[hifi2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djembeplay /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well we shall see how Kevin handles it. Is this common for him to take so long to reply to e-mails?

If you are in a real bind, you can try emailing Michael from TeraDak privately... he is a very busy man so it may take him a day or two to respond...But he will.

 

[massivni]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djembeplay /img/forum/go_quote.gif Soooo I've been running my DAC continuously for a couple days and this noise is still persisting. Again, its like a rhythmic static noise that cuts in and out... quite loudly. For some reason the manufacturer isn't responding to the message I sent him through eBay. Is there a better way to contact him/her?

Hi,
I had similar problem with my june/july 2009 valab.
After switching on, after 15mins of playin, loud static,crackling noise was coming from left channel. I think that the warmer the unit was getting, the more noise was coming out.
Kevin replied after few days, and after a long conversations he replaced it with another new valab of august/september batch which works fine.
One should not have a problem, Kevin will reply I hope soon.

I did not damage speakers, or amps in the process.

 

[Hygienist]

Did you use eBay to contact or did you email him personally?

 

[djembeplay]

Getting a little frustrated. I contacted Vintage_Audio_Labs a few days ago, then again shortly after - never received a response.

I contacted Michael yesterday and did receive a response. He asked me some basic tech questions, to which I answered.
The reply I just received was: "I thought You can ask the reseller how to deal with your issue. He should be very glad to help you.."

Lol... What? I thought he was the reseller...? He is my only contact. The worst thing is I need a replacement DAC soon for studio monitoring.

massivni - that sounds like my problem exactly. In fact, my DAC is from the same manufacture period as the one you had trouble with, I'm pretty sure.

 

[MikeW]

Michael is the OEM not the reseller. Kevin @ Valab is the Reseller. He should get to you, somtimes it takes a few days however. He does not flat out ignore people, I know how hard waiting can be when your equipment is broken.

 

[djembeplay]

Hmm... but doesn't it sound like Michael wants me to contact the reseller (aka, Kevin)?

 

[massivni]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djembeplay /img/forum/go_quote.gif Getting a little frustrated. I contacted Vintage_Audio_Labs a few days ago, then again shortly after - never received a response. I contacted Michael yesterday and did receive a response. He asked me some basic tech questions, to which I answered. The reply I just received was: "I thought You can ask the reseller how to deal with your issue. He should be very glad to help you.." Lol... What? I thought he was the reseller...? He is my only contact. The worst thing is I need a replacement DAC soon for studio monitoring. massivni - that sounds like my problem exactly. In fact, my DAC is from the same manufacture period as the one you had trouble with, I'm pretty sure.

Maybe you have my unit

.......just joking.
But yes, it is very frustrating.
I have contacted Kevin via ebay contact system........yes, sometimes takes few days from him to respond, unfortunately.

So Michael is building Valabs, not Kevin?

 

[Hygienist]

I've asked Kevin two questions today and I've gotten responses within the hour. I'm guessing he just tries to put off big questions like tech support?

 

[djembeplay]

Haha, I don't know.

It doesn't sound like Michael is making DACs from the last e-mail he sent... it's all new to me. In his last e-mail, he said he wouldn't be able to do a replacement. That was sent right after Kevin finally wrote me back, telling me he could do a replacement.

The only trouble now is... he wants $40 to ship a replacement, and it will cost me another $40 to ship mine back. So a total of $80 for them to replace something that they made that broke after a few months? Uuuuuuummmm...

 

[Wood]

Because you didnt buy direct from Michael, your contract is with Kevin. I dont think you should be paying so much for replacing new faulty goods either and should insist about this to VALAB.

The other option is to ask Michael if he can help you trace the fault via email, but this will probably require you to have a a multimeter and perhaps soldering iron skills, also you would have to confirm with VALAB this would not invalidate the warranty.

 

[djembeplay]

I could - but that would take hours of work. It's not worth it to me. Then, maybe I find a dead OPamp and have to order another one anyways.

I responded to Michael last night telling him that this doesn't sound fair to me. I offered to buy a new one at full cost, and split return shipping cost. Then, once he gets my DAC, he can refund me the price of the new one I bought. This seems more than fair to me.

We'll see next month when we writes back.

 

[Wood]

Personally speaking, its worth persevering with this because what you will end up with is a sound which is very hard to match at any price.
It doesn't change the fact that there is a lottery, and small number of us end up paying a higher price then advertised. The only redeeming factor is that we would all have to pay much more for the same product well marketed with excellent quality control. But please, we dont mind paying a little bit more if it means better improved quality control.

 

[Wood]

Has anybody tried using 2 alkaline batteries to provide the reference voltage for the TDA1543. It provides a cleaner voltage then the reference provided by pin 7 of the chip via normal mains power. Benifits are cleaner SQ etc. Batteries will last a long time because only a tiny current is used.
I will try experimenting on a 1 chip dac. Then if it works try to figure if its possible to upscale to 8 chip valab version

 

[MikeW]

I got to the bottom of my problem, it's strange though. it is not a resistor huming, when I changed the resistor I also temporarily moved the Output caps and this is indeed what stopped the huming. It seems the output capacitors (Dynamicap E's) are picking up some kind of interferance when they are in certain positions inside the dac, I experimented around and found a sweet spot where they don't seem to pick up any noise. It seems very strange to me that they are doing this though. Does it mean they are damaged somehow or not hooked up correctly? The hum sounds alot like a ground loop. It's gone now, the caps are situated and held in place with Blu tac, but they are very sensitive, if they move just a slight amount the hum will return.

 

[Wood]

Did the pulse transformer mod. Dont know why I missed it before, I think its because you do need one and the source and one at the dac, before only had one at the source.

What am I talking about, well the period violin changes from being a complex sine wave, to revealing the texture of the horse hair rubbing on the cat gut. You can almost smell the resin.