[ninjikiran]

I wasn't charged any extra "tax" or "import charge".

 

[ajuztam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonwc /img/forum/go_quote.gif Few more questions- What is the warranty period on the D1? I see mention of a warranty and the 14-day return policy, but no statement of its length. Can any US buyers comment on whether they were charged any import taxes or duties for their purchase? The Maverick site mentions that this is possible.

if you live in europe you will pay around 18 extra euros.

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjikiran /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wasn't charged any extra "tax" or "import charge".

Same here. Although I would have paid an additional $20 if DHL would be more competent in the US.

 

[jasonwc]

Thanks for the response guys. I have always listened from my computer without an amp/dac. I figured with Grado SR-60's, it wouldn't be necessary. I decided to listen on one of my school's CD players - a Marantz CD-67SE, and damn, it really does sound better

I'm looking forward to having some nice HD-580s and a good DAC/AMP to play with.

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Same here. Although I would have paid an additional $20 if DHL would be more competent in the US.

It was opposite for me, US DHL was fast and responsive. It was on hold for a few days in china. Once it got past that to where the dhl transport is, it took like a day to get here. Granted you live in who knows Wash state, and I live in a big city where they probably do far more deliveries.

 

[_Spanky_]

I know this is off-topic but DHL actually delivers there? It was my understanding that they are no longer in the US and just pass the packages off to USPS which is what they did in my case. It was sent to Ohio, passed off to USPS then delivered to my P.O. Box in Idaho. I was in contact with DHL and they had no information about my package like a tracking number or something. It was like 5 days total but DHL's support in the US is ridiculous, there's plenty of horror stories online that complain about that. Also, every time I contacted DHL via e-mail I always got a canned response that said, and I'm not kidding:
Quote:

Thank you for contacting Dunder Mifflin. Your email is important to us and we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible. If this email is an inquiry regarding new products, the information is available on our website.

For those un-informed:
Dunder Mifflin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Anyway, I've taken ninjikiran's post and turned it into a installation tutorial with pre-modded and stripped down drivers.
Check it out here:
Driver Installation Tutorial for Maverick Audio's TubeMagic D1
and:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mav...thread-470639/

 

[sfrancis]

Ｆinally got my D1 today. Since I'm a total newbie, D1 + HD650 really blows me away. It sounds so much better than using Squeezebox to drive HD650. I can suddenly hear more sound that I never hear before. Don't want to take down the headphone once I put it on.

Ordered the two types of opamps mentioned here but I won't start rolling them yet.

 

[boomy3555]

+DHL expanded thier door to door services to include standard package ( Non-Express) in the early 2000's to compete with UPS but failed miserably after about a year. They cut back to doing thier express still door to door and international services which were thier " Bread and Butter". They still offer a standard padkage service combined w/USPS where you ship it via DHL and they will deliver to the P.O closest to thier warehouse in the destination area which will in turn deliver via regualr post. My Last DHL Package got to my house the next day, once it got to the US. they expedite Customs by transmitting Customs forms ahead of the flight.

 

[jasonwc]

Spanky,

So, if you set it to 16 bit, 44.1 khz output, and use the WASAPI kernel plugin in foobar2000, are you getting bit-exact output for CDs?

 

[_Spanky_]

Using my X-Fi with Coaxial I am. My onboard (motherboard) isn't bit-perfect so no matter how I use it, it won't be.

If you're asking about USB, I don't know. It's not bit-perfect with the generic USB Audio driver. With the custom driver, I don't think it's bit-perfect but I've been wrong about things before. I didn't use it very much, just enough to test the drivers and play around a bit. Hopefully Ryan (and others) can test the driver and since he knows the behavior of the circuit maybe he can give some info on it.

 

[jasonwc]

How do you know if your soundcard supports bit-perfect output?

I thought SPDIF can change the bit rate/frequency on the fly - hence the clicking noise when it changes. So, is SPDIF preferred over USB if it's available?

 

[_Spanky_]

For me, bit-perfect means that whenever I change to a song with a different sample rate than the previous song, I get a brief moment of hiss and a click from the D1. This happens like clockwork with SPDIF from my X-Fi. With my onboard, the clicking seems random as well as with the USB. Sometimes it'll click when opening a 44.1kHz while playing a 44.1kHz. I know my X-Fi is bit-perfect so there's no need for me to mess with anything else.

I do however use optical SPDIF from my onboard card for videos since it gives less "popping" than my X-Fi does. I don't even think I can pass bit-perfect with videos so less "popping" means more to me for videos than bit-perfect does.

I don't really mess with USB since I have 2 other options. I do play around with it every so often but I get noise with the USB and can sometimes hear my mouse. It's probably just USB or my motherboard. Most of the time I just leave the USB unplugged.

*EDIT*
Guess I didn't answer your question. For my situation, SPDIF is preferred over USB. Generally, I think SPDIF is preferred over USB. Something about jitter with USB as well as noise. Personally, and others may disagree, I think the ideal way would be optical SPDIF via TOSLINK. This isolates the 2 components so grounding and noise isn't transferred, not that you'd find a lot of it with coaxial. But... optical has that extra "converting" stage where it has to be converted into light then unconverted, whether that makes a difference or not is for the forum warriors to decide.

 

[jasonwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Usually I use digikey but they were out of the LT1364's a few weeks ago so I ordered from arrow electronics Also I highly recommend trying the opa627 for the preamp. I much preferred that to the LT1364. You can get them cheaper from this headfi sponsor. They are still a bit pricey tho... edit: BTW if you decide to get the opa627 make sure you get the one labeled "OPA2627 SuperChip" ($37) because their 2xdip8 model wont fit without additional sockets and they also cost more.

Is the OPA627 also used for the headphone out?

 

[muad]

You could use the opa627 for the headphone out but I haven't tried it. Be warned about the opa627 tho. It is a slightly dark sounding opamp. But musically very nice. Really takes any harshness out of the music. Plus a very clear soundstage. The treble doesn't seem to come through as well. But it sounds very nice. I would definitely call the opa627 opamp coloured. It makes some of my badly recorded songs and bad mp3s sound quite alright. Ive never heard music sound like this...

Btw spanky when I used bit perfect with the xfi and I changed between 24bit 96k stuff and 16bit 44k stuff it makes a very different noise than a pop. Sound almost like a motor turning something. Thats the only time I was sure I was running bit perfect. No other sound output or card I tried caused that. Only audio creation mode and the xfi set to bit perfect out and using wasapi spdif. Im kinda dissapointed that my xfi caused me so many problems...

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Btw spanky when I used bit perfect with the xfi and I changed between 24bit 96k stuff and 16bit 44k stuff it makes a very different noise than a pop. Sound almost like a motor turning something. Thats the only time I was sure I was running bit perfect. No other sound output or card I tried caused that. Only audio creation mode and the xfi set to bit perfect out and using wasapi spdif. Im kinda dissapointed that my xfi caused me so many problems...

The D1 gives a very brief hiss in the output and simultaneously clicks like a switch or something. The popping I was describing is something un-related to sample rate and bit-depth.

I've used different methods of output with my X-Fi and I've found that all the following yield the same bit-perfect results, at least on my card:
Creative ASIO in Audio Creation Mode
WASAPI in Audio Creation Mode
WASAPI in Game Mode

So since I play games, I just leave it in Game Mode. Works out pretty well