[Uri Cohen]

Going to order this from coolfungadget, we'll see how this will work.

 

[boomy3555]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HyperDuel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Going to order this from coolfungadget, we'll see how this will work.

Did you pull the trigger?

I'm on the fence. I have the EF2 and Maverick Tube Magic right now but I heard the Compass "The Moon" at a recent meet and the Zero with
"The Earth" OPamp is making my mouth water. Especially at the prices on eBay right now.

 

[crapback]

It sounds really sweet with 3 earth's and some k40y9's as bypass caps on all the electrolytics. I would also recommend swapping the volume pot for one of these. DACT Type 21 Stepped Attenuator Potentiometer 100K 2A3 - eBay (item 120471954152 end time Sep-27-09 14:56:18 PDT)

 

[SRG]

I'am very interesting in Zero DAC, because very good price. But not sure, if that DAC is will be good for my headphones. I have Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO/80 (80 om). And Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe (SB0880) as sound source. Was anybody test Zero with DT770 80 om? Any noise, enough power? Or need search anything other?

 

[SRG]

And there are many models of zero on ebay: OPA2604, OPA627, OPA627U, 2604U. What deferents between them? And what the best?

 

[alex98uk]

Well, I just pulled the trigger on the '09 version, hopefully those past issues are fixed. Anyone here got an '09 Zero running? Any issues?

It will simply act as a DAC to pass through to my Little Dot MK III.

 

[boomy3555]

Mine is in Customs in San Francisco as of today. I too will use it as a DAC to my HeadDirect EF2 for that "Tube Flavour", I have it coming with the "Earth" HDAM, but I hope to roll some HDAM's through it to try and get that "Tubie" feel from a Solid State. Hopefully I can get close to the Compass while still saving a bit of scratch.


FTI: I got mine from "coolfungadget"

 

[alex98uk]

I got mine from "snow48_6", although there were only 2 UK ebay retailers, him and "CoolFunGadget". The latter only had 352 feedback whilst Snow had 1416 and was registered as a business seller. Comes with the OP2604 and USB, so about the same price as CoolFunGadget.

I suspect any problems would have been fixed by now and i'd be surprised if the EU test centers that they had to submit a prototype to didn't check issues with past models. Companies quite often have to make failure rates known to testers.

It says I have the 1 year warranty, so fingers crossed, we're all good to go and my horrible capacitor interference from my graphics card is dismissed (I am going to use optical).

 

[backtofront001]

wait, how do u use just the DAC section of the Zero? Does the 3rd light (green) under phone need to be on or off?

 

[boomy3555]

I just recieved mine and I can't get the headphone out to work. My PC auto-recognized the "USB Audio DAC" and the sound is quite nice and smooth through the pre-amo section running RCA to the RCA inputs of the EF2) but I get no sound from the headphone jack. I reviewed the instructions and although the english translation was not the best, I understood the process as pressing button #4 ( Phone/Preamp ) once and the light should turn red ( Although mine is either green or nothing) and when lit, the volume control knob will adjust the volume of the pre-amp as well as the headphone out. plugging in the headphones should disconnect the preamp in this "on" setting.in the "Off" position the volume is set at a default level through the preamp RCA outs. I suspect that the headphone section is at least connected as there is a very loud pop when plugging or unplugging the cans while the unit is powered up.

any suggestions???

 

[crapback]

To listen through your headphones the phone light should be green I believe. Did you switch the digital input? IIRC, the default setting out of the box is not usb. It just figures that when I want to answer a question like this, my zero is at home.

 

[boomy3555]

Thanks for jumping in to help. I bought the USB installed version as well as the "Earth" HDAM also already installed. I first assumed that the USB was activated from the seller as my PC recognized it and installed it automatically but then when I read the instructions on how to activate the USB if I had ordered it as a seperate upgrade component, I decided to power the unit down, power it up again and press and hold the MUTE button as instructed to activate the USB. I toggled back and forth between the on and off options for the USB but still no heaphone out. I have email Jeffrey at collfungadget but as he is 16 hrs ahead I don't expect an answer until after the weekend. I am currently enjoying the wonderful sound through the RCA out to the EF2 so all is well for now.

 

[boomy3555]

I recieved an email from Jeffrey at coolfugadget. He aknowledged my problem and asked me to open up the case to inspect for any damage during shipment. Upon opening the case I found the three wire plug from the headphone amp section to the main board had been dislodged during shipment. It was simply a matter of plugging it back in and the amp works GREAT!!. The instructions erroniously state that the Phone/Pre-amp light should light red when in fact it is a green light. Other than that we're ALL SET. Audio impressions to follow after I get a chance to do some A/B'ing with the EF2 and my Memory of the Maverick Tube Magic.

 

[crapback]

If you really want to make your zero sing swap out the stock volume pot for one of these. DACT Type 21 Stepped Attenuator Potentiometer 100K 2A3 - eBay (item 120471954152 end time Sep-27-09 14:56:18 PDT) Then add some of these as bypass caps. 200V / 0,068uF / 10% PIO K40Y-9 Capacitor [CAPS] - $0.29 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce I also swapped the evox bypass caps on the opa-earth with some of the k40y9's.

 

[Uri Cohen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomy3555 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Did you pull the trigger?

Nope, terrible build quality like you are experiencing right now is the reason why I'm staying away from it.