Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 527

Quick 'buring in question'.
When I get my new HDAMs, can I put them in the H/A section (along with HDAM Earth in DAC) and plug phones in to speed up burn in time? Or won't it power 3 HDAMs at the same time?
I don't use the H/A section much, mainly used a DAC for my DV 332.

Cheers

It'll power 3 HDAMs at the same time with no problems in my testing.

Does anyone want to buy my Zero from me? It comes with opa 627's on a brown dog adaptor and upgraded op amps in the headphone section.

PM me for more details.

I have just made a buffalo dac and i already own an opus dac + beresford dac so one of them has to go.

Anyone here have a spare HDAM that they would want to sell? I'd be interested in buying if you're not using it anymore.

theres one in ebay now :

Brand-New Audio-GD Dual-OPA HDAM Earth Opamp w/ Extras! - eBay (item 290275503113 end time Nov-22-08 06:46:52 PST)

and currently I am the highest bidder!!!

thanks, too bad he only has one...looks like I should also bid on this one

I just acquired a used DV332 with Ulyanovsk 6S19P-V and Mullard M8110 tubes to pair with my HD595. The bass seems to be (unusually) too pronounced and overpowering, and sounds very muddy, as if the higher frequencies have been lost. It sounds a lot like the Zero before I snipped off the caps at the headamp section and RCA jacks. Malos, who had the 332+595 combo said he did not have the impression, and I haven't heard complaints like this from 650 owners.

Could this be due to the iffy RCA jack on my Zero? The RCA cables fit very loosely (as in the holes of the RCA jack seem a little too large), and I had to use a lot of blutack and do a lot of adjustment before I could get a signal.

my Zero cant put the top cover i just open like that hehehe i prefer not using extension cable shorter is better :P
more close up picture
wut i mod :-
Putting Panasonic FC for Power section , Elna RJH for opamp supply , Nichicon Muse for DAC , Elna Silmic II and Silmic for regulator, puting 6N silver wire for RCA output with Neutrik RCA female plug.

Poor contact is really going to compromise the signal. You need to get all the jacks tight fitting, how come they were so loose?

Very nice indeed.. Thank God I am blind and not deaf....

If I wanted to hook up a Zero dac to my laptop, how would something like the Xitel converter with a USB connection compare to having a plugging in soundcard and conneting it via an optical cord? Is there much sound quality difference between the two?
I'm thinking about getting an X-fi sound card but I wasn't sure how this would compare tothe USB connection route. Thanks.

Hiya Scottie,

Paypal washed their hands of me instantly. The item was not purchased through eBay, and as-such the Paypal "protection" is utterly worthless. Because my issue was with the quality of the product, and not with a missing product, they quite literally shut down my dispute immediately(despite me submitting several emails without response from the seller), finding that the seller had completed their obligations. This is despite the unit shipping with scratches on it, no sound from one channel, and standard opamps when the order clearly stated the purchase was of the unit with uprated opamps.

A lot of people on here seemed to think that I was over-reacting, and that Lawrence would come good in the end. He never made contact again, and more and more people on here started to come forward with problems with their purchase - from incorrectly installed opamps, and standard opamps rather than the paid-for upgraded items, to units built with incorrectly-orientated capacitors, and failing to work at all.

I ended up talking with my bank and having a chargeback issued against Paypal. With a little luck they'll deduct the money from the seller .

It seems I was the first to encounter his period of selling after he paid less attention and put in less and less effort. Another member has emailed me, with similar contact problems with Lawrence, and has also had to instigate a chargeback after Paypal washed their hands of it all.

Paypal and Lawrence are as useful as each other.

~Phewl.

Also, would something like the Zero's DAC totally cancel out the DAC of a soundcard? Probably a stupid question.

djchaz - you posted the same question at 42 minutes past the hour, and 49 minutes past the hour. You need to give folks a chance to respond! Someone will chime in with their opinion over the course of the next few hours .

~Phewl

Yes, check penchum's sig for a review of the laptop x-fi card. to his ears, it makes a pretty big difference. Those USB things can be shoddy, normally don't handle the high resolutions an audio card can, and (this last oone is personal preference but...) I don't like tying up my already over-busy USB bus with yet another device (one that needs to be as clean as possible).