[Suntory_Times]

^ The 'cracking' sounds like your computer is running out of spare memory and thus the sound jumps, so to speak (happens to me if I have several things open and start a blu ray movie for example, having several Mozilla tabs, windows open etc eats away a huge amount of memory).

 

[Dat_Dude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thathertz /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. Good clean power source.

Can I ask what you mean by clean power source? Did you replace the wallwart that came with the DacMagic? Or did you purchase a separate power conditioner that cleans the power between the wall and the unit? I was considering buying a power conditioner/surge protector but wasn't quite sure it would affect anything and also how much I wanted to spend on it.

 

[spanimal]

I bought a Belkin Isolator and never looked back - if you can hear appreciable differences in interconnects, power filtration will blow you away, I think monster makes a good one, I dont think they are expensive in your la la land country. I think to really appreciate the power conditioning you should buy one after you burnt in the dacmagic and appreciate it and when you wonder what is next, then get it and be blown away. I think incremental steps is better than going all out in one go, even though it is tempting. Then you should stop and zone out, hang your head in shame and think "damn, I am officially a nerd", I am still ashamed.

 

[Suntory_Times]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bought a Belkin Isolator and never looked back - if you can hear appreciable differences in interconnects, power filtration will blow you away, I think monster makes a good one, I dont think they are expensive in your la la land country. I think to really appreciate the power conditioning you should buy one after you burnt in the dacmagic and appreciate it and when you wonder what is next, then get it and be blown away. I think incremental steps is better than going all out in one go, even though it is tempting. Then you should stop and zone out, hang your head in shame and think "damn, I am officially a nerd", I am still ashamed.

Most importantly it wil protect your equipement. Imaging if all your audio equipement stopped working one day, protecting expensive electronic equipement is a must.

 

[Dat_Dude]

I bought a Belkin Isolator and never looked back - QUOTE]

I actually bought this one. I only needed two outlets on it for the DacMagic and my Jade. It emphasizes that it is for video, but it is still a high quality surge suppression unit and also will clean up AC power noise.

Not sure how it compares to the Belkin Isolator, but I may try and find one of those for cheap as well if I can.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Stock feet issue is for keeping the DAC stable and not for SQ performance or whatever.

Mine werent even level and the one I put on the left rear was shorter than the others and the dac ended up moving whenever I touched it. My friend had a similar issue but his was that the DAC itself was slightly tilted to the right and not level. This is why I added this to the list of things to look for.

 

[spanimal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bought a Belkin Isolator and never looked back - QUOTE] I actually bought this one. I only needed two outlets on it for the DacMagic and my Jade. It emphasizes that it is for video, but it is still a high quality surge suppression unit and also will clean up AC power noise. Not sure how it compares to the Belkin Isolator, but I may try and find one of those for cheap as well if I can.

That one looks very sophisticated - more so than my 8 plug board, if you told me these things improve sound quality a couple of months ago I would have thought you were smoking too much weed. The changes were so obvious, the sound stabilised, there was a fuzzines in the uppermidrange and treble that I never knew was there until it was gone, the liquidity and smoothness, detail and noisefloor all improved - its not one of those subjective improvements - it was absolute.

People think because they attend concerts or play an instrument or is a sound engineer or heard really expensive systems qualify them as some kind of expert in the field. Everyone can be an "expert" as everyone here has ears and has the highest levels of reference material to realise how crap all equipment sounds. I don;t think any technology can reproduce the sound of Mack truck, I have heard this millions of times and I know all this gear we aspire to is still crap.

 

[thathertz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dat_Dude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can I ask what you mean by clean power source? Did you replace the wallwart that came with the DacMagic? Or did you purchase a separate power conditioner that cleans the power between the wall and the unit? I was considering buying a power conditioner/surge protector but wasn't quite sure it would affect anything and also how much I wanted to spend on it.

Yep, I bought a power conditioner. Actually I bought two

One for the DacMagic, one for my amp.

Makes a BIG difference.

 

[auee]

John Atkinson of Stereophile measured the DACMagic and reported his findings in this month's magazine. He found that the jitter introduced by the USB input was abysmal, but that otherwise the measurements were exemplary.

I fully support subjective assessments of a component, but not blind ignorance of its measured performance, and particularly jitter in digital components. I would not use the USB of this or any other DAC without specification of its jitter via that input.

 

[auee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thathertz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yep, I bought a power conditioner. Actually I bought two One for the DacMagic, one for my amp. Makes a BIG difference.

I agree. I am using the PS Audio Quintet and it lowers the noise by a considerable degree in addition to offering SOTA line protection.

 

[Dat_Dude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by auee /img/forum/go_quote.gif John Atkinson of Stereophile measured the DACMagic and reported his findings in this month's magazine. He found that the jitter introduced by the USB input was abysmal, but that otherwise the measurements were exemplary.

I read something similar to that somewhere on the web as well, which is precisely the reason I purchased a USB-to-SPDIF converter from CryoParts. I plan on having USB out of my laptop into the converter then Coax into the DacMagic.

 

[thathertz]

Same here. I got the Edirol UA-1EX for the conversion.

 

[endless402]

anyone notice that theres buzzing at times from the RCA outs if the XLRs are also connected?

 

[Lil' Knight]

I didn't notice anything wrong when using both the inputs at the same time.

 

[El_Doug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't notice anything wrong when using both the inputs at the same time.

he's talking about the outputs

@Endless: im afraid i've never used the rca-outs, sorry

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