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Sanlitun

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  1. I'm pretty upset about the lack of an upgrade path for the Brooklyn, even a paid one. Where I am the Brooklyn costs almost $3000 and is roughly the same price as the Yggdrasil, which was my other choice. If I had bought the Yggdrasil I would have an upgrade path and most of my resale value intact. Lesson learned about Mytek and their products.
  2. With the HD800S I am generally running at no more than -44 or so which is plenty for me. I guess when looking at the volume display this is around 2 o' clock. With the Elears I listen at -53 which is about noon on the display. Depending on the levels of the music sometimes these settings are even too loud for me. RE the jumpers: When I compared having them in or out it was clear from the volume display that it was about a 6 db difference through single ended headphones. The difference in sound levels is really obvious, and I can't imagine why anyone at 6Moons or Mytek would say differently. Unless there has been a change to how the jumpers work. My Brooklyn is pretty new manufactured May 2017. The big issue I found with the jumpers was not the level change but rather a sound quality change. It's just not as good with the jumpers in. From looking at the board it seems they may add resistors to the signal path but I really don't know.
  3. This was one of the first things I had tested out when I got my Brooklyn. I had put in the jumpers the first day when I found the DAC output was too hot for most of the headphone amps I am using. I don't know why they say otherwise at 6Moons, maybe their revision was different then mine. It seems that they are on some rare drugs indeed over there, the Brooklyn review is not even dated. I use the analogue volume for the onboard headphone jack, seems to sound better. I did try the balanced connector but I felt is sounded worse than going single ended. It looks like a lot of solder and plugs in the signal path so I am not surprised. It does give you more power, but with the headphones I use power is not an issue. My chain as of now is PC to Schiit Eitr and then SPDIF into the Brooklyn and Focal Elear. Using either the HD800S or the Elear I find this to be the best and most enjoyable sound I have achieved at home.
  4. Yes it does lower the headphone gain. I felt the jumpers changed the sound quality as well. I gave up on the idea of using the Brooklyn as DAC component, in that role there is nothing special about it. I use it as an all-in-one with Focal's and it sounds fantastic. Better than most of the DAC and amplifier seperates I have heard.
  5. Is anyone else having trouble with getting a lock with 192 over an optical connection from a Mac Pro? I tried a couple of different cables and players but have the same issue with Optical.
  6. I as well had thought it was sounding better to my ears. No idea why.
  7. The much needed ability to disable USB HID volume now in 2.35. I feel there has been some improvement to the headphone out sound over the past few firmware releases.
  8. i was wondering if anyone who is using the balanced adapter could characterize if there are any advantages to sound quality while using it?
  9. But is this why the volume now pops to 100% if you have Force Volume on Tidal set? I wasn't using this version yet as it was not clear where the volume was being attenuated, on the Brooklyn or in Tidal.
  10. I thought this was related to the problem I was having but I could not find those settings under 2.34. Rolled back to 2.32 and it is fixed, and then tried 2.34 again and I had the same problem with the volume. Back on 2.32 for now.
  11. Anyone have any trouble with the new firmware 2.34? After installing this I am finding my volume will jump all the way full up when playback starts if I am using the Force Volume setting on Tidal or Jriver.
  12. I've had one of these for about a week now and it has certainly been a struggle to get acceptable sound out of it. By far the biggest issue is how hot the output is. I had planned to run it as a DAC only into a Questyle CMA-800R headphone amp but even with the jumpers set it is far too peaky and shouty. There is almost no play in the volume at all past perhaps 3mm from the the bottom. I have also tried it single ended into the Bakoon and it is the same result. It is certainly much hotter than the X-Sabre which is legendary for having a high output voltage. I have tried some experiments with lowering the digital volume control but I can't say it sounds better, and by this method of changing volume you are possibly no longer end to end bit perfect. So as it stands now the only way for me to use it for headphones is via the built in headphone out. I'm currently running that in a bit and seeing if I could perhaps live with it. But it does sound a bit constricted compared to the better external amps. The other thing is that there is a lot of crackling, popping and other background noise on this thing. As it is now I feel it is coming from the USB implementation which is evidently not isolated. On other DACs such as the NAD M51 or the X-Sabre the USB is completely isolated and you can actually tape over the power connects or use only the data leads of a double headed USB cable. This is the first DAC I have used that is not isolated, and I cannot tell if it is using the 5v or not from the USB. So far the best sound I have had from it is with using the IFI Gemini cable with the data lead going to the computer and the power lead going to a battery. Another thing is that it doesn't seem to work with the new Windows 10 USB 2 driver. This is a bit of a disappointment as I was finding that this new Windows driver was sounding better than the repackaged XMOS drivers that are generally used. Soooo lots to consider with this thing particularly with the expense.
  13. The question in my mind is if my DAC in particular is using USB power to some degree in its XMOS receiver if it is available on the connection, and reverting to internal power if it is not. I have a hard time believing that the differences I hear when taping pin 1 are solely due to the lack of the 5v current in the wire. Now that I am getting better at taping over the contacts I am today trying it out on some of my better cables. I tried it on the Oyaide Continental and the results are really very nice. It's the same sort of effect I get from using just the data leg of the Gemini, but it keeps the positive characteristics of the Oyaide. I think I am going to keep this in my system for a while now.
  14. I tried it both ways and I did feel that taping only pin 1 yielded the best results with the blackest background.
  15. I was curious about something in regards to cables that have the the 5v contact taped. Is it possible that some XMOS implementations will default to use the USB 5v if it is available, and if it is not then use their own internal power? I have been using the data lead of the IFI Gemini cable on my NAD M51 and leaving the power lead disconnected and so far this has provided the best sound out of the cables I have tried. Today I taped over the 5v on a Wireworld Starlight 7 that I had previously disregarded and it sounds quite a bit better and I am finding that there is a characteristic sound difference in my setup with cables that do not have 5v as opposed to those that do. It would be nice to have an explanation for this other than placebo or psychosis etc.
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