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Dont´mention it .
Thanks for the welcome!!!
Off Topic: Did You buy this DAC?

High Grade 24bit/192khz DAC with fully assembled kits - eBay (item 120471853019 end time Sep-27-09 11:20:25 PDT)

I want to giving a try. A need something for the office...What´s your opinion..Is worth It? or Is it not a big deal??
Thanks
Marcelo

The DAC I bought still has the pictures of the original gigawork version. Gigawork 24/192 Up-sampling DAC DA CONVERTER w/ USB kit - eBay (item 120471864056 end time Sep-27-09 11:37:16 PDT) I'm not that knowledgeable about electronics but that DAC you linked to looks like an upgrade of the one I bought. I can only imagine that separating the power supply and analog sections improve the performance over the old single pcb design. I never did pick up a case for mine so I haven't spent that much time listening with it. It did sound pretty good though.

just a few quick questions

has anyone changed their opamps to HDAM? if so do you only change in the DAC area, the headphone amp area or both. currently i have ordered one of each HDAM off audio gd and awaiting for my 2009 verison to arrive

second question is, how do you ground the HDAM. i read that people grounding at the RCA and some people do it at the volume pot. If possible someone can take a picture of how their HDAM is currently hooked in. so i can have a look as a reference. i have also read that some people use alligator clips. do they ground at the same area?

thanks

l-

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There's a GND point on the board of the '09 new Zero. Grounding is very easy.

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does the grounding require to solder to the pcb? or is it a clip

Here is a pic of how I put three earth's in my zero. Mine came with ring connectors soldered on already. I used some of the plastic packaging from a weller solder pump as the insulation for the modules. I will have to take some more pics when my new $10 stepped attenuators show up. I'm going to swap all the petp bypass caps for pio's like in the real frankenzero mod as well. If you don't need to have the cover on your zero like I do you can always just stack some of these 8-pin DIP IC Socket high enough for the hdams to clear the caps on the amp.

that's quite cool crapback i'll look forward to seeing some more pictures of your zero setup. i can't wait to get mine. EMS shipping site doesn't keep up to date like other parcel company. dam dodgy china shipping

Thanks levin. One thing to be aware of is the location of the ground screw next to the dac opamp socket. You have to be careful to make sure the ring connector doesn't touch those other parts near it. There is not much clearance there at all as in a millimeter at most.

If you are into modding stuff, or learning like I am you should check out this thread. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/fra...-heart-370985/
Most of the changes have already been made to the '09 version but they don't add the bypass caps which make a huge improvement.

EMS has been weird with the stuff i've had shipped by them. It usually arrives in the US before their site updates.

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a screw

hehehe i don't have the heart to take apart the dac/amp and re-solder new parts yet. i'll give it a few months first before i start to take it apart and replace them. for now the easy opamp change to HDAM will do

At stock, how far behind is the Zero from the Compass? With the HDAM switch out, how much closer does it get? Can it run some of the better cans well (K701, HD650, BT880 range)? Trying to decide between the Zero and the Aune since the Compass is out of my price range.

Thanks!

FraGGleR to be honest from what people have been writing about in previous threads about Zero DAC comparison to Compass, the compass comes up top. its quite hard to say because its not in the same price range or even in the same product range as you would say. from what i have been reading the DAC Compass comes with better build than the Zero DAC. then again spending about 200 bucks on this and add another 30usd per HDAM should be a decent upgrade (i hope to opamp roll when i receive mine) or i think wsz on ebay does the dual opamp version. or there's a lawrance version with the DAC and Headphone opamp changed for you

The zero even at stock has no problem driving my 650's or my 990's. I can't turn it up past about the 9 o'clock position before it gets too loud for me. As for comparison to a compass, I'd have to say that even with three earth's, petp bypass caps and most of the frankenzero mods already done on my '09, the compass just sounds better. My modded zero doesn't sound bad at all either. I think it sounds pretty sweet for what i've invested.

I spent some time just rolling opamps and thought I had found the best combo for me with an AD797brz in the dac and two LT1361's in the amp. I wanted to hear some hdams so I ordered some and slapped the earth's in the zero. They made a huge improvement with better dynamics, bass detail, instrument separation and a much more natural soundstage than I could hear with IC opamps.

I have a lot to learn about modding so the zero seemed like a nice cheap piece to start with and I've had fun playing around with it so I think it's worth the price of admission.
It's not a good way to avoid upgraditis though.

Hello everyone! Just got myself a Zero DAC 2009 edition. Btw i connecting this to my PC using the USB. But i can't seems to adjust volume through my windows volume control.. I'm only able to control the volume through my speaker control pod. Is that normal?

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Sounds normal.