361 replies to this topic

[tottyi]

Hello, the jumpers installed. I use this PSU I use this PSU and I also tried it on a PC with a hard drive and a molex connector. https://www.mzxaudio...product/lpc250/

 

Regards

Ladislav

[Marcin_gps]

Hello, the jumpers installed. I use this PSU I use this PSU and I also tried it on a PC with a hard drive and a molex connector. https://www.mzxaudio...product/lpc250/

 

Regards

Ladislav

Please contact me via email

 

Best regards,

Marcin

[tottyi]

 

From my experience the optimal length is between 1 and 2m.

 

The first batch of USB Card XE is on the way.

 

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Please give the card up to 200 hours burn-in before forming your final opinion - the LT3045 LDOs on the card need time to open up. 

 

Please share your feedback here on the forum or leave a review and star rating on the Polestar platform: https://audiophilest...e-reviews-r293/

 

The card has an external PSU option which eliminates computer as the source of power. The OPTIMO 3 DUO power supply is highly recommended for absolute best sound quality: https://jcat.eu/feat...r-power-supply/

 

Looking forward to your impressions!

 

 

Yours sincerely,

Marcin Ostapowicz

JPLAY & JCAT Founder

 

 

Hi, the JCAT USB XE card can burn-in if I just leave the PC on or do I have to play music on it?

[Marcin_gps]

Hi, the JCAT USB XE card can burn-in if I just leave the PC on or do I have to play music on it?

It will be faster if music is played

 

Best regards,

Marcin

[tottyi]

 

It will be faster if music is played

 

Best regards,

Marcin

 

 

Thank You for answer. I have one old external sound card (Creative X-FI) and I have music running through it all day. Over the weekend, after almost 200 hours, I will see how the XE card is burned-in.

 

Regards

Ladislav

[Chanh]

Hi Marcin,

Congratulations on the new USB EVO. I am sure it will sound amazing. I noticed that one of the attributes improving the sound quality from the new EVO is
“Optimized Firmware for Superior Sound Quality:
The latest firmware is optimized specifically for superior sound quality, with power management features switched off to maximize audio performance.”

Is there a potential upgrade pathway available for current XE card owners with a small fee, who are unable to accommodate the hardware upgrade to EVO?

Many thanks.

[Marcin_gps]

Hi Marcin,

Congratulations on the new USB EVO. I am sure it will sound amazing. I noticed that one of the attributes improving the sound quality from the new EVO is
“Optimized Firmware for Superior Sound Quality:
The latest firmware is optimized specifically for superior sound quality, with power management features switched off to maximize audio performance.”

Is there a potential upgrade pathway available for current XE card owners with a small fee, who are unable to accommodate the hardware upgrade to EVO?

Many thanks.

Hi Chanh,

 

Of course! I can offer the firmware for USB XE owners free of charge. Please send me an email.

 

Best regards,

Marcin

[Thuan]

The new firmware has brought about a nice improvement to the USB XE performance and the SQ, thank you Marcin.

[baramzisyan]

Thuan, is this firmware only for xe or xe + clock?

[dm1by]

New to JCAT products, purchased a JCAT USB XE card (it says Rev 1.1 on the card, originally sold Nov 2021 as stated in the warranty document) and tried installing it into a PC with the Z690 chipset Gigabyte motherboard. Windows 11 can't see the card in the Device Manager, nothing helps, neither DAC nor USB stick could be detected by Windows 11. The driver can't be installed either, saying the device is not detected.

 

Found that thread with posts on page 11 saying the USB controller chip firmware needs to be updated to work with modern chipsets incl. Z690. There is a link with the instructions from May 2021: https://inateck.com/...mets-pcie-cards

I downloaded the tool but it can't detect the card either, thus I might want to get an older PC to do the update, hope it works and the card is OK.

 

So, there are two questions for me:

 

1) Is the link above still actual for USB controller fw upgrade? Aren't there possibly a newer firmware available for the USB controller chip? 

 

2) There are two jumpers J3 and J4 on the card. The manual writes once jumpers are off no power is output via USB. Do I get it right that each jumper corresponds to each USB port? That is, if I remove one jumper and keep the other one USB port will output 5v the other - not. Is that correct?

[Thuan]

As far as I know, the firmware is initially for the USB EVO. However, it’s also downward compatible to USB XE. It obviously works for my USB XE, but whether it would work for XE + clock, only Marcin or XE + clock users can answer with certainty.

[Carlosoptico]

I have the USB CARD XE + Clock Master and I received the new firmware from Marcin. And it works on my system.Carlos

[Marcin_gps]

New to JCAT products, purchased a JCAT USB XE card (it says Rev 1.1 on the card, originally sold Nov 2021 as stated in the warranty document) and tried installing it into a PC with the Z690 chipset Gigabyte motherboard. Windows 11 can't see the card in the Device Manager, nothing helps, neither DAC nor USB stick could be detected by Windows 11. The driver can't be installed either, saying the device is not detected.

 

Found that thread with posts on page 11 saying the USB controller chip firmware needs to be updated to work with modern chipsets incl. Z690. There is a link with the instructions from May 2021: https://inateck.com/...mets-pcie-cards

I downloaded the tool but it can't detect the card either, thus I might want to get an older PC to do the update, hope it works and the card is OK.

 

So, there are two questions for me:

 

1) Is the link above still actual for USB controller fw upgrade? Aren't there possibly a newer firmware available for the USB controller chip? 

 

2) There are two jumpers J3 and J4 on the card. The manual writes once jumpers are off no power is output via USB. Do I get it right that each jumper corresponds to each USB port? That is, if I remove one jumper and keep the other one USB port will output 5v the other - not. Is that correct?

This is the latest firrmware: https://www.dropbox....mbn2gtf3wx&dl=0

 

However, you have to load it on a PC where the card is detected.

 

Yes, the jumpers correspond to each USB port.

 

Best regards,

Marcin

[dm1by]

Thanks Marcin, that solved my issue, can enjoy the card now.

[dm1by]

Marcin,

 

Though I've got a couple of errors during the day when over sudden the ASM usb controller stopped working properly (yellow mark in the Device Manager) and connected devices (DAC) weren't seen. After Windows reboot the issue has been resolved.

I started looking into drivers: Windows installed the most recent generic USB host controller drivers that seems to be the recommended way. However, I thought the ASMedia specific drivers could work better even they are older than generic Microsoft ones. Thus I managed to install ASMedia drivers from 2020: 1.16.61.1. Besides, I flashed my motherboard BIOS to the latest available version. Looking forward to if the issue repeats or not.

 

Meanwhile can you please advise on:

 

1) What driver do you recommend for Win11? Generic Microsoft one or ASMedia one? The manual says you're good with the generic one but I believe vendor specific drivers are a better match.

 

2) In the dropbox folder above you included the firmware 240322_70_F8_42 that seems to be created on the 24th of March 2024. During my research I found many other firmware versions for this ASMedia chip (3142) from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023. 

Do you have experience with this fw version (240322_70_F8_42) in terms of stability and issues and do you recommend it for usage? If it's new and hasn't been tested enough then what is a proven stable version I could fallback to in case the issue repeats?

 

ps. sorry for asking so many questions about that ASM usb chip but to enjoy this great card to the full I need to get it stable on my system.

 

upd: I installed the JCAT XE into the GPU PCIe slot on the motherboard (it's free as the built-in Intel GPU is good for me). Is that fine according to your experience or may I need to try another PCIe slot?

[baramzisyan]

Dm1by, hello!
Best PCIe port which connected directly to processor, not to motherboard chipset

[juko]

This is the latest firrmware: https://www.dropbox....mbn2gtf3wx&dl=0

 

However, you have to load it on a PC where the card is detected.

 

Yes, the jumpers correspond to each USB port.

 

Best regards,

Marcin

 

Replaced the original FW on my XE card with this new one today. Did not expect too much, but was pleasently surprised. Thanks Marcin for posting this! 

[Chanh]

I just had to share - I was finally able to find the time to do the update, and it's simply amazing! The firmware upgrade has completely transformed the sound - it's so much more fluid and engaging, making the listening experience absolutely enjoyable. It's like I've stepped into the world of 300B valves amps! Huge shoutout to Marcin for the incredible customer support - thank you!
A quick recording from my iPhone for your reference.
https://youtu.be/mLc...YOf4moY3wzjcG2f

[OctavianH]

I also performed the upgrade on the USB XE (standard, no clock upgrades) and indeed, I have a feeling everything is smoother. Recommended upgrade. Thank you Marcin.

[baramzisyan]

what about best drivers for XE?

This one i'm use with win 11. 

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