Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by charley phogg

To me, thats saying its strictly a european version. U.S. you should see 110 or 120 at 60hz. Usually when they are switchable it will list both ratings. I would check into this further before trying a step-up transformer, as I don't think the transformer will change the frequency, I could be wrong.

I tried to find that square inside the square symbol on the web, but had no luck. He should at least email the seller and inquire about it, before spending any money or trying it for the heck of it!

[Fremen]

Originally Posted by Penchum

I tried to find that square inside the square symbol on the web, but had no luck. He should at least email the seller and inquire about it, before spending any money or trying it for the heck of it!

This symbol means Class 2 electrical equipement (double isolation). This is not related to the voltage input range.
For equipments that are made for both 110 and 220V without external switch (usually low power equipments) you should read something like "100-240V~ 50/60Hz"

PS: "24-Jan-2008 France Arrived and is being processed. "

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by Fremen

This symbol means Class 2 electrical equipement (double isolation). This is not related to the voltage input range.
For equipments that are made for both 110 and 220V without external switch (usually low power equipments) you should read something like "100-240V~ 50/60Hz"

PS: "24-Jan-2008 France Arrived and is being processed. "

Thanks for the information. It actually makes sense! Glad yours is on it's way!

[fault151]

has anyone on here compared the zero to the Beresford TC-7510 MK6/3 DAC Digital to Analog Converter. Im very tempted to get one. Iv heard its meant to be the best dac for the £100 price range. Theres loads of threads about it and comments of users who have swapped their £500+ dacs for this one.

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by fault151

has anyone on here compared the zero to the Beresford TC-7510 MK6/3 DAC Digital to Analog Converter. Im very tempted to get one. Iv heard its meant to be the best dac for the £100 price range. Theres loads of threads about it and comments of users who have swapped their £500+ dacs for this one.

As far as I know, there hasn't been a direct comparison. There was a "specification" comparison way back, and the Zero has better specs, but Opamp changing has an impact on those things, so it is hard to draw a conclusion now.

[fault151]

Id love to hear from someone who has heard them both. I may just purchase one, test them aginst each other and maybe keep hold of the one i like best.

[Tsukasa]

Originally Posted by Fremen

This symbol means Class 2 electrical equipement (double isolation). This is not related to the voltage input range.
For equipments that are made for both 110 and 220V without external switch (usually low power equipments) you should read something like "100-240V~ 50/60Hz"

PS: "24-Jan-2008 France Arrived and is being processed. "

Hehe I'm at the same point. Vite Vite

[dantztiludrop]

Originally Posted by Fremen

PS: "24-Jan-2008 France Arrived and is being processed. "

I received mine today! 8 days from the point of my 1st contact with Lawrence...from China to Oregon. As a matter of fact, it was a good week of waiting for Mr. Postman...received my D2000s 5 days after purchase; my LD MKIII came on day 7. These were all bought last Friday, so they made that good of time even with being bought the day before the weekend! I'm a pretty happy guy ! Oh yeah, received the Chaintech AV-710 two days after purchase from NY to OR via regular post...what the heck's that about! The timing of the shipments has been perfect too...I've added ~ 1 component per day with the previous one having that much burn-in ahead of the next, which has really allowed me to see the evolution of my new system one step at a time.*as he blathers on (& on) with just way too much excitement to be allowed out in public*

Alright, I need to get off Head-Fi long enough to play with the new toys.

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by dantztiludrop

I received mine today! 8 days from the point of my 1st contact with Lawrence...from China to Oregon. As a matter of fact, it was a good week of waiting for Mr. Postman...received my D2000s 5 days after purchase; my LD MKIII came on day 7. These were all bought last Friday, so they made that good of time even with being bought the day before the weekend! I'm a pretty happy guy ! Oh yeah, received the Chaintech AV-710 two days after purchase from NY to OR via regular post...what the heck's that about! The timing of the shipments has been perfect too...I've added ~ 1 component per day with the previous one having that much burn-in ahead of the next, which has really allowed me to see the evolution of my new system one step at a time.*as he blathers on (& on) with just way too much excitement to be allowed out in public*

Alright, I need to get off Head-Fi long enough to play with the new toys.

I think Christmas came late for you!

[ironman64]

Originally Posted by dantztiludrop

I received mine today! 8 days from the point of my 1st contact with Lawrence...from China to Oregon. As a matter of fact, it was a good week of waiting for Mr. Postman...received my D2000s 5 days after purchase; my LD MKIII came on day 7. These were all bought last Friday, so they made that good of time even with being bought the day before the weekend! I'm a pretty happy guy ! Oh yeah, received the Chaintech AV-710 two days after purchase from NY to OR via regular post...what the heck's that about! The timing of the shipments has been perfect too...I've added ~ 1 component per day with the previous one having that much burn-in ahead of the next, which has really allowed me to see the evolution of my new system one step at a time.*as he blathers on (& on) with just way too much excitement to be allowed out in public*

Alright, I need to get off Head-Fi long enough to play with the new toys.

Congrats! Mine arrived this afternoon while I attended the Dallas Head-Fi Meet. Needless to say, it has been a very good day. Currently using it as a dac. A little on the warm/dark side, so I'm interested to see if or how it opens up more.

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by ironman64

Congrats! Mine arrived this afternoon while I attended the Dallas Head-Fi Meet. Needless to say, it has been a very good day. Currently using it as a dac. A little on the warm/dark side, so I'm interested to see if or how it opens up more.

Congratulations to you Ironman! How was the meet?

[Gaco]

*Gasping for air*
I can't believe I actually just took FIVE HOURS to read through all 127 pages! I can't recommend this to anyone on the noob level like me as 80% of it was chit-chatting on technical yadayada which I didn't understand much of anyway

I'm looking for my first headphone amplifier to my all new Senn HD600. As far as I can understand the default build-in opamps are not so great compared to the rest of the package huh? I can't imagine myself ever trying to mod my headphone amplifer so can you get this Lawrence dude to use some other parts? All your talk about various opamp parts in this thread just went straight over the head, it doesn't make any sense to me

The Zero really seems like a solid choice for someone first headamp and I especially appreciate all the input/output functions. I will primarily be using it like X-Fi coax -> Zero DAC/Amp -> Senn HD650 headphones - given that the Zero can function as a DAC and amplifier at once? I really hope you can answer my questions

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by Gaco

*Gasping for air*
I can't believe I actually just took FIVE HOURS to read through all 127 pages! I can't recommend this to anyone on the noob level like me as 80% of it was chit-chatting on technical yadayada which I didn't understand much of anyway

I'm looking for my first headphone amplifier to my all new Senn HD600. As far as I can understand the default build-in opamps are not so great compared to the rest of the package huh? I can't imagine myself ever trying to mod my headphone amplifer so can you get this Lawrence dude to use some other parts? All your talk about various opamp parts in this thread just went straight over the head, it doesn't make any sense to me

The Zero really seems like a solid choice for someone first headamp and I especially appreciate all the input/output functions. I will primarily be using it like X-Fi coax -> Zero DAC/Amp -> Senn HD650 headphones - given that the Zero can function as a DAC and amplifier at once? I really hope you can answer my questions

Hi Gaco!
Lets see, well, the Zero does have a nice built-in headphone amp. With stock Opamps in the Zero and after break-in, the sound is pretty ok coming out to the headphones. But, it is easy to upgrade the Opamps to something better, and that is what you have been trying to read. No problem. It won't take long to "understand" what is going on. The Zero can function as a DAC, and at the press of a button, switch to headphones. It can't do both at the same time, which, when you think about it, is ok. You can't really listen to both at the same time anyway. Your X-Fi will work great as a source, and we generally recommend lossless files, or MP3's at 320kbps.

I'm pretty sure Lawrence will (for a price) upgrade the DAC Opamp at your request. I don't know if he offers any upgrade Opamps for the headphone board or not, but you should ask him via email.

Using the Zero as a first amp does have it's advantages. Later on, you could buy a tube headphone amp and feed it with the Zero's DAC! If it was a tube amp, then you could listen to "tube" sound or solid state sound directly from the Zero's headphone amp. This gives you options, which is always nice!
Let us know how things are going!!

[charley phogg]

Originally Posted by Penchum

The Zero can function as a DAC, and at the press of a button, switch to headphones. It can't do both at the same time, which, when you think about it, is ok. You can't really listen to both at the same time anyway.

I don't have a Zero but this confuses me. When you use the headphone amp on the Zero, isn't the signal traveling through the DAC first, and then through the headphone amp, so in essence you are using both and just can't hook up the dac to another amp and use the Zero's headphone amp?

[Penchum]

Originally Posted by charley phogg

I don't have a Zero but this confuses me. When you use the headphone amp on the Zero, isn't the signal traveling through the DAC first, and then through the headphone amp, so in essence you are using both and just can't hook up the dac to another amp and use the Zero's headphone amp?

Not actually. The DAC output is L + R RCA's on the back of the Zero. When you first power up, this is where the signal is going, which would be for an external amp of somekind. If you want to listen to headphones with the Zero, then you plug in on the front of the Zero and press the Pre-amp/Phones button and this diverts the signal to the built-in headphone amp and out to your phones. Does that help any?