[WilliamLeonhart]

  Guys I have this strange issue on my DIY O2/ODAC (boards made by JDS): sometimes when I click on another song on foobar it gives a small (but clearly audible) crackling sound. It does not happen everytime but sometimes it's louder than the others. I'm a bit worried. This does not happen on my integrated Realtek, and on the O2/ODAC it happens to every cans I own (all of them Grados).
 
Have you ever had this issue? It happens to me both on low gains and high gains.

Hi can anyone please offer me some advice

 

[diamondears]

Hi can anyone please offer me some advice

What's your computer? I've read somewhere that you would have to close all programs/apps to stop the clicking and pops, especially if you're playing large file formats such as DSD.

I was using iPhone 6 with Onkyo HF Player HD olaying some DSD files and I experienced clicks and pops. They disappeared when I closed all the apps. Maybe they eat too much memory, processing or something.

 

[castleofargh]

 

  Guys I have this strange issue on my DIY O2/ODAC (boards made by JDS): sometimes when I click on another song on foobar it gives a small (but clearly audible) crackling sound. It does not happen everytime but sometimes it's louder than the others. I'm a bit worried. This does not happen on my integrated Realtek, and on the O2/ODAC it happens to every cans I own (all of them Grados).
 
Have you ever had this issue? It happens to me both on low gains and high gains.

Hi can anyone please offer me some advice

play around with the buffer size in foobar maybe.
are the files of different resolutions?

 

[MrMateoHead]

+1 to checking the buffer in Foobar. The default is probably too low.

 

[Peti]

I got this most unusual issue with my O2/ODAC. I mean it's been working flawlessly but when ordered I have required special gain settings of 1X and 3.5X.
 
When I got it my HD800 got too loud on low gain when the knob had been set around 11 o'clock. Highly compressed music needs even less juice. My highest DR musics sound loud enough on LOW gain around 4 o'clock. (Brothers in Arms, Dark Side of the Moon SACD, etc.)
 
Is it normal at 1X gain or they somehow forgot to adjust the gain settings according to my request? Anyone can comment on this who has HD800 and O2/ODAC please?
 
Contacted the company a few days ago but got no response yet, hence I write here. Don't want to name them b/c the product itself is awesome I'm just puzzled with this gain settings issue and it's maybe just me who got it wrong.
 
 
Thank You

 

[blse59]

  I got this most unusual issue with my O2/ODAC. I mean it's been working flawlessly but when ordered I have required special gain settings of 1X and 3.5X.
 
When I got it my HD800 got too loud on low gain when the knob had been set around 11 o'clock. Highly compressed music needs even less juice. My highest DR musics sound loud enough on LOW gain around 4 o'clock. (Brothers in Arms, Dark Side of the Moon SACD, etc.)
 
Is it normal at 1X gain or they somehow forgot to adjust the gain settings according to my request? Anyone can comment on this who has HD800 and O2/ODAC please?
 
Contacted the company a few days ago but got no response yet, hence I write here. Don't want to name them b/c the product itself is awesome I'm just puzzled with this gain settings issue and it's maybe just me who got it wrong.
 
 
Thank You

 
That sounds about right. 1x gain is enough to drive most headphones. I looked up the specs and the 800 has about the same impedance and sensitivity as the 650.
 
Maybe an 800 owner can chime in for reassurance.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

  +1 to checking the buffer in Foobar. The default is probably too low.

 
play around with the buffer size in foobar maybe.
are the files of different resolutions?

What's your computer? I've read somewhere that you would have to close all programs/apps to stop the clicking and pops, especially if you're playing large file formats such as DSD.

I was using iPhone 6 with Onkyo HF Player HD olaying some DSD files and I experienced clicks and pops. They disappeared when I closed all the apps. Maybe they eat too much memory, processing or something.

Thanks guys. I will try this when I get home. My laptop is 4yo and I tend to put it into hibernation rather than shutting it down. Also I often open a lot of Chrome tabs (due to my 2nd job as a translator).

 

[Solrighal]

  I got this most unusual issue with my O2/ODAC. I mean it's been working flawlessly but when ordered I have required special gain settings of 1X and 3.5X.
 
When I got it my HD800 got too loud on low gain when the knob had been set around 11 o'clock. Highly compressed music needs even less juice. My highest DR musics sound loud enough on LOW gain around 4 o'clock. (Brothers in Arms, Dark Side of the Moon SACD, etc.)
 
Is it normal at 1X gain or they somehow forgot to adjust the gain settings according to my request? Anyone can comment on this who has HD800 and O2/ODAC please?
 
Contacted the company a few days ago but got no response yet, hence I write here. Don't want to name them b/c the product itself is awesome I'm just puzzled with this gain settings issue and it's maybe just me who got it wrong.
 
 
Thank You

 
 

   
That sounds about right. 1x gain is enough to drive most headphones. I looked up the specs and the 800 has about the same impedance and sensitivity as the 650.
 
Maybe an 800 owner can chime in for reassurance.

 
Yes, 1x (Unity) gain should be more than enough. That's all I use for my HD 650.

 

[adydula]

Check buffer timings in Foobar....
 
Alex

 

[Peti]

Thanks for the feedbacks everyone. I forgot to mention that my foobars sound level was turned 100% while the windows volume bar on 96%. So it is considered normal...I am just taken aback that a hp like the HD800 is such "easy" to drive by the O2at unity gain. I thought I would need to use more often the high gain setting with my high DR music.

 

[castleofargh]

  Thanks for the feedbacks everyone. I forgot to mention that my foobars sound level was turned 100% while the windows volume bar on 96%. So it is considered normal...I am just taken aback that a hp like the HD800 is such "easy" to drive by the O2at unity gain. I thought I would need to use more often the high gain setting with my high DR music.

well it's understandable. given how people mistake coloration with driving ability when they talk about amping the hd800, and how probably 95% of headfi have the wrong idea about gain switch.

 

[Peti]

At least, it seems, you're among the 5 percent. Enjoy!

 

[castleofargh]

  At least, it seems, you're among the 5 percent. Enjoy!

 
it wasn't a critic against you or 95% of headfi members(way to make lot of friends easily ^_^), we can't know what we don't know. I will never blame someone for not knowing something, I wasn't born audiophile.

I'm just stating what I think is the situation. on headfi we're informed but not really taught much.

 

[Peti]

If you could spare some of your most precious time to educate us, clueless headfi'ers, (the 95%) and divulge your take in a nushell on the gain and its use would be most appreciated..

 

[castleofargh]

well if you want to learn gain in detail, you'll have better sources than poor me, like... nwavguy maybe? ^_^ I first learned from his blog so I hope it's reliable intel

.
but in short, gain changes the voltage "gain" compared to the value the DAC is sending. volume control also changes voltage(voltage=loudness), so people assume that it's just a glorified volume switch. some think it some kind of magic power booster. some even mistake the very perceptual "louder is better" for sound changes and imagine that high gain has more bass, better dynamic, better soundstage etc...(same BS as with cables) but it has nothing to do with gain changing the sound, and everything to do with us and how biased we are to loudness changes.
 
anyway the very general rule is that gain is used to match the voltage provided by the DAC. but for a headphone user it's usually more simple than that, you always go with the lower gain and only ever change up when you can't get the headphone loud enough with the volume knob.