Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 13

Well that is some good quality service. Any more news on opamp rolling in the Zero?

Oh right, he sounds like he has more of an interest in the amps rather than just a 'seller', which is good! So whats the difference going to be on the upgraded transformer as opposed to the older one?

Am i right in thinking that it is best for a dac not to oversample the sound quality and to leave the input sound as it is? This dac samples at 24bit 192KHz doesn't it?

Does anyone know of any other dacs around the same price range and performance?

And upsampling dac does this to all of the incoming data. Some people like it some don't. I have an upsampling dac and a dac that does nothing to the signal including no brick wall and they are different. A well done nonoversampling dac may be my favorite but dacs have come a long ways.

Good, I prefer nonupsampling dacs. So it is a 24 bit dac, which can mean higher resolution of the 16 bit CD but often even CD's only achieve a 14 bit resolution.

That is good to know.

Ok so am i right in thinking that the amp/dac will not do anything to the signal unless it needs to? It will match the source? ? ?

I think i would rather listen to an amp/dac that doesn't change to sound for me, id like the choice in the matter.

Correct me if i'm wrong please....

The 24 bit is just supposed to be a higher resolution dac, it can't change a 16 bit recording to a 20 bit or 24 bit. There are recordings made with 20 bit dacs for the resolution but the redbook standard for CD, is the sampling rate and cd's are played back at 16 bit. It is the limit on actual sampling rate in the system and the bit rate that was and is often the curse of the the standard. SACD's tried to overcome this but Sony and Phillips didn't do a good job at marketing and people used to mp3 didn't see any reason to pay the extra money for SACD's nor do or did they have the system that could really resolve what a good SACD can offer. It will take something else if anything does, to give good quality sound but frankly so many people are used to crappy sound that they don't know that there could be something that could reproduce a lifelike natural sound. With all the ipods hammering away at the eardrums, who needs anything else?

I see so basically the dac wont really do anything to the sound to change it then? I t has the capability to change but doesn't due to the CD source? Correct? Sorry if i sound thick, i'm trying to get to grasps with a few things.

@jamato8 / anyone else in china

For those who have contacts/are able to buy these units in China. I have a friend visiting Hong Kong and Shenzhen this winter break, and he's offered to pick up some audio stuff for me.

I was wondering if anyone here had the addresses for any audio shops in Hong Kong / Shenzhen which might carry the Zero (and quite possible the little dot lineup) of audio equipment.

I no longer live in China but there are few members here who live in Hong Kong.

Happen to know which members might be available to direct me to the location of some audio shops in hong kong?