[T-Willi]

Thanks man.
I just couldnt find the price anywhere haha.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

When using FUN as USB DAC: which player suits best to it?
Currently I play my lossless files with foobar2000 because of it's simplicity but I can hear there the differences between WMP, winamp and foobar. I've never tried j.river.

I had to swap to the J River player when I made the jump from XP-Pro to Win7 Ultimate....when I made that O/S jump Foobar2000 did not have a WASAPI driver as of yet so I was forced to dump Foobar for J River MP 15.XX. I am unsure if Foobar has a Vista/Win7 WASAPI driver yet ...if that has changed there may be zero diff in SQ between the two sw players, then again there might be but I have no idea about that. I do know the Win7 audio section (and USB driver has improved with SP-1) is a major step up from Win XP (any flavor) which is good news.
 
Peete.
 
 

 

[muad]

Foobar2000 has wasapi drivers for windows7 and it works incredibly well. It only works in exclusive mode however.
 
@Brat - Use foobar2000 but install the wasapi component. Then go to preferences > playback > output and select WASAPI: USB as the device and set the output format to 24 bit. This will give you the highest quality playback possible from any PC player as it simply sends unmodified raw music data straight to the Fun without windows or anything else modifying it. The only thing is when your Foobar is open and playing you can't listen to any other sounds from anything else on your pc, also you wont be able to change the volume using the windows volume control. Foobar2000 has complete control of all music data being sent to the Fun, therefore you can still change the volume in foobar itself. It's a bit inconvenient but worth it to me, I like Foobar and I think the setup I described above is the most commonly used setup on headfi for those with external dacs.
 
BTW using WASAPI will work with JRiver media player also as Pete said and should theoretically sound identical. I don't think it does but then it may just be a placebo thing

 
Quote:

Quote:

When using FUN as USB DAC: which player suits best to it?
Currently I play my lossless files with foobar2000 because of it's simplicity but I can hear there the differences between WMP, winamp and foobar. I've never tried j.river.

I had to swap to the J River player when I made the jump from XP-Pro to Win7 Ultimate....when I made that O/S jump Foobar2000 did not have a WASAPI driver as of yet so I was forced to dump Foobar for J River MP 15.XX. I am unsure if Foobar has a Vista/Win7 WASAPI driver yet ...if that has changed there may be zero diff in SQ between the two sw players, then again there might be but I have no idea about that. I do know the Win7 audio section (and USB driver has improved with SP-1) is a major step up from Win XP (any flavor) which is good news.
 
Peete.

 

 

 

[Pricklely Peete]

The same thing happens with J River MP Muad...exclusive mode locks everything else out. Glad to hear (pun intended ) FB2000 has a WASAPI driver now.....I'm too lazy to switch back to test both players

 
I would imagine both running in exclusive mode should result in identical SQ performance (or at least that is what I'm telling myself today, see previous comment

)
 
Peete.

 

[brat]

Thanks for the responses. I installed the WASAPI component in foobar and ran it as output device. There was no obvious improvement over the Primary Sound Driver but I'll make some A/B tests later.
And the windows volume control still works with the WASAPI (Sony Vaio + Windows Vista Home)
 

 

[muad]

If the volume control still works then Wasapi is not functioning properly. The signal should bypass windows and go straight to the USB to thedac. If the volume control still works then the sound is still passing through windows mixer.
 
@Pete - For some reason I think I can hear a difference between other players with wasapi and foobar with Wasapi. I know theoretically they're supposed to sound identical! Foobar sounds more crisp to me. I'm not sure if it's just in my head, however Ive heard similar sentiments echoed throughout the forums. Even if it is just all in my head I can't switch from Foobar, I always switch right back!

 

[aston456]

Good morning everybody
and thank you very much so far for the help with some mods of my FUN.
Unfortunately the new DAC-section has not arrived yet but I still am optimistic that it will.
 
One thing I am curious about is how is the sound altered through the jumpers? What parameters are changed with the different settings?
I am asking this question since the sound of the FUN being used in pre-amp mode is still a little harsh to my ears even if I´ve set the jumpers to the "smoothest" position. Maybe there is a smoother way to alter the sound than just with those jumpers.
 
Cheers
Kai

 

[muad]

adding all the jumpers is supposed to roll off the highs, however I find the harshness from the old ad dac module was from the upper mids being emphasized. So it doesn't make that much of a difference in the harshness level. The dac module that you have coming will make the Fun perfect    You can also change the opamp, I found the opa moon to sound warmer and smoother. The fet output module (discontinued) made the sound very smooth but with a loss of definition. The wolfson dac with the earth opamp strikes a perfect balance between detail and musicality.
 
Hope it arrives soon!

 

[RonO]

I'll second muad's comments.  The wolfson DAC with earth is excellent.  The moon is a nice alternative and enjoyable in it's own way.

 

[muad]

Hmm I took some advice on using the ada4627-1brz with the Fun and the HD650's. Well... it only works for the preamp out and I'm only using the discrete headphone amp of the Fun. The opamp is for dac output, does that mean that the dac output to the built in headphone amp doesn't use the opamp or does?
 
So i guess my question is , which outputs will be affected by swapping opamps when using the built in dac?
 
and which outputs will be affected when changing the output buffer module when using the built in dac?
 
headphone amp? dac output? Preamp output?
 
 

 

[Bostonears]

 

Hmm I took some advice on using the ada4627-1brz with the Fun and the HD650's. Well... it only works for the preamp out and I'm only using the discrete headphone amp of the Fun. The opamp is for dac output, does that mean that the dac output to the built in headphone amp doesn't use the opamp or does?
 
So i guess my question is , which outputs will be affected by swapping opamps when using the built in dac?
 
and which outputs will be affected when changing the output buffer module when using the built in dac?
 
headphone amp? dac output? Preamp output?

As best as I can tell, with the Fun, when using any digital input through the DAC (optical, USB, or coax), all outputs (headphone, variable level preamp, or fixed level DAC) are through the opamp. The only time the opamp isn't in the path is when you're using the analog line inputs instead of the DAC, i.e. you depress the "Line In" button.
 
Essentially, you're listening through the opamp any time you're listening to the DAC.
 
(Don't know about the buffer module.)

 

[muad]

hmm I was afraid of that... I shot kingwa and email to get a definite response.
 
Maybe i should tell you where this all coming from. I just picked up a new pair of HD650' s. Well to put it simply it showed me the flaws in the sound of the Audioengine a5 or so I thought. Problems with imaging in congested pieces and an upper mid emphasis. Just to try, I put the Opa moon back in and I also tried the LME48710 (supposedly very neutral) and found that the music from speakers was much less congested than previously ( i use arcade fire - ready to start to test for separation because it's such a mess of sound). I'm beginning to think that the opa earth has a upper mid/lower treble peak and is not actually neutral. I was enamoured with this initially because it gave the illusion of definition with certain instruments and it sounded very different than anything i had heard before. This was all near the beginning of my head-fi journey, before I actually had any idea of what music should sound like. I think the opa earth out of the Fun is colored... What do you guys think?
 
With the to99 lme49710  and some volume levelling the stereo imaging on my audioengine a5's is much clearer. I think you're right about the opamp always being used with the dac. Since in metallica's enter sandman the kid repeating the creepy saying is perfectly imaged (another test piece i've always used). The only thing lost is the enhancing of the upper mids which didn't seem to work well for all of my music.

 

[brat]

HD650 are far from neutral. New HD650 are just terrible
Listen to the MUSIC, not the DETAILS.

 

[muad]

very useful... if my speakers didn't seriously sound like poo. It's not the details I'm after but for it not to sound wrong. I'm trying to make it sound like music!
Quote:

HD650 are far from neutral. New HD650 are just terrible
Listen to the MUSIC, not the DETAILS.

 

 

[olor1n]

Hmm I took some advice on using the ada4627-1brz with the Fun and the HD650's. Well... it only works for the preamp out and I'm only using the discrete headphone amp of the Fun. The opamp is for dac output, does that mean that the dac output to the built in headphone amp doesn't use the opamp or does?

So i guess my question is , which outputs will be affected by swapping opamps when using the built in dac?

and which outputs will be affected when changing the output buffer module when using the built in dac?

headphone amp? dac output? Preamp output?

As best as I can tell, with the Fun, when using any digital input through the DAC (optical, USB, or coax), all outputs (headphone, variable level preamp, or fixed level DAC) are through the opamp. The only time the opamp isn't in the path is when you're using the analog line inputs instead of the DAC, i.e. you depress the "Line In" button.

Essentially, you're listening through the opamp any time you're listening to the DAC.

(Don't know about the buffer module.)

This is correct.

muad, I have the Audioengine A2 and fwiw it sounds terrible with the ada opamp in place. Imaging is a mess and it just seems more congested and less engaging than when the hdams are in place. I actually much preferred Moon's textured presentation through the A2 over the more etched and analytical Earth signature.

I hardly listen to these speakers anymore as a result, but I've left the ada opamp in place as it presents qualities of both Earth and Moon but with higher resolution and better balance. This resolve in the dac is a great match for the tube ambience and dynamic power of the Lyr.