Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

[Para_dox77]

Yeah that is a nice stack!

Which cable?

Amazon Basics Cable USB-C to USB-A.

 

[hyperknot]

Hi, just to confirm, the KTB is happy with a Pi 4 when nothing else is connected? Official Pi power adapter -> Pi 4 -> KTB (both power and data on same cable)?

I mean there is no need to absolutely overcomplicate the power delivery with soldered pins, external supplies, Y splitter cables, etc, right?

 

[cburbs]

Correct just use the USB-C to USB-A cable. Right now KTB is hooked up directly to my PC with the cable. I am waiting for my Pi4 board as I have all the other parts.

 

[hyperknot]

I have been using the KTB with my Macbook for like 6 months, being absolutely happy with the purchase. I'm just curious if the Pi 4's power delivery over USB ports is giving it any kind of issue or not.

 

[cburbs]

I have been using the KTB with my Macbook for like 6 months, being absolutely happy with the purchase. I'm just curious if the Pi 4's power delivery over USB ports is giving it any kind of issue or not.

I haven't had any issues yet with my setup.

 

[Aldoszx]

I have been using the KTB with my Macbook for like 6 months, being absolutely happy with the purchase. I'm just curious if the Pi 4's power delivery over USB ports is giving it any kind of issue or not.

I am using KTB powered from RPi 3A+ without issues. So, the RPi4 USB 3.0 is more than enough to power KTB.

 

[somebodyelse]

I have been using the KTB with my Macbook for like 6 months, being absolutely happy with the purchase. I'm just curious if the Pi 4's power delivery over USB ports is giving it any kind of issue or not.

In most 'normal' configurations you should be fine. If you try to combine the TB with too many other power hungry USB devices you may have a problem - there's a limit of 1.2A for all USB ports put together, of which the TB could take up to 0.5A. A USB3 device like a bus powered HDD might want up to 0.9A so you might have a problem mixing the two - it's hard to be sure as they don't list their average or maximum current requirement on the spec sheet. If you need more power then get a powered USB hub.

 

[sonci]

Does anyone find any difference in sound quality between usb and spidf?
It seems in my system subjectively speaking spidf sound a bit better better bass and highs, I don`t think I can pick them in a test but still..
I also remember Amir measured spidf a bit better. This has nothing to do with the usb port on my pc, there`s no hum and sound is crystal clear from both inputs, but just saying..

\also does it play natively dsd or just converts to pcm?
When playing dsf files in foobar through asio or wasapi even though it is shown corectly in Foobar, the sample rate in TUSBaudio control pannel is only 176.4..

 

[mr_score]

Anyone got the Khadas TB to work with an Android phone?
Getting weird scrambled sound using my Samsung S8+ with the USB Audio Player Pro. Tried changing all sorts of USB tweak settings and disabling volume control, but still the same. Barely able to make out what song that's being played. Used both directly connected and with a Y splitter with external power.
App developer has checked log file output, but can't find anything unusual, and the manufacturer of Khadas hasn't responded to my mails, nor forum post.
All works great with both Win 7 and Win 10 laptops.

 

[Mortsnets]

Anyone got the Khadas TB to work with an Android phone?
Getting weird scrambled sound using my Samsung S8+ with the USB Audio Player Pro. Tried changing all sorts of USB tweak settings and disabling volume control, but still the same. Barely able to make out what song that's being played. Used both directly connected and with a Y splitter with external power.
App developer has checked log file output, but can't find anything unusual, and the manufacturer of Khadas hasn't responded to my mails, nor forum post.
All works great with both Win 7 and Win 10 laptops.

I'm listening to a Galaxy S9 OTG to the KTB and sounds good, but I'm using Spotify and Tidal apps.

 

[Mortsnets]

Does anyone find any difference in sound quality between usb and spidf?
It seems in my system subjectively speaking spidf sound a bit better better bass and highs, I don`t think I can pick them in a test but still..
I also remember Amir measured spidf a bit better. This has nothing to do with the usb port on my pc, there`s no hum and sound is crystal clear from both inputs, but just saying..

\also does it play natively dsd or just converts to pcm?
When playing dsf files in foobar through asio or wasapi even though it is shown corectly in Foobar, the sample rate in TUSBaudio control pannel is only 176.4..

I haven't compared closely but I was suprised that SPDIF and USB sound so close with this dac, some others I have like the Modi MB strongly seem to prefer SPDIF.

 

[Guetta]

Can anyone tell me if it is good decision to buy this DAC for a long run and I plan to put it in good case. Does it have any audible noises, is it transparent and neutral?
I will be using it connected to my PC just with an amp so I think ground loop issues shouldn’t be issue either

thanks

 

[Windofrce]

Should anybody feel unhappy using the official v2.24.0 driver package for KTB because its a relative old release or something other reason, then i just checked that driver package v4.13 for SONCOZ SGD1 by member ben1987 include the same VID/PID and it works fine on Win7 using Jriver/ASIO that said will continue myself use v2.24.0 because it works perfet for my laptop/headphone setup and also have more settings to dial on in the dedicated control panel.


Device manager and XMOS control panel:
View attachment 43916

Probably okay but never seen a 32 bit number before on a Win7 platform:
View attachment 43917

Anyone know is it safe to use this XMOS driver rather than official much older driver. I tried this newer driver on my Windows 10 and it is working perfectly fine. But again..

 

[sinski]

Hi, just to confirm, the KTB is happy with a Pi 4 when nothing else is connected? Official Pi power adapter -> Pi 4 -> KTB (both power and data on same cable)?

I mean there is no need to absolutely overcomplicate the power delivery with soldered pins, external supplies, Y splitter cables, etc, right?

KTB works well only powered with Pi4. I am using picoreplayer. With deactivated hdmi and wlan the sound is better.

I did one "extreme" KTB setup and the sound is phantatstic.

I am using for the Tone Board linear ps with this ps

https://www.ldovr.com/product-p/tps7a4700-spsu.htm

PI4 is powered with mezzanine prepowered with 6,2V LT1083CP

https://www.ldovr.com/product-p/mpower.htm

now somebody will write, that it was measured, that ps should not have any influence on the KTB perfomance, but IMHO with a good ps KTB sounds just better. Just try.

 

[MalinYamato]

I have followed this thread somehow and I assume that most of you have problems in getting clean DC current from the PC without ground loops through the USB C power linens. In your picture I see that you feed current into Raspberry PI GPIO compliant power pins 5V and GND. This may be a very strange question: Provided there is no need for a handshake procedure through the USB protocol before data is being transmitted from the USB host to the DAC, how would this thing work if you cut off the power lines inside the USB-C cable and instead feed all the current to those GPIO pins using a power bricks 5v USB A out? I am considering using a 20k mwh power-brick only. btw, have anyone of you build with this case, provided by audiophocis.fr ? https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/aluminium-boxes-cases/aluminum-case-for-khadas-tone-board-p-13626.html

 

[hyperknot]

> I assume that most of you have problems in getting clean DC current from the PC without ground loops through the USB C power linens.

I can assure you that most of us are just happily listening with this DAC without any kind of problems with "clean DC current" or "ground loops through the USB C power lines".

I've just moved from PC to Raspberry Pi and there as absolutely no ground loops in any of them. It sounds identical to me.

 

[MalinYamato]

> I assume that most of you have problems in getting clean DC current from the PC without ground loops through the USB C power linens.

I can assure you that most of us are just happily listening with this DAC without any kind of problems with "clean DC current" or "ground loops through the USB C power lines".

I've just moved from PC to Raspberry Pi and there as absolutely no ground loops in any of them. It sounds identical to me.

Thanks, thats great news. Is there a way to stream sound from your Raspberry through the GPIO pins to the sound board?

 

[BYRTT]

I have followed this thread somehow and I assume that most of you have problems in getting clean DC current from the PC without ground loops through the USB C power linens.....

No audioable problems so far powered from notebook or desktop PC, it can be there technical is a ground loop but as told its not audioable and i have it hard hear a audioable diffence into head phones unplug power brick of notebook PC.

.....have anyone of you build with this case, provided by audiophocis.fr ? https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/aluminium-boxes-cases/aluminum-case-for-khadas-tone-board-p-13626.html

Jep a fine enough practical case, not luxury.

 

[Aldoszx]

Thanks, thats great news. Is there a way to stream sound from your Raspberry through the GPIO pins to the sound board?

No, you can't use Tone Board as I2S DAC for RPi.
It works like that only for their VIM SBCs.

 

[somebodyelse]

I have followed this thread somehow and I assume that most of you have problems in getting clean DC current from the PC without ground loops through the USB C power linens. In your picture I see that you feed current into Raspberry PI GPIO compliant power pins 5V and GND.

The header may look the same, but it is not the same as the Raspberry Pi GPIO layout. It's for the Khadas VIM boards.

This may be a very strange question: Provided there is no need for a handshake procedure through the USB protocol before data is being transmitted from the USB host to the DAC, how would this thing work if you cut off the power lines inside the USB-C cable and instead feed all the current to those GPIO pins using a power bricks 5v USB A out? I am considering using a 20k mwh power-brick only. btw, have anyone of you build with this case, provided by audiophocis.fr ? https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/aluminium-boxes-cases/aluminum-case-for-khadas-tone-board-p-13626.html

https://forum.khadas.com/t/tone-board-external-powering/3051/56
See also:
https://forum.khadas.com/t/bypass-raspberry-pis-usb-power-w-tone-board/4235
I'm guessing the component removed in the second link is diode D2 but it could be something else. That option still has the ground connected to the pc though, so doesn't break ground loops.