Specifications
17
Upgrades and Modifications
Removal of the cover - Unplug the AC power. Work on a clean surface.
Start by removing the 14 screws of the cover. Carefully remove and set aside
the cover.
Removal or Installation of the volume modules - The volume modules
can be plugged in, or unplugged from the Diamond mother board. They
are held in place with their two connectors. The boards are automatically
detected, so when unplugged the DAC will output the same level signal as it
would with them plugged in at 0 dB. The volume knob will now select the
input and the remote volume buttons will have no effect.
iLink II Upgrade - Remove the cover. Plug ribbon cable in “Aux 3”.
Install new cover.
Galaxy Femtosecond Clock Upgrade - Remove the cover. Plug the clock
in the clock upgrade header. Install the clock mounting screw located in the
cover of the clock box. Re-Install the cover.
Other Upgrades - Check the instructions supplied with the upgrade.
USB Upgrades
The USB upgrades are common enough to include here rather than
make a separate manual. For more detailed and up-to-date information check our web site. All three levels of USB input work basically
the same, with the difference being the maximum sample rate they can receive.
Apple MAC OS
On the MAC the USB is plug and play. The MAC will
recognize the USB DAC and its capabilities and will
allow the output to be set to any sample rate desired.
The bad news is, with certain programs such as iTunes,
the output sample rate has to be set manually when
the le sample rate changes. So if you set the output
for 192 kHz, and played a 192 kHz le, it would
play perfectly, but if you then played a 44.1 kHz CD,
the MAC OS would upsample that le to 192 kHz.
Computer upsampling is not too bad, but does not
compare at all with the quality of the upsampling done
by MSB. Better to change the output to 44.1 kHz and
play the le bit-perfect. Fortunately there is an APP
called BIT PERFECT. Download it and the MAC with
the MSB USB 2 is perfection itself.
The Apple Audio MIDI Setup screen is shown above.
Notice that the presence of the MSB USB Signature
DAC has allowed 352.8 and 384 kHz sample rates to
show up on the menu. Normally they are not present.
iTunes will play at whatever sample rate you select
in this setup.
Windows OS
The amazing thing about the MSB USB 2 input
with Windows is that once you get it set up it works
completely and absolutely perfectly, with every le
playing bit-perfect at its native sample rate up to 384 kHz with no user intervention. Just pick the song and play. The rest is automatic
and works perfectly. This is a rst for any Windows machine I have seen and a dream come true. The bad is that MSB drivers will have
to be installed, and your music must be played with a properly set up player program like Foobar. Its a small price to pay for perfection,
and MSB will help walk you through the process.
First, install the supplied MSB drivers from the included USB 2 drivers CD or from our website (not necessary for USB 1 operation). So
with a PC, there are two possible play modes. The “advanced speaker properties” window lets you set up Windows output sample rates
up to 192k as shown to the right. Any audio played by an audio program would be output at this sample rate. Specialty programs like
Foobar can be modied with a plug-in, like ASIO (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio) which allows Foobar to
interact directly with the MSB DAC to play every music le at its native sample rate bit-perfect. Foobar over-rides all windows settings
and is quite amazing.