2. digital
  3. 1008208555

breaking in a dac

well, i've finally done it. i bought a boulder 1012, after to listening to my dealer's demo off-and-on for several months. so, my questions (yes, i’ve searched--found nothing on point): (1) does a standalone dac benefit from break-in? (2) if, as i suspect, the answer to #1 is "yes," how best does one do this without scaring the dogs or the neighbors (i.e., do i need to power up my amp and speakers to normal listening levels)? (3) if i need a resistive load, can i jury-rig a device (all inputs and outputs are xlr)? TIA -cfb

BTW, for those sometimes mystified by internet-speak abbreviations, here's a great website primer:

http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/chat.html
cornfedboy

Showing 3 responses by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
"regulator interconnect" should've read "regular interconnect". Sorry if you followed my directions and you blew something up : )

I forgot to mention congrat's to you Kelly. Hope you enjoy your new "gadget" and it does everything that you think it should. Now if it could only pay your bills, do your lawn, etc.. : ) Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
All components will "settle in" somewhat. The more signal that they pass, the faster that would occur. Since a DAC isn't passing much signal at all, you can speed up the process by simply rigging up a dummy load using the appropriate value resistors and a cheap XLR connector. Feed it a signal when your not using and simply swap the regulator interconnect into place for normal use. Like anything else though, my advice is to play it as often as possible : ) Sean
sean
6,231 posts
 
Yeah Kelly, PLEASE do keep us posted on that. I'm with Bob on his thoughts as we've both seen / measured drift in digital gear as it goes from cold to fully stable. This is besides the fact that most of us think analogue sounds best after a day or two also. I'd be curious as to how they get around this or what their thoughts are. Then again, if you don't like what they have to say, you could always send it over here. Bob and i are close enough that we could take turns sharing it : ) Sean
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