[m8o]

That's weird. Typically (in my experience at least) Blue Screen of Death is caused by an issue with your OS. Either corrupted OS install, or a failing hard drive. 

Usually from driver conflicts in my 20+ years with winblows.

 

[hardbop]

I've spent the last few hours listening to the m-nine-exty-ex and it sounds impressive. It was easy to set up with Windows 10 and my Note 5 also picked it up right away. I'm not sure what the cause is, but there are little clicks, not unlike a record, when playing music with the phone as a source. Otherwise, it sounds, well, graceful.
 
It's a good deal brighter than the ALO PanAm (with Telefunken tubes) that my LCD 2.2's was plugged into prior. The volume is set up loud at 90/99.5, but it's able to fill out the orthodynamics with plenty of sound and detail. Stuff sounds nice and open.
 
The GH1-G's are a little too bright and harsh at louder volumes (above 75-ish). Out of the box, I'm not sure about the synergy here.
 
My custom Layla's don't sound nearly as bright as either of the above headphones, but the details are still present.
 
 
 
I'm going to give my ears some time to adjust to the brighter neutrality.

 

[ViperGeek]

Any comment on [USB Audio Player Pro] vs. Neutron? Thanx

 
Hi m8o.
 
I hadn't heard of Neutron 'til you mentioned it.  I hooked up the m9XX and downloaded the trial of Neutron to my LG G4.  Unfortunately, every time I start it, I get:
 
"Neutron core failed to start. Please try again. If this error appears again please report to the developer () with device model and error: fff70022."
 
Personally, I love USB Audio Player Pro for its incredible DAC support: http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/2015-07-22-12-01-14/usb-audio-driver , intuitive UI, and most recently, full Tidal support.  Can't go wrong!
 
- Dave

 

[project86]

   
Hi m8o.
 
I hadn't heard of Neutron 'til you mentioned it.  I hooked up the m9XX and downloaded the trial of Neutron to my LG G4.  Unfortunately, every time I start it, I get:
 
"Neutron core failed to start. Please try again. If this error appears again please report to the developer () with device model and error: fff70022."
 
Personally, I love USB Audio Player Pro for its incredible DAC support: http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/2015-07-22-12-01-14/usb-audio-driver , intuitive UI, and most recently, full Tidal support.  Can't go wrong!
 
- Dave

 
 
That's too bad... Neutron is excellent. But USB Audio Player Pro is getting better by the day. I used to hate it but now find it very usable. And the Tidal support is huge! 

 

[olek]

Today fabricated a setup that allowed me to quickly switch external speaker amp from rca sockets on the back of 9xx to one of 'headphon out' jacks. Funny enough, volume was about same when switching back and forth with no adjustment, did not expect that.
 
Anyway, that experiment suggested that a good bit of  'sweetness' and 'warmth' is added to the sound in the amp section of 9xx. Signal from rca-out was much more neutral. I kinda missed that lush sound from headphone out, but was rewarded by slightly more ... realistic? and precise? sound  from my speakers.
 
In my opinion that was the right way to add warmth to the combo - keep DAC's out fairly neutral and add slight coloration/smoothing to the final amp.
 
Ah, and first small wrinkle noticed with 9xx: is allows some small amount of RF hash from usb to make it to the output. I am talking about minuscule amounts, but I can hear it standing next to speakers. DACMini CX (my preferred DAC to this point) may be just a bit behind 9xx soundwise, but it does better job filtering RF hash out. I think that goes back to what 'purrin'? found - 9xx's usb section is not totally bulletproof. I AM using provided monoprice usb cables with ferrules on them.

 

[HiFlight]

I just have experienced a disappointment with my M9XX in that it refuses to play using my Samsung G4 or LG G2 via OTG USB output. Both phones work just fine using the same cables with all of my other DACs, including the new DX80. I have tried about every combination I could think of, (U1, U2, Ext power, no external power) to no avail. I called Grace tech service and they said it "should work", but offered no other suggestions other than it might be my phones. This is unlikely as both work with my other DAC's. I have tried several different OTG cables with the same results.

I was hoping to use my phones as transports for my desktop setup, but it looks like it is a no go. Has anyone else experienced the same issues?

 

[ViperGeek]

I just have experienced a disappointment with my M9XX in that it refuses to play using my Samsung G4 or LG G2 via OTG USB output. Both phones work just fine using the same cables with all of my other DACs, including the new DX80. I have tried about every combination I could think of, (U1, U2, Ext power, no external power) to no avail. I called Grace tech service and they said it "should work", but offered no other suggestions other than it might be my phones. This is unlikely as both work with my other DAC's. I have tried several different OTG cables with the same results.

I was hoping to use my phones as transports for my desktop setup, but it looks like it is a no go. Has anyone else experienced the same issues?

 
What version of Android OS are you using?  Android 5.0 (Lollipop) added better support for USB audio.  Some DACs like the Dragonfly used to work on my phone with Android 4.4 (KitKat), but never worked natively with my m920.  However, a dedicated audio app like the aforementioned USB Audio Player Pro has built-in intelligent USB DAC drivers that may work better for you.
 
- Dave

 

[HiFlight]

What version of Android OS are you using?  Android 5.0 (Lollipop) added better support for USB audio.  Some DACs like the Dragonfly used to work on my phone with Android 4.4 (KitKat), but never worked natively with my m920.  However, a dedicated audio app like the aforementioned USB Audio Player Pro has built-in intelligent USB DAC drivers that may work better for you.

- Dave

Both my phones are using Android v.5.0.1 (Lollipop) and work flawlessly via USB OTG with all of my other DAC's. I do believe there is something amiss in the Grace. I have tried all of my cables that I use with my other DAC's but nothing results in sound from either of the headphone outputs.

 

[m8o]

Ah, and first small wrinkle noticed with 9xx: is allows some small amount of RF hash from usb to make it to the output. I am talking about minuscule amounts, but I can hear it standing next to speakers. DACMini CX (my preferred DAC to this point) may be just a bit behind 9xx soundwise, but it does better job filtering RF hash out. I think that goes back to what ??? found - 9xx's usb section is not totally bulletproof. I AM using provided monoprice usb cables with ferrules on them.

But that cable was shown to remove the high order spikes.

Actually, I take that back. Those were harmonics (which as mentioned were shown to be adressed with the supplied cable). What you describe seems to be some other sort of interference, unrelated to the music being played?

 

[olek]

Yes, my 'issue' (its really more of a nitpick, not issue) is unrelated to music being played, more of the opposite - when it is NOT played, if I get my ear to speakers, I can hear high frequency 'whistling/beeping' noise carried from my computers (tested with 2 computers with same result). DACMini in same configuration results in MUCH quieter noise that is closer in character to white noise.
 
Also, I think the USB cables that I got are the newer, 'improved' version of the bundle, they have ferrite beads on them.
 
@HiFlight my Samsung S5 works fine with 9xx with either battery power applied to 'power' connection or not.
 
Now, usb audio on android was always a sore subject. There used to be no support of it, other than special music player that came with its own usb audio device driver plus horrendous playback interface (USB Audio Player Pro?) plus couple of OEMs that applied patches to standard android to make that work (Samsung is one of them).
 
I have heard that it is improving recently and support for standard sample rate 44.1 was added into android core, but can not attest to it, since my LG G2 still refused to work with external dac last time I tried (couple months ago).
 
Again, Samsung phones should support external dacs, but that support is still wonky. I find that connecting a200p to my S5 is infuriating experience - 4 out of 5 'connections' result in sound played very slowly (half speed?) with lots of crackling. And then I re-plug - and voila - it works fine. I thought that was a200p problem, but yesterday same thing happened with 9xx - something is definitely wonky with samsung's audio drivers.
 
Ah, and if anybody wonders, I use lowly VLC for playback on S5. Works as good as some other fancier apps that I tried, and has good directory browsing mode which is a must have for any listener of classical music (tags are always a mess, no matter how hard one tries).

 

[m8o]

Hmm. Interesting.

I have an older android 2.something based Cowon D3 dap. I tried long and hard to get it to stream HD thru the coax spdif to my portable dac/amp. But I finally gave up after some good members here got thru to me that it was an OS limitation.

Quite the contrary to that, I just picked up a cheap OTG to female USB adapter from Radio Shack. Plugged it into my Note 3, and plugged that into my FiiO Alpen E17 with its supplied USB. Immediately all system sounds were coming thru the E17, with the FiiO showing sync was at 24bit/96khz. Music worked with every player I have. And I could really tell the difference in playback quality from various players.

From what others posted, I expect that to be the same with the M9XX tomorrow when i finally get to use it. Let the crossing of the fingers commence.

 

[ThinJ]

For what it's worth, the M9xx works just fine running off my Nexus 6 with a plain old OTG cable.
 
Powered the M9xx with the mobile battery pack that came with the phone in the Project-Fi package. It's a pretty nice fairly mobile little setup.

 

[olek]

Ah, yes, that is one more thing about android audio drivers - they always choose max sample rate they can. The higher -  the better, right?

As a result if your dac support 192kHz, all your redbook files will be upsampled by the phone before being sent to dac, which usually results in (theoretically) slightly degraded sound. Not to mention wasted cpu cycles and battery.
 
As for my 'usb noises', looks like I have some gremlins in my system, and 9xx is sensitive to them. Plugged today Gustard H10 to the RCA sockets on the back of 9xx to try it out again, and noticed high frequency 'whistling' in headphones. Not cool. Plugged headphones directly into 9xx - no noise at all. Back to H10 - hello dog whistle. Went crazy swapping audio/usb cables, plugging/unplugging variety of other peripherals.  At some point problem went away. Now I have put everything together exactly like it was before, no noise still. I am baffled. Maybe it is because it is night and source of interference is down. Maybe something else. Whatever it is, RCA-outs of 9xx are sensitive to it.
 
Listening to Stacey Kent's Raconte-Moi now, and it sounds much more enjoyable from 9xx than H10 (volume matched HD600 at 1kHz). More life like? Smoother? More depth? More details, almost like I can see singer's lips? Hard to describe sound with words, but difference is not very slight.

 

[slex]

Anyone had the oppotunity to use sciit wryd on it?

 

[canthearyou]

Ah, yes, that is one more thing about android audio drivers - they always choose max sample rate they can. The higher -  the better, right? :rolleyes:
As a result if your dac support 192kHz, all your redbook files will be upsampled by the phone before being sent to dac, which usually results in (theoretically) slightly degraded sound. Not to mention wasted cpu cycles and battery.

As for my 'usb noises', looks like I have some gremlins in my system, and 9xx is sensitive to them. Plugged today Gustard H10 to the RCA sockets on the back of 9xx to try it out again, and noticed high frequency 'whistling' in headphones. Not cool. Plugged headphones directly into 9xx - no noise at all. Back to H10 - hello dog whistle. Went crazy swapping audio/usb cables, plugging/unplugging variety of other peripherals.  At some point problem went away. Now I have put everything together exactly like it was before, no noise still. I am baffled. Maybe it is because it is night and source of interference is down. Maybe something else. Whatever it is, RCA-outs of 9xx are sensitive to it.

Listening to Stacey Kent's Raconte-Moi now, and it sounds much more enjoyable from 9xx than H10 (volume matched HD600 at 1kHz). More life like? Smoother? More depth? More details, almost like I can see singer's lips? Hard to describe sound with words, but difference is not very slight.

Do you happen to have a cell phone near by?