Loving my D90. A lot of delicious sound quality for the money. It's a real bargain. I'm only using it in pure DAC mode and it's pretty much perfect for good quality recordings. It's a step up from my D50 that is being used in my desktop system.
Hello,
When I am in DAC mode playing DSD cannot control volume both on Foobar2000 and Jriver, am I missing something? anyone know why?
Thanks in advance
Hello,
When I am in DAC mode playing DSD cannot control volume both on Foobar2000 and Jriver, am I missing something? anyone know why?
Thanks in advance
Hello,
When I am in DAC mode playing DSD cannot control volume both on Foobar2000 and Jriver, am I missing something? anyone know why?
Thanks in advance
It is not possible to digitally adjust the volume level of a DSD stream. DSD must be converted to PCM if any kind of digital attenuation is to be applied.
That just means that in it's software, HQ Player is converting the DSD stream to PCM to lower the volume, then back again to a DSD stream with a lowered amplitude.
The screen is needed to navigate the UAPP (and android). And the whole stack is on top of moveable rack. So I can move the whole stack near work table or bed side.
Even if using RCA, I don't find any interference at all.
Still waiting for A90 to arrive on local distributor...
Cool, that metal rack is acting as a shield / sync for the interference
Good shielded cables can allow co-existance in proximity - but often interference can be induced in the cables right into the devices. I'm happy to hear your RCA feeds seem to be immune.
I bought XLR's to go with the A90 / D90, but with all this talk of RCA's getting noisy I thought I'd check out my units so I've ordered shielded RCA's between the A90 / D90 and from the A90 out. They should arrive end of this week.
The complaints have been with an RCA feed between the D90 and A90 and the A90 and powered speakers. So head's up, something to prepare to debug - or get XLR cables as those solved the noise / interference problems for those that were using RCA's.
I've had lots of friends that swear by them, and have from one or two to dozens filling their spaces.
The roll- around kind are the best, I've helped build many. It's a great way to keep things off of the floor and in view for quick access and use. Also a smart way to sort things in storage. You can wheel a bunch around and make full use of space by stacking vertically high. You may have to search for heavy duty wheels and racks that have them.
That kiddie car shopping cart is too high end though, you could get a dozen plain wire roll-around racks for the price of that thing.
I don't hear any noise from D90/A90 to both headphones HD650 and HE4XX .
I do encounter few occurrence with no sound when turn on A90 though, need to switch off/on several times. Is it a glitch ?
My current setup
Headphone:
Auralic Aries Mini / Sony NW-WM1A > standard USB 3.0 cable > D90 > Van den Hul The Source Hybrid RCA > A90 > HD650 / HE4XX
Speaker:
Auralic Aries Mini > standard USB 3.0 cable > D90 > balanced Cardas Quadlink 5C XLR cable > Krell KAV-400i > Van den Hul the Goldwater speaker cable > Sonus Faber Concertino Domus
I don't hear any noise from D90/A90 to both headphones HD650 and HE4XX .
I do encounter few occurrence with no sound when turn on A90 though, need to switch off/on several times. Is it a glitch ?
My current setup
Headphone:
Auralic Aries Mini / Sony NW-WM1A > standard USB 3.0 cable > D90 > Van den Hul The Source Hybrid RCA > A90 > HD650 / HE4XX
Speaker:
Auralic Aries Mini > standard USB 3.0 cable > D90 > balanced Cardas Quadlink 5C XLR cable > Krell KAV-400i > Van den Hul the Goldwater speaker cable > Sonus Faber Concertino Domus
Something could be kicking in the A90 protection circuit (does it have one?). Check cable seating - unplug / re-plug firmly and see if that solves it. Otherwise I'd report it to Topping to get feedback on debugging it.
In the past small threads of gnd shielding can short - but that would be a cable built failure - or some other such anomalous errant intermittent short.
Does it happen out of A90 XLR and RCA, or only XLR? Maybe debug by swapping different cables?
Something could be kicking in the A90 protection circuit (does it have one?). Check cable seating - unplug / re-plug firmly and see if that solves it. Otherwise I'd report it to Topping to get feedback on debugging it.
In the past small threads of gnd shielding can short - but that would be a cable built failure - or some other such anomalous errant intermittent short.
Does it happening out of A90 XLR and RCA, or only XLR? Maybe debug by swapping different cables?
It could be my own mistake when inserting the headphone jack either 6.3mm or 4.4mm, just now i tried to insert Andromeda with ALO Reference 8 4.4mm balanced cable, no sound again, i pull out and insert again, turn on A90, everything seems fine.
I have no problem when inserting Sony Kimber Kable 4.4mm cable, with three different IEMs, namely Final Audio E4000 (low gain at 11 o'clock), Sony EX800ST (low gain at 9 o'clock) and BGVP DM6 (low gain at 9 o'clock), instantly i hear the sound, of course each attempt, I have to set to low gain, 7' o'clock.
It could be my own mistake when inserting the headphone jack either 6.3mm or 4.4mm, just now i tried to insert Andromeda with ALO Reference 8 4.4mm balanced cable, no sound again, i pull out and insert again, turn on A90, everything seems fine.
I have no problem when inserting Sony Kimber Kable 4.4mm cable, with three different IEMs, namely Final Audio E4000 (low gain at 11 o'clock), Sony EX800ST (low gain at 9 o'clock) and BGVP DM6 (low gain at 9 o'clock), instantly i hear the sound, of course each attempt, I have to set to low gain, 7' o'clock.
If you do swap head phone cables a lot, like most of us, I suggest getting a pigtail instead of directly going in and out of the A90's sockets. If you are already having mis-plugs then substituting another connector in between might be a good idea
So for now I am going with 4.4mm to XLR and 2.5mm to 4.4mm pigtails. At least I am insulating the socket in the A90 from the constant plugging and unplugging. I also have 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter - then to XLR.
Still loving my d90-it’s controlling my tv through toslink, my powered speakers through xlr and my PASS amp through usb, my CD player through coax rca. All works without a hint of noise even when I use my etymotic er4p with volume all the way cranked during silence - no stand out distortion anywhere in frequency response and no sibilant sound at all. It’s a true magnifier of cable and source - the way it should b for a dac.
I just picked up a D90 and 887 to get back into everything. I was playing around with the settings on the D90, running it both as a Pre and as a DAC. Mainly Pre so I could use the remote volume for convenience. I would have the 887 volume full open. However, I noticed a big difference in the sound and gain when I switched the D90 to DAC mode and controlled the volume through the 887. Assuming this expected behavior and preferred way to run the D90?
Yes. Using DAC mode, D90 sends full signal. While in PREAMP mode, it dithers the sound/signal tas you adjust your volume. Then to your amp, it will "amplify" this dithered sound. So its best if you control your volume at the end of your chain. But, there is also the question on the quality of your volume pot/preamp section...
Well in the end, to which its sounds best to you...
I just picked up a D90 and 887 to get back into everything. I was playing around with the settings on the D90, running it both as a Pre and as a DAC. Mainly Pre so I could use the remote volume for convenience. I would have the 887 volume full open. However, I noticed a big difference in the sound and gain when I switched the D90 to DAC mode and controlled the volume through the 887. Assuming this expected behavior and preferred way to run the D90?
I run my D90 in pure DAC mode currently, so it's outputting max volume to my headphone amp. Having said that, I feel that I can sometimes hear a tiny bit of distortion/clipping on some tracks, even though my headphone amp can take 8V on its XLR inputs and the D90 outputs 4V max. I did experiment with pre mode and volume set to -3.0dB that seemed to give a cleaner, but ultimately weaker sound.
By way of comparison, my Topping D50 in my desktop system feeds my active speakers at -3.0dB. Setting it to full volume, 0.0dB, causes my active speakers to clip.
I think it's best to experiment until your ears are happiest with the sound quality.
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