M2TECH HIFACE 192KHZ/24BIT DIGITAL AUDIO INTERFACE USER MANUAL REV. 1.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Warning! Changes or modifications not authorized by the manufacturer can invalidate the compliance to CE regulations and cause the unit to be no more suitable to use.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Dear customer, thank you for purchasing hiFace. What you have is a first-rate USB-to-S/PDIF converter with many unique features conceived to obtain the best audio performance out of a music file. Even if getting digital music out of a PC or a Mac is nowadays quite simple, much harder is to obtain the best sonic performance from it, due to intrinsic limits in USB 1.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 INDEX 1. Connections.....................................................................................................................5 2. Connection to the host .....................................................................................................6 3.1. Obtaining the driver ...................................................................................................7 3.2.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 1. Connections 1 2 Figure 1 1) USB input. Connect directly to the USB 2.0 port of a PC or Mac, or use an USB extender (A male to A female). In the latter, the extender must be compliant with USB 2.0 an less than 4m, otherwise the bus performance will decrease and the correct operation of the interface will not be guaranteed. USB type A male connector 2) S/PDIF output.
hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 M2Tech www.m2tech.biz 2. Connection to the host Please refer to section 1, “Connections”. Connect the hiFace to the host USB 2.0 port by inserting its USB plug (Figure 1, 1) into the host socket. If straight insertion is difficult or when in need of avoiding straight insertion, an USB 2.0 extender cable (A male to A female) can be used. Please avoid using extenders more than 4m, to avoid invalidating the bus performance.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 3. Driver installation 3.1. Obtaining the driver The drivers for hiFace are available on the M2Tech website, in the download page (www.m2tech.biz/download.asp). Download the driver you need for your computer and operating system. Windows drivers are contained in zip files, Mac drivers are contained in dmg files. 3.2.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Click on the button to proceed. A window appears as shown in figure 3: Figure 3 Choose automatic installation (as recommended) and proceed to next step. Indicate the folder where you have previously unzipped the driver and proceed to installation.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Click on Continue. The installation will proceed to the end. The window shown in figure 5 will appear. Click on Finish to complete the driver installation. Figure 5 Note: the wizard appearance and the guided installation procedure may slightly vary from XP to Vista to Windows 7. 3.2.2. Manual installation Sometimes it’s necessary or advisable to install the driver manually.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 3.3. Installing the driver on a Mac Double-click on the zip file to open it. It contains a single dmg file. Extract it from the zip and double-click on it to open it. It only contains a pkg file. Double click on it to start driver installation. The window shown in figure 6 will appear. Figure 6 Click on the Continue button. The installation process will go on and the window in figure 7 will appear.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Select “Install for all users”, then click on Continue button. Another window will appear as in figure 8 and you’ll be asked to type in the administrator password. After doing that, the installation process will continue and you’ll be asked for a confirmation to continue the process up to the computer restart. Click on Continue Installation button.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 3.4. Unistalling the driver Sometimes it is necessary to uninstall the driver to roll back to a previous version. Uninstall is a quite simple procedure which depends on the operating system and the way the driver was installed. 3.4.1. Uninstalling the driver on a Windows-based PC after installation with setup32.exe or setup64.exe Go to the control panel and launch the “Application Installation” utility.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Figure 10 Right-click to access the available actions. Select “Uninstall”. 3.4.3. Uninstalling the driver on a Mac Open a console, then type the following commands: sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/Hiface.kext /tmp sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions sudo pkgutil --forget com.m2tech.driver Then, restart the Mac.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 4. Configuring the computer to use hiFace 4.1. Configuring a PC with Windows XP A PC with Windows XP can use hiFace in two different ways: Direct Sound (DS) and Kernel Streaming (KS).
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 peripheral is listed as “kernel streaming”, it will operate in Direct Sound mode when listed here. From now on, unless hiFace is disconnected or settings are changed again, hiFace is the audio peripheral all audio programs will use when operating in direct sound mode. 4.1.2. Configuring for Kernel Streaming with Windows XP Kernel Streaming has no standard setting in Windows XP.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 4.2. Configuring a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 A PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 can use hiFace in three different ways: Direct Sound (DS), Kernel Streaming (KS) and WASAPI.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 4.2.2. Configuring for Kernel Streaming with Windows Vista or Windows 7 As for Windows XP, Kernel Streaming has no standard setting in Windows Vista and Windows 7. KS must be selected in the specific player you choose to use. For example, when using FooBar, with hiFace connected to the PC, go to the File/Preferences/Playback /Output tab and select “KS: hiFace” as output device.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 5. Configuring the player for Kernel Streaming: some examples 5.1. FooBar To use FooBar in KS mode it is necessary to download the DLL for Kernel Streaming from the FooBar2000 website and install it in the Components sub-folder inside FooBar2000 main folder in your hard disk. The DLL can be found at http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks (click on Download).
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 Figure 15 Go to Plug-in/Output and select “Kernel Streaming Output”. Then click on Configure button. Choose HIFACE Kernel Streaming in the output device list (Figure 16).
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 6. Configuring the player for WASAPI: an example 6.1. FooBar To use FooBar with WASAPI under Windows 7 it is necessary to download the DLL for WASAPI from the FooBar2000 website and install it in the Components sub-folder inside FooBar2000 main folder in your hard disk. The DLL can be found at http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_wasapi (click on Download).
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 7. Interface special features 7.1. Output voltage hiFace has an output voltage which is not compliant with te S/PDIF standard (1.75Vpp instead of 0,5Vpp on 75 Ohms load). This is a choice made to increase the drive capability with long digital cables. Please contact your local distributor/dealer in the unlikely event the output voltage is excessive for your DAC’s input stage. 7.2.
M2Tech hiFace 192kHz/24bit digital audio interface www.m2tech.biz REVISION 1.o – NOVEMBER 2010 8. Technical Specifications Sampling frequencies: ...................... 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz Resolution:........................................ 16 to 24 bits USB: ................................................. 2.0 high speed Internal clock precision: .................... +/-10ppm 0 to 60°C, 2ppm typical @ 25°C S/PDIF output voltage:...................... 1.75Vpp +/-0.
