• Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Topic: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

My ADI-2 and my USB isolator (BW Usb-to-fibre isolator, a Chinese boutique product) won't work together. The isolator does work as I confirmed using a few other dacs. There is ground loop in my system and I also want to lower power related noise for measurement purposes.

So I am wondering if anyone have experienced similar issues with their USB isolator, regardless of brand/make?

I am trying to see if the problem may be caused by a particular adi-2 firmware/driver version.

I have the ADI-2 dac fs ESS version, with firmware V5.1 harware rev 78 and the latest driver 0.9808. Also tried firmware v4.8 v4.9, and driver 0.9734 to no avail.

---

Details of my USB isolator:

The USB data isolation processor adopts optical fiber transmission isolation mode, where two separate units are connected by LC optical fiber cable. The data packets are transmitted in the optical fiber by the transceiver after serial parallel processing. It transmits usb data with reclocking.

This USB isolator is quite popular in Asia and there are reports that it works well with most dacs including the AKM4490 version of the ADI-2 dac fs.

Not sure if it goes against forum rules to post the link to store page so I won't.

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,877

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

Post a link to the unit, Google won't find it.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

MC wrote:

Post a link to the unit, Google won't find it.

Thank you for the prompt reply MC.

Here's the link to the USB isolator: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1 … 10v0cd7ab0

Could it be caused by the recording function over USB on the ADI-2 dac? That's the key feature I can think of which distinguishes the ADI-2 DAC from other general dacs I own.

Thanks again for your time.

  • Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

To my knowledge, the isolator is based on the topology of Fibre Media Converters, only simplified for usb audio purposes.

  • Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

I am reminded that the store page may not be working, so instead here are some pictures of the unit:
https://imgur.com/a/KTbmjrx

I have translated the key written material in post #1.

I should also mention that by not working, I mean audio playback cannot be initiated. No sound or signal is transmitted to the ADI-2 (ie. no dancing notes on the spectrogram).

  • Registered: 2021-01-12
  • Posts: 91

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

I had all sorts of weird problems with an Olimex isolator.

https://www.olimex.com/Products/USB-Modules/USB-ISO/

  • Registered: 2021-12-10
  • Posts: 2

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

No problems with the Topping HS01 USB-isolator and an AKM4493 DAC -2 FS...

8 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,877

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

mediummanting wrote:

I had all sorts of weird problems with an Olimex isolator.

https://www.olimex.com/Products/USB-Modules/USB-ISO/

No wonder - that is outdated USB 1.1 technology.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

Just want to report back after trying a few earlier firmware/driver versions. I can actually get the music to start playing using 0.9728 driver and firmware FPGA 66, DSP 46. But the audio still cuts out continuously. Oddly enough it can actually pass the bit test in all bit depth and sample rates.

Moving on I'll try some even earlier driver and firmware versions. My only concern is - would they brick my ESS ADI-2 DAC?

10 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,877

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

Fact is that your isolator does not support USB completely and is NOT fully transparent - else it would work like a cable (or like our reference, Intona). The conclusion of this is no matter what you find out there will be no change in our firmware to support such a device. My advice - get a different, working isolator.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

11 Reply by gzkaze (edited by gzkaze 2023-02-19 16:07:31)

  • Registered: 2020-10-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: Anyone got problems with USB galvanic isolator and ADI-2 dac fs (ESS)?

MC wrote:

Fact is that your isolator does not support USB completely and is NOT fully transparent - else it would work like a cable (or like our reference, Intona). The conclusion of this is no matter what you find out there will be no change in our firmware to support such a device. My advice - get a different, working isolator.

Yes, after trying many driver and firmware versions, I think that's the case. Though I have confirmed that after completly removing the driver, the combo works fine. But I do want to use ASIO so that's out of the equation.

I will consider Intona.

Thanks for all of your kind assistance.

--

EDIT 20/02/23:

Asio4ALL works with the isolator while having the option to use Asio without the MADIface official driver, for anyone who might need an alternative solution.