[jdpark]

I'm pretty sure the Dac-19 can be turned off, and probably doesn't take that long to warm up. That said, I generally give it an hour, and only turn off when I know I won't be listening for more than 24 hours in a row. I have no idea what it costs to run my gear, but I tend to leave it on most of the time with the hope that I'll actually get a couple of hours to sit and listen. (Happens rarely these days.)

 

[Astral Abyss]

I'm pretty sure the Dac-19 can be turned off, and probably doesn't take that long to warm up. That said, I generally give it an hour, and only turn off when I know I won't be listening for more than 24 hours in a row. I have no idea what it costs to run my gear, but I tend to leave it on most of the time with the hope that I'll actually get a couple of hours to sit and listen. (Happens rarely these days.)

Kingwa recommended 30 minutes warm up time. I don't see a need to leave mine on 24/7.

 

[feelingears]

Howdy,
 
I'm lazy and leave mine on 24/7 along with all my other gear.
 
But the main reason I'm posting is because I wanted to thank those who've shared their DAC-19 jumper settings. I've tried a few and in my system (speakers, not headphones), I have found only the PLL jumper on to really improve the sound. The "warmer" settings as indicated on the Audio-GD website do sound fuller, but in my system it comes at the expense of clarity. Even the first setting past neutral makes the bass veiled/fuzzy/thick and indistinct. Of course YMMV and again thanks to everyone who posted their settings.
 
And also, Kingwa has posted an update for the latest Oct/Nov 2016 update:
 
http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master-7_384/DSPupdataEN.htm

 

[feelingears]

I meant to add that my DAC is being fed via USB from a microRendu, or via coax via W4S Remedy reclocker. With a good input signal, disabling PLL is definitely worth the effort; much more clear and snappy.

 

[feelingears]

FWIW, I emailed Kingwa and asked about the upgrade instructions as they are a little rough around the edges. The response was read the site. About all I can say for sure is if you screw up, they'll charge you on top of shipping charges to fix your unit.

The "guide" as it stands mainly appears to be for components other than the DAC-19. Then at the very end, there is one obtuse sentence about Amanero upgrades, presumably referring to DAC-19 owners and others. The link downloads an archive file format (proprietary to Winrar?). There are no instructions beyond that. This is not an OS X or iOS software update, in case it wasn't clear before!

So I don't have time or interest to muck thru this, but if someone else does my guess is that you need some USB booster thing to flash the hardware. It will have software and you'll point the software to the contents of the
.rar file. This means you have to unzip the .rar first which may require buying the Winrar archiving software. In this day of cloud storage I fail to see the need for this step, but there it is.

Then cross your fingers and power up...

Please let us know how it goes if you're courageous enough to tackle this. Hopefully I am just wrong and it really is like an Apple update, or maybe a technically fluent Chinese speaker will translate and post the correct instructions here.

 

[Riffle]

Here's my email chain, read bottom to top.

At 2016-10-31 09:29:54,"Steve B"
I'll keep monitoring. If your worried about fake design in China I am more worried about turning over control to my computer in China. I'll post the chain on headfi to maybe save you some email traffic.

On Oct 30, 2016, at 7:36 PM, audio-gd wrote:
We only offer the online update in Nov.
We can't send the firmwar to users because there a lot fake design in Chinese web market.
Kingwa

At 2016-10-31 09:29:54,"Steve B"
I did under 2. it says you will send the firmware to me?

On Oct 30, 2016, at 6:42 PM, audio-gd wrote:
Dear Steve,
Please read the guide in our web page.
Kingwa

At 2016-10-31 04:38:24,"Steve B"
>I purchased my DAC from you 10 months ago and I would like to upgrade to the latest DSP firmware. Please email it to me, I already have a USB blaster and the appropriate software. I also have the Amanero module, do I need to update the DSP before doing the ground wire move?
>
>Thanks,
>Steve

 

[Riffle]

The rar file at the bottom of the directions page contains a word document showing a wire resolder for the Amanero module.

 

[desik]

Question about original DAC-19 (pre-anniversary): Do I need a good SPDIF transport for it or the receiver chip cleans all the jitter already?

 

[jdpark]

This is a question that is probably quite a bit beyond my technical knowledge, but from my reading and practice, the DAC-19 will perform better if you have a good transport and reasonably good BNC cable, or if you have a good SPDIF transport/master-clock plus BNC cable. You can use a regular RCA digital cable as well, but then you have to make sure it's of a higher quality. In other words, both the cable and the source can introduce sound and/or timing errors (i.e., jitter).
 
That said, you can also find any old CD or DVD player and plug it in with any digital cable and you still get a pleasant sound from the DAC-19. The extra stuff may or may not impress you, depending on how sensitive your amp and speakers are, and how good your hearing is 

 

[desik]

Thanks for answer, then I'll also need a good sound card with low-jitter clock. I will use it connected to PC through toslink. Does toskink cable quality matter?

 

[Hansotek]

This is a question that is probably quite a bit beyond my technical knowledge, but from my reading and practice, the DAC-19 will perform better if you have a good transport and reasonably good BNC cable, or if you have a good SPDIF transport/master-clock plus BNC cable. You can use a regular RCA digital cable as well, but then you have to make sure it's of a higher quality. In other words, both the cable and the source can introduce sound and/or timing errors (i.e., jitter).

That said, you can also find any old CD or DVD player and plug it in with any digital cable and you still get a pleasant sound from the DAC-19. The extra stuff may or may not impress you, depending on how sensitive your amp and speakers are, and how good your hearing is 

Yeah, S/PDIF definitely sounds better than USB on the DAC-19. USB was never really designed for realtime audio transmission.

Coax S/PDIF and optical TOSLINK were designed by Sony, Philips and Toshiba (respectively) in conjunction with the development of AES3 standards for audio data transmission (AES = Audio Engineering Society). They are purpose-built for audio data transfer with different transfer protocols than USB.

 

[Pharmaboy]

3 DACs ago, with a DAC whose mfr urged users to use via coax input vs glass or USB, I got in the habit of connecting DACs via coax, usually mediated by a Musical Fidelity USB/spdif converter. I started with their 24/96 box; now up to the 24 bit/192-bit box. The cables have also been upgraded; I started out w/a no-name digital cable, then a BJC; now using the really smooth/organic sounding Oyaide DB-DR 510 Digital Cable, praised by a reviewer I trust. He was right. Not cheap, but worth it.
 
On my 2nd DAC, the over-achieving Peachtree Audio DAC iTx (2nd rev), the USB input sounded quite good and did not benefit audibly from a USB Regen device on the input. But still, the coax input sounded just a little bit better.
 
My 3rd DAC is the Audio GD NOS 19, which is on a different plane from the previous ones...probably my end-game DAC. While it has the amanerro mod for USB, I did a fast comparison of USB vs coax when I first put it in the system, and coax sounded better. ~300+ hrs later and I'm not inclined to revisit the USB input (why mess with success?). Anyway, I can tweak out to my heart's content on the USB input of the Musical Fidelity box:
 
-- add the USB Regen (did that last week--can't hear a difference)
-- swap out my Belden Gold USB cable for Supra USB 2.0, as another Head-Fi'er on this string advised (inexpensive, recommended by many...I'll definitely do that)
-- swap out the short, flexible USB Regen connector to the DAC w/a 200mm Curious Cable (another easy, relatively cheap tweak many recommend; said to have synergy w/the Supra USB cable).
 
A more ambitious upgrade would be exchanging the Musical Fidelity for the Singxer F-1 or S-1 (the latter recommended by several contributors to this string). The SU-1 costs more than pocket change; then again, the NOS 19 just sits there, looking & sounding extremely good. I'm starting to realize this DAC justifies any & all upgrades...

 

[Pharmaboy]

Here's another NOS 19 update. Still not entirely sure this is the right thread for it, but haven't seen any closer to it than this (w/various people talking about doing NOS mods to their DAC-19's, running their DAC-19's in NOS mode, etc.). So here goes:
 
Haven't really kept close track, but my NOS 19 is somewhere between 350-400 hrs, maybe a bit more. And it's really shocking how much the sound of it keeps changing, even this late in the lengthy burn-in phase:
 
-- Just a week or two back, it was suddenly sounding brighter than before (it had sounded terrific for awhile). I became concerned, starting messing w/the phase button. Things got better. But that's now seems like 10 years ago.
 
~10 days ago I installed a new sub, an SVS SB-1000. It's been burning in for ~100 hrs, so to check it out, I just listened to one of the best studio recordings around, Donald Fagen's MORPH THE CAT, on my speakers + sub.
 
DAMN! The sub sounds great, but what really shocked me is that the whole system sounds unbelievable. I'm hearing things from this recording I've never heard on this system: the center image utterly clear & defined; the different instruments & effects are extremely clear, but all this detail is non-fatiguing; the tonal quality is as close to analogue as digital can possibly get; and the mid-bass is rich, warm, wet--all those words that mean dimensionality + impact at the same time (most digital cannot do this). In short, the NOS 19 is lighting me up.
 
Then I plug in my favorite cheap-but-terrific 'phones, the Yenona Adapter-Free DJ headphones, just to see if I'm dreaming this. Nope. The NOS 19 is also nailing it via headphones.
 
I read in several threads on Head-Fi how long it took the DAC-19 to burn in, how much it changed over hundreds of hours (and by extension, this had to apply to the virtually identical NOS 19). Well, it's all true.
 
This is an amazing DAC. Listening to music through it, I go for long periods w/o thinking about equipment--just getting lost in sound. It's turning out to be an endgame component for me.

 

[desik]

Thanks for great info!
 
Questions:
- What device is feeding your DAC? PC/CD player/transport device?
- What coax cable do you use?

 

[Pharmaboy]

PC is a top-of-the-line Win-7/64 machine I had built a couple years ago w/256GB SSD + 2TB HD, best Intel chip then available, pricey sound card I never use, etc. I spec'd the desktop's case for utter silence (Fractal Designs "Define R4")...a big, black obelisk, utterly quiet.
 
I listen to music all day long. 95% of it is classical music or jazz streamed from Europe, primarily the Netherlands--the highest bit-rates I can get. But this isn't top-notch audio quality, just background.
 
For heavier listening, I have dozens of CDs & CD compilations I made, ripped to the HD using JRiver's best settings; also many 100s of CDs. Haven't yet explored hi-rez files.
 
I have USB connected from the desktop PC via Belden Gold (soon to be replaced w/Supra 2.0 USB cable) to a Musical Fidelity USB/spdif converter, the 24 bit/192-bit V-Link. Connecting it to the NOS 19 is a Oyaide DB-DR 510 Digital Cable (really excellent--audibly better than the BJC it replaced).