Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 542

I do not know LC personally, but if lately what I read of him on the forum represents 2% of his business, I can well imagine how his other 98% business must be handled.
It is true that it might be a loss for the forum, but then we are dealing with a Chinese product, and I am sure someone will fill that gap, as currywong was saying that Wsz, may as well sell the same moded ZERO at the price LC was offering or maybe a little more, and if he is able to keep up the same level of service like his other products, I feel it would be worth the little hike in price..
Just my honest opinion..

Just want to say that my LT1364/alps pot/HDAM from lawrence on e-bay had no problems at all. Both optical/spdif ports work. Sound is great, etc. No problem, and all the parts look right too.

I purchased this recently, too... so there can be some good things. Although, considering the negative things happening, it WOULD be a risk I suppose.

Two bits of news: I can now officially say that the Zero is not just "flavour of the month" but is now "Flavour of the year" on Head-fi, this thread now being a year old!

The second is, in response to the various issues and imperfections in the Zero, Audio-gd is going to design reasonably priced DAC/amp with better quality components and a better sound, for around US$200 or so. The thread for discussing this is here.

That is good news !
Apologies, I quoted you wrong in my previous post regarding the moded zeros..

So does anyone have any recommendations for headamp opamps that will provide a really bassy experience? These LT1364 chips are nice, but my 880s just don't have the bass I'd like them to.

Hmm not really as I use a different amp, but if you swap out your 627s in the DAC for an HDAM you'd see a nice improvement overall. I don't know if you'd get MORE base per se, but it would be livelier and punchier and sound more effortless. Other might disagree, and I'm going on your description of what you're looking for, but I might actually recommend the Sun for what you seem to like. It was the most dynamic and lively to my ears - many here prefer neutral, in which case the Earth would be a better choice. But the Sun had a nice sound I liked too.

I'm no expert, pretty new here. Here's my experience with my Zero.

Beyer 770 "Premium 2005" 250 ohm, very short on Bass, Detailed mids/Highs, A little strident and Sibilant on the top. Got rid of these in a week.

Senn HD650's(un-modded) Nice Tight Controlled Accurate Bass(Plenty), Liquid Mids, laidBack treble

Denon AH-D5000(un-modded) Bass to kick you out the chair! Feels like I got Ghetto Blasters on both sides of my head with Hip Hop Base Tracks.

Same DAC/Headamp for the all. I do have the HDAM and 1364's

Waiting for Beyer 770-80 Pro's to do my Onw Woody.

Moral: I would examine your phones. My Zero delivers base that will Rattle my Teeth on the Senn's and Denon phones.

YMMV

p.s. Ohhh, what rattles my teeth might not rattle yours. I did put some tones through mine and I could "hear" down into the 15 hz zone pretty well.

Sorry to be a newb, but does the XtremeMusic FlexiJack --> Zero DAC count as a 'good source'? In other words, theoretically speaking, is it a good enough source to have the 'best components' down stream?

Also, is the DAC on the Zero better than say... an Auzentech Prelude Sound Card?

To answer your questions......Yes and without a doubt YES.

The X-Fi is actually being used as transport to the Zero, the Zero then becomes the source component. I just wanted to clarify that.

I have a Prelude, although good (as a DAC) it's simply not in the same league as the Frankie. It is however an excellent card to use as a "transport" to a FrankenZERO or Zero.

The real difference is the quality of power supplies, the Prelude's being a POS in a noisy environment vs the far superior highly regulated PSU in the Zero (and further improved in the FrankenZERO). Of course the additional circuitry of the analog/logic sections of the FranklenZERO or Zero is also far superior to the Auzen (or any PC SC IMO) because of the discrete OPA's that can be used, parts and topology being free of space/heat and a myriad of other restrictions/drawbacks that computer SC's have to deal with.

Peete.

Peete,
Quick question. There was some back and forth in the beginning about the Zero PS and running three HDAMs in the Zero. The Headamp in the Zero pumps out some heat with a couple of little OpAmps in there.
So here's the question, can the Zero run three OpAmps stock?

Can the Franken Zero mods run 3 HDAM's?

Third question, ya send my kit, ehhh? I got the Iron Idling!

I threw in the Ehhh, so you'd understand me. I love speakin' foreign languages!

Hi there,
Iwould like to know if the zero DAC can work with DVD players in 5.1 mode (Dolby or DTS).
and if it works do you hear all the 6 chanels in stereo or only 2 of them ?
Or should I force the player to run on PCM mode (less quality).
Regards

No to 5.1 DTS etc, you need dedicated chipset for that, 2ch. only on zero .

Running Sun HDAM atm... sure beats Earth!

Stereo only - you should use PCM - which depending on the source isn't necessarily less quality. DVD's can use uncompressed PCM in stereo, or surround with Dolby Digital or DTS - BOTH of which are compressed, lossy formats. So if you have an uncompressed source, PCM isn't actually "less" quality.

Your best results will come from uncompressed, stereo sources, such as CDs, FLAC files, DVD-Audio discs, etc. The Zero is not a dolby decoder or processor, it is a stereo digital to analog converter and amplifier.

As for what you will hear (all surround channels or just two) it all depends. If your DVD player can do a mixdown and send via PCM over optical, you will hear all 6 channels mixed into 2. Usually though it is best to select a stereo audio stream if the disc has one. More discs used to include the 2-channel dolby surround mixes, but lately they don't pop up as often. I'm not sure how your player handles it's "forced PCM" mode though.

Thanks ScottieB and BigTony

Just an additional note to Scottie B's usual great advice...DVD-A audio streams can only be played back if the stream itself is unlocked or unencrypted. MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) is the DVD-A compression/encryption scheme on 99% of all the DVD-A's sold and as such will not allow a free and clear digital output from the transport component.

The only way I know of to get around MLP encoded DVD-A's is to record the analog output from the DVD-A player into the computer (at 24/96 ) and save these streams as .wav files. I suppose they can then be converted to FLAC although I'm not 100% sure FLAC supports 24/96 PCM wav files for conversion. Maybe someone can clarify this for me.

Les, I emailed you when I shipped your kit (Nov 25). It'll be there soon !!

The 3 HDAM config for my Zero didn't give the results I expected. Some say the bass is fine (in stock config) while my findings, the bass leaned out considerably and was restored when the LT1364's were reinserted in the H/Amp section. That prompted me to give the head amp section a power supply all it's own that is posted in the Zero mod thread on the DIY forum. That did solve my issue. YMMV ...it was also somewhat impractical to do since the chassis could not allow a clean install of the new reg board and additional transformer,(nevermind the cost being more than the DAC itself )

That is why I have another chassis still in transit from China to complete that mod properly (for a nice finished two chassis look, the 2 bolted together of course). That is still pending as are many other mods I have going on at the moment and waiting to be done. IMHO though it's better to sink that money into a better dedicated amp and use the Zero/FrankenZERO strictly as a DAC.The best SQ result comes from using the unit this way.


Peete.