Maverick Audio DAC/Amp - Page 55

thanks

Hi , i have this question which bothers me quite awhile.

if i set my PC sound volume at the sound settings to say 80%. the foobar2k volume is set at 100%. I will be adjusting the volume to a comfortable level from the D1.

the question is , will it affect the sound quality in one way or another ?

Well, you have a D1, don't you? Does it sound different to you?!

hmm i would say indifferent. perhaps my ears are not that sensitive.

i wonder if anyone else are sensitive enough to sense any difference.

Has any progress been made regarding the USB re-sampling issue? I was ready to order a Mav D1 but forced myself to read through this entire thread first. After reading about the Maverick's inability to accept a 44/16 without re-sampling (bit-perfect), I hesitated. I would just order it and hook it up via S/PDIF, but everything I have read indicates a properly setup USB DAC will outperform an S/PDIF DAC (unless the S/PDIF DAC is very expensive with some type of fancy crystallization setup.)

I really really want to buy this thing but don't want to spend $235 on a product that hasn't had all the "bugs" worked out yet. Plus as the foundation of what will be a nice setup I don't want to get a DAC that I may regret buying in the future.

I'll keep checking back here. In the meantime, can anyone recommend another USB DAC with similar features, performance, and price? Do the XS and GF units that are similar to the mav suffer from the same USB problems?

For Foobar volume control, I looked this up myself and while I lost the thread, I can say that it was determined by several people that the Foobar volume control doesn't hurt sound quality like other applications. Personally, I don't notice a difference but WASAPI and 100% volume (in most applications) are 2 free and easy ways that may improve sound quality so... why not.

For USB, I haven't heard anything new on this. I've tried finding drivers to force/change the sampling rate in Windows but haven't had success yet. If you know of threads that confirm and prove USB is better than SPDIF, please post them I would be interested in the read.

I only use the D1 volume control, especially for music since I use WASAPI as well. Everything is on 100% in windows and foobar.


The way we have our cards set up it completely skips the dac and just passes through to the D1. Since based on what I understand the dac converts to analog and spdif is digital so it doesn't need to convert to analog. The end device will do the conversion instead which for us is the D1. I am about 90% sure~

I was told once by the guys at WADIA that reducing volume in a computer, be it in Media Monkey or the computers volume control actually takes away some of the music and not just reduce the volume. Is that true? I really can't hear a difference.

My Windows volume control does not effect the level at all. I am running an external HD and going to the D1 via USB.

Wouldn't the best thing be to bypass the D1 volume and adjust the volume from the computer's main volume or if you got active speakers on your desktop just use their volume adjustment?

I would do this but the gain is just too much and I prefer to have a bit more control on the D1's volume. After I do the gain mod, I'll have everything 100% in Windows for sure.

Yea, windows volume doesn't have effect in certain situations. Besides WASAPI/ASIO/KS/A4All certain drivers or configurations will ignore windows volume control(but not foobars)

I hear ya on the gain, but for me it is more regulated since my headphones are 250ohm and while I have excellent range between low and high listenable volumes before it gets too insane for my ears it doesn't breach the 50% mark.

I max out at around the 9th tic, depending on the song. Particularly loud sounds max me out at 7.

I can run my unpowered speakers at around 50% via head-phone out which is AWESOME, since I could never run them loudly before. They are cheap but are not half bad for their job.

@Djnagle, I see it like this. I don't know if it is as like you heard but if you lower the volume to certain extents you start to not be able to hear certain nuances or sounds. I will assume that if you are sending this same stream to another device than that is all it will "hear" as well. I could be wrong but that is what I would assume. I don't know how volume effects the actual stream in binary terms, but if a song is a 1d graph the origin being the pure file with no volume changes. The song is a long binary string and as you move left or right it changes whatever it is is going to be output digitally to a device such as the D1. Whether it is just fluff or actual removal of important song bits I couldn't tell you. I don't know that much about what goes on.

Ninjikiran, I suspect that it is more theoretical than real world. I just don't hear a diff. I can say that I am quickly becoming a Headphone guy. My SR60(my first and only pair of cans) have NEVER sounded this good. And, I still can't imagine anything sounding better.

It is but in the real world say I am using a single device lowering volume could effectively mute out lesser harder to pick up sounds. Say you complicate things and add another device like the D1 would a sound be missing there. I couldn't tell you since I don't know how much of an effect volume has. If could mute a sound out to the ears but still exist in the stream in perfect unharmed condition. Even in the first scenario the sound could and should still exist but at such a volume your ears cant pick them up.

There is a whole bunch of what ifs, and scenarios. The only important thing is if it sounds good than what does it matter right?

You bet. It sounds great to me....so there you go. Now I am going to start looking for better headphone.