Is it possible to get the old GUI back in the newest version? I simply cannot live with the new GUI.

Hi;

Googling one's way to forums are we?  Like I said before, the Cantatis is miles better than the Onkyo. They are releasing an add-on card with s/pdif in as well actually, and one with analogue in. Toccata or something like that.

Obviously - since I get sound I was perhaps wondering if this is simply the way Cantatis have implemented it. However, I suspect that if I try the headamp without a volume control then 


The Cantatis is miles better than the Onkyo, they are just in two completely different leagues. The Cantatis is much better defined and detailed, but much more natural than the Onkyo. I do agree that the Onkyo can sound "laid back", and the Cantatis more "upfront", but the Cantatis is much better to listen to during long listening sessions, much less fatigue than the Onkyo.

The highs on the Cantatis are crisp, clean and airy, and very very natural, perhaps its best part of all. I love this card, as you might have gathered  A big @ Cantatis, understanding how Windows audio works or not, for £300 this must be the biggest bargain ever in hi-fi.

I don't understand this. My Onkyo card (same VIA Envy chipset as the Cantatis) does 24bit @ 88.2 and 176.4, and auto sample rate switching. This sounds like gobbledygook to me.

Anyway, I think the Cantatis sounds best at 44.1 with 44.1 material. And it does sound fucking good. What a brilliant card.

One weird thing, I cannot get Windows to recognise the Cantatis analogue outs. It only says "S/PDIF" in the Win control panel. No volume control at all in any program. The analogue outs work obviously, but I was wondering if this was intentional. Have asked Cantatis, but no answer. Think I'll nag a little more. Using 7 x64 btw.

Thx m8!

Could you upload this software so I could try it m8? Also, what do you think of the Cantatis' analogue outs?

Yes, there is a driver issue, at least under Win 7. It cannot do auto switching, and thus no upsampling in XXHE (except e.g. 96khz for 48khz material of course).

Try getting the standart VIA control panel running and see if it works then:)

A quick feedback note on the Cantatis card; I will write some more about it later. In the flesh, the card looks really good, well built in every sense. I noticed that my card doesn't have the same output caps as the one on the official photos; that one uses a couple of Nichion Muse FZ, whereas my have some blue ones I didn't recognize. Emailing Cantatis, I got a quick and informative reply: some of the cards (the first ones probably) have the Nichion caps, whereas the later ones use the blue Panasonic FC caps. Cantatis said they sound somewhat better than the Nichions, and have lower ESR. Anyway.

I have only used the card with y5-02 and Engine #3 so far. To put it simply, it sounds very, very good. A different league than the Onkyo and Audiotraks actually. Detailed, snappy, rhythmic sound; tuneful bass and great voices. Films sound much better as well, words are easier to pick up. This card looks like a real killer. And, oh, stereo separation seems much better than the Onkyo, everything is more "there". Big ups to Cantatis.

Not my pics; will take some when I get my camera back.

y-503 switches the channels around here whilst playing (!?).

Aha, I can switch, never mind

Just been listening to Engine #4 today, for me this is the perfect gift. I always enjoyed the clarity, sense of space and "realism" of #3, but it could get a bit analytical. However, I got used to this.

Engine #4 is pure old-school flat earth sounding. Great PRAT (better than #3), really gets the foot tapping, but not as crystal as #3. #4 is also more bassy than #3, no question, but the bass isn'y muddy. To be able to switch between these two would be fantastic, I get a round earth and a flat earth source in one

Edit: Been listening some more. Music sounds fucking good now.

y5 is much quieter than y4 for some reason. I don't like it, why is this so? My heart almost stopped when I switched back to y4 from y5 and some drums kicked in.

Danny; did you install the newest VIA drivers? The trick to getting this right in Win7 is to unpack the drivers, install them by using Windows' driver install feature (device manager-card-install driver), and not the setup from VIA. Then just copy the VIA control panel app to e.g. Program Files and run it from there. Set 24bit in Windows sound control panel, set auto change rate in the VIA control panel, and you're good to go.

Nope, waiting still. I will let you know once I've had an impression.