TONEAudio Magazine
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<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-11734" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two-2/attachment/1m-3/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11734" title="1m" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/1m2.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="272" /></a>A lot can happen in two years in the world of digital audio.* Back in early 2010, USB-to-S/PDIF converters for the masses were a bleeding-edge concern.* Italy’s M2TECH changed all that when it introduced the hiFace, a $185 digital-audio interface not much larger than a standard USB thumb drive.* This nifty little device transforms one’s computer into a digital-audio transport by giving users a simple and seamless way to deliver high-resolution music files from their computer to their playback system.* With the advent of the original hiFace, M2TECH effectively brought the benefits of USB data clocking out from the cold and into hands of computer audiophiles everywhere.</strong></p>
<p>Since then, the hiFace’s existence has been more than justified.* The sonic performance of most budget USB DACs doesn’t even come close to that of the hiFace, when feeding it a steady S/PDIF diet.* A comparison between many models offering a direct USB connection and the hiFace will unmask the direct USB as relatively lifeless and anemic.* This is often the reason that newcomers to digital audio complain that their incoming computer rig doesn’t compete with their outgoing CD player.* We call this jitter: timing errors in the digital data flow that, in this instance, aren’t corrected by the USB DAC—sometimes the USB DAC itself is what introduces these timing errors.</p>
<p>A few DAC manufacturers, including Lenehan Audio, Metrum Acoustics, Eastern Electric, have wised up to the inherent weaknesses of more-vanilla USB receiver chips and are now employing M2TECH’s USB technology in their newer models.* Meanwhile, the number of USB-to-S/PDIF converters coming to market has expanded considerably in the past two years:* Anedio, April Music, Bel Canto, Channel Islands Audio, Halide Design, Human Audio, KingRex, Lindemann, Musical Fidelity, Quad, SOtM and Wavelength Audio now all offer models around the $500 mark.* M2TECH itself also offers an Evo version of the hiFace ($499) that can be tricked out with optional battery PSU ($499) and master clock ($499)—but purchasing all three of those units puts you in the financial territory of Empirical Audio’s beastly $1,299 Off-Ramp USB DAC.</p>
<p>The original hiFace’s wide user base can likely be attributed to its agreeable retail price.* But clocking devices are as important as the DAC itself, particularly at the budget end of the DAC market, where sophisticated jitter-rejection circuits (found at the high-end) are precluded by the manufacturer’s intended street price.* Adding a $1,500 USB converter to a $500 DAC might not make intuitive sense to many people—adding a $200 device does.</p>
<p>USB-to-S/PDIF converters don’t just convert one digital-transfer protocol to another.* They seek to better clock the data and thus minimize jitter.* Some take an axe to the detrimental effects of EMI/RFI by deploying improved power-supply regulation and galvanic isolation.</p>
<p>As 2010 tipped over into 2011, I recall the audible improvements brought by the original hiFace as being small: a shade more definition here, a little more soundstage focus there.* It wasn’t until Ireland’s John Kenny infused the hiFace with battery power that this reviewer really sat up and took notice. *Exposure to the Audiophilleo1 and Audiophilleo2 drove the need for a USB converter home, took it inside and made it a nice cup of tea.</p>
<p>Another annoyance with the original hiFace was its need for proprietary drivers, which introduced a small lag into the audio-playback chain that meant video would run slightly out of sync with audio and dialogue running through the hiFace.* This was a deal-breaker for some users.</p>
<p>M2TECH has eliminated this issue with the hiFace Two.* Based around an XMOS receiver chip, it complies with USB Audio Class 2.0 (UAC2) and therefore works with native-mode USB audio drivers.* This allows plug-and-play operation for Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems.* (As it’s not UAC2-compliant, Windows requires additional drivers to handle anything above 24/96.)* Like its predecessor, the new hiFace Two parses data up to 24/192 with each sample rate family—44.1/88.2/176.4 and 48/96/192—which is handled by its own oscillator.</p>
<p>For the hiFace Two, M2TECH has moved the shell cover from white to black, held the recommended retail price at $185 (dropping the price of the original unit to $150) and made coaxial and BNC models available.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-11661" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two/attachment/2m-2/"><img title="2m" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/2m1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="395" /></a><strong>The Setup</strong></p>
<p>The thumb-drive sized unit is 10 cm long and suspends somewhat precariously when plugged into a vertically situated USB port on the back of a Mac mini.* The connection to a MacBook Air’s horizontal USB port allows one’s shelf or desk to better support the hiFace Two’s 50-gram weight (as well as the additional weight of the coaxial cable).* That said, neither host computer dropped audio due to physical conditions.* Even the Mac mini held fast during the review period.</p>
<p><strong>The Sound</strong></p>
<p>Experience has taught me that one of the key signs of jitter minimization is bass propulsion and definition.* Tonally, if a straight USB feed into the Audio-gd NFB-2.1 is a watercolor and the Audiophilleo is a portrait in oil, the hiFace Two paints somewhere between the two. *That’s commensurate with its pricing, as it’ll run you less than half the cost of the Audiophilleo2 ($579).* You get what you pay for and you pay for what you get.</p>
<p>Listening to this new model is reminiscent of spending a week or two with Musical Fidelity’s original V-LINK: a small improvement over the USB implementation found in the Peachtree iNova, but not as musically emphatic or engaging as Philip Gruebel’s little grey box.* The Audiophilleo also scores another point over*all*the competition by negating the need for (and expense of) a digital coaxial cable.</p>
<p>Once you accept the halfway-house nature of the hiFace Two solution, the fun begins.* Meandering through Leonard Cohen’s much-underrated 2001 “comeback” album,*Ten New Songs, a sense of player space is more apparent with the new M2TECH device than without.* Better clocking (i.e. less jitter) takes the listener deeper into the music.* Even at this less-expensive end of the USB-converter market, improvements can be heard in terms of micro-dynamics and vitality—Cohen’s aging croak simply sounds more human.</p>
<p>Switching to something of an edgier ’80s mastering job with R.E.M.’s*Green*exposed an over-enthusiastic lower treble in brighter systems.* This was easily dialed back, thanks to Hannes Fricke’s adjustable tweeter gain on his WLM La Scala floorstanders, but the titanium dome tweeter in a pair of (vintage) Celestion Ditton 11 required a more creative solution.</p>
<p><strong>The Splitter Cable and the Battery</strong></p>
<p>Elijah Audio’s $105 BPM (battery-powered module) splits the input to any USB device such that data and power are fed independently.* The BPM cable nixes the 5-volt host computer feed and only allows the data to reach the piggybacking hiFace.* For this review, I hooked the BPM’s 20-cm tail into KingRex’s rechargeable U Power Li-on battery module ($189).</p>
<p>Sonically, this amended hiFace setup took the music a step backwards into a pool of warm water, eradicating that lower-treble glare.* In the context of digital-audio tweaks, this one rated as substantial—so much so that I had a friend stop by to corroborate my findings.* He agreed that the BPM/U Power appendage massaged the tense shoulders from VCMG’s bleepy*Aftermaths*EP and Depeche Mode’s*Violator.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-11662" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two/attachment/3m/"><img title="3m" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/3m.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="407" /></a><strong>The Wrap</strong></p>
<p>Hearing the benefits of adding battery power to the hiFace Two, it’s easy to see how John Kenny arrived at doing the same for his all-in-one solution. *So, with the cost of these modifications running past the $400 mark, why wouldn’t you just opt for his roughly $420 JKSPDIF USB-to-S/PDIF battery-powered converter?* Two reasons: Linux compatibility and audio lag.* The former will be of keen interest to Squeezebox Touch users who have installed the Enhanced Digital Output app, which it turns the USB input on the rear into a digital-audio output.* But that’s a story for another day…</p>
<p>For the cash-strapped computer audiophile the hiFace Two is a suitably priced intermediary that will wipe away*some*jitter between you PC/Mac and budget DAC. <em> -John Darko</em></p>
<p><strong>M2TECH hiFace Two</strong></p>
<p>MSRP: $185</p>
<p><a href="http://www.m2tech.biz/">www.m2tech.biz</a></p>
[Source: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two-2/]
<p>Since then, the hiFace’s existence has been more than justified.* The sonic performance of most budget USB DACs doesn’t even come close to that of the hiFace, when feeding it a steady S/PDIF diet.* A comparison between many models offering a direct USB connection and the hiFace will unmask the direct USB as relatively lifeless and anemic.* This is often the reason that newcomers to digital audio complain that their incoming computer rig doesn’t compete with their outgoing CD player.* We call this jitter: timing errors in the digital data flow that, in this instance, aren’t corrected by the USB DAC—sometimes the USB DAC itself is what introduces these timing errors.</p>
<p>A few DAC manufacturers, including Lenehan Audio, Metrum Acoustics, Eastern Electric, have wised up to the inherent weaknesses of more-vanilla USB receiver chips and are now employing M2TECH’s USB technology in their newer models.* Meanwhile, the number of USB-to-S/PDIF converters coming to market has expanded considerably in the past two years:* Anedio, April Music, Bel Canto, Channel Islands Audio, Halide Design, Human Audio, KingRex, Lindemann, Musical Fidelity, Quad, SOtM and Wavelength Audio now all offer models around the $500 mark.* M2TECH itself also offers an Evo version of the hiFace ($499) that can be tricked out with optional battery PSU ($499) and master clock ($499)—but purchasing all three of those units puts you in the financial territory of Empirical Audio’s beastly $1,299 Off-Ramp USB DAC.</p>
<p>The original hiFace’s wide user base can likely be attributed to its agreeable retail price.* But clocking devices are as important as the DAC itself, particularly at the budget end of the DAC market, where sophisticated jitter-rejection circuits (found at the high-end) are precluded by the manufacturer’s intended street price.* Adding a $1,500 USB converter to a $500 DAC might not make intuitive sense to many people—adding a $200 device does.</p>
<p>USB-to-S/PDIF converters don’t just convert one digital-transfer protocol to another.* They seek to better clock the data and thus minimize jitter.* Some take an axe to the detrimental effects of EMI/RFI by deploying improved power-supply regulation and galvanic isolation.</p>
<p>As 2010 tipped over into 2011, I recall the audible improvements brought by the original hiFace as being small: a shade more definition here, a little more soundstage focus there.* It wasn’t until Ireland’s John Kenny infused the hiFace with battery power that this reviewer really sat up and took notice. *Exposure to the Audiophilleo1 and Audiophilleo2 drove the need for a USB converter home, took it inside and made it a nice cup of tea.</p>
<p>Another annoyance with the original hiFace was its need for proprietary drivers, which introduced a small lag into the audio-playback chain that meant video would run slightly out of sync with audio and dialogue running through the hiFace.* This was a deal-breaker for some users.</p>
<p>M2TECH has eliminated this issue with the hiFace Two.* Based around an XMOS receiver chip, it complies with USB Audio Class 2.0 (UAC2) and therefore works with native-mode USB audio drivers.* This allows plug-and-play operation for Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems.* (As it’s not UAC2-compliant, Windows requires additional drivers to handle anything above 24/96.)* Like its predecessor, the new hiFace Two parses data up to 24/192 with each sample rate family—44.1/88.2/176.4 and 48/96/192—which is handled by its own oscillator.</p>
<p>For the hiFace Two, M2TECH has moved the shell cover from white to black, held the recommended retail price at $185 (dropping the price of the original unit to $150) and made coaxial and BNC models available.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-11661" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two/attachment/2m-2/"><img title="2m" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/2m1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="395" /></a><strong>The Setup</strong></p>
<p>The thumb-drive sized unit is 10 cm long and suspends somewhat precariously when plugged into a vertically situated USB port on the back of a Mac mini.* The connection to a MacBook Air’s horizontal USB port allows one’s shelf or desk to better support the hiFace Two’s 50-gram weight (as well as the additional weight of the coaxial cable).* That said, neither host computer dropped audio due to physical conditions.* Even the Mac mini held fast during the review period.</p>
<p><strong>The Sound</strong></p>
<p>Experience has taught me that one of the key signs of jitter minimization is bass propulsion and definition.* Tonally, if a straight USB feed into the Audio-gd NFB-2.1 is a watercolor and the Audiophilleo is a portrait in oil, the hiFace Two paints somewhere between the two. *That’s commensurate with its pricing, as it’ll run you less than half the cost of the Audiophilleo2 ($579).* You get what you pay for and you pay for what you get.</p>
<p>Listening to this new model is reminiscent of spending a week or two with Musical Fidelity’s original V-LINK: a small improvement over the USB implementation found in the Peachtree iNova, but not as musically emphatic or engaging as Philip Gruebel’s little grey box.* The Audiophilleo also scores another point over*all*the competition by negating the need for (and expense of) a digital coaxial cable.</p>
<p>Once you accept the halfway-house nature of the hiFace Two solution, the fun begins.* Meandering through Leonard Cohen’s much-underrated 2001 “comeback” album,*Ten New Songs, a sense of player space is more apparent with the new M2TECH device than without.* Better clocking (i.e. less jitter) takes the listener deeper into the music.* Even at this less-expensive end of the USB-converter market, improvements can be heard in terms of micro-dynamics and vitality—Cohen’s aging croak simply sounds more human.</p>
<p>Switching to something of an edgier ’80s mastering job with R.E.M.’s*Green*exposed an over-enthusiastic lower treble in brighter systems.* This was easily dialed back, thanks to Hannes Fricke’s adjustable tweeter gain on his WLM La Scala floorstanders, but the titanium dome tweeter in a pair of (vintage) Celestion Ditton 11 required a more creative solution.</p>
<p><strong>The Splitter Cable and the Battery</strong></p>
<p>Elijah Audio’s $105 BPM (battery-powered module) splits the input to any USB device such that data and power are fed independently.* The BPM cable nixes the 5-volt host computer feed and only allows the data to reach the piggybacking hiFace.* For this review, I hooked the BPM’s 20-cm tail into KingRex’s rechargeable U Power Li-on battery module ($189).</p>
<p>Sonically, this amended hiFace setup took the music a step backwards into a pool of warm water, eradicating that lower-treble glare.* In the context of digital-audio tweaks, this one rated as substantial—so much so that I had a friend stop by to corroborate my findings.* He agreed that the BPM/U Power appendage massaged the tense shoulders from VCMG’s bleepy*Aftermaths*EP and Depeche Mode’s*Violator.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-11662" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two/attachment/3m/"><img title="3m" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/3m.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="407" /></a><strong>The Wrap</strong></p>
<p>Hearing the benefits of adding battery power to the hiFace Two, it’s easy to see how John Kenny arrived at doing the same for his all-in-one solution. *So, with the cost of these modifications running past the $400 mark, why wouldn’t you just opt for his roughly $420 JKSPDIF USB-to-S/PDIF battery-powered converter?* Two reasons: Linux compatibility and audio lag.* The former will be of keen interest to Squeezebox Touch users who have installed the Enhanced Digital Output app, which it turns the USB input on the rear into a digital-audio output.* But that’s a story for another day…</p>
<p>For the cash-strapped computer audiophile the hiFace Two is a suitably priced intermediary that will wipe away*some*jitter between you PC/Mac and budget DAC. <em> -John Darko</em></p>
<p><strong>M2TECH hiFace Two</strong></p>
<p>MSRP: $185</p>
<p><a href="http://www.m2tech.biz/">www.m2tech.biz</a></p>
[Source: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/m2tech-hiface-two-2/]