It looks like the whole idea of this meet is cursed for me. The night I heard about it and responded my computer's power supply goes out. It was almost 4 years old so I wasn't too surprised there. I went out a bought a new one as well as a new quiet case (Antec Sonata Elite) to rewire everything in. It didn't end there unfortunately.
This past Friday we had a good thunderstorm going as I'm sure most of you in the metro Atlanta area can attest to. Well, it started calming down around here so I booted up the ol' computer to listen to some tunes while I got to reading Insomnia (o the irony) when I hear a massive thunder crash outside and my whole apartment goes dark. The power was only out for a second and my computer started back up on it's own with no apparent issues. I did notice that my internet was out. As it turns out, my whole network was out. When all was said and done, my router was blown as well as the network port on my cable modem. I also noticed that I wasn't getting sound from my Chaintech's optical out and DAC when I tried playing something back through foobar. When I opened up the Via audio deck to diagnose the problem, I noticed that all of the text on the panel was messed up, so I contributed to problem to a corrupted driver or something.
Enter today, where I finally get a hold of some USB drivers for my modem which connects with no problems. I re download the the Via drivers for the Chaintech and reinstalled, but I'm still not getting any sound from it despite my DAC showing a locked signal. I switched out the optical cable with no changes. Then, I bust out my cheapo DVD player with a coax digital out, and I'm still not getting anything from the DAC despite the signal locked light being on. I opened up the DAC and didn't notice any charring on the board, so I'm at a loss as to what happened. Everything was hooked up to surge protectors except for my cable line which is where all of the problems stemmed from I guess. I have no clue how my DAC got damaged though.
.gif)
The bottom line is my DAC is dead on both the optical and coax inputs. At least my PPA escaped unscathed, and the "hi-rez" output on the Chaintech seems to still work. It sounds better than it's at the time $30 price tag would lead you to believe, but it's no Entech.
I'm still coming, but as it is my rig is now a good deal more crippled that I would like for it to be. I may take you up on that loaner DAC offer you gave Tyll, as I'm definitely in the market for a new one now.
Edit: OK it's working now, though I'm not entirely sure what I did to bring it back to life. I cracked it open again and re-seated the opamp I installed in it and messed with the wires that I have run to the front panels LED and it just started working all of a sudden. Regardless, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to keep my eyes open for a replacement in the near future.
