Andy_H
Behind the Wall of Sleep
I just bought (used) a Xiang Sheng Tube DAC-01A. This is basically the same design as the Grant Fidelity Tube DAC 09 and the Maverick Tube Magic DAC as far as I know. I've been playing with it a bit, trying all the inputs and functions and it's not working 100% right. Sound through all sources/inputs (digital coax or Toslink, analog in via CDP) is imbalanced with the right channel noticeably louder than the left. If I swap the output cables this reverses (left channel louder than right). This is the same on the tube and ss outputs. The headphone output is fine though.
The seller tells me he was using it right up until he sent it to me and it was working fine, and I believe him. Although it did not show any evidence of shipping damage, my first guess is that something got shaken loose in transit and the trouble is an intermittent connection somewhere. It appears to me that the trouble must be in the output section and not the DAC or pre as the headphone out is OK. And the sound quality overall is good, just off balance volume-wise.
I pulled the board and looked for loose wires or bad solder joints. Nothing obvious immediately jumped out at me. I did read that there can be some kind of hiccup in the circuit that mutes output when you plug in headphones and that plugging and unplugging the phones a couple times may clear it up. I will try that in a bit here. If that doesn't help, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions of what to do? Thanks in advance.
The seller tells me he was using it right up until he sent it to me and it was working fine, and I believe him. Although it did not show any evidence of shipping damage, my first guess is that something got shaken loose in transit and the trouble is an intermittent connection somewhere. It appears to me that the trouble must be in the output section and not the DAC or pre as the headphone out is OK. And the sound quality overall is good, just off balance volume-wise.
I pulled the board and looked for loose wires or bad solder joints. Nothing obvious immediately jumped out at me. I did read that there can be some kind of hiccup in the circuit that mutes output when you plug in headphones and that plugging and unplugging the phones a couple times may clear it up. I will try that in a bit here. If that doesn't help, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions of what to do? Thanks in advance.