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New Luxman DA-06 doesnt sound so great. Will it get better?

Hi, I recently received a Luxman DA-06 dac (new, gray market Japan import) and it the sound doesnt seem to have any life.  It sounds a bit dull, uninvolving, and just low fidelity.  The best way can explain it is that it sounds like when a phono cartridge has a bad impedance mismatch with a preamp or if the signal gain is too high and it is clipping .  The unit only has less than 15 hours on it.  I wanted to know if this is normal and it would clear itself up or I have received a bad unit.  I have tried it in 2 different systems and it sounds the same. I have tried both outputs, balanced and unbalanced.  I have read this dac requires 100s of hours break in time and I hope the sound improves.  Anyone has any experience with this and could share their thoughts?  I would greatly appreciate it.  
audioman2015
paul79
174 posts
 
You can’t compare the power grid setup to what you have there. It is all about having low impedance power delivery for digital gear IME, so that transformer really cannot help things.... You need fast current delivery for these high speed digital devices.
audioman2015 OP
103 posts
 
Thats why all those caps are there for.  I completely agree that digital devices need very high speed instantaneous current delivery.  With the small power draw of the dac, I bet that those big luxman caps are never completely drained.  

I just did a compairson with my old Onkyo  C-S5vl player.  The Luxman sounds a bit better after about 20 hours of use when I compare it to the Onkyo (which sounds low end to my other dacs).  Im also using this Onkyo to loop a cd continously.  The Luxman still isnt anywhere near the level of what it should produce however.  
gs5556
1,236 posts
 
(Please don't take this as an insult but check to make sure the tag behind the power receptacle says 100V and not 120V. If it's an import they may have changed the xfmr)

The easiest way to see if there are problems with the unit is to check the voltage at each RCA output to make sure there is 2.5 Vrms.  

If the output voltage is correct then leave it powered on for at least 72 hours and then run a disc on repeat for 8 hours or so with the RCA outputs loaded to a preamp (off or on doesn't matter). What you hear after that should be very close to what the unit will sound like.
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
3,159 posts
 
I missed the note about the step down transformer.  Not a good idea...also, don't assume you understand what's going on in the audio chain.  There is still some things that remain unquantifiable!
casaross
50 posts
 
I have heard a Luxman DA-06  from an authorized dealer in the US so its voltage was set to the US 115v standard. Using the DA-06 out of a Macbook Pro computer up sampling to DSD using JRiver Media 21, the DA-06 has different digital filter settings that may have an effect upon sound. My advice: You may achieve better results depending upon the digital signal sent from your computer which may be impacted by the cable (I heard a USB) and the filters. Maybe the step down converter has a deleterious effect that none of these factors may overcome but with the US version, the DA-06 produces a great result. Try different filter settings, cables, high resolution PCM and conversion to DSD before you give up. You may get a great result if you can try these things.

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