iamxLn
100+ Head-Fier
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- Aug 4, 2014
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report in when you get those hifiman so we can hear how you like it, i found the 408a to have a MASSIVE sound stage for the mad dogs
Hi,
As for tube noise; any new tube can be noisy. Usually the noise (typically hum and hiss) will disappear with use. This is not unusual with tubes, as many here will testify. You really need to let the stock tubes settle-in, which could be 10-20 (sometimes more) hours of playing. Which tubes did you order your LD1+ with?
Tube pins may be cleaned (gently) with any good electrical contact cleaner. I use an ordinary electrical contact spray with good results.
Hope this helps.
My LD i+ comes with the cheapest 6JI tubes.
Can you recommend any electrical contact spray brand for me to buy? I've never used one (nor see one) and when I went to the local Ace Hardware and ask the employee, he didn't understand what I was saying.
I just google'd "electrical contact spray" just now and the first few results was wd-40 with yellow cap "Specialist Electrical Contact Cleaner".
I have the normal wd-40 red cap at my place, can these do? I've never seen the yellow cap wd-40 before but the red cap is everywhere.
report in when you get those hifiman so we can hear how you like it, i found the 408a to have a MASSIVE sound stage for the mad dogs
As far as I know my ODAC has an output of 2V, which means the LD will output about 7V (yep 3.5x gain is right, I must have been using the phone to type the previous message). That seems to make the I+ clip, resulting in the jitter noises that I had. When I turn down the ODAC to half its volume (in Windows), the I+ gives perfect sound as usual.
I see you are a Grado man. I love the LD1+ with my Grados, especially with the MUSES02 op-amp in the LD1+. Well worth a try, at some point.
Some questions:
With the windows volume at the distortion level, are you able to stop the distortion by turning down the LD1+ volume?
No. It happens to my O2 too.
Do you have another amp you can connect to the ODAC, to eliminate the LD1+ from the equation?
It first happen on my O2+ODAC unit (the amp and the DAC are integrated on the same chasis). The O2 that I have seems to have 5X gain and clips like crazy when I put the ODAC at max volume. At 75% it's completely gone.
Can you use another device (CD, DAP etc.) with the LS1+ (again to eliminate the LD1+ from the equation)?
I had another ODAC that has 3.5mm output instead of the ODAC with RCA output that I'm using. Clipping didn't happen on the 3.5mm.
I have another DAC too (see the pic below) and it seems to have clipping when at 100% volume in Windows too. This DAC also output via RCA, but to be honest I don't know much about the difference.
http://stereo.vn/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/HW-DAC1-2.jpg
How is your the ODAC confiured in Windows and what application are you playng from?
I simply plugged it in, Windows automatically recognizes the driver. I use it with foobar and select ODAC as an output from the Options window of foobar.
I think that WD40 make a specialist contact cleaner, though I have not tried it. Here it is but I can't vouch for it, as I haven't used it. Or there is this and this.
Basically, what you need is any specialist cleaner that will remove dirt and oxides from electrical contacts, without leaving any residue. I would have thought that any good electrical hardware store, or perhaps one that sells electronics would have something similar.
Hope this helps.
By the way, can i ask how do i use those contact cleaner? So i take it I need to spray the pins right? and then what? Do i need to scrape them with pen knife after I spray or do i just need to let them dry naturally after i spray?
Thanks for your compliments on my Grados. This is not the first time I've seen someone putting so much praise towards the MUSES02, perhaps it's really the next purchase for me.
Regarding your questions, the answers are as below:
Thank you for all these questions To be honest my knowledge in this field is very limited and without the head-fi community I wouldn't make it this far in the headphone game
I just installed a set of WE 408A what is the amount of "break-in" time for tubes? Do I need to have the LD +1 connected to headphones to do this? Many thanks in advance.
In my experience, anywhere from 20 to 50 hours is pretty typical. That said, unless they don't sound all that good out of the box, it is certainly not necessary to run them unattended for hours at a time. Just listen to your music and enjoy.
But if you want to burn them in by running them unattended for hours at a time, then yes, Little Dot recommends that headphones should always be attached when the amp is in use. I use a $5 pair of IEMs when running the amp unattended.
Quote:
That bro. I really appreciate the information.
Hi,
We are all in the same boat at some point; I have learned so much from the folks here as well as other forums. Joining Head-Fi was a very good move; it's an amazing resource.
From your answers, it still looks like the problem may be in the Windows / driver / Foobar config somewhere. The amount of gain an amplifier has does not matter, so long as the design is good and it is working properly and it is fed a good signal. The higher gain of some amps will simply exaggerate the distortion more. If you experienced clipping with two different amps, then it is safe to assume that the problem lies before the amp.
If you right-click on the windows volume control and select playback devices, then right click on the ODAC device and select properties, you can check that the options are correct for that device. Windows will never auto-config optional parameters, so it is worth a look. Look at the 'Enhancements' tab and disable all of the enhancements. Then, in the 'Advanced' tab, check to ensure that the sample rate isn't set higher than the ODAC's maximum rate. Also check the two boxes for 'exclusive mode'.
While am not familiar with Foobar, I would suggest looking around the audio settings, ensuring that none are set beyond the ODAC's capabilities
I have just found this document which confirms the settings you need to look at in windows for the ODAC, as well as causes for distorted sound, which seem reasonable. Read and adjust accordingly.
This may be worth a read through for Foobar / ASIO etc settings in windows.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for this detailed advice. I have checked everything on my ODAC and yep it's all correct, no parameters set out of range at all. Enhancements disabled. Sample rates are at 24/96 (Windows won't show higher), all the boxxes are checked.
I've found that in the same song, when ODAC is at 100% in WIndows, I can hear tiny popping noises. When it's at 90% and I raise the volume on the LD I+, the jitters are all gone.
I still think clipping is the problem here. I first found out about this when putting my intergrated O2 + ODAC on high gain. When I use the O2 (on high gain) with my iPhone 5, the jitters are gone. My O2+ODAC is not from JDS Labs but from Epiphany.
This is very strange since I think 2V * 3.5x gain from the I+ is not too much at all. It seems the output from my ODAC has some problem.