New DAC issues

Thanks for the responses. I will be giving the unit some more time as I am familiar with longer break in times as my Coda amp took a full week to sound decent. I will also be switching to the Innuos Zenith next week, and USB as opposed to SP/DIF, so perhaps there will be some change using the DAC's onboard clock. 

I have heard other DAC's in this line and I did speak with a couple dealers, however I did not specifically audition it. I had not planned on replacing my DAC just yet, but it was very high on my list when I came across it as a demo unit for an attractive price and decided after a few days to pick it up.

To be fair it does produce some very nice sound, but overall it just is not doing it for me, especially in the lower registers. Probably just not the DAC that I had hoped it was, and I will have to continue my search. 

@audphile1 was the same streaming device used with both the old and the new dacs. dac needs about 200hrs to break in. During this time it can evolve tonally but if the soundstage is only limited to the center image that’s unlikely to improve 

Yes. I literally removed the old DAC and using the same cables plugged the new one into the system. No other changes. I will be giving it some more time for sure. Part of my motivation here was to see if there are technical reasons that some DAC's do not play well with certain equipment.

Thanks for all the responses, many valid points here. @audphile1 You read my mind and I did try the stock cord, no difference. I agree that price is not a guaranteed indicator of performance, and I have always believed that the Gungnir punches above its cost class. 

Yesterday I received a new power cord that I had ordered and I installed in place of the stock cord on my preamp. In the process I disconnected the interconnects on the preamp side and reseated them. At the same time I moved the preamp output cables over to the other balanced out just to see if something had happened to channel one. Voile, I suddenly had a much fuller sound, with bass.

I spent this morning backing out changes, putting the stock cord back on the preamp, switching back to output one, still decent sound. The cables are all of decent quality, and I had checked that they were firmly seated several times. I cannot explain it. Just the universe deciding I need some egg on my face.

I appreciate all the responses, I put great stock in all the experience in this forum. I will continue the break in process, something I have experienced with other components, and I believe is real. Still not sure I will keep the DAC, time will tell, just glad to be over this issue. Introducing the Innuos next week, and USB, will be a whole new test. Breaking all the rules of limiting changes, but sometimes that is the way it happens.

And for the curious, the DAC is the Merason Reuss. I was hesitant to speak poorly of it since it is so new and this problem was so apparent. I felt it had to be something other than the product itself.

@ejr1953 I'm not sure if that helps, but I suspect that, when you get your digital setup to a certain point, cleaner AC power might make a significant difference.

Clean power is super important. I just moved into a new room and I now have two dedicated lines, one for the amp and one for a Furman Elite that handles everything else. Maybe a Puritan someday?

@gkelly Might I suggest a AES/EBU Cable for the Innuos to that sweet looking Merason DAC. 

An excellent suggestion, and I have an Acoustic Zen MC2 in my cable bin just waiting for the right streamer. Unfortunately the Innuos Zenith only supports USB, my new one is coming with a DH Labs USB cable, probably a good place to start. I have never used USB before, so I will be interested to hear it.

As for the Yggy, I have seriously considered just going up the Schiit chain, (sounds like something from Trailer Park Boys :-), but thought I would venture out and see what other vendors sound like. My favorite room at AXPONA this year featured Merason, and a friend has one, so it seemed like a good path. Soix and I have a side chat going on other things and he suggested a look at the LAIV DAC, quite intriguing.

I will say that I am relieved that things are now working, however I am not satisfied that I do not know what caused the change. My feeling is there is a bad connection either in the Merason or the Pass, nothing else makes sense. Gonna pop the lids and check it out today.

@adasdad Good comments. I recently owned an Aurender N10 and purposely used the SPDIF outputs because the designers included a very good OCXO clock, it sounded great. However, I could not deal with the Conductor software, and they recently made it clear that the N10 would never be Roon ready. We will see how good the USB interface is when I plug in the Innuos coming this week. As for Burr Brown, I don't have any experience with them before this, my Gungnir is ASIC based(I think) R2R. All I know is that I have heard the Merason's in a couple settings and they are quite natural, which is my goal. I am not a freak about high resolution, I want the sound to be real and not wear on me. It will take some time, on the order of months, to decide if I like the unit or not. At some point I will pops the Gungnir back in and assess the contrast.

@audphile1 Unfortunately, Innuos Zenith only offers USB. I think you have to get to the Statement to get SPDIF of any flavor. Makes me a little nervous having no options, and some really nice SPDIF cables, but it is a well reviewed unit and I expect it will be decent.

@stuartk  I will provide my thoughts on the Reuss after some time. Unlike other components, I am not sure I am a good judge of DAC's, I just don't have broad experience in that space. When I get to the point of plugging the Gungnir back in to the system and hearing contrast, I will be able to put some thoughts together.

Okay, big day yesterday! I said I was going to pop the lids on the preamp and the DAC and see if I could find anything amiss. I started with the Pass preamp and it took me about five seconds to discover the issue, a very incomplete solder joint, on Pin 1 of one of the balanced outputs. Like, you could not miss it when comparing it to others. I have only had the preamp for a month or so, and I suspect that the limited connection was holding on and functioning, probably at a reduced level, during that time. When introducing the new DAC, it is my guess that I jarred the solder connection loose and it was now functioning simply by pressing against the pin. Pulling and reseating cables must have improved this, hence the better sound I heard the other night.

Being handy enough with a soldering iron, I fixed the connection. Wow! Everything is back and big! It makes me feel better that I was not imagining this after all. I only had 60/40 solder available, I hope that will be sufficient for a rather critical connection, I am not sure what Pass uses. Makes me wonder if I should have them look the whole thing over.

Thanks for all the comments. This was not quite the journey I expected when adding a new DAC, but really glad I got it resolved. On to listening...

Minor update, the Merason Reuss is integrating very nicely with the Innuos Zenith. I will be listening for some time to get my impressions and then swap the Gungnir back into the system to see what I think. I shall report more at that time.

@rikkipuu Very interesting! I took a quick look at the UltraRendu, it seems there are multiple modes that are supported to interface with the streamer, how did you configure your Innuos to work with the Rendu? Roon? Can you use the native Sense app? 

@audioman58 I did end up with a Merason, and it was a clear upgrade from the Gungnir. I also had the chance to try an Yggy, the Reuss beat that as well. Very musical.