[dclaz]

  An issue with the odac is that it has no spdif inputs, so it can never improve through using a good usb to spdif converter, making it vulnerable to the fast evolving usb reciever chip technology.
It is likely that in two years time many cheap dacs will outperform the odac because they would simply use a more capable usb chip.

 
I thought there was already a preference for USB over spdif? In any case, if the USB chips were to improve...  more expensive USB based DAC's would be similarly outperformed no? 

 

[i019791]

   
I thought there was already a preference for USB over spdif? In any case, if the USB chips were to improve...  more expensive USB based DAC's would be similarly outperformed no?

 
I don't think there was ever a preference for usb over spdif with odac's usb chip.
More expensive usb dacs can be similarly outperformed, but (nearly) all the more expensive dacs come with spdif inputs also - so they can take in the future advantage of usb to spdif converters.

 

[Ashade]

I don't understand your justification to wait for spdif...

Nowadays you have the capability to transmit digital to digital without jitter in either USB and SPDIF. Digital is digital, no loss of quality here. The implementation of the DAC itself is the one responsible of transforming the signal.

The only reason you might argue to wait for SPDIF is saying that you prefer 192 vs 96kHz or 24bits vs 20 or 24 bits? I bet you cannot tell the difference.

You can pre-DPS by software exactly the same way in both as well.

Don't see the reason for waiting because of everything exposed above but further more, you can find excuses to wait for a better technology in the future in every field of technology, i.e. cars, and you can keep waiting your whole life for the perfect technology.

Maybe I'm missing something here?

 

[i019791]

I don't understand your justification to wait for spdif...

Nowadays you have the capability to transmit digital to digital without jitter in either USB and SPDIF. Digital is digital, no loss of quality here. The implementation of the DAC itself is the one responsible of transforming the signal.

The only reason you might argue to wait for SPDIF is saying that you prefer 192 vs 96kHz or 24bits vs 20 or 24 bits? I bet you cannot tell the difference.

You can pre-DPS by software exactly the same way in both as well.

Don't see the reason for waiting because of everything exposed above but further more, you can find excuses to wait for a better technology in the future in every field of technology, i.e. cars, and you can keep waiting your whole life for the perfect technology.

Maybe I'm missing something here?

 
If you are addressing me, I think I never wrote or implied "wait for spdif". Just that spdif option is good to have for future needs.

 

[Ashade]

If you are going to be using SPDIF a lot it might be useful. SPDIF has been there since the Minidisc, and with the exception of very rare applications you have always the alternative of the USB, that is exactly the same sound wise. I don't think this is going to change in the short term. It's a nice feature to have but I wouldn't pay extra for it.

If you really need SPDIF, go for it, if not, save you some bucks. And I'm not saying only get the ODAC, you have really good DACs for under 50 bucks. If at some point you need that feature, sell your equipment and get something new. The loss of money will be negligible, specially if you bought used in the first place.

One example is the E17. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good device but the SPDIF option is not at the level of the DAC itself. Nice to have, yes, but you can save yourself 50 bucks and go with the E07K unless you really need the extra power of amp the part.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[kcazbarach]

Just recieved the ODAC approximately 1.5 hours ago.
 
 
I plugged it in and something was off. It did have a "cold feel" and the soundstage was a bit hollow/less. it was so weird to me.
 
turns out one of my usb ports is garbage (not surprised after going through this thread). but I got it working now. and HOpe to use this as a main dac until i upgrade to bitfrost (not for a while lol). enjoying it so far.
 
 
do i turn foobar onto 24 bit if I'm using wasapi too?
 
I assume yes?
 
 
thanks for any help.

 

[tdockweiler]

  Just recieved the ODAC approximately 1.5 hours ago.
 
 
I plugged it in and something was off. It did have a "cold feel" and the soundstage was a bit hollow/less. it was so weird to me.
 
turns out one of my usb ports is garbage (not surprised after going through this thread). but I got it working now. and HOpe to use this as a main dac until i upgrade to bitfrost (not for a while lol). enjoying it so far.
 
 
do i turn foobar onto 24 bit if I'm using wasapi too?
 
I assume yes?
 
 
thanks for any help.

 
I had the same problem and I had to switch to a powered USB hub. I added a PCI USB card and can't tell a difference between it and the hub.
 
No way i'd ever use a USB port on a laptop. It seems most of them are not very good. On one port I couldn't even use a USB DVD burner without it giving me all sorts of errors. It was even the type that's powered with an AC adapter.
 
Going to be switching to SPDIF only soon. Just for testing and probably no audible difference. What's annoying is that i've read that some optical outputs on cheap soundcards still reencode/convert the audio without telling you. How lame.
 
Kind of weirded out how there is not much difference at all between my ODAC, Modi and Micro DAC. I'd put them all on the same level. Maybe if I had an HD-800 or some $200000 amp I could tell the difference.

 

[kcazbarach]

   
I had the same problem and I had to switch to a powered USB hub. I added a PCI USB card and can't tell a difference between it and the hub.
 
No way i'd ever use a USB port on a laptop. It seems most of them are not very good. On one port I couldn't even use a USB DVD burner without it giving me all sorts of errors. It was even the type that's powered with an AC adapter.
 
Going to be switching to SPDIF only soon. Just for testing and probably no audible difference. What's annoying is that i've read that some optical outputs on cheap soundcards still reencode/convert the audio without telling you. How lame.
 
Kind of weirded out how there is not much difference at all between my ODAC, Modi and Micro DAC. I'd put them all on the same level. Maybe if I had an HD-800 or some $200000 amp I could tell the difference.

 
Yea, I only have a laptop atm so SPDIF (no optical port) isn't an option (at least I don't believe it is, I'm really low on knowledge on it other than a few main points).
but I am debating buying a powered usb hub just to see if it'd change things. I'm already using the he-400 so the treble is somewhat sparkly to begin with...... (hard to tell).

 

[glunteer]

Hey Guys !
l'm having problems with my ODAC, it makes noise usb PC but says you can not install the driver ...

I bought here, he came up with the problem, but when I went to fix it does not recognize the PC but makes the sound of USB (http://www.head-fi.org/t/670512/odac-black-australia-needs-soldering)

 
can anyone tell me what can be?
 

Spoiler: Spoiler! Pics of ODAC

 

 

 

 

[Sonic Atrocity]

Jeez, that's too bad man. I don't know how to fix that stuff. 
 
This is kind of why I'm shying away from the ODAC. One person in this thread reported sonic changes with the addition of one ferrite after another (more than one ferrite). Another has mentioned how the ODAC behaves really weirdly when connected to certain power sources, and that it isn't all that easy to identify what sources cause this. Some people have even reported using different adapters and getting different sound from each one. I have read this whole thread, and I gotta say, the ODAC sounds a bit crappy.
 
EDIT: I really wanted to get this dac when I first heard about it. But now for that kind of neutrality I'm looking at the schiit modi. 

 

[tdockweiler]

  Jeez, that's too bad man. I don't know how to fix that stuff. 
 
This is kind of why I'm shying away from the ODAC. One person in this thread reported sonic changes with the addition of one ferrite after another (more than one ferrite). Another has mentioned how the ODAC behaves really weirdly when connected to certain power sources, and that it isn't all that easy to identify what sources cause this. Some people have even reported using different adapters and getting different sound from each one. I have read this whole thread, and I gotta say, the ODAC sounds a bit crappy.
 
EDIT: I really wanted to get this dac when I first heard about it. But now for that kind of neutrality I'm looking at the schiit modi. 

 
Well, I think it's that most computer USB ports are crappy

I always used a powered USB hub and that took care of all my problems. Using a USB PCI card would also work if you use a desktop.
 
The Modi will still have similar issues if you have poor quality USB ports.
 
I know you'll all hate this, but I can't hear much difference between the ODAC and Modi. Sounds 98% the same to me. And this is the guy who found it "stupid easy" to hear the differences between the ODAC and HRT MSII
 
ODAC/Modi are both equally good to my ears. There is one thing the Modi did better, but people will yell at me and say it's impossible

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

center image depth (Huh? What? How?!)

 

[glunteer]

 
I think the problem is within the PCB ... because when I press it works

 
 

   
Well, I think it's that most computer USB ports are crappy

I always used a powered USB hub and that took care of all my problems. Using a USB PCI card would also work if you use a desktop.
 
The Modi will still have similar issues if you have poor quality USB ports.
 
I know you'll all hate this, but I can't hear much difference between the ODAC and Modi. Sounds 98% the same to me. And this is the guy who found it "stupid easy" to hear the differences between the ODAC and HRT MSII
 
ODAC/Modi are both equally good to my ears. There is one thing the Modi did better, but people will yell at me and say it's impossible

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

center image depth (Huh? What? How?!)

tdockweiler, which hub you use?

 

[tdockweiler]

   
I think the problem is within the PCB ... because when I press it works

 
 
tdockweiler, which hub you use?

 
I was using a Belkin 7 port powered hub. Always worked fine for years but I switched to this one when I thought it died:
 
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2476717
 
Here in my city there are very few places that actually sell powered USB hubs. I only got that because it was cheap and had to buy a cable at Radioshack.
It's made by "Gigaware". Probably no audible differences between powered hubs unless they're really bad

 
I wasted my money on a $25 PCI USB card, but no audible difference of course.
 
I don't use a hub for anything but a DAC so not sure if there is any difference between them.

 

[Sonic Atrocity]

I have an ASUS U30JC I5 laptop, and it has all 2.0 USB hubs. Would those be sufficient? Would the sound be better out of a better USB hub/external powered USB hub?

 

[tdockweiler]

  I have an ASUS U30JC I5 laptop, and it has all 2.0 USB hubs. Would those be sufficient? Would the sound be better out of a better USB hub/external powered USB hub?

 
I would try it first and see how it goes. One thing that gave me a clue that something was wrong is that when I would scroll up and down in Firefox or any browser I'd get random/weird pops and clicks from my headphone. At random I would get screeching from my HRT MSII until I yanked the cable out.
I noticed on my ODAC it would seem a lot thinner and less smooth straight from my weak USB ports. Probably just random weirdness.
 
My laptop computer cost me $1200 maybe 5 years ago and it's USB ports were still not good. What's sad is that I have a worthless Ibook G4 with decent USB ports that give me no issues. Asus computers are pretty good so maybe they'll be OK.
 
Powered USB hubs are cheap so it's worth getting one and comparing the differences. To my ears the ODAC should never cause any fatigue unless it's the music/amp/headphone.