HRT Music Streamer II (MKII) DAC

sucks2beme

The music streamer was one that I looked at buying. I ended up with
a Pico, which is very much like this, a simple usb line powered device.
It's got a loyal following, and for good reason.
It's better than most of the NOS stuff. And I don't think tubes belong
in a DAC. Everything else in the path is glass.
The head-case guys believe you have to go well over a grand to better it.
Other than DIYing a Twisted Pair Buffalo 32, that may well be the case.
At some point, a DAC head to head shoot out is in order to find out
which lost cost DAC is king.

On3s&Z3r0s

Any recommendations for good value USB cables? I saw someone's using Audioquest Cinnamon, but aren't cheap... about $50 for a 3' USB cable. I can't bring myself to buy cable with the Monster brand on it. They actually advertise their USB cables as having a 1200Mbps transfer rate. USB 2.0 has a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 480Mbps. Monster are such twunts.

Are monoprice too downlevel for this application or are they again the go-to purveyor of digital cables as with HDMI?

coolsax

I picked up an Audioquest Forest myself. its about $30 for a 1.5 meter.

falconcry72

great review, looks very interesting! I wish it had a SPDIF out. Are there any asynchronous, or good non-asynchronous, units like this that have a spdif out so you can use a different DAC? I'm basically looking for a good USB to SPDIF converter...

coolsax

Nuforce UDAC 2 I think would fit your bill.

blakeh

Just to address a few of the things mentioned in this thread:

1. The HRT does not require drivers of any sort. It uses windows asynchronous default drivers. The device looks like this in Windows XP:



I'm not sure how it looks on Vista or Win7.

2. I use MediaMonkey to play all my files which has an ASIO_out.dll driver which passes bit-perfect data out from the software. Because I have XP loaded, I also use ASIO4ALL which then takes that output and passes it on to the DAC. This means that all computer volume controls are bypassed (which is how it should be). I don't want any software touching the data stream. If I move the volume bar up or down in MediaMonkey, it has no effect.

blakeh

Falcon: Pacific Valve also makes a Musiland Monitor 02 DAC that can act as both a DAC and an SPDIF converter. I believe heiney_9 is using an earlier version (the 01) of one of these for SPDIF conversion to his AMC DAC. Specs here:

Monitor 02

blakeh

On3s&Z3r0s: Typically whenever someone asks about what cables to buy, it usually turns into an argument about whether cables make a difference. So, I'm just throwing this out there as a cost effective alternative to an expensive USB cable. It's built very well (with gold plated ends) and seems to do the trick in my computer rig:

Belkin USB Cable

This is coming from a guy who has over $2K in MIT cables in his main system. As usual, your mileage may vary.

On3s&Z3r0s

Blake, thanks for the input on the cable... the UPS guy just brought my HRT MS II by. You weren't kidding... this thing goes toe-to-toe with the Benchmark sound-wise and then some. Set up was beyond simple, and HRT has instructions on their website for Vista/Win 7 too if one were to need them. The LED's on the front showing what sampling rate you're at are a nice touch. The only place where it loses out to the Benchmark are lack of headphone jack and onboard volume control, but that's taken care of with an integrated amp. For size and convenience, this is all you need for a PC-based audio system. I wouldn't have picked one up without your review... thanks again for the recommendation!

heiney9

blakeh wrote: »

Falcon: Pacific Valve also makes a Musiland Monitor 02 DAC that can act as both a DAC and an SPDIF converter. I believe heiney_9 is using an earlier version (the 01) of one of these for SPDIF conversion to his AMC DAC. Specs here:

Monitor 02

I am using a current version (the 02) and this thing is built really nice and the software that you use for it is top notch. So far I'm using it as a USB to SPDIF converter but I'm told by dkg999 that the dac portion is very good as well. I need to do some experimenting, just haven't had time.

I can highly recommend this unit.

H9

blakeh

You're a real trip, Brock. You haven't heard either unit, but you feel you can offer an informed opinion? I can reference many threads where you've jumped on other people for doing exactly what you're doing now. :rolleyes:

Bottom line: you have no experience with either unit, so anything you have to say about them is moot.

heiney9

I also know a Ferrari and Toyota aren't comparable. I just offered up my opinion based on that.

Nothing more nothing less.

H9

blakeh

Nah, it is more than that. You have two people (one of whom you know very well) telling you that the HRT bested their old DACs. But, in you infinite wisdom (though you haven't heard ANY of the DACs in question) you jump in here to tell us we're wrong. Those must be some pretty golden ears to know how three different pieces of equipment sound without ever having heard them. :rolleyes:

You are entitled to your (uninformed) opinion, but maybe just once (and I know it's a one in a million shot) someone who has actually heard the equipment in question might know a little more about it than you.

heiney9

Who is the us?

blakeh

You hate it as much as I do when someone comes into a thread and starts giving their opinion about equipment they've never heard. We were having a good discussion about the merits of the HRT DAC and you came it and crapped on the thread about how it couldn't possibly be as good as other DACs, blah blah blah. It adds nothing to the discussion if you haven't heard the equipment.

I can pull up at least three threads about MIT cables where someone has said something about how they can't possibly sound as good as monoprice (or some other brand) of cables, and you're comments were identical to mine: you can't have an informed opinion unless you've heard the equipment.

Not only does it smack of elitism, it's just plain rude to come into a thread and tell people (me and On3s&Z3r0s) that what we hear is wrong. We have actually heard the equipment and in my case, the HRT wins hands down when up against the Aragon and On3s&Z3r0s said that his was as good as the Benchmark if not better. Do you see how it appears rude to come into a thread and tell two people who have tested the equipment that they can't be right about their conclusions when you haven't even heard the gear in question?

You're essentially saying that it's all well and good that we think the HRT is better, but we obviously don't have the pedigree in audio listening to come to a valid conclusion. It's condescending and doesn't add anything to the thread except to make the people who posted their opinions look like they're incompetent.

The HRT sounds better on my system than the Aragon. Period. You buy an HRT and compare it to your DAC and you can post your opinions. And if they're different than mine, then more power to you. But don't come in all holier-than-thou and tell me that what I heard isn't possible when you have no experience in the matter.

heiney9

Hmmmm.....never said that to you. It seems your more upset becuase you can't control who posts and about what in your thread.

I'll have a mod remove my comments so your thread can stay pristene like you want it to.

H9

P.s. just like the other day when you asked me to edit another post in your thread. I get it.

blakeh

I'm afraid you probably don't get it. Oh well. :rolleyes:

heiney9

I respect that you're upset so not another word from me. I've asked the mod to remove my post as it has no value to what is being discussed here in this thread.

H9

blueboxer

heiney9 wrote: »

I also know a Ferrari and Toyota aren't comparable. I just offered up my opinion based on that.

Nothing more nothing less.

H9

I dunno, the Toyota LFA is pretty sweet.

On3s&Z3r0s

heiney9 wrote: »

This I'd have to hear, I have no doubt it's a very nice little unit but that would be quite a feat to sound as good as a very high end dac. My biggest concern with this piece (what I've read extensively) is that it's powered by the USB and I know for sure the op-amps aren't as good as in the Benchmark.

I'm not sure how something like the Benchmark can have a very nicely designed and tightly regulated power supply section with superior op-amps yet not sound better.

I've done a lot of work isolating fully regulated power supplys in other gear including another model USB dac as well as (2) models of Squeezebox products and in every instance the superior, stand alone power supply made each unit sound much better.

...

I hear what you're saying, and I could qualify my praise for the HRT by saying I'm running it with a pair of ERA D4 bookshelves and NAD amplification, so it's not B&W and Pass monoblocks in my little home office. Feel free to call it the downside of synergy and take my assessment with a grain of salt. But, without saying the HRT is a giant killer, it's definitely doing at least as good a job as the Benchmark was when paired with downstream gear that didn't cost me more than a grand.

Actually, I'm looking forward to getting the Benchmark back up in my main 2-channel system now where it has a better chance to shine... maybe I'll get the HRT up there with a laptop at some point and see if it can hang. In any event, I've seen you say before that simpler sounds better, and it doesn't get much simpler (or smaller) than the HRT. I'm not actually trying to make the case that it's design is superior to the Benchmark... just saying it only does one thing and it seems to do it really well for the money.


... Ooops... looks like I missed a few posts while I was typing this... didn't realize it was turning into a knock-down-drag-out... the mods can delete my reply too if they want.

olilugo

And this was such a great and informative thread.

I would like to bring it back if I can by asking did you keep your on-board sound card on or did you turn it off in the bios.

blakeh

I disabled my onboard soundcard. I tried running them both at the same time (HRT for ASIO only and the internal soundcard for all other audio) but I kept running into conflicts. I ended up just disabling it in Device Manager.

On3s&Z3r0s

I was running mine all afternoon with onboard audio left on and no conflicts. I disabled it to see if there were any differences, and there weren't any that I could tell. I've been pretty happy with how Win7 handles drivers in general and keeps them from interfering with each other.

blakeh

I originally bought it so that I could eliminate my soundcard all together because there were just too many drivers loading with it. I am very happy with the HRT as a stand alone device.

polkfarmboy

Great thread guys and it sounds like an awesome dac for the cash

How does this work for 192 khz tracks ?

On3s&Z3r0s

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Great thread guys and it sounds like an awesome dac for the cash

How does this work for 192 khz tracks ?

I haven't seen anything that suggests it supports them natively. I'm pretty sure 24/96 is as high as it goes based on the spec sheet and the fact that 96K is the highest sampling frequency LED. I just downloaded the 192khz test track from Linn. Foobar will play it through the HRT no problem, but the 96khz led lights so I assume some downsampling is happening somewhere. WMP doesn't play FLAC, so I converted it to WMA Pro 10 format with dBpoweramp Music Converter, but the highest sampling frequency supported by that codec is 96khz. I think no matter what some downsampling is going to happen somewhere with the HRT and 192khz material.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I didn't mean to suggest earlier that my office rig is such abject crap that I can't hear any difference at all between the Benchmark and the HRT. There's a pretty substantial difference, and after doing some more A/B I'm pretty sure I could tell you which one's which in a blind taste test. The biggest difference is that the Benchmark seems to emphasize the high end and the HRT is fuller in the mid-bass by quite a bit. But it's not like the high end goes away... brushes on cymbals seem actually snappier and more alive. Imaging and detail seems about the same on both (I guess you could say there's maybe a little loss of detail on the high end of the HRT), but I wouldn't really want to commit to that assessment for a larger room and full-range speakers. The Benchmark just seems more dry and bright, and the HRT is just more pleasant to listen to especially at close quarters. I was listening to Julie London sing some torch songs and it made me feel like climbing the rope at gym class. :redface: