XDA-1 break in

[lynxo]

how long did you break in(leave it on playing) before you hear an improvement?

IMHO, my unit is producing too much of the sharp zzz on the highs and female voices that normally are not their with my other DAC.

other than that, it's a decent DAC for the price. My setup with XLR output to XPA-1's to 1.6QR's.

[cawgijoe]

I heard an immediate improvement going from an Entech 205.2 DAC to the XDA-1. No z's....no hiss......just great sound. My setup........ERC-1/Squeezebox Duet to XDA-1 to Thiel CS1.6.

As far as I'm concerned, I didn't need any break-in.

[Deleted]

Plug and play i have crystal clear sound. Could be the source, speakers, cables or a ground loop causing the hiss.

[lynxo]

not hiss/hum noise.

sharp raspy sound in voices, the highs are sharp.

I'm leaving my unit on for a week, hopefully that issue will disappear.

I'm also surprised there is no ventilation slots at all. the unit is completely enclosed. cannot be good for life of components.

[DYohn]

Solid state DACs can be very revealing. Sounds like you are simply hearing things in your system the earlier DAC did not reveal. Can you EQ your system?

[lynxo]

No EQ.

with my diy dac with output line transformers, there is no harshness in the highs. could be my tube pre is smoothing out
the harshness.

I wanted to try the XDA-1 to bypass the preamp.

will give it a go in a week to see if there are any improvements.

thanks.

[rclark]

I noticed an improvement in the sound over a period of a few days.

[azsoundman]

I'm very impressed with the performance level for the dollar spent. I have heard both the Cambridge & PS Audio units in my system as well, and their are some suttle differences between each of them. If I were to describe the XDA-1 overall, I would say very linear over the entire frequency range so I guess neutral overall. I also am currently using a tube preamp front end so my results may be different than those who are either going direct from the DAC to their power amp or into a solid state preamp. I did swap some cables around and found that also made a difference. I also have not found any real difference in break in time, as mine has been on 24 hours a day since February 14th and sounds pretty much the same.

[jlafrenz]

I had the same thoughts about the topend. Lots of detail, but a little hot and sharp for my tastes. This was in both of my systems for the short time that I owned it. I found that a tube buffer helped take the edge off.

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2011 17:42:22 GMT -5 jlafrenz said:

I had the same thoughts about the topend. Lots of detail, but a little hot and sharp for my tastes. This was in both of my systems for the short time that I owned it. I found that a tube buffer helped take the edge off.

I can't wait to try out my Yaqin CD3 when it gets here

[lynxo]

I will post back in a week if I hear any difference.

with same setup, a marantz AVR and cheapo samsung blu ray player, the Andrea Bocelli Live in Tuscany BD sounds incredible.

That is what I use as a reference. there is absolutely no harshness in the highs at all. The XPA-1's are awesome in it's delivery to drive the 1.6QR's.

it's probably asking too much but it would have been nice
if the output stage of the XDA-1 would use film caps instead
of tiny electrolytics.

[bobbyt]

Mar 9, 2011 12:04:47 GMT -5 lynxo said:

I'm leaving my unit on for a week, hopefully that issue will disappear.

I'm also surprised there is no ventilation slots at all. the unit is completely enclosed. cannot be good for life of components

What's going to reduce the life of what components? Have you opened it up? It's mostly empty with nothing generating any real power. All ventilating would do is add dust.

As far as breaking in goes, I'm too impatient so I just whacked my XDA with a stick for a while hoping anything that needs to be broken would get broken.

It sounds great to me and I don't expect that to change.

[lynxo]

What's going to reduce the life of what components? Have you opened it up? It's mostly empty with nothing generating any real power. All ventilating would do is add dust.

As far as breaking in goes, I'm too impatient so I just whacked my XDA with a stick for a while hoping anything that needs to be broken would get broken.

It sounds great to me and I don't expect that to change.

HEAT! the regulators heat up and heat up surrounding components. there is no airflow to move hot air away from the components, it's all trapped in the chassis.

anyway, I'm not critical on this since the price for the XDA is fair.

if you have not built any audio equipment then you would not be familiar with break in of components.

[latency]

Mar 10, 2011 11:10:17 GMT -5 lynxo said:

What's going to reduce the life of what components? Have you opened it up? It's mostly empty with nothing generating any real power. All ventilating would do is add dust.

As far as breaking in goes, I'm too impatient so I just whacked my XDA with a stick for a while hoping anything that needs to be broken would get broken.

It sounds great to me and I don't expect that to change.

HEAT! the regulators heat up and heat up surrounding components. there is no airflow to move hot air away from the components, it's all trapped in the chassis.

anyway, I'm not critical on this since the price for the XDA is fair.

if you have not built any audio equipment then you would not be familiar with break in of components.

As previously mentioned, no ventilation means no dust. This is a good thing. My XDA-1 runs about 14 hours per day and it just barely gets warm, barely. If the chassis was made of plastic I might worry about heat, but it's made of metal, basically one huge heatsink to absorb any heat that is produced. Bottom line, don't worry so much unless you notice things getting hot to the touch! And hell, if it is getting hot then the metal chassis is doing its job pulling heat away from the chips! It's a solid state device, it'll last a long long time. You'll probably upgrade far before it ever starts crapping out. Just go enjoy your DAC man.

[jannick]

My XDA-1 was very harsh/sharp sounding in the start as well, to the point that I would get a headache every single time I listened to music. I ran it with the power-amp off for 1,5 week or so, which apparently changed the sound enough that the problem went away.

[12elfthfloor]

A week made a difference to mine.

[moodyman]

Sounds better after a week?? Or maybe you just got "use" to the sound.

[12elfthfloor]

I believe the former as I've been comparing to the same equipment since it arrived. But here's the rub, I've always had trouble with this whole breakin thing as im not a believer.

Damn this hobby! :-)