all the topping stuff available too.
 

Z6U

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I started with a case in need of a better DAC rather than with a Tone Board in need of a case.

Today I got my Tone Board today and I'm nearly done integrating it into my AMC DAC8. The only features lost are BNC digital out and the three front panel LED indicators for 32Khz, 44.1Khz, and 48Khz. The DAC8's 3 Coax SPDIF and single Toslink input work fine feeding the Tone Board via SPDIF in. I replaced the transformer (old 15V AC) with a UL rated one from a 3M Super Disk drive from 1997 rated at 5V 1A with a Sharp PQ05RD11 voltage regulator. I hacked up a USB-C cable for use as power only to the Tone Board and connected it to the 5V output of the new power supply. I also connected 5V DC to the front panel to allow LEDs to operate and the rear Toslink input which is powered from the front panel.

I have yet to mount the Tone Board to the chassis or make permanent RCA and SPDIF connections to the PCB. Those aren't really all that challenging tasks. Just need to make some decisions before moving forward and finalizing the installation.

I should be able to start using the DAC8 as a DAC again. I've been using the DAC8 as a source selector switch by using the BNC out to a SMSL SU-8 to do the D/A conversion.

My Klein CL800 suggests 0.07A @120V so 8.4 watts consumption during operation for the entire DAC8.

Sounds good so far using an NS999ES as a transport connected by SPDIF and by Toslink.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Mobile/n-c6DTXX/i-KGqVf7M/0/b706424e/X2/i-KGqVf7M-X2.jpg

-Phil
 
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Z6U

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Has anybody considered using an inexpensive DVD player as a housing ? I saw a repair video on YouTube for a cheap Sony DVD player. This was the single board with a single processor type DVD player. No front panel display. The internal power supply board was 5V DC. Ditch the DVD drive and processing board swap in the tone board, make a few connections and close the case up. Some of those cheap DVD players even have USB ports. Oh and you can get them cheap at goodwill or garage sales or ebay. Like ten bucks. Just a thought.
 

headshake

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Just got in a tone board from amazon and at the same time a pi 3b+ from adafruit.

My old setup was the nvidia shield -hdmi-> onkyo 373 receiver (lowest end onkyo '17)
New setup pi + volumio -usb-> khadas tone board -spdif-> onkyo 373

No matter what everything is going through the receiver's DAC. I tried the analog and spdif out on the tone board and they sound very similar- I have the vim version.

The tone board sounds better than I expected. My speakers have compression drivers and drums sound so complex now.

Spotify sounds way better through the KTB. Even old mp3's sound better. How many times can I say something is better?

On a side note, I tried the KTB with the Nvidia Shield and it did not work for me. I was hoping to skip the pi. USB audio is supposed to do something on the shield for some device...just not this one.
 

g29

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...
New setup pi + volumio -usb-> khadas tone board -spdif-> onkyo 373
No matter what everything is going through the receiver's DAC. ...

Are you saying the analog out of the Khadas Tone Board DAC is going through an ADC and DAC in your receiver ???
 

Zek

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Are you saying the analog out of the Khadas Tone Board DAC is going through an ADC and DAC in your receiver ???
No, SPDIF out of KTB to Onkyo DAC.;)
 

headshake

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So you are using the VIM/Khadas Tone Board combo as a USB to S/PDIF converter ?

Does that use the DAC in the Khadas Tone Board ?

Ugh... my receiver faked me out. I hooked the spdif and analog into the receiver and when I told it to select one or the other i thought it was doing that. I since removed one or the other and cannot get spdif out. The receiver must have been switching to the active signal the whole time. What makes it extra tricky is it keeps flashing digital even though it auto-switched to analog.

I did read that you need a KTB + VIM for the SPDIF and figured what the heck. No hecks.
 

Zek

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Thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression it required the VIM to be used as an output.
I'm sorry for confusion, it seems that Khadas data is not best explained.
 

porotikos

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hi guys. i read the reviews of khadas tone board. this seems to be a real contester to the topping d50 i am considering, at half the price. id like to ask some questions if that is alright.
first of all, this doesnt need any external power adapter? it is powered just by usb? wouldnt think this is possible.... or am i wrong?
would you describe tyhe sound as neutral? anyone compared it to topping d50?
i didnt understand what a vim is. could someone explain? i need to connect my pc to the dac and the dac to my amplifier. that is all.
i see some diy cases have also a fan. does khadas run hot?
would khadas be considered a portable dac? could i buy a usb type c to type c cable and hook this up to my phone for example? (not that i need that, but i got curious)
i see that it supports up to dsd 256 (topping supports dsd512). is that something that i will miss (dsd 512). i suppose not but i thought id ask.

from all the above questions, obviously most important is if this is great sounding and also neutral .thank you
 
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