2. digital
  3. 1008208555

breaking in a dac

well, i've finally done it. i bought a boulder 1012, after to listening to my dealer's demo off-and-on for several months. so, my questions (yes, i’ve searched--found nothing on point): (1) does a standalone dac benefit from break-in? (2) if, as i suspect, the answer to #1 is "yes," how best does one do this without scaring the dogs or the neighbors (i.e., do i need to power up my amp and speakers to normal listening levels)? (3) if i need a resistive load, can i jury-rig a device (all inputs and outputs are xlr)? TIA -cfb

BTW, for those sometimes mystified by internet-speak abbreviations, here's a great website primer:

http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/chat.html
cornfedboy
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Jings and I always thought he was a lawyer..........
:-)

Ben
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
I realized that I messed up a bit on my last post. I just checked the Boulder website (still drooling :-) here) & confirmed my suspicions that the 1012 is a DAC / pre combo, so my statement that "the preamp doesn't have to be powered on" is obviously wrong in this case (would apply correctly to a standalone DAC with separate pre).
So now Kelly, you'll also need to breakin the analog stage, the line stage, & the aes inputs. I believe that the phono board will terminate it's input regardless of input selector switch position, so that could likely be run simultaneously while the digital input is also cooking. Regarding your analog tuner & aes inputs, I wonder if those input stages terminate only when those switch positions are selected? Call Boulder to find out & if it does terminate then you can also breakin those simultaneously; if not, then obviously they will have to be done separately at a later time.
I hope this all makes sense; frankly I'm not accustomed to dealing with hardware at this performance level, but it's still nice to share a bit in your fun. Please do let us know how it all sounds; I'm sure that it'll be a real treat!
dan2112
144 posts
 
Way to ge Kelly! Finally took the plunge. :-) Congratulations.
cornfedboy OP
1,645 posts
 
bob: one of many really neat things the 1012 does is to power OFF the digital section power supply and transformer when the analog section power supply and transformer is powered ON (the line stage, obviously, is always on). so, yeah, you're right about my needing to separately break in the digital and phono stage sections of this piece. FWIW, there's an excellent review of the 1012 in the 12/01 issue of s'phile (don't agree with mr. scull's views on the dcs gear but, hey, it's all subjective, eh).

dan: thanx. now if i can just figure out how to arrange a "permanent loan" of a couple of a-50v's, i'll be closer to nirvana.

-cfb
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
That's a slick design but still makes me wonder...
Say you've been playing the phono awhile tonight, & now you want to switch to the CD. The whole digital section is stone cold; how is that going to sound optimum until after about 24 hours or so when the semiconductors attain thermal stabilization?
I'm sure they have this all figured out, but I know my SS isn't at its best until a day or so after power on. I don't know how they get around this problem - apparently it's not an issue.
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