Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 541

I think the one LC offers is Xitel DG2, or some other name but the same thing. Sony even used this little device as their official offering for transferring digital sound into their MD units. It's based on the ancient Philips UDA1321 chip, which, as I said in a previous post, has serious jitter problem. Do a search on ebay, you can find several different USB/SPDIF implementation. I would rank them(roughly, actual implementation and assembling quality do matter) in this order: cm10x optical < pcm270x optical < pcm290x optical < cm10x coaxial < pcm270x coaxial < pcm290x coaxial. This is only meant for cheap converters <$50, like this one currently on sale on ebay Mini USB to SPDIF (coaxial) (Use PCM2906) Converters - eBay (item 300276601659 end time Dec-03-08 16:22:54 PST). It's PCM2906 based and only $40 shipped. I'd say it's a good deal. If you can stop LC from shipping the converter, I suggest you do.

Edit: sorry, I did not pay attention on the fact that you've already received the converter. My bad.

Needs to have CN8 in the part number. If it does, it will work.

Lucky you ! maybe you should ask him for the labor charges for fixing the pot and HDAM, as he asked you for the price of the pclink (which you may not require..) ..
Well, the good thing is that even though he reads mails pretty late, he does read this forum !!

Hi,
What makes you think he pays attention to this forum. Seems that if he did, we wouldn't have had a bunch of these issues.

Thats also true, what you say makes a lot of sense..

I was asking, what made you say this?

Well, the good thing is that even though he reads mails pretty late, he does read this forum !!

I don't think LC has time to read this forum at all....seriously.

Peete.

Well, a couple of days back, the forum was talking about him after one of the members, didn't receive the HDAM and pot.. and maybe he read that and responded to the buyer.. because there has been cases he didn't reply for more than a month..

I'm pretty sure that person would have emailed about the missing parts rather than hoping LC read it here first. That doesn't make any sense IMO. I told the OP to email him right away so it can be looked after...I'm willing to bet that is what happened.

Not saying he couldn't have read it here......just that it's not very likely he did (IMO of course).

Peete.

If I decided to do the whole upgrade path with buying an Earth HDAM, LT1364, and Alps pot, how much do you think this would cost compared to what Lawrence is selling?

Dont know about LC, but if it was me, I would surely keep an eye on this forum ( as he does get clients from here), if especially my goodwill and business depended to even a little extent to what was spoken about me in this forum..
But then, there has been times when a lot was said about him out here about the case with burnt senns and still he took months to respond the buyer, so maybe you are right..

I did this math recently. It is close either way. Here's what you need to ask yourself.

1) Can you desolder and resolder in a new Volume Pot?
2)Can you put in the HDAM and Opamp? it is easy, but you should understand how to do it.
3) Do you want all the drama that has come about from LC recently?

I was going to buy another Zero for a project I am working on and thought I would buy it from LC, since I had no issues from him and felt maybe he had a bad run. Then some more stuff came out about him. It is not the fact that he might have issues that require repair or replacement that bothers me. It's how he "writes you off" if there is a problem that bothers me.

98% of all Zero sales are domestic. Just an FYI. It puts into perspective where priorities may lie, harsh as that may seem. It's still unacceptable to be making these types of errors for any customer regardless of where the order comes from. I think some credit should be handed out to LC for trying and succeeding for the most part, to give us what other vendors refuse to offer. The Head Fi deal, the HDAM and Alps pot......if the track record of late was only an honest mistake or two every once in a blue moon we wouldn't be having this debate and all would be well.

I actually think he's so busy that these kind of mistakes are frequent and inevitable. It's too bad the best deal for a tweaked Zero turns out be a gamble when the order is placed....that is a loss to the forum that can only be redeemed with proper and prompt action from LC to make things right......I'm still a little shocked that AudioPhewl was never properly taken care of when his Zero arrived DOA. I simply cannot understand why LC hasn't put this right. It's way way too late now as AP has said. In any event that is an overall loss for the Head Fi membership IMO. As always others may fill in the gap but not offer the same deals.....

Peete.

Yes, the Xitel is a complete piece of crap. For the cost of postage, I'd give mine away ... on second thought, no I won't. I need to end this things little life right here.

BTW, I replaced mine with a $30 sound card and $25 Blue Jeans cable. It's pure sonic bliss. The difference is night and day.

I just got my hdam (earth) today in the mail that I bought from ebay and after listening to a few tracks, I noticed that the vocals were more balanced (?) with the overall music. I think with my opa627, the vocals was taking over and too in your face, but with the hdam, it seems to me that it somehow stepped back and joined the rest of the music. It's a bit weird because I was used to the vocals taking front and center. Soundstage is better also.

Will this change after 100 hours?