Well, I just played my music for a few hours a day (whilst listening ), and mine seemed reasonably stabilized after a week or so. If you leave it running 24hrs a day, you would be done in a couple of days or so if my experience is anything to go by.
Of course this could just be my ears adapting to the sound...
I just got it and I like it very much so far. It pairs well with my AKG 701. Very nice sound with bass pronounced jsut right. At first it came across as somewhat harsh to me. Than I found out that becouse it is so very dynamic and detailed I have to listen at a bit lower volume than I am used to.
You certainly can, that's how I use it. Some limitations when using a USB drive:
Needs to be FAT16 or FAT32 formatted.
The USB port supplies 5V up to 1Amp. It drives my external HD without any issues.
File & folder names are displayed up to only 32 characters (scrolling).
The maximum total number of folders is 700, up to 8 levels.
The maximum number of files is 65,535.
The small round "porthole" window on the front may be an interesting design feature, but it is not ideal when searching for files. There is only a short delay before the entry scrolls to show all characters, but still...
FLAC playback is not supported for USB drives, you need to use .wav for full CD resolution.
Browsing through folders is as per the FAT (file allocation table), so the order in which you write the folders to the drive is important if you want to maintain your sanity...
Also, if you use a Mac (OSX) to write files & folders to the drive, it is best to get rid of all the pesky hidden "._filename" resource files OSX creates when writing to FAT formatted drives/partitions. The HD-DAC1 seems to ignore them, but my Marantz SA-11S3 sure doesn't!
Addendum: I just put some SACD iso's through it and WOW! So musical! So enjoyable! I seriously doubt you'd get any better bang for your buck than this.
I suspect its more down to the head out than the dac section, once you get to try it with a stand alone amp you might be able to confirm this. At least that's how I find my Marantz network player which is the NA7004. There is a lot of micro detail lost through the head out. Its actually not to bad a head out if your running mid fi phones as they don't dig as deep as the totl cans do so you don't really notice the short comings. With the dac feeding my Bottlehead Sex amp its a different story lots of detail and textures to instruments and voices good density of tone etc etc. I brought the NA7004 specifically because its dac section was said to be out of the Marantz KI Pearl a £2400 reference CD player which had some great reviews at the time. I would expect the dac section in the HD-DAC1 to be of a higher ability compared to the older NA7004 .
Same position here....while NA7004 does a sweet job in DAC...the headphone department is somewhat less than desirable. In Japan, the price of Fostex HPA8 was slashed considerably. Being poisoned by most of the ESS based DAC, I am very curious to know how Marantz stands up against all others at this, 1000 Euro price tag
For general reference, I took home a HD DAC 1 on trial on Wednesday. It ran hot, hummed a little and suffered serious RF interference on the front IOS USB input. I read elsewhere online of experiences of some faulty units.
On return to my brilliant local supplier today they found their demo unit also demonstrated RF interference (albeit a lot less) with a lower ohm headphone (B&O H6) and so they are going to contact Marantz to obtain a (silver) unit that works (!).
This is all very frustrating as otherwise the unit is wonderful, especially with HD800, so I am hoping they can procure one that works properly. I will report back accordingly,
My unit is also humming a little bit when locked to a signal but I must say it's only noticable with sensitive cans (like my Focal Spirit Pro ). On High gain I can barely detect the hum with my DT880 and HD650 the room has to be absolutely quiet for me to pick it up.
I must say that it's not a real issue for me with the DT880 and HD650.
Today I visited my local shop as well and they had two HDDAC1 (black and silver) units that I could try out. And guess what, both performeded exactly the same! Both also humming a bit, best noticeable with the Focals.
For reference: My unit doesn't run hot nor is it affected by interference.
I also auditioned a ifi micro iDSD this morning at the same store and also this amp on "turbo" mode (=high gain) had hum with my Focal Spirit Pro
We came to the conclusion that it is either in the design of the Marantz or it is a faulty first batch. My local shop will also contact Marantz about this issue.
But again with my higher Ohm headphones it's not really a problem for me personally. And the fact that also the ifi Micro IDSD has a little hum on high gain is a bit of a relief also........
For general reference, I took home a HD DAC 1 on trial on Wednesday. It ran hot, hummed a little and suffered serious RF interference on the front IOS USB input. I read elsewhere online of experiences of some faulty units.
On return to my brilliant local supplier today they found their demo unit also demonstrated RF interference (albeit a lot less) with a lower ohm headphone (B&O H6) and so they are going to contact Marantz to obtain a (silver) unit that works (!).
This is all very frustrating as otherwise the unit is wonderful, especially with HD800, so I am hoping they can procure one that works properly. I will report back accordingly,
I've also been experiencing humming issues that unfortunately interfere with what is otherwise a great pairing with my HD800's. My current HD-DAC1 is actually my second unit - the first died, where it could no longer lock on a sampling rate. However, before it died, I'm positive that I didn't experience the hum. I've been debating whether to do yet another return to see if I can obtain a hum-free unit. I'm definitely interesting to hear if you're able to find one.
Disappointed to learn about the humming issue. Hopefully Marantz will have it sorted out in a new revision. Can any of you compare the HD-DAC1 against offerings from Audio GD for the HD800? I was hoping to find a good amp/dac combo that was detailed but not too fatiguing for the HD800. The Cirrus Logic dac in the HD-DAC1 is what initially attracted me to it.
Disappointed to learn about the humming issue. Hopefully Marantz will have it sorted out in a new revision. Can any of you compare the HD-DAC1 against offerings from Audio GD for the HD800? I was hoping to find a good amp/dac combo that was detailed but not too fatiguing for the HD800. The Cirrus Logic dac in the HD-DAC1 is what initially attracted me to it.
I can't offer a comparison to the Audio GD, but I can say, for my tastes at least, that the Mararntz is a great pairing with the HD800's, especially as an all-in-one AMP/DAC unit. Plenty of power to drive them, nice enveloping sound stage, enough detail without the highs being harsh or fatiguing. Very musical vs. analytical sound. It really is a pairing that I enjoy.
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), and mine seemed reasonably stabilized after a week or so. If you leave it running 24hrs a day, you would be done in a couple of days or so if my experience is anything to go by.
