Maverick Audio DAC/Amp - Page 59

No, at least in my opinion. I have some really low impedance in-canal style phones. They sound wonderful using the D1. I only run into problems when I use my noise canceling cans--then I can hear a hum when no music is playing. However, the in-canal phones have zero hum.

Was meant for several people who appear to be at the starting point of critical listening

Sorry that my message seemed to be aimed to helped you in great detail, it was not meant that way. I had read several threads where people seemed to be grasping at understanding what they should focus on and believe in from people suggesting upgrades and tweaks and my hope was to give them feedback to do the listening themselves and reach their own conclusions.

That said, you question about volume is a good one because it is easy to think of the software in Windows not getting involved in the signal path since we are sending 1's and 0's through the USB to the external sound card/DAC.
Truth is though that we are not sending the FLAC or MP3 file through the USB port as we would if we were say copying a file to an external drive.

What we are doing is we are opening the audio file (say MP3) in Media Monkey as a buffered data stream. That data stream is handled by your DSP setting of let's say Direct Sound. Direct Sound is handed the data stream header packets and identifies information about the file that helps it determine what it should do with it. It checks your audio device you set in Media Monkey and reads that it supports 24 Bit/96 KHz and it begins to convert the buffered data stream into data packets which include clock timing info, USB packet data and of course your digital audio and sends it to your chosen audio device (USB Sound card).

In the features included with the DSP you choose whether it be Direct Sound, WASAPI, KMixer or whatever, you have a set of filters, transitions, and among many other things volume settings that can be exposed and manipulated.

So while it appears that we are bypassing Windows when we connect a USB DAC the truth is we are just extending out our sound card from being an on-board or PCI based device subject to all the EMI and RF issues of having the sensitive audio device crammed into your PC (as well as the lower quality components) to having it tethered off the USB port.

And this is why we have issues with jitter on the USB port (I don't have any audible jitter but I am using Direct Sound and a $5K 8-core workstation) because we are sending musical information in data packets in real time from Media Monkey's DSP to the USB port and reassembling the info from data into an analog tone while trying to keep the timing of the waveform in tack with all the variations that can happen in a time slicing based operating system. As systems get faster and with 2008 and Win7 there is better dedication to the threads (strands actually) that are dedicated in sending data or running the DSP (which the replacement for Direct Sound handles nicely as they splintered off from being part of the DirectX subsystem).

Hmmm...looking back across this, I hope I addressed your question this time and did not miss the mark again!

Take care.

The Maverick D1 is worth my time.

Ryan, thanks for the compliment but I can tell you I would not have put anytime into this if I did not think your product had the value there for me to invest my time and effort into (which it really does).

The D1 has replaced my EF2 as my desktop amp by a long shot. I am very, very pleased with the engineering of this device and your commitment to helping make this a great experience for anyone willing to roll the dice and take a chance.

This has been an excellent learning adventure for me as your D1 is fun to tweak and with people like Bearman, Spanky and others sharing their experiences I find myself looking forward to what the next area of tuning that people are doing (I have 3 op amps arriving tomorrow and a friend is bring in his 3 HDAMs from his Compass and we are going to try them out over the weekend).

I have enjoyed the D1 with my Denon D5000s, my AD700s and even my Triple.Fi 10s. Low impedance is not an issue with this amp, and if you have higher impedance or less sensitive cans like my buddy's AKG 702s you will find they sound great with this amp as well.
You really found a great niche with your product and the cost/value proposition is spot on.

Great job Ryan!

Thank you for being so understanding and helpful. Also thanks for creating such a marvellous product. I must say I already love this little piece of (tube)magic....both soundwise and lookswise. It will be interesting to se what other tubes and opamps would do to this, as I already feel it absolutely deserves its name....Tube Magic

I'm no tube-virgin and has had several other tubeproducts, and rolled tubes like a madman over the years. But at the moment this stands out as probably the best tubeproduct I ever tried. And I've had tubepreamps that's been very expensive....at about $6000.....so at this price it's a steal....keep up the good work Ryan.

RAWR! I wanted to do that first Let us know the results and specifics (physical fit, burn-in period of the HDAM's, sound changes and pictures if possible). I still want to try it in mine but I'm quite happy with how the D1 sounds now and last time I checked, Kingwa isn't giving them out for free so I gotta save up a couple $.

I think there have been varied opinions on this, but I finally had a chance to use the optical input on my D1 (which I take it uses a different chip than the USB connection -- if this is wrong, I'm just hearing things!). To my ears it's a step up from the USB. Mainly I hear better separation, which gives more "air" around the instruments and voices. (This is especially noticable in jazz and acoustic music.) I'm eager now to get something like the Wadia transport or the Onkyo ND-S1 (which still isn't available in the US) to use as transport for my iPod. (I noticed that Peachtree just released a new Decco model that, like the Wadia, takes the digital files from the iPod. I'm hoping this means there will be a few more options for iPod transports of this sort.)

Ok, so what do y'all think? USB or optical/coaxial?

I think there's another chip involved in USB setup as well as other components I'm sure. That could color the audio in some way but beyond that, I can't really speculate.

I didn't notice much difference between USB/Spdif on quick impressions.

Anyway, regardless of settings you are always going to be outputting 16-bit/44khz out of USB. So if you are listening to songs of a higher sample rate windows will always convert it. Actually I noticed (through the fact that I can visually see the sample rate change in my sound card control panel) anything going through ds will be converted to what the default setting is. And to use WASAPI w/ USb you have to do the same thing with a resample plugin.

Through spdif this will never happen if you use WASAPI and your sound card supports bit-perfect transport. Visually the master output sample rate changes with the songs default in order to be bit-perfect. With ds I have it set to 96khz and my sound card shows that change whenever I use ds even if I am pushing through a 44khz file.

That process could potentially color the file(but shouldn't if it is 16/44khz)


Though in all honesty you need to probably critically listen to notice.

I thought I read that adaptive USB was capable of 48khz as well, because that is how DVD surround channels are encoded.

Ok thanks, because I really didn't want my AD700s to not benefit from the D1. Well, that is peace of mind.

As soon as my Paypal money comes in, I'll be pulling the trigger on this. I'll be pairing it with some MS1i's that will soon be MS1000's, and it will be my first standalone amp/dac combo. I'm excited already
Will post impressions when it arrives.

I think the main difference you'll see (when I had my 700s) is the bass response. Whilst the 700s are bass anemic they really come out of their shell with the SSD out. You'll also notice a small extension in the SS.

Through tube preamp to my TA15 or AMP the 700s sounded a lot warmer, and the bass was well rounded and punchier.

Hi Guys,
Any ideas to OPAMP changing to ideal match with NAD C315BEE + NADC515BEE + Paradigm Monitor 7v5 ??
What I'm looking is less but good controlled bass, more precise and live middle, less shrills on highs.

And bonus question - can anybody compare middle tones with the tube (I have upgraded 5670) and solide pre ??

I hear this that: tube - wide, open, but shallow sound stage with big, not accurate bass and some lacks in the middle;
solid: tight, still open, but deep sound stage, less and accurate bass, good middle

It's only my impression, or the tube makes sound stage wider, but shallow, with imprecise bass and retract middle tones ?

hahah omfg.... i got my mav today! I can hear rain at the beginning of banana pancakes! and theres a guy singing in tusk! I was wondering how much of a difference a dac could make.... It really doesn't grate my ears in the highs, the way my xfi did. I honestly thought the audioengine 5s were overrated until about 5minutes ago! Thank everyone for answering my questions and thank you very much ryan!

For something that the tubes are characterized is by excellent management of the midrange frequencies, such voices.