oh boy.....after reading all these (positive) review I am getting more and more frustrated every day that my buffalo32s still hasn't arrived. The package is still stuck/missing somewhere in the customs procedure..............
Scanspeakman
Scanspeakman
I live in Switzerland, and my 32s arrived over a week ago. And yes, there was a customs charge, but this didn't delay it in a any way.
Kurt
Kurt
brgds said:
I meant burn in time of course
I've switched from batteries to regulators (based on 317/337) and must say that now the sound is even worse
Okey, I forgot to connect analog and digital grounds, that helped a bit as for upper band, but overal sound is still dull and flat...
That's strange, since I had listened to BUF (based on 32S I guess) few months ago and my feelings were very, very positive then.
brgds said:
I meant burn in time of course
I've switched from batteries to regulators (based on 317/337) and must say that now the sound is even worse
Okey, I forgot to connect analog and digital grounds, that helped a bit as for upper band, but overal sound is still dull and flat...
That's strange, since I had listened to BUF (based on 32S I guess) few months ago and my feelings were very, very positive then.
Mine has not changed much after the first days.
Imo, either
a) there is still something broken or
b) you are feeding it with overly compressed contemporary music that sounds flat
c) The synergy between B32s and your other hardware
d) you just don't like it .
Solutions:
a) Contact Russ and Brian
b) Try some other kind of music around -4db replay gain
c) Try it with some other equipment
d) Try to swap it to some other DAC. If its a working unit, i am sure there are people who'd like to have one.
The 1st B32s's were shipped less than a month ago. I wonder if it was Buffalo 1.0 what you heard.
>The 1st B32s's were shipped less than a month ago. I wonder if it >was Buffalo 1.0 what you heard.
The one I listened to was that one owned by Lukasz Fikus: http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/Buffalo DAC/BuffaloDAC.html
and nothing changed in my system since then, so no hardware and also soft related issues here.
The one I listened to was that one owned by Lukasz Fikus: http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/Buffalo DAC/BuffaloDAC.html
and nothing changed in my system since then, so no hardware and also soft related issues here.
brgds said:
Lukasz has (of had) a different dac. The dac he showed on his site is the original buffalo board designed for the ess 9008 but with the 9018 chip installed. That board has no I/V onboard. That is probably why it sounds different; the buffalo32s has the IVY II onboard and Lukasz used the modified board with his own tube based I/V.
Scanspeakman
You are right, different output stage... And the sound should be different... But why it's so compressed and not involving at all?
brgds said:
Quite simply because designing a great output stage is not as simple as it may seem.
There alaso may be other factors at work, in any case what you heard was not a Buffalo32S. 🙂 Nor was it even a Buffalo configured per our recommendations.
Cheers!
Russ
brgds,
I am completely puzzled by that, because that's quite the opposite response from everyone I personally know. 🙂
Sorry if I can't be much more help. I suspect there is something else at work.
Cheers!
Russ
I am completely puzzled by that, because that's quite the opposite response from everyone I personally know. 🙂
Sorry if I can't be much more help. I suspect there is something else at work.
Cheers!
Russ
Can someone with an electronics/physics background explain to me (or point me in the right direction to) the science behind 'burn-in' please.
Also, does it make a difference whether the input is I2S or SPDIF and if so, why?
Also, does it make a difference whether the input is I2S or SPDIF and if so, why?
Seriously guys, I found the regulation for the Buffalo32s to have a big influence on sound (mainly for the IVYII stage, everything I tried lm317/337 based sucked imho
TBH I still think this dull sound some people are experiencing is partly down to those SVP polymer caps
TBH I still think this dull sound some people are experiencing is partly down to those SVP polymer caps
Sounds like a good experiment, as I have a Sigma11 and Sigma22 I could try out and see if I notice anything different (caveat, I have a non-golden ear, FWIW I think the TP PSU's work really well as I used them on some other stuff with good results)
I agree, tricky question. Burn-in is extensively used in military, space and medical electronics to catch early defects of components, not because the characteristics or performance of the system or its components has to settle in. It would be entirely unacceptable if such electronics would have to be switched on for days before it would perform to the fullest. Burn-in for reliabilty reasons (weeding out infant mortality) has been thoroughly investigated and is well documented. Burning in cables? No science behind that one.
You could check that out by using an external SPDIF to I2S converter and then feeding the Buffalo with the I2S signal. If you are feeding the Sabre chip directly with SPFIF, it uses its built-in converter. Since the two converters are in all probability not identical, it is entirely possible that you will hear some difference how they sound. I will try this in the near future, but It would be interesting to hear feedback from someone who compared this already.
As far as the LM317/337 is concerned, don't dismiss it too early. You should really read the thread "Another look at the LM317 and LM337 regulators" in the Power Suppy Design section of this forum. These guys did an outstanding job in analyzing these regulators, all stuff you can't find in the data sheet. And they come up with interesting suggestions. Read for yourself what sonic improvement they found. In addition you could potentially use some sense inputs on the LCDPS, it would mean a redesign of the board layout though.
Have you tried to replace these polymer caps? Which caps would that be?
Kurt
Kurt, why try polishing coal to make flawed diamonds (with great difficulty) when you can buy zirconium cheaper? If anything the LM317 has been shown to be a worse regulator than was previously thought. Why not go for a better reg? It has been shown to be beneficial in almost all cases to replace these LM317 based boards
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