Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 528

Always best to avoid unnecessary conversions, less jitter.

man that sucks - sorry to hear it! As someone who just a few weeks ago had to deal with chargebacks - I know how much it sucks. Why is it that we have to wait months for the bank to fix something someone else screwed up? Oh well. Hope it works out.

Sorry, man. When I tried to post my question it sent me to some advertisement page so I went back and posted it again. My bad.

I have no idea I've only had the Zero for about a month and yesterday was the first time I had to use the RCA jacks. Come to think of it, the optical jack is a bit loose as well.

Anyone else can chime in on this?

Because I'm seriously considering selling the DV332, but if the problem lies with the Zero, then I'll send it back to get fixed.

It's just a PITA, to be honest. Still, it's not been a wasted effort. I've got all my cash back now, and the transformer has been mailed out to a fellow chap in the UK who received a Zero with a buzzing transformer. Figured the least I could do was make good where possible on Lawrence's failed customer service .

Thought I'd do alright out of the deal. Told him to bung me £5 to cover the cost of post and packing, and leave me with enough for a beer. Bought a new reel of packing tape for a pound, spent 30 minutes stripping the Zero down to get the transformer out without snipping any of the wires(have to remove both front and rear plates to get at the sockets and power switches). Went to the Post Office today to mail it to him... £4.30! After buying the tape, I'm currently running at a loss!

Still, I get to sleep easier at night, knowing I've done something good today .

~Phewl

No problem mate. Just thought I'd say something rather than have a new member wonder why nobody was talking to him .

~Phewl.

I was enjoying my FrankenZero as usual with my new HA-RX900 cans until suddenly it just sort of, died. There were no snap crackle pops in the case or the cans. Just suddenly went silent. The lights inside the case and the front (with buttons and all) still works but no sound comes out. Definitely not my headphones; there's several other sources such as my soundcard for that. Also for additional note, the FrankenZero mod was done about 2-3 weeks ago.

This happened during when I was listening. The first thing I did was just give it some small whacks and apparently when that didn't fix it, I went on to do some surgery on my Zero for any bad joints (I'll admit I used a terrible 25W soldering iron. It literally had no tip, just a 1cm diameter cylinder thing.). I've also checked to see if any there were any possible wirings that could touch other wires. Finding none, I just closed it up and ran Zero.

I still got the same outcome, no sound. At this stage, I have no idea what can be wrong with my Zero. I'll be posting pics later when I can find the time.

Also is it normal if the power supply (huge circle thing I believe) feels about the same as room temperature? All my other components seems to run hotter then the power supply. I can hear some hum coming from the FrankenZero when volume is way up with headphones but when music is played, none of that instruments I long for comes out.

Edit: Don't know how to do those little thumbnail picture things and since there's quite a lot of pictures taken, I've decided to take the liberty of uploading them through Mediafire. 16 total.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oj1mwqmn4jn

Im thinking of buying a Zero, I noticed there's a pre-moded one on ebay with HDAM, LT1364 and Upgraded volume pot, is this the best Zero combination? and this one is sold by Lawrence which i've heard has been dropping the ball lately, there's also another version sold, it looks like a stock Zero with OPA627's installed in the headphone amp, sold by wcz guy.. which one of these would be best.

Zero wise, offcourse the one that lawrence sells, seller wise wsz0304 is a far better seller as far as service goes, and may would agree in this forum.

with the UBS--> optical converter will it still be able to put out 24bit/192? the zero doesn't have a usb connection on its own right?

lastly, is there any way to bypass the preamp?

Hello there, athenasword, as far as I know the USB/optical converter - which I also have - works just fine with 24/192 and actually gives quite brilliant results even with high modded gear like the FrankenZero, that a few of us have.
Yes, the pre-amp is easily bypassed by pushing the button labeled "Preamp" until the green light goes off, then the signal is routed straight out of the DAC, bypassing both the amp and the volume control.
Cheers, S-Man

Lawrence's ebay account is biglawhk. IMHO do not buy from him.

that's exactly what i need man, thanks!! I was under the impression that USB is limited to 16bit/48kHz

i've seen a couple of these frankenzeroes online, how much more do they cost compared to the standard zeroes? and do they make any improvements to the DAC or issit in the amp section? i'm planning on purchasing a DAC for a set of active monitors

Actually little over 50 bucks and you can have your Zero Frankenstined, I heard it makes hell of a difference, so much that some folks after mods have given up the idea of getting a dedicated headphone amp. You can PM - Pricklely Peete (Guru on Zeros), I believe he still has a few sets of caps etc, you will need for the mod.. I am trying to get one set down for myself too..