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justin

Manufacturer/MoT
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Posts posted by justin

  1. They have low distortion but this is usually with loads of 600, 1k, 2k ohms, or higher. Very few op-amps are able to properly drive low or medium impedance headphones directly, and many of the ones that do have high output current capability have poor performance in all other areas.

  2. Justin, if you decide to go with option 2, would the toggle switch do anything for the one without USB DAC?

    This is really the problem, because the best use of the switch on the amp-only version would be a gain switch. To have a gain switch on the amp-only, but none on the DAC+Amp, would definitely bother a lot of people (and also make it more difficult by having 2 different front panel layouts).

  3. theres no hiding from a particular x-ray machine anyway :P

    If say plugged into the computer, would the power draw provided be enough to at least make a difference vs running all battery? Or does it not draw anything from the usb?

    The DAC runs on USB power, and is filtered and regulated extensively. The headphone amp always runs on battery power. The power draw from the USB is 100mA (0.5W)

  4. Given that all that was shown was the prototype who knows, I'd probably think around Christmas time or so.

    Probably October/November, some of the parts have a 3 month lead time. The closest competition to it would probably be HeadRoom's upcoming Max Micro DAC (as far as quality of the DAC, with upsampling and a flagship DAC chip) but for USB input mine is probably the only one that avoids the extra conversion to SPDIF

  5. I still yearn for someone to take apart the ipod connector on one of ALO's cables so that I can see how he attaches 12ga wire (or whatever) to a 30ga pin.

    I would have to assume he's cutting off all but 1 or 2 of the strands from the wire and soldering that, probably adding epoxy or glue so it doesnt fall apart

  6. http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html

    Reading over the iMod page, it sounds like they're just removing the opamp and its supporting components, which likely are a filter, from the output of the iPod's DAC. This is just going to result in a lot of high frequency noise being present and then being further amplified by your headphone amp. Not a good thing...these are exactly the kind of mods done by people who don't know what they're doing or just looking to make a lot of $$$

  7. Wow! Justin, that sounds like it's going to be really nice. I'm assuming the DAC is USB only? Is there any chance of it having a coax or optical input as well? To me that would make it much more versatile which would be more in keeping with your other offerings. The versatility of the AE-2 and GS-1 are part of what I love about them. I absolutely love the fact that my AE-2 has both a mini input on the front and RCA's on the back, in fact, what I'd personally really love to see would be something along a similar line as the AE-2 with all it's features but adding a USB/Coax or Optical DAC of reasonable quality.

    It would have to be significantly larger to have a coax and/or optical input. This DAC/Amp is only 40% the size of the AE-2. Also, with a coax or optical input the DAC would have to run on battery power, and it consumes a lot of current compared to a headphone amp. This would drop the battery life to 4 hours or 8 hours with the extended battery. I don't think that is enough. A larger portable DAC/amp with a coax and optical input may come later, and would have a much larger battery. It would be about the size of the AE-2.

    My goals for this portable USB DAC/Amp were:

    - to make the best portable USB DAC/Amp available regardless of size

    - have features that aren't on anything else (lithium-ion battery, upsampling, 24-bit/192khz DAC chip, etc)

    - keep the size as small as the smallest Amp-Only portables

  8. No, there will be a headphone output, and an analog input that becomes the input instead of the DAC when a cable is plugged in. There's no room anywhere to add an additional switch that would be required to have a DAC-only output. However, the headphone output can be used as a variable output of the DAC. Really just a marketing difference in calling it a headphone output vs. variable output which is seen on many DACs.

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