Odac is good.
But with my hd 800 is not a perfect combo. I solved the light exuberance on mid High - high with a - 1db digital attenuation in my source galaxy S3. Siyhas kernel and now the sound are perfect also with my hd800, very good sound now.
I am interested on jkdac32, anyone compare it with odac.?


Inviato dal mio GT-I9300 con Tapatalk 2

With the ODAC and the O2 garbage in and you get garbage out....thats the great thing about this pairing...
 
The freq response is indeed FLAT as can be.....and has been measured by a few independent sources now as well.
 
Gone are the day days of buying an amp or dac to tune your sound...well at least for some of us!!!
 
Now its the source, good or not so good and the cans.....
 
Alex
 

I hate to break it to you, but most amps and dacs have always measured flat.  This is not a revelation or cure for cancer for that matter.

Quote:

dano91 said:

That`s all correct, except that you don`t have to be using wasapi in win7. If you want to, you could use it, but then you will have no sound from youtube/other soft unless you stop playback in foobar. That`s because wasapi use exclusive mode so it will "lock" sound only for foobar.

Click to expand...

 
I thought WASAPI/Win7 and ASIO/XP were the best possible settings?  I'm also reading a lot about shared mode settings and exclusive mode settings, and earlier in the thread there is mention that ASIO/Xp doesn't work with the ODAC?  Can someone kindly share their complete XP/Win7 and Foobar settings for use with the ODAC?

slycks said:

I thought WASAPI/Win7 and ASIO/XP were the best possible settings?  I'm also reading a lot about shared mode settings and exclusive mode settings, and earlier in the thread there is mention that ASIO/Xp doesn't work with the ODAC?  Can someone kindly share their complete XP/Win7 and Foobar settings for use with the ODAC?

Click to expand...

I am so glad I don't use a PC as my source any more, I was also like that, concerning myself with details such as Wasapi and Asio, different audio players and isolating PC noise form other components. Now I use an ipod or ipad and just press play without any equalization or enhancements. Plus it consumes much less energy

This stuff is not as complicated as many of you think.
 
I use WIN 7 Pro 64 with JRiver. WASAPI-Event Mode is used. Its easy to setup for bitperfect playback from FLAC files.
 
My display is a 58" plasma display that is easily visable across the room and accessed with a wireless keyboard.
 
The playback devices is set to the dac I want to use, I have several and several amps hooked to the PC via USB.
 
The majority of my cds are 16bit/44.1Khz and I have several 24 bit cds so my playback dac settings is set to 44.1/24bit.
 
The Jriver media player has a neat bitperfect icon that glows green indicating that your in bitperfect mode and the player and OS are not mucking with the bits from the flacs....
 
Its not that hard to do and the effieiency of having intstant access to thousands of songs in bitperfect fashion is very very nice to me,
 
I went thru many comparisons to be able to trust the sound I was hearing using a PC vs a discrete player.
 
All the best
Alex

Quote:

anaxilus said:

I hate to break it to you, but most amps and dacs have always measured flat.  This is not a revelation or cure for cancer for that matter.

Click to expand...

 
Then why do they always make my headphones sound like poop?
 
First it was the Asgard and the K702/K601, then the HRT MSII with the HD-600/598.
Maybe both of these are slightly colored.
 
It's weird how a DAC like the E10 can sound great with some headphones, but ruins the DJ100 and HD-598 (IMO). Supposed to measure flat or so they say.
 
I guess you did say most. Not all.
 
It seems that every popular amp/dac I've tried based on Head-Fi suggestions I've found to be only great with specific headphones. I hate this!
I want my amp and DAC to be good with 95% of headphones.
 
I'm just glad to be done with this amp/dac synergy non-sense.
 
What's funny is that the most hated amp on Head-Fi (or so it seems) the E9 is one of the few that actually sounds perfectly flat to me and good with nearly everything i've tried it with.

I haven't noticed any difference in sound quality using the primary sound drivers and wasapi support on foobar2000.
 

Quote:

anaxilus said:

I hate to break it to you, but most amps and dacs have always measured flat.  This is not a revelation or cure for cancer for that matter.

Click to expand...

 
I don't know whether that's true, but it's certainly true that frequency response is just one check you can do to see how a component is performing, and not even necessarily the most important check. Many kinds of distortion would show kind of deviation from flatness in the frequency response curve, but that doesn't mean a flat frequency response will always sound good - many other variables will affect the sound. So you can't say "component X is flat" and expect that to close the debate.
 
That said, I don't think NwAvGuy takes such a simplistic approach, and I do find that the O2/ODAC combo sounds very good. Perhaps this is because he is careful about measurements across the board, not just in relation to flat frequency response?

Stuff has to be measured under load or real world conditions....lots of things change as the frequency changes etc...take the time to read his blog...many hundreds of posts about how measurements are taken and which ones can really affect the sound etc...
 
Alex
 

For those who were following this topic...
 
Quote:

zilch0md said:

[snip]
 
Anyone who's having power-related problems with the ODAC (or any other USB-powered device) might be interested in getting...
 
...one of these...  MicroTik 5VUSB Power Injector
 
 

 
 
 
...and one of these...   5V 2A Power Supply terminated with a 1.3 x 3.5mm barrel connector
 

 
Together, they can supply a USB device with up to 2.0 Amps of regulated 5-Volt DC power that's not shared with any other USB devices.  
 
[snip]
 

Click to expand...

 
I've received both of these, done some preliminary testing without attaching a DAC, and this morning, mailed them to Alex (adydula), for more thorough testing.
 
At this time, I can only say that the barrel connector of the 5V 2A power supply is a good fit to the MicroTik 5VUSB Power Injector, and that the power supply puts out a steady 4.99V, as measured with my multimeter.
 
When Alex receives these, he will make some additional measurements to make sure that they are safe for use with the ODAC (or any other 5VUSB DAC), before actually attaching one of his ODACs to it.
 
All said and done, this could turn out to be a smaller, lighter way to go than using a multi-port USB hub near an AC outlet, but as Head-Fi member DanBa pointed out in a different thread, we might also be able to use the MicroTik 5VUSB Power Injector with a 5V battery pack that's made for charging USB devices - no AC outlet required.
 
 
                                
 
Verbatim AA Power Pack Charger            USB to 3.5mm BarrelJack 5V DC Power Cable         MicroTik 5VUSB Power Injector
 
 
More from Alex, when he has reached a verdict...
 
Mike

Quote:

headwig said:

So you can't say "component X is flat" and expect that to close the debate.

Click to expand...

 
Well then it's a very good thing I never did.  Unless you meant to say 'one' instead of 'you'.

It not only that he is careful with measurements across the board but its "what" measurements really do affect the sound quality or output of a headphone amp.
 
Figure out what these are, zero in on them, measure and test and re-test until you get the specs well into inaudibility....and he has done this rather well with the O2 amp and Dac.
 
The results speak for themselves..
 
Alex

You know what the ODAC sounds like to me? The old PS1 SCPH-1001! The one with RCA jacks.
All my harsh and fatiguing tracks that were awful on my 5 other CD players are now quite listenable, just like on the ODAC.
Maybe this idea people have about the 1001 being so good is really no lie. 1001 is perhaps warmer and not as detailed, but pretty close.
I was listening to that with my Q701 and modded HD-600 and loved every minute of it. Now I just need to find out if there's a way to use a remote with an adapter of some sorts.
Probably not.
 
It seems most people imagine the ODAC as some analytical detail monster, but not for a second has it ever sounded that way. OK, sure when it wasn't functioning correctly
 
Here's another huge mystery for me I can't figure out...
 
When I had my HRT MSII the difference between the E9 and Micro Amp was huge. It's as if the E9 wasn't really all that revealing of the true signature of the HRT MSII and the Micro was. On my Micro it's as if I was only hearing the DAC.
When I get the ODAC, both of the amps now sound much, much closer in sound. Guess it's all about synergy or something. Maybe the E9 really isn't as transparent or as revealing of what's connected to it? No idea..

When I listen with the 02 via the ODAC or my HRT MSii+ I hear nothing different at all that these ears of mine can dileneate..
 
The only thing is the output of the HRT is a higher voltage than the ODAC...so its easy to think they are different if you
dont match the levels.
 
Alex