Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

[porotikos]

thank you very much for this. this feauture, i cannot enable it myself, right? Take care and thank you and khadas for providing thhe tone board. it is excellent

 

[Gouwa]

Yep, you can't. This feature can only be enabled when the software developer built the Android image.

 

[somebodyelse]

thank you very much for this. this feauture, i cannot enable it myself, right? Take care and thank you and khadas for providing thhe tone board. it is excellent

Only if you can compile your own custom Android version for the TV box. You could check at xda-developers.com to see if anyone's worked out how to do it for your box.

 

[owsla]

I can only get DSD playback to work if I turn on Volume Normalization. The problem then is that the beginning of each track is loud and after a few seconds it gets quieter. Not ideal for enjoying music.

Any other combination of General Playback Options either results in loud static white noise or complete silence, despite the Volumio Playback tab showing the track is playing.

My playback chain is:

Network share HDD > Ethernet hardwired Pi 2B > USB out to Khadas Tone Board > RCA out to Pre-amp line in

I'm on the latest Volumio - 2.703

 

[Kalander]

I can only get DSD playback to work if I turn on Volume Normalization. The problem then is that the beginning of each track is loud and after a few seconds it gets quieter. Not ideal for enjoying music.

Any other combination of General Playback Options either results in loud static white noise or complete silence, despite the Volumio Playback tab showing the track is playing.

My playback chain is:

Network share HDD > Ethernet hardwired Pi 2B > USB out to Khadas Tone Board > RCA out to Pre-amp line in

I'm on the latest Volumio - 2.703

- Have posted this on Volumio Forum as well?
- Have tried other standalone RPi players?

 

[cuchu]

Yes the audio device is set to usb audio. The led is also on, as well as when the rpi restarts I hear the plops...
Well, the only advantage of using usb is the simplicity and maybe bandwidth to run 384khz not?

Been listening to the spdif chain and I think I am quite happy with that! So I will maybe skip this for a later time, when bored with listening and in need for comparison testing.
Does make me think of saving up for an Allo Digione maybe

Hi! Did you make the comparison test? Im very interested on your setup

 

[owsla]

- Have posted this on Volumio Forum as well?
- Have tried other standalone RPi players?

No to both, I'll post on the Volumio forum for sure though.

Let me reword my post a bit, I should have posted this instead:

I've read the whole thread and don't see anyone playing DSD .dsf files with my exact setup, if anyone is successfully playing .dsf files with a Pi running Volumio and the Khadas Tone Board, can you post a screen shot or list your settings on the Volumio General Playback Options tab? Also, what version of the Pi are you using, what release of Volumio, and what firmware is your Tone Board on, if it's not too much trouble.

edit:

I got it working, had to roll back Volumio to the originally installed image - 2.413 (June 21, 2018) then reinstall latest version

Full details, will post to DAC Compatibility thread too:

Volumio 2.413
Khadas Tone Board on v1.04 firmware (standard, non-VIM DAC)

Playback Options:
DSD Direct
DSD Auto Volume Level - On
Volume Normalization - Off

Mixer Type:
None

 

[MKreroo]

Hi, I am new to here so I apologize for any answered question that I might ask

just got the tone board set up with an Archel 2.5, and was wondering about the buffer size and the sampling rate

the TB is connected to my laptop (i7-9750H if this helps) with a USB-A port, currently I have the buffer set up to 2048 in the TUSB ASIO, is there any recommended change about this?

For the sampling rate, I was wondering if there is any way to have the Windows Sound Control to switch sampling rate based what is playing (using Foobar2000), or automatically change the sampling ratre. Since some of my files are at 192kHz, while some are at 48kHz, but it seems that the ASIO will simply follow the setting of whatever the Windows Sound Control is, as I saw the sampling rate shown in the ASIO remains at 48kHz while the one playing is 192kHz.

Thanks and have a good day!

 

[Guetta]

I just bought Khadas Tone Board and it is working just fine. The latest firmware is already installed. Also I am on latest Windows 10 revision.
On Khadas web page they say there is no need to install XMOS drivers and that it is enough to use Windows UAC2 driver. But windows does not want to install UAC driver automatically (see the attached pic). What should I do? I know there was an option to allow the windows to update external devices, but I am not sure where that option is. Maybe that is the thing...

 

[Veri]

Hi, I am new to here so I apologize for any answered question that I might ask

just got the tone board set up with an Archel 2.5, and was wondering about the buffer size and the sampling rate

the TB is connected to my laptop (i7-9750H if this helps) with a USB-A port, currently I have the buffer set up to 2048 in the TUSB ASIO, is there any recommended change about this?

For the sampling rate, I was wondering if there is any way to have the Windows Sound Control to switch sampling rate based what is playing (using Foobar2000), or automatically change the sampling ratre. Since some of my files are at 192kHz, while some are at 48kHz, but it seems that the ASIO will simply follow the setting of whatever the Windows Sound Control is, as I saw the sampling rate shown in the ASIO remains at 48kHz while the one playing is 192kHz.

Thanks and have a good day!

Try the WASAPI plug-in for foobar, and make sure to set your output to WASAPi device: khadas tone board that will automatically set the sample rate to your source file.

 

[Guetta]

Is it simply okay to use official XMOS driver from Khadas download section even if I use Windows 10?

 

[MKreroo]

Try the WASAPI plug-in for foobar, and make sure to set your output to WASAPi device: khadas tone board that will automatically set the sample rate to your source file.

So uninstall the driver and go for the Wasapi? Is there any way to check what if the sampling rate is matching the source being played?

also there is an "Signal Enhancement" option in the sound control panel, enable that allows the APO EQ to work, but I'm not sure if this is similar to the sound enhancement stuff windows has, which I believe should be disabled.

Thanks!

 

[Veri]

@mrkc umm APO EQ only works with DirectSound. ASIO and WASAPI disable all sound enhancements, including APO. :/ can't have both.

 

[Guetta]

No, everything is plug and play out of the box. If you are at Windows 7 you might need a driver, though.

Windows 10 did not recognize the board properly. It is working but there are only 16 bit and 32bit options available on control panel. When I want to ran 24 bit flac file I got an error. Which driver should I install? There are two versions of the driver? Btw my windows 10 is up to date and freshly installed. Thank you

 

[Zek]

Which audio player do you use?
You make the settings in the audio player.

 

[Guetta]

Which audio player do you use?
You make the settings in the audio player.

Foobar, and there is no 24bit option listed when XMOS drivers are not installed. After I installed driver from Khadas webpage (xmos driver) it was recognised in device manager and 24 bit is also there. I don't know if it is okay to use XMOS driver because Khadas webpage said that the alternative for Windows 10 is UAC2 driver (may be better than xmos?)

 

[Veri]

Foobar, and there is no 24bit option listed when XMOS drivers are not installed. After I installed driver from Khadas webpage (xmos driver) it was recognised in device manager and 24 bit is also there. I don't know if it is okay to use XMOS driver because Khadas webpage said that the alternative for Windows 10 is UAC2 driver (may be better than xmos?)

If it works it works.

 

[MKreroo]

@mrkc umm APO EQ only works with DirectSound. ASIO and WASAPI disable all sound enhancements, including APO. :/ can't have both.

I see. About the Wasapi, is there any way to check if the sampling rate is actually matching? from the windows sound control it seems that the sampling rate is not changing.

 

[Guetta]

Should I be worried about Khadas Tone Board temperatures? It gets really hot. The case is big and very well ventilated. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3762065

 

[Veri]

I see. About the Wasapi, is there any way to check if the sampling rate is actually matching? from the windows sound control it seems that the sampling rate is not changing.

It should be clear on the player and/or on the DAC. The sound control panel is not used in WASAPI/exclusive mode so that's not an indicator, no, that won't change.