Big Ego question: turn off Headphone Blend?

[supergome]

Hi, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Big Ego on the cyber sale.  It sounds really good, even compared quickly to my AudioQuest Dragonfly 1.0 and Schiit Modi 1/Magni 1 stack, though I haven't done any serious comparisons.

But it's been doing something really weird.  I'm using it with a Mac and iTunes (so far), and it will play and sound great for 10 to 30 seconds, and then the sound will drop out completely.  Nothing will get it going again short of unplugging or rebooting.  iTunes continues to play, but it seems like the Ego just isn't decoding or amplifying or something.  

Well, now I've listened to three songs in a row (couldn't get through one before I started writing this), so perhaps it's fixed itself somehow.  I guess if it comes back, I'll call support.  If I had known fixing stuff like this was as easy as starting a post, I would've saved myself a lot of time over the years!

To make this post not a TOTAL waste of time:

Is there a way to turn off the Headphone Blend mode?  The Ego FAQ implies that the only way to do so is unplug the device, and I'm scared to do so now that it's got itself working.

Thanks!

[garbulky]

Perhaps the sound cut off is due to a bad cable or something loose?

[supergome]

Perhaps! I did just make sure that both USB and headphone cables were well-seated before it "started working." Occam's razor and all that, right? Thanks for the reply!

I gotta say that one thing I do like about the Big Ego over the Dragonfly is the volume curve is a lot friendlier.  With the Dragonfly, it's hard to find a spot between 'too quiet' and 'too loud,' while the Big Ego seems to have a lot more adjustability in the bottom end of the volume curve.  Kinda like a pot with an audio taper versus linear taper, to make an analogy.

[creimes]

The little button at the end cycles through three different filters and the HP being the last one that lights up when continuously pressing the button is the headphone blend mode, I just use F1, everytime you press that button the blue LED will light up beside which setting it's on, if you you stop on either F1, F2, F3 or HP that is the setting you choose.

Chad

[supergome]

Thanks!

I understand how to change filters, but changing the filters doesn't effect the HP mode, and reselecting HP doesn't seem to turn it off, or maybe my ears are just bad.

[creimes]

HP mode on my Little EGO is noticeably different the the filters from what I hear, especially in the bass department, just testing it right now with some music from Deadmau5

[supergome]

Just to be clear, even when HP mode is enabled, the Ego is still using whichever filter you have previously selected, just purposely reducing channel separation to simulate the effect of speakers in a room.

[creimes]

I don't believe so no, your choices are the three filters or the HP mode

[supergome]

That's unlikely, as running a DAC without a filter results in a lot of nasty out-of-band noise above the Nyquist frequency.

Emotiva addresses that here: emotiva.com.ua/pdf/big_ego/EGO_FAQ_2015-08-25.pdf

and also indicates that you can select and deselect HP mode the obvious way, so my question is answered! Thanks for your posts!

[supergome]

That said, it would be nice if the lights worked in a more logical fashion and indicated whether HP mode is on or off.