jason1969 said:

   
 
There are 2 Gain jumpers.
Stock is both set to HIGH not Low, so I may try setting them to Low at some point.
 
 

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Noob here, I've opened the xduoo ta-01 and I see the gain jumpers but I have no idea how to actually switch/change it. Pls help

1. Open the cover by unscrew the top four screws (two in the front, two in the back).
 
2. On the PCB near the back side (near the USB and RCA connectors), you can see two jumpers: J7 and J8. The two jumpers are placed in HIGH position by default. 
 

 
3. There are four combinations for two jumpers, however, according to the production description, there are THREE levels of gain. Thus I assume you can set three levels as follows: a) both J7 and J8 set to HIGH (default), b) either J7 and J8 set to HIGH, and the other set to LOW (medium level), and c) both J7 and J8 set to LOW.
Update: this part is wrong. There are only TWO levels, HIGH and LOW. J7 and J8 each serves one channel, J7 for left and J8 for right.
 
However, I have asked xDuoo, and they told me that the sound quality of high gain is better than low gain.
 
Therefore, if it's not absolutely necessary (such as high sensitivity/low impedance headphones), you should just keep the default HIGH gain setting.

I guess I'll just leave it as is then. Thanks for the info

Today I read the thread on high gain/low gain (http://www.head-fi.org/t/543242/q-high-gain-low-gain-quality-difference) and decide to try it out.
 
Turned out my post regarding the high gain/low gain setting for TA-01 was wrong: There was only TWO levels, not three. Therefore JP7/JP8 serve for each channel. If you set it to HIGH/LOW or LOW/HIGH, you will notice the volume difference between left and right. I believe JP7 is for left and JP8 is for right.
 
Back to the high gain/low gain setting, I heard from Xduoo that sound quality of high gain is better. But their "sound quality" might not what we mean, rather it might just refers to "power/loudness". Ever since I got TA-01, I used HIGH gain setting, today I changed it to LOW, and it's not that bad. Actually I thought I heard more details and dynamic ranges with low gain, as well as more open stage.
However, since I can't do a side-by-side comparison, this is really subjective and might just be some psychological effect.
 
Anyway, if your cans did not come with high impedance, low gain might not be a bad idea after all. Just try it out and stick with the setting that suits you best.  

The TA-01 is extraordinarily harsh. Tons of power, but ....
 
I'll be replacing the tube with a Gold Lion and will update with the results.

Perhaps you can try the low gain setting as well.
 
Since my headphones all have relative low impedance, I prefer the low gain setting over the high gain, though the guys in xDuoo claim high gain will provide "better quality". 
 
Also you could try 12BH7 or 6350 (with adapter), both should perform better than any 12AU7 (even gold lion).

A small complaint to TA-01:
 
The blue power LED of my TA-01 started to flickering a couple of weeks ago, and finally totally dimmed.
 
I opened the case the find that the led is powered with 30V from the DC converter, with a 220K resistor in between to lower the voltage to around 2.5V. I have suspected the problems in the LED, the resistor, but they are all good.
 
Finally I cut out the trace, using the 12 V from the power switch, and converted to 2.5V with a cheap DC converter module to power the LED, and now every thing works well. I don't know whether this is related to the use of 12BH7/6350 or not, but if you have doubt, there are many good 12AU7 equivalent tubes (I prefer 5814A over the others, though 6350 is still my favorite).

Does anyone know where I can download the drivers for the TA-01 model? I googled but nothing is popping up... I need it for Windows 10 because it is not showing up...

I can make the drivers available, have them on my Google Drive, not sure if it will let me post links to files though, let me know.

joel eckert said:

  I can make the drivers available, have them on my Google Drive, not sure if it will let me post links to files though, let me know.

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Yes please that would be very helpful, I am surprised there is a not a link for a website to just download them though

I can't seem to find it, had problems with my Windows user profile and had to blow it away.
 
http://www.xduoo.com/xduoo/En/DownList.Asp
 
Assuming it is xmos-usb-drive-xxx
either of those files

joel eckert said:

  I can't seem to find it, had problems with my Windows user profile and had to blow it away.
 
http://www.xduoo.com/xduoo/En/DownList.Asp
 
Assuming it is xmos-usb-drive-xxx
either of those files

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Thanks I downloaded the XMOS 3.0 version, not sure why they would have a 2.0 as well... but oh well. Yeah I will be using the USB on the TA-01.  Thanks again and take care ^^

EDIT:  I got it installed, you have to login to the website XMOS, create an account, then download the drivers that way.
 
I actually prefer the sound on this to my Vali 2... was not expecting that to happen...
 
DOES ANYONE KNOW, HOW TO REMOVE THE TUBE????  agh its driving me insane, I have been slipping my fingers on the top of the tube for 30 minutes, I got a golden lion and I can't even get stock out to put new one in... lol

You have to unscrew the top two screws in the front, and the top two screws in the back.
Then you can lift the top cover and replace the tube.
If you use taller tube, like 12bh7, it's possible to replace the tube without opening the cover, but I haven't tried that though.

plainbriny said:

  You have to unscrew the top two screws in the front, and the top two screws in the back.
Then you can lift the top cover and replace the tube.
If you use taller tube, like 12bh7, it's possible to replace the tube without opening the cover, but I haven't tried that though.

Click to expand...

 
 
Do you know if the xduoo ta-01 can roll a 6922 tube? I have some 6922 NOS I want to use... but I am not sure its compatible and don't want to risk frying it.