[Lam3r_co.]

So I looked around DIY section here and I discovered a nice looking Millett "Starving Student" Amp. The tubes look nice, but I'm concerned about the quality of this amp. What influence does the power adapteur have to sound?

As for DAC, the AMB gama1 looks like the best option.

 

[K3cT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, let's run the numbers. Don't hold me to the Penny here, I'm doing these off the top of my head. Promo Compass to the US ~ $313 LC Upgraded Zero to US ~ $220 Basic Zero to US ~$175 So, there is a price difference. But if you were thinking of a Modded Zero, the difference is not much, at least to me where the difference in quality comes to play. Also, the Compass price may go to $399 + Shipping in a few months. The price is going to go up. This is where the Crapshoot comes in, one issue with the Zero, and whatever savings you had are about gone. How about the Zero burned up my Senn 650 thread? He didn't save much after he plugged in his phones and torched his 650's with DC offset? And as you point out above, once you dump some upgrade money into the Zero, the price difference starts dropping. wsz304 is the vendor to buy it from for sure. After seeing the Types of issues that the Zero has, I cannot recommend it to anyone. The issue is the multitudes of different problems it has had. If you have a run of products that all have the same issue, you can fix that. If you have a lot of different "sloppy" manufacturing problems, now you have a philosophical problem, and that's not what you want in the manufacture of electronics. I have a fully modded Zero, but if I read that thread today, there's no way I would buy one. I'd gladly Pony up the Extra $90 bucks or so and do the Compass, a Keces, or a Yulong(another story), etc.

The point is the Compass is still way above the thread starter's budget. All upgrades for the Zero considered, it sure would be priced similarly to the Compass but you neglect to mention that they will come in increment and can be added accordingly once the TS has the budget to commit to an upgrade.

Besides, this issue of crappy Zero really reminds me of the Dell XPS 1530 in notebook-review forums. It is a fine product but you will get another impression if you wade through those forums and I know I never regret buying mine.

The point I'm trying to make is the opinions of people like us do not represent the overall community of Zero users. I'm not saying that the problem is a non-issue but undertaking the necessary precaution by buying from a seller with good support is enough to lower the chance of getting the short end of the stick to a minimum level.

All said and done, I highly recommend the TS to look for a used iBasso D2 Boa which I guess will come to around $120 used. This is a mighty little unit, comes with a decent amp, USB DAC and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery. Stock Zero sounds slightly better than the Boa but you won't regret buying it.

 

[K3cT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lam3r_co. /img/forum/go_quote.gif DIY doesn't come in question. At first, I have no experience with smd and only poor experience with ordinary pcb's, at second, most of the parts mentioned in these projects are unbuyable in this country... Btw. I found that wsz0304 guy and his prices are: Tianyun ZERO Multifuction Decoders 136USD (shippment to EU included) ZERO 24/192 DAC DA CONVERTOR, HEAD AMP(Upgrade Version) 153USD (shippment to EU included) Price is not that bad at all if You say this man has the good ones. But what is the difference between these two versions?

Sorry, I missed this in my last post. The upgrade version has the OPA627 op-amp in the DAC section while stock has OPA604 (IIRC). Comparing to the Boa again, I think with the upgrade the Zero really pushes itself above the Boa in overall sound quality. The Boa still has better vocal representation but the Zero beats it in everything else.

 

[grawk]

There are a number of dacs that used to be fairly expensive that can be had for a deal these days. The one I have, the denon da-500, is a LOT better than anything available for under $200 that I have experience with. They sell regularly for $150 or less. There are lots of threads on these older dacs, if you look around.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K3cT /img/forum/go_quote.gif The point is the Compass is still way above the thread starter's budget. All upgrades for the Zero considered, it sure would be priced similarly to the Compass but you neglect to mention that they will come in increment and can be added accordingly once the TS has the budget to commit to an upgrade. Besides, this issue of crappy Zero really reminds me of the Dell XPS 1530 in notebook-review forums. It is a fine product but you will get another impression if you wade through those forums and I know I never regret buying mine. The point I'm trying to make is the opinions of people like us do not represent the overall community of Zero users. I'm not saying that the problem is a non-issue but undertaking the necessary precaution by buying from a seller with good support is enough to lower the chance of getting the short end of the stick to a minimum level. All said and done, I highly recommend the TS to look for a used iBasso D2 Boa which I guess will come to around $120 used. This is a mighty little unit, comes with a decent amp, USB DAC and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery. Stock Zero sounds slightly better than the Boa but you won't regret buying it.

The name of the Compass thread tells what is going on with the Zero. An "alternative", and the reason for the alternative is because what is going on with the Zero. A lot of Zero's were fine for a few months and then failed later. If you feel fine recommending the Zero, that's OK, that's you and you can live with yourself, than that's what's important. The OP wants to buy a Zero after your post, my post, and the 9,000 Zero posts that's his deal. He was warned. There are folks in the Zero thread that said the same thing you said, till theirs died. Mine works fine "PRESENTLY".

 

[K3cT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif The name of the Compass thread tells what is going on with the Zero. An "alternative", and the reason for the alternative is because what is going on with the Zero. A lot of Zero's were fine for a few months and then failed later. If you feel fine recommending the Zero, that's OK, that's you and you can live with yourself, than that's what's important. The OP wants to buy a Zero after your post, my post, and the 9,000 Zero posts that's his deal. He was warned. There are folks in the Zero thread that said the same thing you said, till theirs died. Mine works fine "PRESENTLY".

Indeed. I also hope mine works fine for as long as it could, that is until I have enough funds to get the Compass.

That's why I was even more cautious and ended up buying it from Jaben Singapore which is known for its legendary support so shipping etc. will be a lot more convenient in case something goes wrong. Of course I ended up paying a little bit more but I don't mind for a peace of mind.

The Zero once upgraded is really a fine sounding unit for tis given price and I suspect even the Compass will not be miles ahead of it but I digress.

 

[Lam3r_co.]

Wow, nice answers guys, thank You. I didn't know that the Zero DAC can burn my headphones.

Well, I've been researching about DIY projects. It looks like I can do pretty much things with my soldering skills. Except SMD.

So now the question is - what to build? As for DAC, the AMB gamma1 looks very nice and easy to build. The costs are great (I can make box by myself). But then I need headamp, I guess. Please, which ones do You reccommend? I heard just the best about tube amps, but tubes are not easy to get. I'd prefer something that like gamma1 - everything packed together.

Thank You.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lam3r_co. /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, nice answers guys, thank You. I didn't know that the Zero DAC can burn my headphones. Well, I've been researching about DIY projects. It looks like I can do pretty much things with my soldering skills. Except SMD. So now the question is - what to build? As for DAC, the AMB gamma1 looks very nice and easy to build. The costs are great (I can make box by myself). But then I need headamp, I guess. Please, which ones do You reccommend? I heard just the best about tube amps, but tubes are not easy to get. I'd prefer something that like gamma1 - everything packed together. Thank You.

After reading that Burn up my Senn 650 thread, I started firing up my new gear with Cheap Headphones on initial testing. If I burned up a set of $1000 Canz, I might be a wee bit ticked off. We have to remember that there is pretty much no regulations in China to protect anyone from anything. This gear is not CE certified or UL certified. So we take a chance doing anything with it, including with tube gear risking your Life possibly.

DIY would be fun. I'm reading up on Tube stuff right now to build a tube amp eventually. Look over in the DIY thread for the common/popular build projects like Starving Student which you may be able to identify with

 

[John Willett]

Dobry den Lam a vitate na Head-Fi.

Dufam si velmy stastny s tvoje HD 555 - a áno, toslink je dobre.

Prepacte, moj Slovensky nie je dobre, som Anglican.

 

[K3cT]

If you decide for the DIY route, AMB Mini3 will be a nice starting point: The Mini³ Portable Stereo Headphone Amplifier.

The problem is it doesn't come with a DAC.

 

[Lam3r_co.]

John Willet> Thanks for Your post, it is kind of nice feeling to see post in Slovak from Englander

K3cT> Do You think that AMB M3 is harder to assembly than th e Mini3? Another thing - I haven't found how are the approx. final costs of the Mini3 or the M3.
That it doesn't come with DAC is not a problem, I can still make one of these AMB's gamma1. (You don't know the final costs, do You?)

 

[K3cT]

If it's any help, the fully pre-assembled set costs around $160 around here so I'd guess it's around $110 for the kit. The site I linked to you has prices on the components in the shop section so you can check the total cost of the components.

I don't have any experience on soldering and stuff, so I'm sorry I can't tell you whether the Mini3 is easier to assemble than the M3 or not.

 

[John Willett]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lam3r_co. /img/forum/go_quote.gif John Willet> Thanks for Your post, it is kind of nice feeling to see post in Slovak from Englander

Dakujem - moja manzelka je Slovenka.

Sorry my Slovak is not good enough for long conversations yet - but I go to Slovakia normally about twice a year.

And good luck with your project.

By the way, you will find Jaromir Tuzil at Panter Praha (distributor for Sennheiser, Nagra and others for the Slovak and Czech Republics) very helpful if you need help.

 

[Lam3r_co.]

Anyone else about the M3 vs Mini3 assembly difficuilty, please?

[size=xx-small]//offtopic
John Willett> That is great! Slovak women are the most beautiful in whole Europe [/size]