[memorex]

I was running my mp3's from my laptop (Dell Latitude D810) to my Headroom Little and then to my RS-1's.

Before the transit, and with other headphones and canal phones, if I turned the music off, I'd get static. With the Transit, there is absolute silence.

Other than that, I haven't noticed any difference at all.

Issues: The Transit's drivers (WinXP) like to set the volume on MAX!! when you disconnect it from the USB port and then connect it again later.

This is a bit of an issue because the Transit then outputs the audio at MAX!! and then the Headroom amps from there. So I end up turning the system's volume way down, winAmp at MAX!! and then the Little at medium.

Also- the USB cable they include is LONG (6' or better), so I'll be replacing that with a 3' or so.

Otherwise, I don't notice any difference other than the lack of static and noise when the music's off regardless of the setting on the Transit I use (things like Latency and operating mode).

Also- I can't figure out what Latency is/does- is it the buffer from machine to the DAC?

Can anybody enlighten me?

 

[Cerebral_Mamba]

I'll be glad to feed in the little info I have.

Firstly regarding volume, Its always recomented that you set all your software volumes in the computer to MAX. Vaguely speaking, When you lower a volume, you are actually decreasing the number of available bits, thereby taking away from the potential dynamic range of the system. Therefore, it is suggested that whenever possible you leave the output volume on your computer to MAX, and perform any necessary attenuation with the volume knob on the amplifier (Headroom Little) of if the M-Audio has one.

The USB cable shortening will not improve the sound. If properly implemented, the USB protocol has provisions of error control & correction. Therefore assuming that M-Audio would has done a good job with their USB interface (which they most surely have 'coz its the easy part to design), the cable length should not be improving any quality. I strongly urge you to keep the lengthy cable for convenience.

I cannot comment on why you do not notice any difference. May be there actually isn't much of a difference or may be you have been expecting more. Also, may depends on what outputs/inputs the M_Audio & Little have and how you have connected them, i'll leave others experienced with the product to fill you in on that.

If your M-Audio supports 24bit 96KHz processing, then you will be getting some improvement if you use a software player like Foobar2000, wherein you can enable the options allowing Foobar2000 to upsample to 965KHz and convert the usual 16bit to 24bit increasing the total dynamic range from 96dB to 114dB. The primary achievement of this increase in dynamic range is lowering the background noise. I don't know if you may experience a significant improvement in sound quality 'coz I don't have a DAC that supports it and so have not tried it. This ofcourse come at a price of increased processor usage.

Lastly, I have only a vague idea of Latency and so am not writing my opinions here and hope someone else will fill in the blanks with facts.