[Ash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif A good upgrade? yes. A good price NOOOO!! (if you're talking US) - you could get an HDAM shipped to you from China for that, which would be a much better upgrade. If you're going to spend $55 I'd go right to an HDAM (think of it as a souped up OpAmp that was designed for audio specifically).

Thanks for the clarification.... I would rather do the HDAM mod in that case. I guess there is some soldering involved....
I cant remember the place/person who was selling the HDAM at a good price. Where have all the ppl here who have done the mod sourced their HDAM from... I hate to go thru 800 pages of info....

 

[ScottieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the clarification.... I would rather do the HDAM mod in that case. I guess there is some soldering involved.... I cant remember the place/person who was selling the HDAM at a good price. Where have all the ppl here who have done the mod sourced their HDAM from... I hate to go thru 800 pages of info....

No soldering necessary (at least it shouldn't be - mine came very lightly damaged but they've since corrected this - and gave me a discount even though I was able to fix it myself) -- strictly plug and play.

Check the sigs on any of AudioPhewls posts (he posted a few times in the last page or two) for a link to Audio-GD, where you should get the HDAM. You will need to choose between the Earth, Sun and Moon. The general concensous here is that the Earth is the most neutral (and as such the most liked here), the Sun is a bit too forward and bright, and the moon is newer, perhaps warmer and more "tube-like". Personally, I like the Sun (giving it another chance now) with my Senns because it makes them a touch less dark - there's still a small part of me that misses my Grado's. But honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. Any of the 3 will beat the pants off any opamp I've heard.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ain't a real easy way to put this but I'll try. You're listening to CRAP. I'm sure the LD is resolving the CRAP in a little better detail than the Zero, but maybe not. I don't have a LD II. I do have a LD V and it does some better than the Zero. First things first. You need to listen to some WAV's or FLAC, or APE files or some other lossless format. Trying to discern a difference in these two amps with that low a level of MP3 is kinda like breaking out a cassette tape or 8-Track. Hopefully, you'll notice the difference quickly when you get more detailed source music.

Helicopter:

Agreed (Les).......you need to feed the DAC/AMP with CD quality (either through full wav or lossless as Les suggests) ....mp3's of any compression IMO obscure detail, destroy the soul of the music through loss of all important bits. A simple experiment for you would be to listen to that same track as a CDA or ripped wav and then compare that with the CBR mp3. I think you'll notice a huge difference in SQ straight away.

Speaking of FLAC.....I lost my entire library from a power failure (fried a HDD in a RAID 0 array, no matter what I did I could not get that array functional again....) over the weekend.....talk about a bummer. I'll be ripping CD's for next 3+ weeks to get back up to speed. EAC isn't fast but it's worth the effort.

'Copter.....use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to rip your cd library to FLAC. It's a two part process (the raw wav to FLAC done on the fly). You need to setup EAC to do this...the help files make that easy though

Peete.

 

[ScottieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricklely Peete /img/forum/go_quote.gif Helicopter: Agreed (Les).......you need to feed the DAC/AMP with CD quality (either through full wav or lossless as Les suggests) ....mp3's of any compression IMO obscure detail, destroy the soul of the music through loss of all important bits. A simple experiment for you would be to listen to that same track as a CDA or ripped wav and then compare that with the CBR mp3. I think you'll notice a huge difference in SQ straight away. Speaking of FLAC.....I lost my entire library from a power failure (fried a HDD in a RAID 0 array, no matter what I did I could not get that array functional again....) over the weekend.....talk about a bummer. I'll be ripping CD's for next 3+ weeks to get back up to speed. EAC isn't fast but it's worth the effort. 'Copter.....use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to rip your cd library to FLAC. It's a two part process (the raw wav to FLAC done on the fly). You need to setup EAC to do this...the help files make that easy though Peete.

2 words peete - BACK UP!!!

Learned this the HARD way several times - now keep full backups of everything. If it's big, I just buy a second same size HD and mirror it. Once I even lost my backup while restoring, but that's something you can't plan for I think... I've only got so much money after all! Yeah, I guess the CDs could be considered the backups, but eff that! Not after how long it took to rip everything!!!

 

[BigTony]

I hold 2 copies on my music files on 2 seperate HDD (1 internal and one NAS) as i'd hate to re-rip 2300 cd's!! A 1TB hdd is pretty cheap, and if 1 fried, i'll replace and copy.

 

[Ash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif No soldering necessary (at least it shouldn't be - mine came very lightly damaged but they've since corrected this - and gave me a discount even though I was able to fix it myself) -- strictly plug and play. Check the sigs on any of AudioPhewls posts (he posted a few times in the last page or two) for a link to Audio-GD, where you should get the HDAM. You will need to choose between the Earth, Sun and Moon. The general concensous here is that the Earth is the most neutral (and as such the most liked here), the Sun is a bit too forward and bright, and the moon is newer, perhaps warmer and more "tube-like". Personally, I like the Sun (giving it another chance now) with my Senns because it makes them a touch less dark - there's still a small part of me that misses my Grado's. But honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. Any of the 3 will beat the pants off any opamp I've heard.

I miss my Grados too. I am very close to going back by adding a pair of 225s to my collection.
Thanks for the link. I want to try the Moon but I will be adding a tube amp to my Zero in the near future anyway.
Now what I need to order is: 1) OPA-EARTH Dual OPA 2)Extension lead of the OPA.
Do I need anything else from Audio-gd for this mod?
Thanks for you patience!!

 

[AudioPhewl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif No soldering necessary (at least it shouldn't be - mine came very lightly damaged but they've since corrected this - and gave me a discount even though I was able to fix it myself) -- strictly plug and play. Check the sigs on any of AudioPhewls posts (he posted a few times in the last page or two) for a link to Audio-GD, where you should get the HDAM. You will need to choose between the Earth, Sun and Moon. The general concensous here is that the Earth is the most neutral (and as such the most liked here), the Sun is a bit too forward and bright, and the moon is newer, perhaps warmer and more "tube-like". Personally, I like the Sun (giving it another chance now) with my Senns because it makes them a touch less dark - there's still a small part of me that misses my Grado's. But honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. Any of the 3 will beat the pants off any opamp I've heard.

~Phewl.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif 2 words peete - BACK UP!!! Learned this the HARD way several times - now keep full backups of everything. If it's big, I just buy a second same size HD and mirror it. Once I even lost my backup while restoring, but that's something you can't plan for I think... I've only got so much money after all! Yeah, I guess the CDs could be considered the backups, but eff that! Not after how long it took to rip everything!!!

Poor PP thought he was Back'd up with his RAID array. I have 5 TB's of Data. When the new 1.5TB discs got so cheap, I was going to RAID it on (8) 1.5 TB drives in a NAS Server, but the performance and reliability of these drives is so bad, I'm having to wait.

PP, just curious, what were you using to RAID with? Hardware or software?

 

[ScottieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash /img/forum/go_quote.gif I miss my Grados too. I am very close to going back by adding a pair of 225s to my collection. Thanks for the link. I want to try the Moon but I will be adding a tube amp to my Zero in the near future anyway. Now what I need to order is: 1) OPA-EARTH Dual OPA 2)Extension lead of the OPA. Do I need anything else from Audio-gd for this mod? Thanks for you patience!!

Nope that's all you'll need - 1 HDAM and 1 lead. Make sure to specify that you want the lead that can be detached and not the kind that is soldered on. My first was the one where the lead was soldered on and that is where the damage was - I had to re-solder the tiny connections of all the lead wires... he claims he now only sends the detachable one, but I'd ask for it just the same.

Although I do miss my Grado's when I had them and A/B'd with the Senns it was no contest... not though I miss the way guitars sounded on them... but now I'm thinking of trying some Beyer DT880's - or maybe the AKG701, but I hear they aren't great with rock. I want a great rock can with perhaps a bit more bass than my 225s offered.... but that's really here nor there, I shouldn't be buying anything! Haa - friggin head-fi

 

[helicopter34234]

Quote:

Ain't a real easy way to put this but I'll try. You're listening to CRAP. I'm sure the LD is resolving the CRAP in a little better detail than the Zero, but maybe not. I don't have a LD II. I do have a LD V and it does some better than the Zero.

Sorry that I didn't make it clear in my original post but I am listening to lossless files. I meant that V7 was transparent to me (when ABX'ed with the lossless version) on both the zero HP amp and the MKII. I also ABX'ed the Zero HP amp and the MKII with lossless songs and I could not discern a difference between the amps. I tried a bunch of songs including ones from the ultrasome cd (binuarial recordings) and couldn't catch the difference. I tried listening to snare drums, vocals, cymbals, couldn't really hear a difference.

Also, see my thread http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/i-...-hi-fi-393585/

 

[DaLiu]

One friend of mine bought the upgraded Zero DAC from CHAN LAWRENCE but he told me there are some problems, he got low volume when he is tryin to use the DAC as preamp for his headphone, basically he connect the DAC using optical cable but he got low volume and quite noizy, do you know what could be the problem?

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by helicopter34234 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry that I didn't make it clear in my original post but I am listening to lossless files. I meant that V7 was transparent to me (when ABX'ed with the lossless version) on both the zero HP amp and the MKII. I also ABX'ed the Zero HP amp and the MKII with lossless songs and I could not discern a difference between the amps. I tried a bunch of songs including ones from the ultrasome cd (binuarial recordings) and couldn't catch the difference. I tried listening to snare drums, vocals, cymbals, couldn't really hear a difference. Also, see my thread http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/i-...-hi-fi-393585/

"""because Lame V7 mp3 is pretty much transparent to me and I really really have to struggle to hear any artifacts whatsoever in CBR 112 Kbps""""

Then what did you mean by CBR 112 Kbps???

My FLAC files usually run around 680-750 Kbps???

I'm still not following you.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nope that's all you'll need - 1 HDAM and 1 lead. Make sure to specify that you want the lead that can be detached and not the kind that is soldered on. My first was the one where the lead was soldered on and that is where the damage was - I had to re-solder the tiny connections of all the lead wires... he claims he now only sends the detachable one, but I'd ask for it just the same. Although I do miss my Grado's when I had them and A/B'd with the Senns it was no contest... not though I miss the way guitars sounded on them... but now I'm thinking of trying some Beyer DT880's - or maybe the AKG701, but I hear they aren't great with rock. I want a great rock can with perhaps a bit more bass than my 225s offered.... but that's really here nor there, I shouldn't be buying anything! Haa - friggin head-fi

Also needs to be the Dual HDAM and not the Single HDAM, FYI

 

[ScottieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif """because Lame V7 mp3 is pretty much transparent to me and I really really have to struggle to hear any artifacts whatsoever in CBR 112 Kbps"""" Then what did you mean by CBR 112 Kbps??? My FLAC files usually run around 680-750 Kbps??? I'm still not following you.

He just means that although he normally uses FLAC, he can't really even distinguish them from lame v7 or cbr 112 files (probably as low as he goes). he's just trying to point out that no matter what he tries, he doesn't seem to have an "ear" for hi-fi, and as many others have said - more power to ya. If you enjoy the music, then just enjoy it... then again, SOMEthing made you think there was more out there. But if you can't hear it, then you're just wasting $$.

 

[ScottieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also needs to be the Dual HDAM and not the Single HDAM, FYI

He said "dual opa earth" in his original post.