Luxman DA-06 Dac...anyone?

I had the same problem with the Elias DSD file and the Holly Cole Temptation file. At first I thought it was the new DSD software running the Aurender, but I checked with Aurender and they haven't had such problems. The Michael Jackson Thriller wouldn't download, so they reset it for me. I grabbed it this morning and will see how that is. The boards online have discussions of this popping sound. People are assuming that it's the software like JRiver but my dealer and I think it's the DSD files.

Your Krell is a great piece of equipment. I almost went with Krell. I'm going to check out the Synergistic fuses for my preamp.

I've tried a number of power cords with Luxman. I settled on a Furutech F1. I'm going to try the new MIT Style Line USB today. That will replace a Cardas USB. I'll let you know how it goes.

I got new DSD files from HiRez but they never responded to my email about the transient noise before some of the tracks on the Holly Cole Temptation on the David Elias. My Santana from them is fine. And so is the Michael Jackson Thriller. At first I thought it might be the Aurender, so I sent the files to a tech engineer at Aurender, and he tried them with an MSB Platinum IV DAC and even the bad files were ok. That's puzzling. Did you get a response from HiRez, the Acoustics Sound site?

There are discussions in the internet boars about these transient sounds. People using JRiver on computers have had problems and as far as I can see, no one yet has a fix. It could be the software, the files, or a combination of both, or a computer science guy here at the university, said that it could even be the download picking up stuff at the front end of the stream. Wish I had a better answer. Did you get anywhere with this problem of these transient sounds?

Audioman,

I got this answer from Hi-Rez about the DSD tracks popping transient noise before certain tracks play. Do you think it is the Luxman software? I know you had similar issues with one of their downloads.

We have thoroughly tested the Holly Cole and David Elias DSD files and cannot duplicate the pop/transient that you mention. We have had some other reports of various DSD files having transients upon playback from some of our other customers using the Luxman DA-06 DAC although the files have all tested out ok. We are aware that DSD playback is a brand new upgrade that was just made available to the DA-06. We highly recommend that you contact Luxman to report this issue as it appears to be the DAC at fault. They may need to research and push out a new firmware upgrade to resolve the issue. Additionally you may want to check with Aurender regarding DSD output from this unit. Looking at their webpage they only mention support for DSD playback over USB.

After hearing from the Hi-Rez people that their files tested ok, I took the Aurender server out of the system and put my MacBook Pro in running Audirvana. All of the files and tracks that were problems with transient noises are good, no noise, running the DA-06 with the computer. My problem is with the either the compatibility of the Aurender and the DA-06 or the DSD software on the Aurender. I'm in touch with a guy from Aurender in S. Korea and will see if you can remotely reload the software. I'll let you know what happens.

So if anyone is interested, we figured out what's up with the popping. It's the USB handshake between the Aurender and the Luxman. The Aurender streams DSD with AES, COAX, and USB but apparently the USB handshake isn't what it should be yet. Aurender just released its DSD upgrade about a week ago, so it's brand new, and it does stream DSD wirelessly from my Mac. The SW engineers at Aurender are building a beta fix. From reading the boards, the people running JRiver on computers (and other SW but not Audivarna) are having or had similar problems. JRiver, according to posts on the boards, has a SW fix.