[taboo]

hi Duggeh! how did I know you'd be here somewhere...

The Rock Grotto certainly does not get easily linked to on head-fi. I've had links to it I've posted deleted on several occasions. But then the trench between Jude and Mike is a little more craggy and sharp than what you get with forum competition.

I think the rule applies to the Head-fi page on facebook as well. I was on there when head-fi was down and put in a post that I'd been surviving on visiting other sites, I named head-case and rockgrotto as the sites. Checking back later I noticed that my post had vanished

p.s. Head-case is now my favourite audiophile website it seems much more relaxed and less prone to overhype than head-fi ever was

how bizarre, I've linked to the rockgrotto before without issue.

[taboo]

Sometimes on HF you'll see references to "the site that must not be named". That site is HC. If you try to put "head-case" in a message, the checker won't let you do it. If somehow you are able to reference HC, that message quickly gets deleted. Jude has insisted that this site not be mentioned and that nobody publicize HC using HF resources. I don't understand why (even knowing the history), but HF is his site and he can run it anyway he wants.

ok that probably makes more sense . i think i've read such posts in the past and didn't quite understand

because to me it's not like jude doesn't allow linking to other headphone forums, headwize, rockgrotto, sgheadphones etc. get linked to no worries, just wondering what the go was here

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

Granted, when you overlay a board onto a design not made to support it, you can get into some interesting problems as to how to wire it in, etc., but the workmanship here is lacking. The metal cans are transistors... not a package you see often these days but alot of mil-spec shit used that type of packaging (as well as the ceramic DIPs you see sometimes, which are usually better than the plastic package normal varieties). Looks like about $15 in parts plus the PCB... dunno what he charges for these but if he's not making money on them

Thanks for the links, I'll have a read of it. As for the workmanship, it was I who installed it, as for pricing, according to the latest pricing on his website he charges USD$459 + shipping for a complete unit where he supplies the DAC.

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

So, what other good sources have you heard?

yep i'll give you something to laugh about today the sources i have extensive experience with:

DAC-AH stock, DAC-AH modded, Stock Zhaolu D2.0A, the OMZ of course, 0404 USB, 0404 PCI, Chaintech AV-710 and some other crappy PC sound cards not worth mentioning.

As you can see my experience doesn't hold a candle to what other guys here have heard, but the OMZ is such a huge step up from anything I have ever heard that I am completely satisfied with it considering its cost (lots of other stuff are out of my budget)

p.s. my previous comments about some finding its sound quality acceptable include your own posters here 5678 and Jon L, but also some other posters on head-fi who have heard really good gear and vouch for it.

[taboo]

hi there

i don't know if it's a taboo question, but was just wondering how come this place isn't ever mentioned on head-fi?

am i missing something? is it supposed to be private only (i read some archives and noticed it was invite only at one stage)

the reason i ask is that before i read the wikipedia article on headphones (of which this forum is linked, so it mustn't be that private) i had no idea this place existed and it seems like a great place when head-fi's a bit too much. i'd like to continue hanging here so before i get too carried away i just wanted to understand how things roll around here

could someone please clarify?

thanks,

dave

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

or rather, sounds great when it works, reportedly.

I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones then perhaps it is due to my awesome RCA jack soldering and floating board mounting technique that I am able to achieve such unproblematic results?

Feel free to send your wares to me and I will gladly do the dc mod on them lol

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

Not just Ori, we also dislike all 'designers' who can't hear for shit, build crappy products, then shill them in every shady way possible.

gotcha

edit: though as a few have discovered, at least one of his products (OMZ) doesn't sound half bad

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

Does he really leave the board unsupported like that? And that's some pretty craptacular wiring shown there, how hard is it to not end up with 1/4" of bare wire at the RCA jacks?

i think the board was made for D2.5 as you see on his website/first post it is screwed down and fits inside a D2.5 exactly

again, I must mention that my OMZ is rather unique because it's D2.0 and I did a lot of the installation myself (because Australia is such a far away place that shipping the parts to and from Ori - in California i believe - would cost me an arm and a leg) so i am to blame about the dodgy wiring and lack of mounting

p.s. I'm not sure what I walked in on, but does there seem to be a bit of dislike to Ori on these boards?

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

You'll hear from Ori that he has no LED's due to noise, as well

so leds in the output stage as current source is ok, but an led far away on the panel connected to nothing important generates noise -rocket

i don't know how true the statement about LEDs is, but Ori has removed them all. I remember lan mentioning noise from the front panel LEDs as well on another thread.

also without revealing too much of his circuit design (probably why the pic on his web page is such bad quality - i'm sure many Zhaolu owners in Chinese forums would like to try their reverse engineering skills on it!) here is a close up pic of the blue caps that until the OMZ i didn't even know existed. oh, the metal cans appear to be transistors.

[Dac-Ah modified by Pacific Valve]

putting resistors in parallel would be easiest, followed by removing old ones and putting new ones in and finally installing new regulators and running them at 8v

if you run them at 8v however the performance is better but you will need to heatsink the 8x TDA1543 DAC chips and they will get quite hot

for me well i never experienced the clipping, but i was under there doing other mods as well so i installed new regulators

all the details are in this link: http://tinyurl.com/2fw9le

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

The problem is not the model. The problem is he removes the processor that assists with the digital lock in his version 4 mod.

oh, forgot to mention that mine's updated to v4 spec ie has no processor, i know cos i removed it myself =\

[DIY cable gallery]

Those particular jacks use a spring loaded ground connection and when installed look and work just like any other plug. Kind of hard to explain but if you ever use one you'll see what I'm talking about.

Nate beat em to it, but I spent a few minutes typing, so I'm posting it anyway.

That is the special design of the connector. The ground part retracts into the plug. The idea is that when you go to plug in the connector, it will make a contact with ground, thereby avoiding popping noises.

So your assumptions would be correct, but the 'outside' retracts into the connector itself.

thanks guys, makes a whole lot of sense, wonder why these kinda of connectors aren't more popular.

ground first is better than signal first i think. esp those times when the centre pin touches the ground on your amp as you go to plug it in...

[DIY cable gallery]

quick Q that i've always been embarassed to ask about...

those RCAs connectors you're using, the centre pin looks normal, but the outside extends way out, won't this have problems with certain RCA jacks?

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

"d-cee" is owned by someone else here?

no, my preferred username has always been dc but many forums don't allow usernames shorter than 3 letters so i had to come up with d-cee

anyway, back on topic. my OMZ has the AD1852 but since it's the D2.0 I can swap in the CS4398 board, but I much prefer the AD board.

Also, the OMZ can't really be considered neutral since Ori voices it to sound as close to vinyl as possible...

oh and one last thing, those aren't LEDs on the OMZ discrete output board, they're strange capacitors, nothing lights in there... nope.

[Why is there a bicycle on Headroom products' pcbs?]

Hi, dc! Welcome to head-case!

thanks! it's amazing what you get linked to reading the wikipedia entry for headphones (amazingly tonight was the first time I did this)

[Dac-Ah modified by Pacific Valve]

a while back it was discovered that DAC-AHs were clipping because they had some wrong valued resistors because LM7806 regulators were running them @ 6v instead of the LM7808 it was designed for (obviously a clone gone wrong)

anyways, you could change the resistors or put some other ones in parallel (i forgot the exact values, they're on a thread somewhere) or do like others did and run them @ 8v with LM7808 regs

[Ori modded Zhalou discrete output stage?]

I never had any problems with the digital getting a lock, but my OMZ is a D2.0, not D2.5 like most of them out there

[Why is there a bicycle on Headroom products' pcbs?]

sheer coincidence?

sometimes even the best need reminders which way the electrons flow