Maverick Audio DAC/Amp - Page 76

Just swapped op-amps to the recommended LT1364CN8#PBF - LM4562NA/NOPB combo.

Huge difference! Sounds soooooo goood.

Cut down a lot of the headphone hiss, too.

Is there a guide to swapping op-amps? Is doing such a thing noob-friendly?

I'm interested, but don't know where to start and how to start searching for information.

It's about as noob-friendly as upgrades get.

Order the parts, open up the D1, pull the old op-amps out and put the new ones in.

No soldering or anything.

LT1364 goes in the socket next to the tube, LM4562 goes in the other one.

I havn't put in the LT chip, waiting on it to arrive some time next week. With the LM chip though it cut down on some sharp noises I didn't notice until my ears felt more relaxed

USB,(hopefully toslink soon) i have a "denon 2910" comming soon tho as well. The plan is to get 1 more amp(phenix g3), and connect one up from the tube out, and ss out, and that way ill have a lil rig that 3 people will be able to enjoy at once all amped, Im not sure if i connect up the solid sate, tube amp at the same time if it will still output to both at the same time without creating resistance on the signal there by affecting the volume for the other listeners.

Technician Spot: C-Media Headset Drivers

These drivers allow full range in windows sound settings from 8khz to 96khz, 16-bit and 24-bit all over USB.

Tested from 8khz to 96khz using dsound from foobar and every setting worked properly(8khz sounding terrible and 44khz+ sounding as it sound). WASAPI worked without resampling in foobar.

I don't know if it is giving you bit-perfect though with WASAPI. No way to test this.(with spdif coax/Digital there is an audible electronic click. Don't get that with USB and there is noticeable changes between the low rates and the higher rates so the drivers are doing their job by allowing more than 48khz)

Don't know if the drivers are doing anything strange but doesn't seem like it with a little A/B with spdif. More testing from more advanced users would be great.

Just a warning, my virus scanner pushed up a false positive on one of the files(scanned it with two more virus scanners and came up negative. False Positive on Comodo, clean on Kasperspy and housecall)Might want to scan it yourself and take caution. Edit: ran a few more scans with various pieces of software as well as two seperate full system scans and they came up clean so it is in deed a false positive. My firewall is not bringing up anything strange and I have no strange open ports.

You need to replace this in SoftwareDriver\Driver\cm108.inf
To both segements below %CMIUSB.DeviceDesc%=USB108,USB\VID_0D8C&PID_0001&MI_00 was added. This allows the Maverick Tube Magic D1 to be detected. If you have trouble installing it is possible your PID and VID is different if a different interface card was used.
edit: After you do this you can use setup.exe or if you know how manually install the driver without the added cmedia control panel(simple process but don't want to make the thread more confusing than what it is, maybe i'll add this later on if enough people ask). It is your choice. Please note this guide was made using the driver in the URL and not the newer version of the driver from xdriver.ru. The process is the same, just location of files might be different.

edit: On Vistax64/Win7 x64 you might need to disable driver signing enforcement. This is done by simply jamming the f8 key as your computer is turning on. In the prompt you simply choose the option to load windows without driver signing enforcement. You will need to do this every time you restart your computer.

Image below and larger version uploaded to imageshack.

Can you advise us of a good source for the LT1364 and LM4562 chips? How many of each do we order? Any suggestions for tube swap would be appreciated too. Many thanks!

JP

Hello everyone. I'm purchasing a Sennheiser HD-580 soon, and was looking at the Maverick as a headphone amp/DAC. I've been reading the thread and it appears the physical appearance, build quality, and DAC are all very good. However, as I'm not going to use the preamp, I'm wondering how well the Maverick would operate just as a headphone amp/dac for the high impedance HD-580s.

Any comparison to similar offerings such as the 2009 Zero, Aune Hifidiy MK2 SE, and the Head-Direct HiFiMAN EF2 would be very helpful.

Thats how I use it and it works great. As I have said earlier comparisons can't be made by myself in the subjective differences but the improvement existed for me on a large level and swappable opamps mean you can easily change and tweak the basic sound signature to your liking. Default setup is great as it is though. The gain was lowered and some minor tweaks were made since I got it so its definitely an improving design and priced in such a way that it is a steal for what you get(other amps/dacs charge more for less).

Usually I use digikey but they were out of the LT1364's a few weeks ago so I ordered from arrow electronics Also I highly recommend trying the opa627 for the preamp. I much preferred that to the LT1364. You can get them cheaper from this headfi sponsor. They are still a bit pricey tho...

edit: BTW if you decide to get the opa627 make sure you get the one labeled "OPA2627 SuperChip" ($37) because their 2xdip8 model wont fit without additional sockets and they also cost more.

Ryan,

Are all the new units shipping the variant with the gain reduction? I assume I won't any hiss with high impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD-580/600, but would hiss be an issue with my low impedance Grado SR-60's?

On my MDR-7506's there is a hiss at about 3 clicks into audible levels of volume. They are very low impedence

On the DT770pro/250ohm there is a hiss that develops a little past 50% on my volume knob(which is already way past safely audible for both your ears and headphones)

This is with the original D1 without gain adjustments. As in the newer version of the D1 with gain adjustments shouldn't have any problem with low impedence headphones. They will eventually generate a hiss since this is supposed to support up to 600ohm headphones but much like my DT770pro/250 it'll begin to hiss w/ the volume knob at a level that you would never ever listen to. Some people in this thread have made similar gain adjustments to what Ryan did with the D1 so you can search this entire thread for "gain adjustment" or just "gain" and you might get some better first hand accounts as to how similar it would be with the proper fix + low impedence headphones.

For how much does it go for

heh My Bravo Amp doesn't quite fit in there.....too small! heh. The maverick fits nice though. I initially thought the Maverick was going to big as big as my xbox, but its actually quite a bit smaller. The setup im using now allows me to listen from my bed to (left). & also use the USB audio with the long cable provided to my computer(right). With all the features im making use of now i cant believe i almost considered the musiland monitor as i dont think i would be near as happy.

Few more questions-

What is the warranty period on the D1? I see mention of a warranty and the 14-day return policy, but no statement of its length.

Can any US buyers comment on whether they were charged any import taxes or duties for their purchase? The Maverick site mentions that this is possible.