[maverickronin]

Quote:

I had the same experiences out of the box, I was so disappointed I was ready to get rid of it the day I received it.  I even looked up the JDS return policy.  I have since tried a few things to isolate issues and have had some positive listening sessions and some confused ones.  There's a few things I need to test out still before I can determine which is the real ODAC.  I've never experienced this phenomenon from a DAC before so I need to filter out what's what.  All I can say is that sometimes it's performed brilliantly, definitely being the upgrade to my Leckerton DAC I was hoping for, other times it's been painfully fatiguing and incoherent.  To be continued....

 
What?
 
I'd say it's defective but I can't even figure out how something could even be defective in that way.

 

[sphinxvc]

Same here too actually, it worked fine on my home rig, but when I took it to work last week it simply stopped working.  If I left it alone for a few minutes it would pick up but then after a bit go out again.  Confusing to say the least, just like Anax said.  

 

[alphaphoenix]

Hmmm.  My JDS Labs ODAC, which I received on Friday experienced something similar where it appears the USB cable connection cut out for a second or two until I touched and wiggled the connection.   I hope we didn't receive a bad batch.  I need to utilize it more if it rears its ugly head again.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
What?
 
I'd say it's defective but I can't even figure out how something could even be defective in that way.

 
So far it seems likely to be power related.  Either the USB source and/or the input impedance of the amp being used.  I've noticed variation based on high versus low gain w/ lack of global feedback usually having the issues so far.  

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

So far it seems likely to be power related.  Either the USB source and/or the input impedance of the amp being used.  I've noticed variation based on high versus low gain w/ lack of global feedback usually having the issues so far.  

 
Voldemort said that the amp's Z in should be at least 5k.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
Voldemort said that the amp's Z in should be at least 5k.

 
Thanks, I'll try to grab some measurements.
 
Has there been any comment on low powered USB ports such as some laptops?

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Thanks, I'll try to grab some measurements.
 
Has there been any comment on low powered USB ports such as some laptops?

 
I haven't heard anything about that.  It works fine with my Asus 1005HA netbook, my desktop with an Asus P6T Deluxe V2, and my old and moldy Dell workstation at the office.
 
Some people were getting it to work with their iPads but I don't follow that stuff since I'm not a fan of either Apple or tablets so IDK exactly what's involved.

 

[WiR3D]

2 things
 
1: the odac is not supposed to be musical, its supposed to be accurate, going with the model that the source should be transparent and not add anything, leaving the colouration to the amp.
 
2: AFAIK the ODAC needs 120mW, BUT as we have tested it works with the SGS3, which is a low power and I'm willing to bet only provides 100mW (which AFAIK is the low power standard?), so the power issue could be a possibility, a worrisome one. 

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

2 things
 
1: the odac is not supposed to be musical, its supposed to be accurate, going with the model that the source should be transparent and not add anything, leaving the colouration to the amp.
 
 

 
That is 180 degrees away from my understanding of how the source-amp combination should work. Better yet, they should BOTH be neutral and transparent, and any 'coloration' should be left to the headphones/speakers. I accept that there are many Head-Fiers who attempt to use amps as 'hardware equalisation', but that isnt the audiophile ideal. 

 

[0o0o0o]

Playing music through my ODAC with Foobar + wasapi output and on 3 occasions so far, strange electronic noise starts starts invading the sound. It disappears after stopping playback but it is annoying when it does occur. The noise itself is rather difficult to describe and isn't like any other electronic interference I've heard before. Only thing I can compare it to is (I'm not joking here) is a dubstep track's beat. Wubwubwubwub. lol...
 
Edit: Ok just happened again as I was scrolling with my mouse. Guessing I've got the buffer in Foobar set too low. Annoying having a delay between input and playback though. 

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Playing music through my ODAC with Foobar + wasapi output and on 3 occasions so far, strange electronic noise starts starts invading the sound. It disappears after stopping playback but it is annoying when it does occur. The noise itself is rather difficult to describe and isn't like any other electronic interference I've heard before. Only thing I can compare it to is (I'm not joking here) is a dubstep track's beat. Wubwubwubwub. lol...
 
Edit: Ok just happened again as I was scrolling with my mouse. Guessing I've got the buffer in Foobar set too low. Annoying having a delay between input and playback though. 

Highly possible its WASAPI, with the old version of my STX drivers, and my player, every time I clicked it would create a horrible noise. 
No such issues with the latest ASIO or WASAPI. 

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

 

 
 
The odac makes a real nice pairing with the Asgard. I listened till the wee hours of the morning to the differences between the odac and the bifrost. Bottom line, they are both very very good. I'm not sure that I could pick one over the over for sound quality. The bifrost wins on size, same case as Asgard, more connections but it cost twice as much as the odac.  Not sure that I can keep it for twice the cash.

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

 
Thanks for the info....needed a direct comparison between the ODAC and the E17. I was considering the HRT MSII but people have been telling me it's not much of an upgrade from the E17. THEN i came across the ODAC and have heard it's roughly on par with the MSII+ and even some thousand dollar DACS..for only a fraction of the cost. 
 
Thank goodness the guys at audio poutine live within a very close distance so i can just do a local pickup when i order one =)

 
Lucky you on the local pickup!! They ship from Canada, but it was incredibly impressed with the shipping time. I think mine made it four days. I will also vouch for the build quality of Audio Poutine. Be sure to get the led light on the front of the case. It adds $15 but look so nice!!

 

[chrislangley4253]

so, I think it is a problem with windows reducing the power to the usb port after a while. I kept having issues where I would hear distortion if I walked away from my laptop for a while and then resumed listening. I discovered that replugging the usb cable would fix the problem. I then went in to device manager and turned off the setting that allows windows to reduce or turn off the power to the given usb port, I haven't had issues since, but I haven't done a ton of listening either.

Control Panel>Device Manager>Universal Serial Bus controllers>Right Click Generic/USB Root Hub>Properties>Power Management>Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.


See if this fixes your problems guys, I think it fixed mine!

 

[sorue]

Quote:

 
 
I had the same experiences out of the box, I was so disappointed I was ready to get rid of it the day I received it.  I even looked up the JDS return policy.  I have since tried a few things to isolate issues and have had some positive listening sessions and some confused ones.  There's a few things I need to test out still before I can determine which is the real ODAC.  I've never experienced this phenomenon from a DAC before so I need to filter out what's what.  All I can say is that sometimes it's performed brilliantly, definitely being the upgrade to my Leckerton DAC I was hoping for, other times it's been painfully fatiguing and incoherent.  To be continued....

Sounds like a case of the DAC being too revealing of poorly mastered content, perhaps.