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Maverick Audio DAC/Amp - Page 8

post #106 of 2425
11/8/09 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bearmann View Post
Thanks moodyrn for your opinion. I got an email from Ryan where he mentioned that he will release a revised version of the Maverick DAC soon. With swappable opamps and tube.
I think I'll get one of those...

best regards,
bearmann
Damn, i already ordered one of these...
Oh well i wouldn't bother upgrading it unless i could afford to get burson discretes for the whole thing which won't be for a while now. I could do with upgrading my speaker amp too...
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FiiO E5 Headphone Amplifier
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post #107 of 2425
11/8/09 at 1:07pm
Depending how much he raised the price, that should be an even greater deal. I've noticed he's already raised the price 40.00. I already replaced the tube in mine with a nos ge jan 5670. I got for about 10.00. They are very cheap. Dip sockets aren't expensive either, so he shouldn't raise it that much. But you never know.
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post #108 of 2425
11/8/09 at 1:31pm
Can HDAM ( Earth,Moon, and Sun) be put into the Mav. if Ryan adds sockets ?
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post #109 of 2425
11/8/09 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by moodyrn View Post
This thing is more powerful than the compass I use to have(which is a very powerful amp). It drives all of my cans without any hint of distortion. My only complaint is, the gain needs to be a lot lower. 10:00 with my 600ohm sextetts is very loud. It hurts to go anywhere near 12:00 with them. My hd580 rarely sees anything past 9:00. My 44ohm shures and 40ohm ad1000s sounds great. As a result of the gain being so high, there is a little hiss with my lower ohm cans. It's not loud, but with no music playing, it's noticable. This is one area that the compass beats it. The compass was completely quiet with all of my cans. But I'm starting to enjoy this more than I enjoyed my compass. It just sounds more neutral, airy, and detailed in comparison. I did really enjoy the compass laid back sound, but it was lacking in detail. It doesn't sound as organic and 3 dimensional as my ming da, but It's every bit as powerful. My ming da also have a much wider soundstage as well. But, I'm really surprised by how good the headphone amp is. I remember reading on another forum of people saying the the headphone amp was on par with a 300.00 amp. I have to agree. In my opinion, just the amp alone is well worth the asking price. The dac is pretty good as well. Compared to dacs I've owned in the 200-400.00 price range, I would rank it better than the compass, valab, zero and zhaoulu. The valab was slightly more musical, but it lacking in details and soundstage compared to this. The compass just sounds more digital in comparison, and zero and zhaolu isn't even worth mentioning. I'm very happy with this so far. The comparisons to the dacs I used to own is from memory, but I do have a pretty good memory about how they sounded and how they compared to the dac in my pioneer elite receiver. Neither on was significantly better. Some were not as good, but I can clearly hear an improvement with this dac.
Thanks for the comparisons, especially to other competitors in the general price range! So from a SQ standpoint, it is a great deal, add in the switching knob and the looks and I am sold. Now to find some more money...
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post #110 of 2425
11/8/09 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by moodyrn View Post
Depending how much he raised the price, that should be an even greater deal.
He wrote, that it'll be sold for $199 when pre-ordering.

Quote:
Originally Posted by boomy3555 View Post
Can HDAM ( Earth,Moon, and Sun) be put into the Mav. if Ryan adds sockets ?
Space could become a problem... spec wise they should fit in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by markop2003 View Post
Oh well i wouldn't bother upgrading it unless i could afford to get burson discretes for the whole thing which won't be for a while now. I could do with upgrading my speaker amp too...
AFAIK the default opamp is the NE5532 - one of the worst and oldest opamps in audio circuits. Even replacing it with a LM4562NA should result in a significantly enhanced sound.

best regards.
bearmann
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post #111 of 2425
11/8/09 at 8:55pm
Hi everybody im new on this forum, but has been lurking for a while. .
I just talked with Ryan and here are the new improvements :

- Direct button to disable vol control
- Line-in socket on front panel
- newly designed front panel
- OpAmp in the DAC is "socketed". Makes it easier for people to switch OpAmp.

And here are some pictures of the final design :
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6410/final17.jpg
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post #112 of 2425
11/8/09 at 9:53pm
Am I the only one here curious as to why the headphone out is not part of the tube section ? It would seem a bit silly to go through the trouble of building a tube amp and then not have that tube flavor go to the headphone out as well. At least there should be seperate HP out for the tube section. If there was, this amp would be a hell of a contender in the price range.
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post #113 of 2425
11/8/09 at 10:56pm
This is interesting. Based on the location of buttons, I wonder if this is an entirely new design. Grant Fidelity has stated on their forum that since they are exclusive North American retailer of this unit, after November mav audio would no longer sell this. They also state that they will receive the existing stock that mav audio would have left. I thought it was a bunch of bull, but looking at the timing of the new design, now I'm not so sure. They also state that pacific valve would no longer be selling the Xiansheng DAC 01. I've noticed that pacific valve have dropped the price from 299 to 275. I would really like to see pics of the internals of the newly revised mav.
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post #114 of 2425
11/9/09 at 6:38am
It'd be strange if Ryan's new DAC would be based on a totally different design. I think that he changed the faceplate and connectivity on purpose to avoid too much resemblance to Grant Fidelity's DAC...

best regards.
bearmann
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post #115 of 2425
11/9/09 at 10:44am
He probably has to change enough things to avoid litigation (wouldn't really work), or his access to the factory (more likely). At any rate, it seems like a bunch of improvements. As long as he keeps it as nice looking as the first one, and doesn't take a step back in sound quality (and doesn't make it too expensive), then he might have a winner on his hands. For the price and seeming quality, I am surprised this didn't get more pub here. It seems that lesser quality products become wildly popular while some get lost in the night.

As for the tube being used for the headphone out, I don't know enough about the technology to speculate properly, but would it be possible to use the tube analog out to hook into the analog in and play through the headphones? Or would that create some infinite loop thing and tear a hole in the universe (and probably break the amp)?
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post #116 of 2425
11/9/09 at 2:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FraGGleR View Post
As for the tube being used for the headphone out, I don't know enough about the technology to speculate properly, but would it be possible to use the tube analog out to hook into the analog in and play through the headphones? Or would that create some infinite loop thing and tear a hole in the universe (and probably break the amp)?
Nice idea but it wouldn't work, the line outs are muted as soon as you put the headphone jack in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bearmann View Post
AFAIK the default opamp is the NE5532 - one of the worst and oldest opamps in audio circuits. Even replacing it with a LM4562NA should result in a significantly enhanced sound.
Meh, i say go all out or don't bother at all :P
Anyway the improvement would have to be worth the effort of the soldering job, i guess i could just add sockets then i'ld have them there if i want to change them in the future.

Mine arrived today, very nice and the amp is very powerful. I would note though that the standard cables are bargain bin (kinda obvious, the optical feels like fishing line).
Maybe it's just terrible tube (most likely) or maybe i just don't like tube sound, either way the tube output sounds lazy, there's just no real punch therel. Solid state however is nice and clear.
Overall it sounds very bassy at the moment, maybe that'll tighten up later after burn in. I'll leave it on over night and see if it's changed in the morning.
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post #117 of 2425
11/9/09 at 3:08pm
I don't know if yours came with the same tube as my xs version, but I didn't like the tube out much either. I changed it out with a nos GE jan 5670, and now it sounds much better. I even prefer it to the non tube output now.
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post #118 of 2425
11/9/09 at 3:17pm
Do we already have a list of good substitute tubes?!
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post #119 of 2425
11/9/09 at 5:34pm
any nos 5670 would be a big improvement over the stock tube. 5670s are widely available and are pretty cheap. I got mine for around 10.00.
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post #120 of 2425
11/9/09 at 6:29pm
I think the price is already going up. The ebay link posted in the op got sold. So I searched for another. Here it is. It is now $239?
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