[middachten]

Quote:

  People have long stated the amp section is the weakest link.

 

I suppose you refer to the headphone amp? The line-amp (or pre-amp) is quite good at this price level IMO. In particular the easy OpAmp rolling and clean power supply makes it a very versatile platform for experiments. 

 

[ninjikiran]

Yea the headphone amp, I'll get to finally test it though against something else hopefully this week.  It didn't bother me(or was not very noticeable) until I got my k702's.  My previous Dt770 didn't exhibit the same issues on this amp, but I am also pushing the volume dial higher on the k702's which is where most peoples problems start.

 

[ninjikiran]

Posting a double reply,
 
The non-stepped higher quality potentiometer is MUCH better than the mavericks stepped cheaper.  No noise at normal listening volume, and built in gain switching for higher/lower sensitivity headphones.  More clarity due to being able to fine tune volume for details.  Less audible peaks in the high end of the spectrum.  All of these are the obvious without hours of listening.
 
It is in features a way better amp than the Mav, couldn't really comment on SQ, but its supposed to be rather transparent so the MAV  DAC is awesome .

 

[snip]

Having now spent a few weeks with the D1 I am pleased to announce that I am still very impressed with the sound (bear in mind that mine is the Skyline modified version by ReiserFS)
 
The internal headphone amp works well with my Beyer DT770 (Pro 80 ohm) and the tube buffered output stage works very well with my Audiotailor Jade which is driving my HD600 using Audiotailor's "balanced" cable.
 
The only negative thing I can find to say about this device is this;
 
It has a very real problem with 96KHz material!
To elaborate a little bit, when using my Mac's internal sound chip (which is limited to 16 bit output) the sound is great and quiet passages is dead silent at 48KHz, but when I set the sampling rate to 96KHz there is a very annoying noise when no music is playing and during quiet passages, this problem is progressively worse when using my Hiface transport in 24/96 mode and again goes away completely if I set the transport to 24/48
 
I have checked the output from both transports on my scope and there is nothing to suggest it is the transport(s) which are at fault, I have also checked using my Beresford TC7510 DAC and I have no such problem with this device.
 
Since we do not know what receiver and dac chip is in use in the D1 it is hard to speculate on what is causing this problem, my money would be on insufficient filtering after the DAC which I assume is a delta sigma class device.
 
Whilst trying to find the cause of this problem I also noticed a curious thing with regards to the device's grounding scheme, the ground on the coaxial input, and of the analog output jacks, are tied directly to chassis ground and the earth pin in the IEC plug, this is unusual and against best practice. It is not in itself a problem, just bear in mind that a power supply fault in the device could potentially result in harm to your amplifier if that device is double insulated, i.e not grounded to the mains outlet.
 
I would love to hear if anyone else has had any experiences with 96KHz on this device, obviously if you only ever use 48KHz it is a non issue.
 
//Jan

 

[ninjikiran]

Hmm I don't have any problems with the Spdif over 96khz.  But the DAC does change something when going from 44.1/88.2->48/96
 
I have used all modes in 24-bit but not the USB input which only supports 16/48.

---

 

[snip]

Quote:

Hmm I don't have any problems with the Spdif over 96khz.  But the DAC does change something when going from 44.1/88.2->48/96
 
I have used all modes in 24-bit but not the USB input which only supports 16/48.

---

Hmm, either my unit is b0rked or my amp is a LOT more sensitive than yours
 
//J
 
edit:
 
I will look into it some more at some other time, I am trying to reorganize my room at the moment and the D1 ended up in a box with some other equipment. Will try with a few different amps and what not, also I'll take some pictures of my scope reading from the output.

 

[reiserFS]

Regarding your unit, I only have 16/48KHz material, so couldn't have noticed if there was something wrong with it. Tried swapping in the stock OPAs?

 

[snip]

Quote:

Regarding your unit, I only have 16/48KHz material, so couldn't have noticed if there was something wrong with it. Tried swapping in the stock OPAs?

 
 
I haven't no, but I doubt very much that would make a difference, I will give it a go in a few days though.
 
It's not really a big issue for me, if it gets on my nerves too much at the desktop I will just use the D1 as a front end for my SB3 which is 16/44.1 anyway driving some sort of amplifier for my speakers sometime in the future when I have room for a speaker rig.
 
//J

 

[_Spanky_]

Hmmm, it's hard to say. I've always noticed some noise and weird random sounds with my D1. I always chalked it up to being a $200 all-in-one unit (or EMI/RFI with unshielded power cables), I'm obviously not going to expect the world of it. But I don't think I've noticed any noise differences when using different sample rates. Currently I use 24-bit 96kHz via coaxial input from my Teralink X2 transport without a problem.

 

[snip]

Quote:

Hmmm, it's hard to say. I've always noticed some noise and weird random sounds with my D1. I always chalked it up to being a $200 all-in-one unit (or EMI/RFI with unshielded power cables), I'm obviously not going to expect the world of it. But I don't think I've noticed any noise differences when using different sample rates. Currently I use 24-bit 96kHz via coaxial input from my Teralink X2 transport without a problem.

Hmm yes, my first thought was that it might be due to the somewhat high output voltage of the hiface that is rumored in many threads. But the problem is the same with optical output from my built in sound chip, so it's down to sample rate for sure.
 
//J

 

[djnagle]

I have not been here for a while.  Is this a mod to change out the volume pot?
 
Also a question.  I am running full range drivers and subs with their own plate amps.  Can I take the tube out and go into my tube amp and take the SS out and go to the plate amps?
 
Quote:

Posting a double reply,
 
The non-stepped higher quality potentiometer is MUCH better than the mavericks stepped cheaper.  No noise at normal listening volume, and built in gain switching for higher/lower sensitivity headphones.  More clarity due to being able to fine tune volume for details.  Less audible peaks in the high end of the spectrum.  All of these are the obvious without hours of listening.
 
It is in features a way better amp than the Mav, couldn't really comment on SQ, but its supposed to be rather transparent so the MAV  DAC is awesome .

 

[snip]

Quote:

I have not been here for a while.  Is this a mod to change out the volume pot?
 
Also a question.  I am running full range drivers and subs with their own plate amps.  Can I take the tube out and go into my tube amp and take the SS out and go to the plate amps?
 

 

I believe it is yes, if I understand it correctly the mod was to install an alps blue velvet.
 
Yes you can do that no problem at all, that is also the way I would suggest going about it.
 
//J
 

 

[ninjikiran]

Nah I just replaced  the amp all together to avoid that circuitry altogether.  But if you want to just replace the potentiometer it wouldn't hurt.  Especially if you already have a lower gain unit.
Quote:

I have not been here for a while.  Is this a mod to change out the volume pot?
 
Also a question.  I am running full range drivers and subs with their own plate amps.  Can I take the tube out and go into my tube amp and take the SS out and go to the plate amps?
 

 

 

[qba182]

This is my first post on the Head-Fi forum, so officially: Hello everyone!  This is great place with lots of information.
I went trough all 118 pages of this thread, before I finally decided to purchase the D1 for my headphones (HD205). I had to ship it over the ocean, but it was well worth it. Sound quality improved greatly.
 
Now I want to add some powered speakers to my set. I was thinking of audioengine A5, because of the superb reviews on the net. But the A5 don't have a RCA input (only way to connect is trough a Y adapter that goes from female RCA to a male mini-jack). Does anyone use the A5 with the D1? What are your impressions?
Please share, as I don't have a chance to test for myself. Anyone could recomend other speakers for arround 300$, that would go well with the D1?

 

[ninjikiran]

M-Audio Studiophile BX5a is a choice, they are active speakers so you can connect them to either the pure SS D1 output or tube flavored output at your own discretion without the need of an amp.