Halide Bridge vs hiFace Evo vs Sonicweld 192

M2Tech Support still hasn't replied to my request for help with using the hiFace Evo. At least it was a friends who let me borrow it to try so no loss. Hopefully he'll have more success since it's being set up by someone who knows it.

I'm not even going to bother trying the Halide Bridge after the less then satisfying experience with the WaveLink HS.

I was about to buy the new Wadia 171iTransport but decided to try the Sonos ZP90 first. Then I just came across comments that it doesn't support 24/96. Is this true? Does that make any sense if it's to be used with a high-end audio system connected to a DAC (SPDIF/COAX)? I only play Red Book CD's ripped in Apple Lossless. What does it mean in terms of sound quality?

SAKAHARA-M2Tech Support only understands Italian. You have
got to send it to them in Italian. How good is yours?
I have the M2Tech EVO, and you have to have EVO plugged into Computer and powered up prior to installing Driver.
Without it, you are making configuration changes in
reference to an attached device that MAC can't see.
Could be reason OS X is acting flaky. Still having problems, try another USB Output. Verify Power light is on
with EVO (make sure it is getting power). Eating dirt here,
and being grateful for that dirt! Yummmm!

Non buon.

Evo was plugged in prior to driver installation (I realized it required a driver after noticing the device wasn't listed under Sound>Output Prefs). Everything looked fine, power on,..etc, except for the fact that it would only play through the internal speakers. Oh well, one more USB interface debacle to chalk up to experience.

The Sonos ZP90/ZB combo was also another failure. Requires computer or NAS and at least one ZP90 or ZB to be wired to router. Not practical with my set up/lay out. Can't use NAS wired to ZP90, and supposedly you can wire ZP90 to computer but it didn't work for me. They recommend another ZB and NAS (translation; spend more $$$). This is why I never tried Sonos in the past. Over priced (compared to Squeezebox) and not made for high-end audio, just mass-produced mainstream electronic consumer waste.

Back to the reliable iTransport; ordered 171i and iPod Classic. Not the most convenient, small screen, and no remote control, but it's simple, plug-n-play, and produces fantastic sound for the price. No technical, wireless, network, USB, settings, ethernet, extra wires, drivers,... etc., to deal with.

01-25-11: Sakahara
Everything looked fine, power on,..etc, except for the fact that it would only play through the internal speakers.

You have to select it to play through the external speakers in the Apple Midi application. It will not do play through the external speakers automatically (the Apple Built-In Output is the default). Selecting it to play through the external speakers is not intuitive in my experience.

I had to highlight the HiFace in the menu of available output devices, then two-finger tap on the trackpad to pull up the configuration menu, and then select the external speakers from the configuration menu. I you didn't get this far (and I can understand how you might not have), then it was a configuration error and not a hardware problem.

I know you've moved on, so I'm mentioning this for future readers who may encounter the same issue.

"I was about to buy the new Wadia 171iTransport but decided to try the Sonos ZP90 first. Then I just came across comments that it doesn't support 24/96. Is this true?"

Correct, both of these do 44.1 only. I have customers reclocking both. Sonos has the highest digital output jitter of the WiFi devices. If you dont like EVO or Wavelink, this will be worse IMO.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio