[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xcluded /img/forum/go_quote.gif Will it void warranty if the opamp is changed ? any significant improvement(from stock) from doing so ?

I asked Ryan and he said no so I went ahead and changed mine. I believe there is a large difference.

Check my post:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mav...ml#post6310231

After burn-in, and I don't know if the rest of the unit burning in contributes to this or not but the unit is MUCH better than it was when I first hooked it up. Far less shrill and peircing highs, it's not calmed down a bit and more detailed. The bass has also come out more and is crisp. I think it's a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[xcluded]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif I asked Ryan and he said no so I went ahead and changed mine. I believe there is a large difference. Check my post: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mav...ml#post6310231 After burn-in, and I don't know if the rest of the unit burning in contributes to this or not but the unit is MUCH better than it was when I first hooked it up. Far less shrill and peircing highs, it's not calmed down a bit and more detailed. The bass has also come out more and is crisp. I think it's a worthwhile upgrade.

Hi spanky , i did a search on both opamps. Is it these following model ?

LT1364 - Dual and Quad 70MHz, 1000V/µs Op Amps
Linear Technology - LT1364 - Dual and Quad 70MHz, 1000V/µs Op Amps

LM4562 - There are quite a few models in there ,but not sure which is correct
LM4562 - Dual High Performance, High Fidelity Audio Operational Amplifier

 

[_Spanky_]

Looks like them... Here's the exact part numbers I'm using in case you get confused like I did

LT1364CN8#PBF
LM4562NA/NOPB

Enjoy

 

[dacseeker]

Did you check the dc offset for these two opamps ?

Why did you choose the LT for the ss out since it is not specific for audio and why not the LM which seems to be very good and specific for audio ?

Tahnks for your information.

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dacseeker /img/forum/go_quote.gif Did you check the dc offset for these two opamps ? Why did you choose the LT for the ss out since it is not specific for audio and why not the LM which seems to be very good and specific for audio ? Tahnks for your information.

I'll admit I have no idea what DC offset is or how to test it. I'm one of those people that knows a bit about electronics but really have no idea about specifications and whatnot. I read that DC offset kills headphones so I didn't dare plug in my DT770's first, I used a crappy headset I have laying around to test and burn-in the unit.

If DC offset can be measured with a multimeter, tell me how and I'll gladly do it

Oh, the opamp combo I chose was highly recommended for the Zero DAC/Amp which is what I originally got these opamps for... then I found the Maverick

From what I can tell, the LF353 is a generic opamp as well.

 

[ninjikiran]

I just figured it out, I asked around and still waiting for response but its all become clear to me.

W/o DDLive the spdif works. If you don't want the PC/Sound card to do any sampling at all you enabled Bit-Matched playback. Under Wasapi in vista sound properties it completely skips it, to prove it it looks like there is no sound coming from it

. With direct sound it still touches these settings.

I set my sound card to 44.1k, and foobar to 16-bit.

A seperate solution would be to resample in Foobar @ 96k(setting the card to 96k in AC menu) and 24-bit.

This is with the digital out. Spdif out is automatically 2-speaker so you don't need to screw around with speaker settings.

The digital out seems more versatile than the USB output, without going through any processing on the card itself or in vista. At the same time I still don't notice much difference but it removes a variable from the equation all together.

This is with the X-Fi prelude, but should be the same with all creative cards.

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjikiran /img/forum/go_quote.gif W/o DDLive the spdif works. If you don't want the PC/Sound card to do any sampling at all you enabled Bit-Matched playback. Under Wasapi in vista sound properties it completely skips it, to prove it it looks like there is no sound coming from it .

That's what I've been doing since I got my Maverick. I use Game Mode though since using WASAPI in Foobar results in Windows seeing no sound in the mixer so I think I'm all good there. It just kinda sucks that EAX and whatnot isn't supported over SPDIF on my card, at least without a Dolby receiver from what I understand.

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's what I've been doing since I got my Maverick. I use Game Mode though since using WASAPI in Foobar results in Windows seeing no sound in the mixer so I think I'm all good there. It just kinda sucks that EAX and whatnot isn't supported over SPDIF on my card, at least without a Dolby receiver from what I understand.

I dunno I have been trying to figure this out for an entire weekend but couldn't find a good response. Kind of put together a few responses and a little sense, but now it kind of all came rushing to me and made sense.

With me I jsut have to enable DDLive when I want to game, I am going to still be using my Astro Mixamp for Dolby Headphone which imo sounds more refined than CMSS. I used to use CMSS for a while in my games until I upgraded to that unit.

 

[_Spanky_]

Yea, it's a super pain and VERY undocumented by Creative. I've spent many days trying to look around and talk to Creative about EAX over SPDIF and got both yes and no answers... Now that I have it for myself, it seems like 0 effects are sent over SPDIF, like it's a regular basic sound card which is fine I guess. Thankfully the Maverick supports analog inputs

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea, it's a super pain and VERY undocumented by Creative. I've spent many days trying to look around and talk to Creative about EAX over SPDIF and got both yes and no answers... Now that I have it for myself, it seems like 0 effects are sent over SPDIF, like it's a regular basic sound card which is fine I guess. Thankfully the Maverick supports analog inputs

DDLive lets you use EAX/OpenAL over spdif. I don't know if you can use CMSS-3d/Headphone with it enabled though.

It is TERRIBLY documented. I read through my manual 3 times and scoured the auzentech knowledge base which has decent info but is no real help.

I sent a support ticket earlier asking them a whole mess of questions I just answered now myself. They say something about bit-perfect but not actually how to make a pure bit-perfect transport. Which I guess is kind of counter-intuitive to having the sound card. But I got a good 2 years of use out of it so it doesn't bother me to use it as transport.

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjikiran /img/forum/go_quote.gif DDLive lets you use EAX/OpenAL over spdif.

Don't you gotta pay for that and isn't it only for Dolby or THX or whatever receivers?

 

[bearmann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif If DC offset can be measured with a multimeter, tell me how and I'll gladly do it

Take your DMM and set it to "mV" (milli Volts). Just power on your Maverick and wait for ~15 minutes, no plugged-in sources, no headphones, nothing! Zero Volume!

Now take your DMM and measure the voltage between GND and LEFT CHANNEL. You can find three pins on the right side of your headphone plug - that's where you want to measure the voltage. Do the same for GND and RIGHT CHANNEL.

You should measure just a few milli Volts in both cases. If you have more than 100mV you should consider switching back your opamps definitely.

best regards.
bearmann

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearmann /img/forum/go_quote.gif Take your DMM and set it to "mV" (milli Volts). Just power on your Maverick and wait for ~15 minutes, no plugged-in sources, no headphones, nothing! Zero Volume! Now take your DMM and measure the voltage between GND and LEFT CHANNEL. You can find three pins on the right side of your headphone plug - that's where you want to measure the voltage. Do the same for GND and RIGHT CHANNEL. You should measure just a few milli Volts in both cases. If you have more than 100mV you should consider switching back your opamps definitely. best regards. bearmann

Ah... alright

Do I have to open the unit up or can I get a spare plug and measure off of that?

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Spanky_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't you gotta pay for that and isn't it only for Dolby or THX or whatever receivers?

I dunno, my card's drivers automatically come with DDLive. You might be right about having to pay for it. I also have DTS Connect.

While my mixamp can mix a Dolby signal when the DH button is active it is far from a Dolby Digital reciever. DDLive seems to work perfectly fine regardless of this without DH enabled. You can use DDLive in game mode as well so it probably supports some of those features like CMSS.

All I know is the biggest difference would be forcing FFDaudio to output to spdif. The level of quality has improved there the most. I couldn't do that before.

Now I am more excited to finally get my maverick.

 

[_Spanky_]

Maybe one of these days I'll try out DDLive...

As for the DC offset... I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right. I have my multimeter set at 200m on DC volts and the black lead connected to ground and the red lead to either channel. On the right channel, I'm getting a negative number that's dropping... It was around -186 and is now at -167 and still dropping... or is that rising? The left channel is steady at -186. Help!

Ok, from what I read, different values is ok but why is one dropping? How long would it take to fry headphones? I've been using my DT770's and crappy headset with the opamps for many hours without problem.