Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 499

Do a double check. With the way mine was packaged, I thought he forgot as well but it eventually fell out onto the floor.

oh hey its there! For some reason I thought the extensions would soldered onto the hdam itself. Now, another problem.

I switched out the stock ne5532s for LT1634s and the sound was very quiet. Obviously something was wrong so I decided to switch back to the NE5532 and the same thing happens. Doesn't matter much since I only use the zero as a dac but it will give me some peace of mind having a working amp section.

Glad to hear you found it

Sounds to me like you put the headphone stage opamps in backwards, forgot to select the "preamp" option where the green light is on or just dont have the volume up to ~9:00.

As an aside here, has anyone had to make extra ventilation for the HDAM when mounted across the DAC board? It seems to get quite warm even with the top off.

I have a question:
I want to get this to connect to my MacBook. Can I use the Xitel MD-Port DG2 that is included to do this? Or should I get a adapter that goes from digital to 3.5? I want to this with my AE2s and future desktop rig.. Thanks.

hey peete I remember way back when someone posted pictures of their hdam next to the transformer and you said it was ok. I wanted to do the same because I got my 200mm extension today. I figured since it was closer to the vent it would help with cooling. Would the transformer mess with the sound quality or cause interference?

New problem(?) with my unit. Sometimes when I play a song, there would be crackling throughout the song, which corrects itself if I restart the song. The only digital out (of the correct size, I have no adapters) I have on my computer is the onboard sound card which I have not used before, at all. I've plugged phones directly into the card and they don't experience this once-in-a-while crackling sound. Is this a DAC problem, opamp problem, or just a soundcard problem?

Also, selecting 192KHz output from the soundcard makes the DAC board do a clicking sound but produces no sound.

I'm obviously not very technically proficient about DACs and soundcards, so assistance would be appreciated.

Are you using optical? 192KHz is only possible with coax, not optical, and you really won't have any benefit to upscaling imho, just keep it at 44hz or whatever the source material is, bit-perfect.

I've had crackling once or twice, and it was interference from the powerline in my case. Try to move the dac, and make sure you do not have something like fluorescent bulb or perhaps a dimmer switch, those can cause hums and interference. Cellphones may also cause such crackling.

I have a couple relatives in China, so I want to buy two audio-gd's
Should I go for earth and moon? What would be best sounding, or most fun?

I am using coax, actually.

I don't think the crackling is interference, because as I've said, the crackling fixes itself when I restart the song. It seems like a problem on the computer end with the data it's sending on the cable? I dunno.

Sweet!! Now tell them to go to Lawrence and kick his ass and tell him to send me my damn zero parts...

I've heard people complain about this problem with built-in cards in the past - was one (of several) reasons I bought a discrete sound card. It may (unfortunately) be the digital out of the card. If you've never used the sound card before, what have you used instead? If you have a card with a mini-optical out (like x-fi) it would be worth it to get a cable for that. They aren't expensive really.

Indeed that's the case, I have an Audigy 2 Gamer I use for my headset with a mini-coax out. I just haven't gotten around to buying a mini-to-RCA converter yet. Also I liked the idea of not having to unplug my headset to plug in my DAC everytime I wanted to do something other than game. Oh well!

OK check this out:
CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2zs WITH BREAKOUT BOX*NR* - eBay (item 170272880894 end time Oct-26-08 19:02:43 PDT)

That means there was a breakout box made for that series, no?
Or maybe even the ones for the x-fis might work? I love that thing - was one of the reasons I got the card I did. The headphone jack served my Grado's quite well... for a while. Anyway if you could find one of those cheap it would solve all your problems and keep both DAC and headset digital.

Heh just a thought.

Hi bundee1,

You should be alright if you want to move it back...you'll have to add an extension lead to your ground wire to reach the Jack assembly ground pin though.

Peete.

Drop your sample rate back to either 44.1 khz as DaMnEd suggests or 96/88.2, you'll get no real benefit from 192, 96, 88.2, or 48 khz anyway. Hi rez files are another story (most are at 24/96, some at 24/192 with the most common 24/48 ). If you want to up sample choose 48, 88.2 or 96 khz. 88.2 is a simple 2 X multiple and should not give an decent SC a problem with the math.

Try 44.1 bit perfect for a while. I find I prefer it greatly over up sampling. YMMV of course

Peete.