denti alligator
New member
Be well, Jim!
New DAC in the house...
- Thread starter jrebman
- Start date
Natural Sound
New member
Jim R. said:
Jim,
I hope you feel better soon.
BTW I hate hospitals!
-Tom
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the good wishes -- they do mean a lot to me. Looks like I'm going to be lying low for another while here, but believe me, I really want to get this dac fully put through it's paces. I'll probably go grab it and a mac mini and setup a headphone system on my nightstand as soon as I'm strong enough, which won't obviously be the same as the Orcas, but will still be a good test.
A happy, healthy, peaceful new year to all of you!
-- Jim
Thanks for the good wishes -- they do mean a lot to me. Looks like I'm going to be lying low for another while here, but believe me, I really want to get this dac fully put through it's paces. I'll probably go grab it and a mac mini and setup a headphone system on my nightstand as soon as I'm strong enough, which won't obviously be the same as the Orcas, but will still be a good test.
A happy, healthy, peaceful new year to all of you!
-- Jim
Natural Sound
New member
Can't go wrong with The Dead.earwaxxer said:
.
Well, I'm making decent progress and may even get to trying out the usb connection and some hi-res stuff this weekend.
Then in a couple of weeks I should also be getting one of the new iFi iDACs -- along with the iUSBPower and the iCAN headphone amp -- my new bedside system, to be fed from either a 2010 mac mini or my christmas present, a new iPad Mini. This too is supposed to be an exceptional dac, but with less connectivity options than the MyDAC. Also has a built-in headphone amp.
-- Jim
Then in a couple of weeks I should also be getting one of the new iFi iDACs -- along with the iUSBPower and the iCAN headphone amp -- my new bedside system, to be fed from either a 2010 mac mini or my christmas present, a new iPad Mini. This too is supposed to be an exceptional dac, but with less connectivity options than the MyDAC. Also has a built-in headphone amp.
-- Jim
Natural Sound
New member
I ordered a mydac from music direct today. I'll be feeding it with my ALIX/Voyage Linux client. I'll post a mini review here after I get a few hours on the clock. Thanks for the heads up, Jim.
Natural Sound
New member
I got the MyDac today via FedEx. Flipped the USB switch to class 2 and plugged my silver USB cable from the ALIX. Then I queued up a list of various bitrates from 16/44 up to 24/192. All the songs played flawlessly. I didn't have to make any changes to my MPD configuration file so that was a plus. At this point I'm not going to comment on the sound. I just wanted to report that it works with the ALIX/VoyageMPD client. I will say however that I like what I hear so far. I'll follow up in a couple of weeks after things break in for a while. I can't wait to get my Orcas and subs next month!
Natural Sound
New member
UPDATE: After just 4 listening sessions the MyDac I'd dead. The digital stream appears to be flowing but there is no audio. I put the original 16 bit NOS DAC back in place and my music is flowing again. The MyDac will be going back on an RMA tomorrow.
Tom,
Sorry to hear that. I've not had any problems and I've not heard of any others, so hopefully this is just a fluke.
I've been doing a lot of headphone listening the past 3 or 4 days with the iFi usb power box, dac and headphone amp -- all fed by my ipad mini with a camera connection kit, and even at this early stage I'm pretty impressed, especially given that it is all SS and I'm only listening to 320 kbps MOG streams over wifi.
This week I'm concentrating on getting my ripped and downloaded music collection all integrated and loaded on the NAS and the stand alone drives for two systems, and the backup drives, and then I should have a whole lot more music choices at my fingertips.
Hope you get the dac back soon.
-- Jim
Sorry to hear that. I've not had any problems and I've not heard of any others, so hopefully this is just a fluke.
I've been doing a lot of headphone listening the past 3 or 4 days with the iFi usb power box, dac and headphone amp -- all fed by my ipad mini with a camera connection kit, and even at this early stage I'm pretty impressed, especially given that it is all SS and I'm only listening to 320 kbps MOG streams over wifi.
This week I'm concentrating on getting my ripped and downloaded music collection all integrated and loaded on the NAS and the stand alone drives for two systems, and the backup drives, and then I should have a whole lot more music choices at my fingertips.
Hope you get the dac back soon.
-- Jim
denti alligator
New member
Jim,
any more impressions of the DAC? I have to admit you've peaked my interest a lot. I only wish I could demo one.
any more impressions of the DAC? I have to admit you've peaked my interest a lot. I only wish I could demo one.
Natural Sound
New member
Natural Sound said:
UPDATE #2: I got a replacement MyDac and it doesn
Tom,
I'm sure this isn't news to you, but sometimes the new ALSA versions can behave differently with a given dac. Did you check with Micromega or the Voyage folks? They're usually right on top of these things.
Sorry it's been so frustrating, but this why I don't normally recommend a linux server to people who don't know their way around linux config and troubleshooting -- still not really ready for prime time IMO.
And I'm not talking about you here -- you know what you're doing.
I'm sure this isn't news to you, but sometimes the new ALSA versions can behave differently with a given dac. Did you check with Micromega or the Voyage folks? They're usually right on top of these things.
Sorry it's been so frustrating, but this why I don't normally recommend a linux server to people who don't know their way around linux config and troubleshooting -- still not really ready for prime time IMO.
And I'm not talking about you here -- you know what you're doing.
Natural Sound
New member
Jim,
I slept on it and with a little help from the guys at Voyage I figured it out. Somehow, don
I slept on it and with a little help from the guys at Voyage I figured it out. Somehow, don
Tom,
Oh, I know how frustrating that stuff can be as well. I honestly figured it was something with the ALSA config as that is where 95% of the problems people have with linux servers end up being solved -- at least in my experience. But you're right, why it should just change is not normal behavior. I'm glad you got it figured out. Do you suppose the first dac was okthen?
Yeah man, get those Orcas playing as soon as you can!
I had hoped to get things going yesterday but we had a couple of pet issues and dinner guests last night and the whole day disappeard right in front of us. Doggie is in the hospital after eating some gum with Xylatol in it, but is doing fine as we unbelieveably caught it in time, and she'll probably come home sometime today or tomorrow morning. Oh well, today is another day.
-- Jim
Oh, I know how frustrating that stuff can be as well. I honestly figured it was something with the ALSA config as that is where 95% of the problems people have with linux servers end up being solved -- at least in my experience. But you're right, why it should just change is not normal behavior. I'm glad you got it figured out. Do you suppose the first dac was okthen?
Yeah man, get those Orcas playing as soon as you can!
I had hoped to get things going yesterday but we had a couple of pet issues and dinner guests last night and the whole day disappeard right in front of us. Doggie is in the hospital after eating some gum with Xylatol in it, but is doing fine as we unbelieveably caught it in time, and she'll probably come home sometime today or tomorrow morning. Oh well, today is another day.
-- Jim
Natural Sound
New member
No, I think that the first DAC was defective. I tried it on three different computers (Windows and Linux) and used two high quality USB cables. I couldn't get any of the combinations to produce any sound.
I suppose a defective MyDAC could have somehow changed the ALSA mixer settings on the ALIX?
I suppose a defective MyDAC could have somehow changed the ALSA mixer settings on the ALIX?
Grainger49
New member
Natural Sound said:
Tom, I fried a DAC by touching it and static arcing to it. So for years now I have run humidifiers in the winter months. Look at the "Cheap Vinyl Accessories" thread under the Phono folder, there is a picture of a cheap humidifier that will take care of the static.
The alternative is to take a piece of metal, put a screw/bolt in it and run a wire from the screw to the screw on your power outlet. This assumes that you have a grounded circuit. Btu touching a grounded plate before touching anything in your system will safely discharge all static.
Tom,
Yes, I think either the bad dac or the static discharge could have effected the settings on the server -- there is data going back to the computer too, and although unlikely in most circumstances, it can and does happen. I once had a situation with two speech synthesizers connected to one machine and some glitch happened and the synthesizers somehow managed to reprogram each other and put each other in a state where they didn't work properly, simply skipped over commmon words, substituted c ommon words with random words and punctuation, etc.
I ended up having to reinstall the screen reader software and then, without a synthesizer and hoping things were working normally again, had to blindly follow the steps to reflash the synthesizer's firmware, and then once one had been restored, the rest was easy. All in all, a 6 hour diversion for who knos what reason. So yes, firmware and system files can and do get corrupted, but again I'm not telling you anything you don't know.
Fiingers crossed that this is the last of it and it's smooth listening from here on out.
And also being a resident of the rocky mountain west high arrid plains, I know the dryness and static issues very well. One reason why we got wool carpet instead of synthetic in our new house -- far better than the old place.
-- Jim
Yes, I think either the bad dac or the static discharge could have effected the settings on the server -- there is data going back to the computer too, and although unlikely in most circumstances, it can and does happen. I once had a situation with two speech synthesizers connected to one machine and some glitch happened and the synthesizers somehow managed to reprogram each other and put each other in a state where they didn't work properly, simply skipped over commmon words, substituted c ommon words with random words and punctuation, etc.
I ended up having to reinstall the screen reader software and then, without a synthesizer and hoping things were working normally again, had to blindly follow the steps to reflash the synthesizer's firmware, and then once one had been restored, the rest was easy. All in all, a 6 hour diversion for who knos what reason. So yes, firmware and system files can and do get corrupted, but again I'm not telling you anything you don't know.
Fiingers crossed that this is the last of it and it's smooth listening from here on out.
And also being a resident of the rocky mountain west high arrid plains, I know the dryness and static issues very well. One reason why we got wool carpet instead of synthetic in our new house -- far better than the old place.
-- Jim
