[onef]

I recently picked up a 2009 Zero DAC off eBay for curiosity's sake, decided to roll some LT1364's in the head unit. I switched it over to preamp mode to use with my speakers, and *crackle* now my right channel is incredibly quiet. I made sure it was the DAC with some basic troubleshooting / switching LR outputs, etc.
 
Anyone have any experience with this? Or you could just take it off of my hands for 70$USD and that'll be cool too, because I'd much rather upgrade to a Cambridge or Musiland MD-10 right about now. ^_^

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Did you install the LT1364's correctly in the head amp slots (the crescent mark on the opamp bodies should face the back panel of the DAC IIRC) ? I'm a little confused by your explanation of what is working and what isn't...was it working before you swapped out the head amp opamps (as a stand alone DAC in line level out mode and preamp mode using the stock head amp opa's [ likely 5532's] ) ?
 
Did you also replace the OPA in the dac section ? What is in their right now ?
 
Peete.

 

[onef]

Yes, the LT's were placed only in the head amp slot in their specified orientation. The DAC was working perfectly for over 300 hours before the swap, and then it lasted for about 30 minutes after the LT's were installed. The line level out/preamp function worked perfectly, as well as all other functions. The OPA's in the DAC section came stock with 627AU, so I left them alone.
 
The only thing I can think went wrong is thermal stressors on the solder points, mostly because it looks like they hired a 10-year-old to solder these components in. I'll try touching the sketchy right-channel pins with an iron, but other than that, I'm pretty much out of ideas.

 

[onef]

Still broken. Out of curiosity I plugged it into a 5.1 surround system with an optical source, and the results were odd. Only the front right channel was underpowered, and the rear right channel played crystal clear, as did the rest of the setup. I'm stumped/too lazy right now, and if anyone has any recommendations, they will be largely appreciated.

 

[onef]

Well, after some reading online with other DACs having the same issue, I swapped out the stock OPA627AU's with a spare LT1364 and the unit works fine.