[rklein]

Hi All:

I PM'd Occam(Paul) about my problem and he made some suggestions but he also suggested I post it here.

Below is a Private Message sent to a fellow AC'er who recommended a Scott Nixon Tubedac+ which I purchased about 6-8 months ago.

"I received my Scott Nixon Tubedac+ and my Stereovox Digital Cable yesterday.  Before I went to my office this morning, I thought I would hook things up just to get a taste of things to come.  I connected the digital cable between the DVD Player and the Tubedac.  I connected my IC's between the tubedac and my Odyssey Etesian Passive Pre.  I connected the upgraded power supply to the tubedac along with the power cord to an wall outlet.  I pop in Dianna Krall and the sound is terrible    I then switch out the digital cable and use another and the result is the same.  Tell me, does the tube in the DAC have to warm up for a period of time?  I wonder if my passive pre is causing an issue?  I have contacted the seller(a fellow AC member) who by the way packed it up beautifully so I don't think there was any damage in transit.  The tube lights up when on so I am assuming that is ok also.  Any insight you could give me would certainly be welcome at this point."

Paul--  During this long and drawn out process, I thought the cheap Onkyo DVD player I was using as the transport was the problem(jitter?)  Well, I replaced the Onkyo with a Sony S-7700 with the same outcome of crappy sound   I also tried reversing the speaker connections as the tubedac has the "reverse phase" with no improvement.  I also tried different tubes to no avail.  I finally gave up and sold the tubedac+ on A'gon.  The buyer never called me back to complain so I suspect that the tubedac+ is working great in his system .

This brings me now to the Zhalou 2.0.  I plugged it into my system and
the outcome was the same shitty sound I encountered with the tubedac+!!!  At this point, I know it is not the DAC or the transport or the digital cable or my I.C.'s.  Do you think it could be my Odyssey Etesian passive pre?  The only two constants in both trials have been the Odyssey Etesian passive pre and the Odyssey Khartago Amp.  Again, everything works great without the outboard DAC.  The problems occur when I employ the outboard dac in my system.  Any words of wisdom you might have would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Randy

[hum4god]

hi
do you know what the output impedance of the SN DAC was ? and the Zhaolu?

i have a Django passive pre and i know that it has a low input impedance and works best with low output impedance from the dac.
i will  get a burson buffer tomorrow and check if it will make a difference.
there is an interesting review on tnt audio.
i am using an audiosector nonos dac with a passive output stage and after i switched from an active preamp to the passive django the sound became dull.i knew that the AS DAC needs a high input impedance to sound good and i am sure that the buffer will provide that.

regards
malcolm

[Jon L]

It would help to know what you mean by "shitty sound." 

Is the treble too dull or too bright?  Is bass bloated or rolled off? 

Is it too grainy or too liquid/boring? 

Are the images too diffuse or too focused.  Phasy sound? 

[boead]

I’ve always had my suspicions about Edison! I bet he’s a commie.

Lon, add light bulbs to that list too.


The Scott Nixon Output impedance is 100 ohms and signal output is 1.75 volts.

I have a Scott Nixon USBTD with the 3xac power supply into a Van Alstine T7 preamp and the sound is superb. It outperforms my Denon 2900 SACD player and favors well against my much more expensive Arcam FMJ.

Did you call Scott?

Did you contact Odyssey?


The guy I bought my Scott Nixon From (it was only 3 weeks old!) sold it because... ??? – about a month or so later he sends me an email saying how sorry he was in selling it after he bought and sold DAC’s costing many times more and admitted that the SN was the best sounding (most musical) DAC he’d heard so far.

[rklein]

hi
do you know what the output impedance of the SN DAC was ? and the Zhaolu?

Hi Malcom: 
Thanks for responding.  I looked on Scott Nixon's website and couldn't find the specs I was looking for.  There was a post on Audio Asylum that stated that the output impedance for the tubedac+ is 100kohms and that the output voltage is 1.75v.  I can't find the output impedance on the Zhaolu.  The output voltage is 2v.

It would help to know what you mean by "shitty sound." 
Is the treble too dull or too bright?  Is bass bloated or rolled off? 
Is it too grainy or too liquid/boring? 
Are the images too diffuse or too focused.  Phasy sound? 

Hi Jon:  Thanks for responding.  The sound is VERY grainy in the treble and the bass is VERY bloated.

I have a Scott Nixon USBTD with the 3xac power supply into a Van Alstine T7 preamp and the sound is superb. It outperforms my Denon 2900 SACD player and favors well against my much more expensive Arcam FMJ.

Did you call Scott?

Did you contact Odyssey?

The guy I bought my Scott Nixon From (it was only 3 weeks old!) sold it because... ??? – about a month or so later he sends me an email saying how sorry he was in selling it after he bought and sold DAC’s costing many times more and admitted that the SN was the best sounding (most musical) DAC he’d heard so far.

Hi Boead:  Thanks for responding.  I did contact Scott Nixon and he advised that I send the unit back to him.  Nothing wrong with the DAC(as I suspected).  I recently left a voice mail for Klaus at Odyssey to give me a call as well.  I am convinced at this point that there is nothing wrong with either DAC.  Now that I am going down this road a 2nd time with the same disappointing results, I am committed to finding out just what the hell the problem is.

thanks,
Randy

[rklein]

One other bit of useful information...   When the Zhaolu is plugged into the system, I can hear a CD playing(low volume) even though the volume knob on the Etesian pre is turned all the way down.

Thanks,
rklein

[Occam]

Which of the 3 pairs of rca sockets are you connecting the Zhaolu are you connecting to the passive pre from? Looking from the backside, it should be the rightmost. If its the center of the 3 pairs, you're taking your signal from the headphone/preamp output and if the volume knob is turned all the way up, it could be breaking through your passive.
Although the pre output IMO isn't all that good, try taking the output from there directly to your amp, bypassing your pre, using the Zhaolu's volume knob, and see if you're getting that same distorted sound.

[rklein]

Which of the 3 pairs of rca sockets are you connecting the Zhaolu are you connecting to the passive pre from? Looking from the backside, it should be the rightmost.

Paul:

I have the I.C.'s connected in the rca sockets farthest to the right as you look at the back of the DAC.  I will try using the pre function of the dac as this will take the Odyssey Etesian pre out of the mix.

Thanks,

Randy

[rklein]

Although the pre output IMO isn't all that good, try taking the output from there directly to your amp, bypassing your pre, using the Zhaolu's volume knob, and see if you're getting that same distorted sound.

Paul:  THANK YOU!!!  When I bypassed the Odyssey Etesian passive and just used the pre out of the Zhaolu, the sound cleared right up.  I am not sure why the Etesian pre didn't like SN tubedac+ or now the Zhaolu but I do have a call into Klaus on this issue.  This probably will spur me to go purchase a tube pre with a phono section(as well as HT bypass) as I also want to start listening to the 1000+ records that I've basically had in storage the last 16 years.

Thanks to all who responded to my thread with a special thanks to Occam(Paul)

rklein
Randy

[rklein]

Just a quick follow-up...  I did call Klaus at Odyssey about the Etesian pre and the long and short of all of this is that I will keep my Etesian until he makes me a Tempest at a VERY nice price since he is going to credit my Etesian towards the new purchase .  As most of you know the phono pre of the Tempest is supposed to be quite good so I will also look forward to getting back to spinning some vinyl.

rklein

[windwaves]

I’ve always had my suspicions about Edison! I bet he’s a commie.

Lon, add light bulbs to that list too.


The Scott Nixon Output impedance is 100 ohms and signal output is 1.75 volts.

I have a Scott Nixon USBTD with the 3xac power supply into a Van Alstine T7 preamp and the sound is superb. It outperforms my Denon 2900 SACD player and favors well against my much more expensive Arcam FMJ.

Did you call Scott?

Did you contact Odyssey?


The guy I bought my Scott Nixon From (it was only 3 weeks old!) sold it because... ??? – about a month or so later he sends me an email saying how sorry he was in selling it after he bought and sold DAC’s costing many times more and admitted that the SN was the best sounding (most musical) DAC he’d heard so far.

and that guy would be me !  and my opinion has not changed a bit