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ZERO 24/192 DAC, Anyone heard of this DAC amp? - Page 3

post #31 of 113
11/5/07 at 8:24pm
I do have like a week or so, that I dont turn on my Darkvoice 332 or Figaro. That's all I can say. Je, je. . Back to the 80's, .......Hey, hey......baby...don't you forget about me.....Hey, hey.........don't, don't, don't.....

down, down, down...LA, LA, LA, LA, LA.......


.......
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post #32 of 113
11/5/07 at 8:32pm
nice..anyone compares the DAC section of ZERO to Emu 0404 usb?
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post #33 of 113
11/6/07 at 8:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by unbiased View Post
Oh yes! I agree they sound best with my HD650's and HD600's. Not bad with my RS-1 either and the hard to drive AKG-701 is driven but not as loud as the others. The Senn HD6x0 phones seem to mate well with this amp. Lovely lush, liquidy smooth with the HD650. Not bad at all!
I'm interested in combining this with my MS2s, but it sounds like the gain on the headphone out is set too high? Does anyone have an idea of how easy this would be to change or to mod the line-out to passive to eliminate hiss when connecting to a high-current amp? I'm looking for something warm, punchy, forward mids that I can drive the MS2 without all that hiss I get from amping an opamped line-out.
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post #34 of 113
11/6/07 at 9:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rnd View Post
I'm interested in combining this with my MS2s, but it sounds like the gain on the headphone out is set too high? Does anyone have an idea of how easy this would be to change or to mod the line-out to passive to eliminate hiss when connecting to a high-current amp? I'm looking for something warm, punchy, forward mids that I can drive the MS2 without all that hiss I get from amping an opamped line-out.
I don't think that the headphone gain is too overly high. I thought it was high in the beginning but it is okay. It is maybe a wee bit on the high side. But I just got my Zhaolu D2.5C with upgraded discrete headphone amp module and it is way too high. Compared to the D2.5C the gain is normal. The D2.5C with upgraded headphone amp is set too high. Just touch the volumn control and the headphones are blasting.

As for hiss, What hiss? There is no hiss that I hear from these units from the headphones jack.

This ZERO 24/192 DAC/amp already has a line out for you to plug into your preamp. I don't know if it is by passing the head amp though, but I imagine it is. The line out is fixed and not controlled by the volumn control, so there is a good chance they did not tap it off from the head amp. But I am not 100% sure of this yet because I have not looked for this aspect of it when I had it opened. It's closed up now burning in so I cannot see it. I will try to remember to see if I an trace the circuit audio signal path next time I am in it.

Right now however, my attention has shifted to my new Zhaolu D2.5C which is presenting itself as better than the ZERO 24/192 (less of a bright edge) and it actually is making me enjoy my AKG-701's finally! Synergy? must be.
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post #35 of 113
11/6/07 at 10:39pm
This hiss I get is from most of the external sound cards I've listened to when I hook their line-out into a headphone amp and run that to some efficient phones. With Grados and Allesandros I get hiss, with my HD25 I get lots of hiss, and IEM's give even more. I'm using pretty good custom cables so that's not it. I was told it was because the line out is usually amped with an opamp so by amplifying the amped signal I get hiss. I'm just going on what I was told. So when I upgrade to a better DAC I want to be sure the line-out won't give me hiss on the Allesandros when using a high-current/low-gain amp.

So is the modded Zhaolu warmer than the Zero? I love most everything about my MS2 except they are just a little cold and dry compared to the Grados I've had.
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post #36 of 113
11/7/07 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rnd View Post
This hiss I get is from most of the external sound cards I've listened to when I hook their line-out into a headphone amp and run that to some efficient phones. With Grados and Allesandros I get hiss, with my HD25 I get lots of hiss, and IEM's give even more. I'm using pretty good custom cables so that's not it. I was told it was because the line out is usually amped with an opamp so by amplifying the amped signal I get hiss. I'm just going on what I was told. So when I upgrade to a better DAC I want to be sure the line-out won't give me hiss on the Allesandros when using a high-current/low-gain amp.

So is the modded Zhaolu warmer than the Zero? I love most everything about my MS2 except they are just a little cold and dry compared to the Grados I've had.
I've got to be honest with you and say that a "clean" source is paramount! If you have the slightest noise of any type in the source, it just gets accentuated and amplified down stream. I'm assuming you don't have hiss issues if you do optical out to a DAC? This is how many here get around the shortcomings of notebook audio out. Even the USB type DACs can have noise too. When my Zero arrives, I'm going to test it with my ASUS notebooks optical out, my Sony D-EJ885 optical out and my Toshiba SD-KP19 optical out. This should give a well rounded look at the optical capabilities of the Zero. For a line-out situation, I'll try my Creative Vision and see how that goes too. Let us know what you discover with your source situations!

Dave McLaughlin
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post #37 of 113
11/10/07 at 5:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rnd View Post
This hiss I get is from most of the external sound cards I've listened to when I hook their line-out into a headphone amp and run that to some efficient phones. With Grados and Allesandros I get hiss, with my HD25 I get lots of hiss, and IEM's give even more. I'm using pretty good custom cables so that's not it. I was told it was because the line out is usually amped with an opamp so by amplifying the amped signal I get hiss. I'm just going on what I was told. So when I upgrade to a better DAC I want to be sure the line-out won't give me hiss on the Allesandros when using a high-current/low-gain amp.

So is the modded Zhaolu warmer than the Zero? I love most everything about my MS2 except they are just a little cold and dry compared to the Grados I've had.
I re-read your post and I can confirm some things. Yes, Line-out from notebooks and external sound cards will have noise due to them being amped. When you amp this line-out source, you are amping the noise as well. Even the cleanest amp out there, will faithfully duplicate the signal & noise because that is what it does without differentiation. This takes us back a little to the most important rule: have as clean a source as possible. Do any of your sound cards have optical out? This would be the BEST fix. Notebook optical out to DAC or DAC/Amp to headphones is quite nice and extremely little noise if any.
Have a good one!
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post #38 of 113
11/10/07 at 6:03am
My Zero arrived today at 12:30 pm. I'm writing an ongoing review to be posted later. Just a teaser: What I've seen and what I've heard in the last 12 hours has me amazed! The only optical source I have that contains enough music to burn-in for hours is my ASUS notebook, so that will be my Burn-in rig for now.
Unbiased was correct. They wait shipping until Mondays for some reason. Once on it's way, it was only 5 days out!!

Dave McLaughlin
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post #39 of 113
11/10/07 at 8:46am
Thanks for the replies and info. I do have an optical out on my laptop and am going to switch to that. I'm also looking to get one of these, a Zhaolu, or dac-ah. I'm leaning toward the later and modding though I'm new to modding electronics aside from speaker crossovers.

Looking forward to reading your impressions.
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post #40 of 113
11/25/07 at 9:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penchum View Post
My Zero arrived today at 12:30 pm. I'm writing an ongoing review to be posted later. Just a teaser: What I've seen and what I've heard in the last 12 hours has me amazed! The only optical source I have that contains enough music to burn-in for hours is my ASUS notebook, so that will be my Burn-in rig for now.
Unbiased was correct. They wait shipping until Mondays for some reason. Once on it's way, it was only 5 days out!!

Dave McLaughlin
Well, I have a review written, but Saturday, the postman delivered my Opamps! I'm going to incorporate them into the review before I post it.
While HeadFi was down, I had much time to evaluate the Zero.

Dave McLaughlin
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post #41 of 113
11/25/07 at 10:21pm
Anybody know how this compares to the Beresford DAC?
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post #42 of 113
12/4/07 at 11:25pm
I have been waiting a month for my Zero to ship. When I ordered it, the seller responded that the builder was upgrading the power supply and that shipping would take a while. The seller just told me he would ship it soon if there was no problem in the burn in period. Have any of you ordered and\or received one with the "upgraded power supply?" If so, what is that all about? Also, does anyone know what the burn in period is? I assume that means he tests the unit before shipping it out. But, I know what assumption means.
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post #43 of 113
12/4/07 at 11:49pm

What on earth!?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TURBO View Post
I do have like a week or so, that I dont turn on my Darkvoice 332 or Figaro. That's all I can say. Je, je. . Back to the 80's, .......Hey, hey......baby...don't you forget about me.....Hey, hey.........don't, don't, don't.....

down, down, down...LA, LA, LA, LA, LA.......


.......
What is je je and what does the rest of this rambling mean? I ask only because I am marginally interested in the Zero but am becoming afraid to go any further down this...La La La....road!
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post #44 of 113
12/5/07 at 12:04am
Which seller did you bought it from Lawyerbob? When i search for "Zero DAC" on ebay I see two different people selling it.
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post #45 of 113
12/5/07 at 12:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zp- View Post
Which seller did you bought it from Lawyerbob? When i search for "Zero DAC" on ebay I see two different people selling it.
I bought (at least paid for mine anyway) from an Ebay seller called "biglawhk." The gentleman who has emailed me is Lawrence Chan, from Hong Kong of course.
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