A big ego soon

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
edited July 2015 in Going Digital
Went ahead and ordered Emotiva's new
32 BIT/384K USB Digital to Analog Converter
"Big Ego" DAC :)
fell into some money and thought why not while they are
on sale? The wife should be pleased as I'll do more headphone
listening. (at least that is the plan)
Here is the manual for anyone interested;
https://emotiva.com/resources/manuals/BigEgo_manual_07.pdf
Post edited by [Deleted User] on

Comments

  • msg
    msg Posts: 9,306
    edited July 2015
    nice! what will you be feeding into it? something across that Black Cat Veloce, I imagine?!?
    I disabled signatures.
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    Boy did I misinterpret this thread based on the title -- my knee-jerk response would've been "heck, I've had a big ego for years, decades even!"

    :- )
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    How are my Altecs holding up BTW?
  • decal
    decal Posts: 3,205
    Ego is a muscle, just add fame and watch it swell.....Warren Haynes
    If you can't hear a difference, don't waste your money.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    My big ego is set up in the mancave.
    Setup on my old iMac was easy.
    Setup goes;
    iMac to long usb cord I got somewhere
    to the big ego
    optical out to the Denon AVR for starters.
    Chose Wishbone Ash Argus as the first files.
    Hmm, getting the occasional dropout. :/
    Otherwise sounds good. :)
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Stalled for tonight. Need to work w/ a newer mac or ipad/iphone
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    I bought the $9.99 bit perfect plug in today and
    my first download from HDtracks. I chose
    Led Zeppelin II as it was the first LP I bought for myself. :)
    Played it thru the Ego symmetrically up sampled to 384K
    As hoped it blew the built in 88k away.
    This is just a toy for me, but a fun one! :D
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    You should use the analog outs to the Denon, pure direct mode. Digital still has the Denon doing the conversion.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    edited July 2015
    Thanks Tony. I did figure out to try pure direct, but still some dropouts.
    The fun yesterday was on the work MacBook Pro to Grado headphones
    so I could hear some difference :#
    The up-sampling wasn't perfect all the time, but still great.
    If anyone would like to suggest some 32 bit and/or
    > 96k downloads to try, that would also be great!

    My Ego came w/ a felt pouch but I re-purposed two old Telex
    zipper pouches for it and the headphones. Flash upgrades at
    parties :D
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    Red, it's really a USB dac, so I'd imagine the best performance will be by using that output. Using the digital output makes it one big upsampler, that's it. Using the analog outputs allows you to take advantage of the Ego's dac and forgo the Denons.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Thanks again tonyb!
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    so next up;
    I hooked up the Ego to the Bellari VP130.
    Fail. W/Out the grounding from the turntable,
    I got hum city. This game will have to be postponed.
    :/
  • voltz
    voltz Posts: 5,384
    so next up;
    I hooked up the Ego to the Bellari VP130.
    Fail. W/Out the grounding from the turntable,
    I got hum city. This game will have to be postponed.
    :/

    Ok Red ...don't make me smack you up side the head :) your hooking up a analog signal to a DAC? your just trying to have to much fun with theat thing aren't ya ;)
    2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge

    HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Kind of;
    Computers USB to the Ego
    Ego's analog line out (it has this and a headphone jack as well) to the VP130
    VP130's headphone jack out. The headphone jack works fine as long
    as the ground to the TT is there.
  • voltz
    voltz Posts: 5,384
    edited July 2015
    ahh I forgot its a headphone amp also ..my bad :) forgive me LOL yes the Ego and all dac have a analog out that you send to the preamp or headphone amp ...I'll smack myself over the head :p
    2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge

    HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    edited July 2015
    undaunted, our fearless audiopile hooks up the
    analog out of his Big Ego to the Denon and fires up
    his only hi-res files. Fiddling with the digital filters
    and the default settings on the Mac he is ready to rock.
    Les Paul slung low he is duck walking across the mancave!
    Then, it happened.
    The wife showed up. :/

    Fiddling some more I realized I had bitperfect upsampling to 88.2 khz.
    Set it to "Do Not Upsample" as to let the Ego his job. Listening to
    Steely Dan. Nice.
    Post edited by [Deleted User] on
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Spent a lot of time with different music using the line out tonight
    and it has a nice full sound to it. The Denon is the only amp in the
    cave right now so there is that. You can set the digital filters on
    the fly.
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    Do you have the Denon set to direct bypass or equivalent ? Try turning the upsample on with the same songs and get a feel for what it does. You may like it, maybe not too, either way you'll gain some preferences.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Good suggestion. Turning off upsampling on the puredirect software seems to have fixed the dropout problem. I've been listening for an hour w/out one. When it his
    a hi-rez file the input on the Ego changes to the correct rate as hoped. When set up
    this way, I don't seem to be able to select a filter. So it is just get it above the 88k sample rate?

    Set it to pure direct from direct on the Denon just to play...
    I'm just about out if time.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    Downloaded Supertramp 'Crime of the Century' (remastered) today and I'm listening
    to it now (lunch). I wanted to try out 24/192 files. I can only compare it to vinyl and memory but this sounds nice :D