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- Thread starter Berdugo
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H20Fidelity
Headphoneus Supremus
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DJase
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Hey man I have this EXACT issue and i can't find a damn thing online about it because it's just a rare piece of hardware. When it worked it was amazing and I loved it but now it's a LED paperweight and I'm heart broken. Did you ever find a solution? Was yours damaged in any way?
DJase
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This is literally the first thing that comes up in google and everything else leads me to a review or the product website. THIS IS KILLING ME AS THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY I COULD DRIVE MY AKG K712s properly. They sound terrible now without it.
Berdugo
Head-Fier
Hi,
I know how you feel, it seems like almost nobody owns this dac or has any issue with it !
It was not damaged in any way, it happened overnight...
I'm having it "repaired" at the moment, but they don't seem to find the solution, they contacted the company that distributes the AMI products in France for an exchange but haven't got a reply yet. I don't know if it will work since the warranty expired almost a year ago and I had the USB slot replaced (I thought it was a USB slot problem, unfortunately the original slot was fine and the issue lies elsewhere)
On the AMI website I read this, which gives me a little hope :
I will keep you updated if they manage to fix it or if I get an exchange. But for now my expectations are pretty low.
PS : I find it unacceptable that AMI never replied to my support tickets... Did you try to contact them ? Is your dac still under warranty ?
I know how you feel, it seems like almost nobody owns this dac or has any issue with it !
It was not damaged in any way, it happened overnight...
I'm having it "repaired" at the moment, but they don't seem to find the solution, they contacted the company that distributes the AMI products in France for an exchange but haven't got a reply yet. I don't know if it will work since the warranty expired almost a year ago and I had the USB slot replaced (I thought it was a USB slot problem, unfortunately the original slot was fine and the issue lies elsewhere)
On the AMI website I read this, which gives me a little hope :
- Statutory Warranties for AMI Products
For purchases of AMI products that fall within certain jurisdictions such as European Union consumer law, certain US state laws, and elsewhere, AMI is pleased to honor additional statutory warranty rights beyond the coverage you receive from the AMI One-Year Limited Warranty.
I will keep you updated if they manage to fix it or if I get an exchange. But for now my expectations are pretty low.
PS : I find it unacceptable that AMI never replied to my support tickets... Did you try to contact them ? Is your dac still under warranty ?
DJase
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Oh I'm more than excited to see you have replied to this post!
At least there is another individual having my EXACT issue because my friend it seems we are the only ones.
So I'll update you on everything that I've done to try and solve this. Just like you, my problem seemed to happen over night just about a year ago. I don't use it everyday but one day I noticed it wasn't in the device manager and I thought maybe my computer's USB ports had finally given out after 7 years. I never guessed it was the AMI because it was just sitting there and always worked flawlessly. So last November I built a completely new rig with windows 10 and a clean driver setup. I really missed the AMI and it was time to upgrade my PC anyway. I got everything perfect and went to plug in the Ami through USB after the Asio driver install and I got nothing. I was so heart broken...just destroyed. This is by far the best audio device I have ever owned. I had originally only a pair of AT M50s that just blew me away with the AMI but only with the AMI. When I got those AKG K712s It was probably the best I had ever heard any music sound through a pair of headphones. It is amazing how much this little DAC/AMP cleans and amplifies the signal to a wonderfully warm tone. When you use amazing source material it sounds alive like it's right there in the room.
Sorry I'm getting off topic and turning this into a review of this little DAC but it was just that good to me. It's a bit crazy that this product with immense Japanese craftsmanship and quality for a price well under what it's worth in terms of audio gear is this unknown or owned by much of the audiophile world. I thought I would be able to find more information on it but as I said most are just reviews or other sites in other languages which are also reviews (I google translated everything I found). So at the moment I'm now stuck with on-board audio and a Dolby driver with DHT v4 which is way better than realtek but nothing even in the same universe as the AMI.
I bought myself another USB cable and tried every port with and without all my other devices plugged in and that didn't work. This past week I did a number of driver updates and sweeps for changes as well as a more current google search on USB DACs and windows 10 driver problems. I even did a manual install of the AMI through windows using the drivers from their website which actually made it show up in the device manager with proper signed drivers for me just like before. I was shocked and thought maybe I had fixed some weird issue windows 10 was having with the drivers but it was short lived. Windows will show that sound is being sent to the DAC when I set it as default but nothing comes from either my speakers or the headphone amp. I tried uninstalling and starting over fresh like the manual explains and then even manually installing the AMI so that it would show up in the device manager and that still didn't work. I even set up foobar trying to play ASIO and it was still dead quiet. I would say I've exhausted every option on my end except repair. I'm wishing you luck with your repair and hopefully they will be able to help me as well. Try enjoying those K712's with on-board after having pure ecstasy in your ears....I've ruined myself man!
As for any warranty I also read the same thing on their website but that sounds a bit vague to me in warranty terms...oh well here's to hoping. I originally got this as a gift from a friend for Christmas and that person didn't really know what they were getting for me at the time. I also believe it was an upgrade item from the original product she had intended to buy me when they told her it was out of stock. So This item was a huge upgrade over the $500 product she had wanted to buy me. I have a receipt but It's 2 1/2 years old and definitely out of warranty. So I was going to go forth with trying to contact someone from that company she bought it from in Wisconsin, called Hi-Fi Heaven, tomorrow and see if they have any input for me. Oh and here's their website just fyi;
http://hifiheaven.net/shop/index.php?route=product/search&search=AMI
Just like you when I sent a ticket in November of last year I had no reply and it's now more than 6 months later so I'm left with nothing there. I even had a friend who can speak broken Japanese send them a message on an updated ticket a week ago but nothing yet. My hopes are slim....I'm with you about the customer service. It's shocking that the only contact other than an international call is through a system they completely ignore. This must be a very small company or something.
Anyway it's great to know I'm not alone on this and I will also update you on anything that happens or I might find out. Good luck to you.
At least there is another individual having my EXACT issue because my friend it seems we are the only ones.
So I'll update you on everything that I've done to try and solve this. Just like you, my problem seemed to happen over night just about a year ago. I don't use it everyday but one day I noticed it wasn't in the device manager and I thought maybe my computer's USB ports had finally given out after 7 years. I never guessed it was the AMI because it was just sitting there and always worked flawlessly. So last November I built a completely new rig with windows 10 and a clean driver setup. I really missed the AMI and it was time to upgrade my PC anyway. I got everything perfect and went to plug in the Ami through USB after the Asio driver install and I got nothing. I was so heart broken...just destroyed. This is by far the best audio device I have ever owned. I had originally only a pair of AT M50s that just blew me away with the AMI but only with the AMI. When I got those AKG K712s It was probably the best I had ever heard any music sound through a pair of headphones. It is amazing how much this little DAC/AMP cleans and amplifies the signal to a wonderfully warm tone. When you use amazing source material it sounds alive like it's right there in the room.
Sorry I'm getting off topic and turning this into a review of this little DAC but it was just that good to me. It's a bit crazy that this product with immense Japanese craftsmanship and quality for a price well under what it's worth in terms of audio gear is this unknown or owned by much of the audiophile world. I thought I would be able to find more information on it but as I said most are just reviews or other sites in other languages which are also reviews (I google translated everything I found). So at the moment I'm now stuck with on-board audio and a Dolby driver with DHT v4 which is way better than realtek but nothing even in the same universe as the AMI.
I bought myself another USB cable and tried every port with and without all my other devices plugged in and that didn't work. This past week I did a number of driver updates and sweeps for changes as well as a more current google search on USB DACs and windows 10 driver problems. I even did a manual install of the AMI through windows using the drivers from their website which actually made it show up in the device manager with proper signed drivers for me just like before. I was shocked and thought maybe I had fixed some weird issue windows 10 was having with the drivers but it was short lived. Windows will show that sound is being sent to the DAC when I set it as default but nothing comes from either my speakers or the headphone amp. I tried uninstalling and starting over fresh like the manual explains and then even manually installing the AMI so that it would show up in the device manager and that still didn't work. I even set up foobar trying to play ASIO and it was still dead quiet. I would say I've exhausted every option on my end except repair. I'm wishing you luck with your repair and hopefully they will be able to help me as well. Try enjoying those K712's with on-board after having pure ecstasy in your ears....I've ruined myself man!
As for any warranty I also read the same thing on their website but that sounds a bit vague to me in warranty terms...oh well here's to hoping. I originally got this as a gift from a friend for Christmas and that person didn't really know what they were getting for me at the time. I also believe it was an upgrade item from the original product she had intended to buy me when they told her it was out of stock. So This item was a huge upgrade over the $500 product she had wanted to buy me. I have a receipt but It's 2 1/2 years old and definitely out of warranty. So I was going to go forth with trying to contact someone from that company she bought it from in Wisconsin, called Hi-Fi Heaven, tomorrow and see if they have any input for me. Oh and here's their website just fyi;
http://hifiheaven.net/shop/index.php?route=product/search&search=AMI
Just like you when I sent a ticket in November of last year I had no reply and it's now more than 6 months later so I'm left with nothing there. I even had a friend who can speak broken Japanese send them a message on an updated ticket a week ago but nothing yet. My hopes are slim....I'm with you about the customer service. It's shocking that the only contact other than an international call is through a system they completely ignore. This must be a very small company or something.
Anyway it's great to know I'm not alone on this and I will also update you on anything that happens or I might find out. Good luck to you.
Berdugo
Head-Fier
Yes it's a very good dac, even more with an ifi iPower 5v power supply...The fact that the Ami support does not reply to the support tickets is so annoying...
I was thinking of buying the Ifi iDac2 if my DS5 is unfixable, but I asked someone who owned both and he said the DS5 sounded a bit better.
There's also the possibility to buy a USB to Spdif converter, but I would lose the ability to play DSD files natively...
I'll just wait and see, and will keep you informed... Good luck to you too !
I was thinking of buying the Ifi iDac2 if my DS5 is unfixable, but I asked someone who owned both and he said the DS5 sounded a bit better.
There's also the possibility to buy a USB to Spdif converter, but I would lose the ability to play DSD files natively...
I'll just wait and see, and will keep you informed... Good luck to you too !
DJase
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Cool I'll check out the ifi ipower if I can get my Ami working. Sounds like it's unanimously an amazing product for very cheap.
Sounds like you have tried cables computers and power supplies it sounds like it died sorry to say. I hope I'm wrong but trying different drivers on a computer it just worked on is not the way I would go but you said you tried the original driver and it was a no go also. Did you install something else before this happened?
DJase
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I have not actually tried a different power supply for it as I don't have one lying around. As for installing something new the AMI has never worked on my new PC I built last November and that is what prompted me to think there was actually something wrong with it. I have had it in non working condition for about a year and just constantly looking for new information on the subject which led me here to Berdugo's post. It seems we are the only two in the entirety of the internet having an issue with our AMI which could me we are the unlucky few with problems dealing with the AMI. I have not tampered with any alternative drivers than the original ones on the manufacturers website. The alternate drivers I was referring to were the standard realtek ones that come with most on board sound cards on most motherboards these days. I have a DOLBY driver that just makes better use of equalization software than realtek ever did. It's nice to see this thread getting a little attention as both Berdugo and I feel pretty hopeless as to a fix or repair for our AMIs. We really hope someone can help us as the company is not responding to our request for help.
As far as getting hold of companies sometimes it is advantageous to go on Twitter and Facebook if they have a presence there. Just keep badgering them by email if they don't . Do they update there firmware at all? Being the other person said it worked one day and not the other it sounds like it died but it could be a software problem like Flash or a screwy Windows update it is really hard to tell. Just keep trying to get a response from them that is your best bet I believe . Good luck.
DJase
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Hey so I called Hifi Heaven today and talked to a really nice guy about our issue. The only thing he could really do was to refer me to their trade in program which would allow me to take money and apply it to another product on their website. I asked them if they would take my AMI for another one and a small fee or difference in the price for repairs or something similar. They sent me this; "We can quote a trade price for the DS5, assuming it works fine...if we find out, differently, we will have to amend the quote. We are sold out of DS5s, and in the absence of support from AMI, are unable to repair it. You could send us the unit to see if we verify a problem with it, however."
I'm feeling like they will probably quote me a pretty terrible trade in price as it is not working at the moment and I really don't want to part with my AMI for something inferior in sound. Also seems like an expensive option to have it shipped to them just for them to tell me what I already know...It's not working. If they can give me a DAC/AMP equivalently good for say $2-300 and take my broken AMI then I might take that offer as it would be my best option without spending in the upper $700 for another AMI. Problem is I don't think they will quote me without first having it shipped to them to look at.
At this point I feel pretty hopeless as you do that my AMI will ever work again
P.S. If you had to compare the AMI Musik DS5 to anything else on the market what might it be? I love the sound from this little guy as it seems to be extremely accurate to the source material without coloring anything and the bass response is incredible with my floor speakers. I want something that sounds as close to it as possible.
I'm feeling like they will probably quote me a pretty terrible trade in price as it is not working at the moment and I really don't want to part with my AMI for something inferior in sound. Also seems like an expensive option to have it shipped to them just for them to tell me what I already know...It's not working. If they can give me a DAC/AMP equivalently good for say $2-300 and take my broken AMI then I might take that offer as it would be my best option without spending in the upper $700 for another AMI. Problem is I don't think they will quote me without first having it shipped to them to look at.
At this point I feel pretty hopeless as you do that my AMI will ever work again
P.S. If you had to compare the AMI Musik DS5 to anything else on the market what might it be? I love the sound from this little guy as it seems to be extremely accurate to the source material without coloring anything and the bass response is incredible with my floor speakers. I want something that sounds as close to it as possible.
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