[.Sup]

Yeah you need another 100 hours of burn in. My ref 5 sounded really harsh and too analytical with my Auditor and there was almost no bass but now its all good now.

 

[ccschua]

so my fren collected the ref 8 and had a listen to it. his comments are the sound is tubelike but with better details. He cant comment if it is LP like but I hope to bring it together with a ref 1 and cd7se for a comparisons, hopefully on a pipedream setup with electronic crossover.

 

[superjohny]

actually, it's much better now, i turned it on for around 3 hrs and the sound is much more balanced. maybe this is also due to the fact that i changed my siemense e188cc tube to HP tube. siemense e188cc tube really extends the highs and lows with bigger soundstage but also sends the mids backward.
 
if i was to describe the sound before warm up and tube switch, it was like a whole or a tunnel in the sound, i haven't heard of a tube dac or amp sound, so maybe that was it? and also it IS more DYNAMIC but bit too crowded(lots of instruments everywhere), not very smooth, hopefully burn-in will make it smoother. A lot of bass, rich bass, uncontrolled, flooded. I am using D5000.  Airy. I just hope mids can be a bit more forward and higher mids can be just a little bit thicker.
 
please do excuse me for the messy impressions as i am just drawing down my impressions along listening. actually, my D5000 sounds more like a speaker, my logitech z2300 with 6.5inch subwoofer. gee,it's making my d5000 mad!!!it's exploding,bombs throwing to me face!!!! Bass was not that thick and wide with ultra micro dac. It reminded me of those disco halls. 
 
warm sound,not bright.
 
 
I guess i will leave it on 24/7 for a whole week.

 

[Currawong]

I look forward to your impressions too.  Might want to make it a couple of weeks to get it to 350 hours. They are notorious for both changing in sound during burn-in (it always amuses me when people say that burn-in is complete BS, as I just have to think of the unmistakable changes in Audio-gd gear that I was NOT expecting) and sounding better once warm.  Indeed, first thing in the morning in the middle of Winter, the sound can be quite congested and dull.

 

[superjohny]

pics up

 

[superjohny]

Quote:

I look forward to your impressions too.  Might want to make it a couple of weeks to get it to 350 hours. They are notorious for both changing in sound during burn-in (it always amuses me when people say that burn-in is complete BS, as I just have to think of the unmistakable changes in Audio-gd gear that I was NOT expecting) and sounding better once warm.  Indeed, first thing in the morning in the middle of Winter, the sound can be quite congested and dull.

hi Currawong, i am looking for a amp +headphone to pair with. any suggestion?

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Congrats on the DAC score !
 
I'm in complete agreement with Curra...the DAC will be all over the map (SQ wise) until is settles in which is right around 400 hours (give or take a few hours). The caps need to form and the reason is simple, there is a lot of filtering capacity (roughly 35,000 uf ) and a ton of WIMA film caps. These take time.
 
2 to 3 weeks from now that DAC will sound much better than it does now. A suggestion for a tube amp...look for something that is neutral in presentation (without any emphasis in the bass/mid bass region). That leaves you with a number of quality choices. What is your budget for the amp ?
 
Peete.

 

[haloxt]

Also vouch for burn-in to paraphrase dr. bronner, 400+ hours or nothing!

 

[superjohny]

Hi, Peete
 
the sound is already surprising me with only 5 hrs of use. subwoofer-like bass, enormous amount and wide.
i am looking around USD2000 and can prob stretch to USD3000 if the amp is really really good. I am hoping the amp can send the mids(vocal) forward as most of songs i am listening to are Jpop with female singer/s.
 
I was looking at Rudistor RPX-300 and heard comment on the recessed mids which backed me off.
 
i am not really sure whether tube amp is a good choice as i am a bit afraid on the left right channel imbalance as it is on my V8p. but given the non-existence of this problem, i guess I am pretty happy to get tube amp.
 
there are a lot of threads on LCD-2 in the forum which made me changed idea to maybe try balanced/unbalanced LCD-2 instead of LA7000, which then became unsure as ppl said LCD-2 needs neutral dac and amp.
 
I will be attending sydney meet on 11th of July and hopefully i can try out some amps and headphones first.
 
Johny

 

[MuseMan]

Hi,
 
I'm interested in one day buying an Audio-GD DAC but I'm wondering about import taxes. I live in Australia too so I'd appreciate any info!
 
Thanks.

 

[superjohny]

edited

 

[stang]

Quote:

Hi,
 
I'm interested in one day buying an Audio-GD DAC but I'm wondering about import taxes. I live in Australia too so I'd appreciate any info!
 
Thanks.

We don't get charged any custom fees etc unless declared item value is $1000 or more. I read it on the official page on the internet. Forgot what it is called now, but just try googling it.
 

 

[superjohny]

if i recall it right, eg item = 1200
 
item AUD1200
shipping = 120
duty = (1200+120)*5% 
taxable amount = item+shipping+duty
GST = taxable*10%
 
total to pay = 1200+GST+DUTY
 
Headroom only claims the actual value which made me not buying or at least postpone buying BUDA+DPS which is an extra AUD400 i need to pay for tax.

 

[superjohny]

can anyone solve my puzzle
 

 
the pic above has the rca slot marked as acss, however, from their official site the acss slot became another slot and they have marked out the previous ver(which is my ver.)
 

 

 
This is making me feeling being cheated that I purchase the ref 8 partly due to this acss marked on the dac however, it's not there physically.
Or is it just my misunderstanding that in fact acss can be using using different slots?

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

That's hogwash.  The output voltage of the DAC does not magically get higher with burn-in.  Whatever volume you get at day one is going to be the same volume you get on day 100, unless your amp is faulty.

 
It could be his hearing that adjusted