First Time SQ Issue

I encountered an unusual issue today. Not sure if anyone else has come across this in the past. I noticed that my system, just didn’t sound right today. The soundstage sounded out of whack I tried several different tracks and nothing sounded great and some just terrible. At some point I decided to switch the Vivaldi Upsampler from DSD2 back to DXD and voila’ everything was right again. I then went back to DSD2 and the sound was back to normal there too. Very odd.

In trying to figure out what could have caused the poor SQ that was eliminated by changed rates I can only guess that a “popping” sound that occurred when I recently engaged/disengaged the tone controls on my D’Agostino pre-amp may have messed something up that was corrected by changing rates. I seldom use the tone controls and recently had the board replaced.

All is well right now.
Any suggestions?

That sounds more like an issue with the D’Agostino pre-amp. If you had the tone control board replaced recently and rarely use the controls then it is possible that the changes in sound were simply the result of the board burning in now it is being used. However I’m also sure that you should not be experiencing any popping sounds when engaging/disengaging the tone controls on such an expensive component and would refer this to D’Agostino.

Of course if the Vivaldi upsampler and or the rest of the Vivaldi stack is new then that also has to go through a burn in period during which the sound will change. Burn in with most components is not a linear process and a period when the sound becomes worse before better is not unusual.

No my Vivaldi DAC,Upsampler and Clock are several years old and fully burned in. No the difference in sound I heard had nothing to do with burn in on the Momentum HD pre-amp. The sound change that occurred when I used the Mosaic app to swap from DSD2 to DXD was dramatic and back to the fine SQ I am accustomed to from my system. When I quickly switched it back to DSD2 the quality remained “normal” and excellent and minimally different between the two options.

I agree that the popping sound initiated by the introduction of the tone controls on the pre-amp somehow caused my Vivaldi stack to get “hung-up” and required a changing of rates on the Upsampler to reset everything. It’s possible that a complete power down of all of the Vivaldi units would have also generated the same fix to the soundstage.

More to come.

I look forward to it. maybe this was one of those occurrences that we all suffer from time to time with most technology ultimately to be filed under " Just one of those things" :slightly_smiling_face:

I have lusted after a D’Agostino Integrated and sad person that I am downloaded the owners manual. With reference to the tone controls it says

Bass and treble controls: When the LEd in the middle of the front-panel Tone button is on, these controls will be active. Turn them clockwise to boost, counterclockwise to cut. The front panel indicates the level of boost or cut in decibels (dB). When adjusting these controls, we strongly recommend you you first disengage the tone controls using the Tone button; make the adjustment; then push the Tone button again to re-engage the controls. This is because the integrated amp is dC-coupled, with no capacitors in the signal path. This design gives the best sound quality, but it can result in some noise when the treble and bass knobs are turned.

Hope this helps.

hence the popping sound!

The tone controls had been left at the desired level as related to “0” when I last switched out the operation. There was no adjusting of the controls that created the “popping” issue. That noise was generated when I both turned on the circuit or turned it off.

A new board is being brought to my dealer within a day or two. Whether I take my pre-amp in or they perform the swap at my home has not been decided.