[tfarney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have had the Glow Amp One since Wednesday, 4/9 and I have logged about 45 hours of burn in since using an Oritek 4.1 DAC. I believe any good amp benefits from a good burn in and this one is at least 200 hours away from being fully burnt in. But I can say that with +/-45 hour the amp has improved in taking most of the rough edges off. The bass although not fully tight is much better than straight out of the box. The mids continue to mature nicely, impact wise it is good but it is still a bit way off my fully modded X-Can V2. Nonetheless the overall presentation is both tighter, and a bit more musical. If you go to the DIY forum you will see I just finished the passive mod on my Lite DAC-AH. Well I placed it besides the Glow Amp One and now I can hear an slight hum whith the source off and the volume pot at 2:30 o'clock or higher. Before I did not hear this, wonder what is causing it? May have to move the Lite DAC-AH out of the area or perhaps it the power cord feeding the Lite DAC-AH going over the input cables feeding the Glow Amp One. FYI, a pair of matched Siemens EL84 have been secured and should be here in by next Friday or so. tfarney, where are you located?

Charlotte, NC. Have you compared the Glow's internal DAC with your Lite DAC AH?

Tim

 

[tfarney]

I'm bad. I admit it. I've been thinking about this possiblity so much it has occured to me that I might eventually need a second pair of small bookshelf speakers. So this afternoon I picked up a pair of the Infinitys with the 5.5" poly woofer and the tiny poly-carbon tweeter. Yeah, I know, I'm between gigs and I haven't bought an amp yet and I'm buying speakers....

They were $1.99 each at the Habitat for Humanity "Re-Store." Sound pretty good.

Tim

 

[mrarroyo]

Tim, I remembered I had an old laptop laying around. So I pulled it out and after doing some hard drive maintenace attempted to connect it, but it is so old I need to download a music player. Well in order to connect to my cable modem I need drivers so I contacted my cable company and they will mail me the cd-rom w/ the drivers on Monday (should have them by next weekend).

I will upgrade the laptop Windows 2000 and download a copy of iTunes. Should have the setup runing next weekend. Sorry I could not do it this weekend.

BTW, the Lite DAC-AH w/ the passive mods is sounding sweet w/ only 8 hours of burn in.

For the details of what I did go to: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/lit...cation-316089/

NOTE: The "noise" from 3 o'clock on is gone! I am now using the Lite DAC-AH, will report what happens when I go back to the Oritek V4.1 DAC.

 

[tfarney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tim, I remembered I had an old laptop laying around. So I pulled it out and after doing some hard drive maintenace attempted to connect it, but it is so old I need to download a music player. Well in order to connect to my cable modem I need drivers so I contacted my cable company and they will mail me the cd-rom w/ the drivers on Monday (should have them by next weekend). I will upgrade the laptop Windows 2000 and download a copy of iTunes. Should have the setup runing next weekend. Sorry I could not do it this weekend. BTW, the Lite DAC-AH w/ the passive mods is sounding sweet w/ only 8 hours of burn in. For the details of what I did go to: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/lit...cation-316089/ NOTE: The "noise" from 3 o'clock on is gone! I am now using the Lite DAC-AH, will report what happens when I go back to the Oritek V4.1 DAC.

Oh, so you're not currently set up to use a computer as the source feeding the Amp One? Didn't understand that. I look forward to hearing your impressions later, then. Well, I hope so anyway. If it's old enough, it won't support USB music at all. I hope we can get this resolved before CanJam. Testing the first tube amp with a built in DAC using cdp sources that bi-pass its DAC kind of misses the point. There are lots of tube headphone amps out there in this price range and below. It's the DAC that differentiates the Glow.

Tim

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfarney /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh, so you're not currently set up to use a computer as the source feeding the Amp One? Didn't understand that. I look forward to hearing your impressions later, then. Well, I hope so anyway. If it's old enough, it won't support USB music at all. I hope we can get this resolved before CanJam. Testing the first tube amp with a built in DAC using cdp sources that bi-pass its DAC kind of misses the point. There are lots of tube headphone amps out there in this price range and below. It's the DAC that differentiates the Glow. Tim

Man, I am definetly not doing a good job explaining my self. The Glow Amp One is being fed Apple Lossless files from my hard drive using the following sequence:

Apple Lossless File in HD > iTunes > Chaintech AV710 > Optical Cable > Oritek V4.1 DAC (or Lite DAC-AH) > BJC IC > Glow Amp One

What I have not done is feed the Glow Amp One using an USB Cable from my computer. I will do so w/ the laptop. Hope I did better this time.

 

[psc001]

Thank you mrarroyo! I look foward to hearing from you more about the Amp one.

 

[tfarney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Man, I am definetly not doing a good job explaining my self. The Glow Amp One is being fed Apple Lossless files from my hard drive using the following sequence: Apple Lossless File in HD > iTunes > Chaintech AV710 > Optical Cable > Oritek V4.1 DAC (or Lite DAC-AH) > BJC IC > Glow Amp One What I have not done is feed the Glow Amp One using an USB Cable from my computer. I will do so w/ the laptop. Hope I did better this time.

You're probably expressing yourself just fine. I suspect...well, this time anyway, I'm deep acronym hell. Chaintech AV710, Oritek, V4.1 DAC, Lite DAC-AH, BJC IC....whew! That was rougher than a corporate HR meeting!

What I'm getting from that is that you are using a computer and lossless files as your source, but you're not using the Amp One's internal DAC, instead you are using a couple of DACs you already have, and I assume you know well. This is good. Really good. Surely that computer has a USB port? Hook up the Glow and let me know how it's DAC compares to the ones you have. I'll be happier than a hot hound dog in a cool mud puddle.

Tim

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stlblues /img/forum/go_quote.gif Most appreciated. Mahalo!

Ok, I took a few pics of the back of the amp. It appears the hole to insert an speaker cable through is 4 to 4.5 mm in diameter. The following pictures show the detail, please click on the thumbnail to view the full size picture.







I also took the time to take pictures of the amp's interiror. Here they are:

 

[psc001]

Nice pics...!

 

[NDamiani]

So last night I took the amp and hooked it up to my PS3 via RCA (compared to how it was connected to my computer through the DAC.)

What a difference.

My RS1's sounded simply amazing when playing games and listening to CD's. Unfortunately, that just leaves me wanting much more from the DAC.

I even hooked it up to a macbook to make sure it wasn't something with my computer/settings, but it still lacked the substance and low end much like it did on my computer.

I'd hate to be disappointed with this amp. I really want to like it. I love the looks, and the sound it produces via RCA was amazing, but the main reason I went with this amp is because of the DAC combined with tubes at a seemingly reasonable price. The DAC was big for me because most of my listening is done on my computer.

Having little experience with DAC's I guess I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Perhaps I expected too much? I'm not sure what is typical in terms of DAC performance. I just feel, in this case, the DAC didn't perform to how I expected; lacking fullness, warmth, and mid to lower range and bass.

I'm no good at describing how it sounds though compared to the more experienced, knowledgeable reviewers on here so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm even reserving my own judgment more or less until a veteran chimes in (based solely on my own lack of experience in the subject matter.)

 

[stlblues]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok, I took a few pics of the back of the amp. It appears the hole to insert an speaker cable through is 4 to 4.5 mm in diameter. The following pictures show the detail, please click on the thumbnail to view the full size picture.

Thanks. I have a feeling 8 gauge speaker cables, w/ spades, won't fit back there. Even if I "forced" it and they did fit, the left channel would be touch the power cable the first few inches. I will probably have to wait for an Amp Two (major bummer!!).

I'm still really looking forward to how it sounds w/ cans. Hopefully you'll have something close to my ath-w1000's. Again, I really appreciate your efforts...

 

[iviythos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDamiani /img/forum/go_quote.gif So last night I took the amp and hooked it up to my PS3 via RCA (compared to how it was connected to my computer through the DAC.) What a difference.

This is really disappointing... I was hoping the DAC would at least provide reasonable performance. From the sound of this it's only going to be useful for low-quality source material from the computer, ie internet radio or compressed files. Anyone else that can test the usb dac and corroborate?

 

[tfarney]

What kind of files are you playing from your computer? Lossless? 128kbps? 320kbps? Could make a huge difference in whether or not the sound will be competitive with CDs, even if the DAC is very good.

Tim

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDamiani /img/forum/go_quote.gif So last night I took the amp and hooked it up to my PS3 via RCA (compared to how it was connected to my computer through the DAC.) What a difference. My RS1's sounded simply amazing when playing games and listening to CD's. Unfortunately, that just leaves me wanting much more from the DAC. I even hooked it up to a macbook to make sure it wasn't something with my computer/settings, but it still lacked the substance and low end much like it did on my computer. I'd hate to be disappointed with this amp. I really want to like it. I love the looks, and the sound it produces via RCA was amazing, but the main reason I went with this amp is because of the DAC combined with tubes at a seemingly reasonable price. The DAC was big for me because most of my listening is done on my computer. Having little experience with DAC's I guess I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Perhaps I expected too much? I'm not sure what is typical in terms of DAC performance. I just feel, in this case, the DAC didn't perform to how I expected; lacking fullness, warmth, and mid to lower range and bass. I'm no good at describing how it sounds though compared to the more experienced, knowledgeable reviewers on here so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm even reserving my own judgment more or less until a veteran chimes in (based solely on my own lack of experience in the subject matter.)

 

[NDamiani]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfarney /img/forum/go_quote.gif What kind of files are you playing from your computer? Lossless? 128kbps? 320kbps? Could make a huge difference in whether or not the sound will be competitive with CDs, even if the DAC is very good. Tim

FLAC output through foobar2000 utilizing ASIO4ALL v2.

 

[tfarney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDamiani /img/forum/go_quote.gif FLAC output through foobar2000 utilizing ASIO4ALL v2.

Lossless?

Tim