Repairing/Upgrading Maverick TubeMagic D2 DAC

eizner23

eizner23

Super Member
I have a Maverick TubeMagic D2 that is connected via coaxial input to a Denon DVD-2900 using 1Meter hifi shielded coax cable. Coaxial input was working fine until something happened after i had the device powered off to change the output RCA cables, now I get nothing using coaxial input. All the other inputs work fine, except i wasnt able to test the BNC input.

I opened the DAC case to see a partially melted SMB capacitor near rear input region- see attached image. I suspect this is one of the problems. What caused this? My home is at 25% humidity, perhaps this was a static discharge by dragging my feet and not grounding myself to chassis before switching cables or...?

For upgrades, the plastic RCA jack mounts will never hold the weight of the hifi cables i want to use. The coaxial ground jacket is already loose. I want to replace the coax input jack with a more stable RCA jack, and I also want to replace the BNC with another RCA jack. Is it ok to replace the BNC with RCA jack? I do not really want to use a BNC converter due to the length/weight the connector jacket that extrudes on hifi coax cable.

I am also looking at the dial. capacitors in the DAC. No hifi name brands seen. Would it do any good to replace these caps with hifi versions, like Elna/Muse?

Any recommendations on an upgraded tube? Currently I have a GE 5670W
 

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How old? Have you touched bases with Ryan? Tech support is quick, and maybe he's run into it before. I do know that static can be a killer and have gotten in the habit of touching ground for any box I'm working on ...

Almost looks like the "IC" with the ouchie is intended to be sacrificial ... similar to the fuseable resistors in classic gear. If it's out of warranty, I'd suggest just replacing that and seeing what happens.

I'd also make sure you're using a REAL coaxial cable - a standard RCA doesn't have the correct impedance for the best results. Shortest length possible too.

I've got a D1+ and love it ... caution on the tube rolling, as it can get addictive.

maverick-tubes.jpg


I've got several I like ... any WE 2C51 is great, and the GE 5 Star Maverick sells is quite nice. My favorite and daily driver is a Tesla 6CC42 - rare and expensive, but killer in my system.

PS ... just scored a GE Red 5 Star, triple mica to add to the collection. Also rare as it's a triple mica version of the Green. Should be here in a day or so.

Oh. I actually prefer the USB output to S/PDIF. The D1+ uses the Tenor chipset which I find tasty. Tops out at 96/24 vice the 192/24 I could get from coaxial or optical, but a lot depends on how well it plays with the rest of your equipment.
 
Thank you for the heads up on Ryan, I will contact him and see if I can get a hold of a service manual. I've had the DAC all but a few days, its second hand ebay item. I do have a real hi-end coax cable.

Nice tube collection, i hope to catch up with you some day!
 
I also have a D1+, which I am delighted with. Currently downstream of it is a Bryston 10B Active crossover (to facilitate biamping), a PrimaLuna ProLogue Four valve amp to drive the high pass, and a pair of Kenwood L-07M monoblocks, each one dedicated to a 12" Watkins Woofer in my Infinity RS 2.5 speakers. I recently realized that the wonderful complement of tubes I've rolled into it was taking in a signal filtered through the tube in the D1+ (I was using the tube output). I discovered that switching to the SS outputs (thus making the only valves in play the ones in the ProLogue) yielded superior detail and energy from it, unadulterated by any tube effect upstream. Mine is a very particular and specific application, and likely very much an exception to the rule in general.
 
After wiggling the coax cable while the player was on I discovered the ground connection to the coax rca input jack broke, causing the loss of sound.
 
I got a hold of Ryan @ Maverick. He confirmed my suspicion that one of his techs touched the burned cap with a soldering iron. Must have been a new guy!

After listening to a slew of DSD64, ALAC, DSF, and 24/96 recordings thru USB on this DAC, i realized something wasnt right with the high-end reproduction, in particular the decay in percussion sounds (such as the symbol crash). Ryan suggested replacing the WIMA 2.2uF caps, which I replaced with ClarityCap ESA caps from Madisound for $7 a piece. This upgrade alone improved the decay in a symbol crash while the percussion altogether is much more open and airy.

I started replacing some of the dielectric caps before my solder iron crapped out on me. I question the fidelity of some dielectric caps used in this DAC.

I still feel there is room for improvement in the high frequency range (comparing cymbal crashes of same recording to those on a SACD disk played thru a Denon DVD-2900, its just not the same). I will order and try a better tube as well, perhaps the Tesla 6CC42!

I still havnt gotten this device to work with any ASIO drivers on Win7 32bit. Has anyone else?
 

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eizner23 said:
I got a hold of Ryan @ Maverick. He confirmed my suspicion that one of his techs touched the burned cap with a soldering iron. Must have been a new guy!
Click to expand...

Good to know why it happened ... Easy enough fix if it didn't affect anything downline.

After listening to a slew of DSD64, ALAC, DSF, and 24/96 recordings thru USB on this DAC, i realized something wasnt right with the high-end reproduction, in particular the decay in percussion sounds (such as the symbol crash). Ryan suggested replacing the WIMA 2.2uF caps, which I replaced with ClarityCap ESA caps from Madisound for $7 a piece. This upgrade alone improved the decay in a symbol crash while the percussion altogether is much more open and airy.
Click to expand...

I'll have to keep that cap change in mind if I get bored here.

I really like the USB output from the D1+, although I do believe they changed that for the D2. Look up the spec and see if yours uses the Tenor chipset. Switch to the direct analog outputs and see if your highs improve - if so, time to start rolling tubes. They all have a different flavor.

I still havnt gotten this device to work with any ASIO drivers on Win7 32bit. Has anyone else?
Click to expand...

I went straight from XP3 to W8 here, so no help. I do know that ASIO was a real PITA in XP3. You especially want to avoid using ASIO4ALL, which can be a mean little bugger to kill if you decide to go another route. You should be able to go WASAPI, but not sure how that worked with the 32 bit system.

That said, you may want to consider upgrading to W8. MAJOR improvements in the WASAPI sound engine. Rated as the next best thing to bit perfect. Also major advantage in that you eliminate a lot of internal bit manipulation for a much purer signal out. Personal experience can be summed up in ... wOw ... just WoW ...

PS ... not sure what hoops you'd need to jump through to change internal sound handling on your computer. I use jRiver Media Center as a front end on my HTPC and that makes most anything point 'n click. I imported all my music as FLAC - MC does all it's internal processing at 96/24 which matches the OS and the USB side of the D1+.
 
I've found a bad filter capacitor in my D1 (humming) . I suspect a "fake" nichicon (it looks like fake). I've replaced it.

P1110222.JPG
 
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Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to plan on replacing the biguns just as a preventative measure ... no biggie, as it's easy access.

I did take a peek at mine just yesterday when I swapped in a "new" tube - all looks well. Got a deal on a GE (RED) 5Star tube. Same as the green 5Star that Maverick stocks as an upgrade, but heavy duty triple mica build for low microphonics. Sounds quite tasty ...

Fun project ... Getting the cover off was a real PITA, so I did some surgery with the dremel ...

maverick-cover-mod.jpg


Sliced off the lower flanges. Polished up the raw edges and a bit of touch up paint is all. Still fits nice and tight even without the screws for easy access. :thmbsp:

PS ... I've got a D1 too.

mavericks_stacked.jpg


Upgraded to the D1+ for the improved USB handling. Never even considered going another way as I really like the analog side of the box. I run my turntable into that via an external stage for some of that tooby goodness when spinning vinyl. I figure to flip the old one outta here some day, but it's nice to know I got a spare that works.
 
eizner23 said:
I got a hold of Ryan @ Maverick. He confirmed my suspicion that one of his techs touched the burned cap with a soldering iron. Must have been a new guy!

After listening to a slew of DSD64, ALAC, DSF, and 24/96 recordings thru USB on this DAC, i realized something wasnt right with the high-end reproduction, in particular the decay in percussion sounds (such as the symbol crash). Ryan suggested replacing the WIMA 2.2uF caps, which I replaced with ClarityCap ESA caps from Madisound for $7 a piece. This upgrade alone improved the decay in a symbol crash while the percussion altogether is much more open and airy.

I started replacing some of the dielectric caps before my solder iron crapped out on me. I question the fidelity of some dielectric caps used in this DAC.

I still feel there is room for improvement in the high frequency range (comparing cymbal crashes of same recording to those on a SACD disk played thru a Denon DVD-2900, its just not the same). I will order and try a better tube as well, perhaps the Tesla 6CC42!

I still havnt gotten this device to work with any ASIO drivers on Win7 32bit. Has anyone else?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking to replace those WIMA 2.2uF with PIO caps (Russian perhaps if any).
 
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sKiZo said:
Good to know why it happened ... Easy enough fix if it didn't affect anything downline.



I'll have to keep that cap change in mind if I get bored here.

I really like the USB output from the D1+, although I do believe they changed that for the D2. Look up the spec and see if yours uses the Tenor chipset. Switch to the direct analog outputs and see if your highs improve - if so, time to start rolling tubes. They all have a different flavor.



I went straight from XP3 to W8 here, so no help. I do know that ASIO was a real PITA in XP3. You especially want to avoid using ASIO4ALL, which can be a mean little bugger to kill if you decide to go another route. You should be able to go WASAPI, but not sure how that worked with the 32 bit system.

That said, you may want to consider upgrading to W8. MAJOR improvements in the WASAPI sound engine. Rated as the next best thing to bit perfect. Also major advantage in that you eliminate a lot of internal bit manipulation for a much purer signal out. Personal experience can be summed up in ... wOw ... just WoW ...

PS ... not sure what hoops you'd need to jump through to change internal sound handling on your computer. I use jRiver Media Center as a front end on my HTPC and that makes most anything point 'n click. I imported all my music as FLAC - MC does all it's internal processing at 96/24 which matches the OS and the USB side of the D1+.
Click to expand...

This D2 does have the Tenor chipset. yay for me.

I did use the direct output and it did improve the highs. I am temporarily satisfied for now...but..

The new sound session API sounds like a good reason to upgrade to Win8 after reading this post http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=484538
Now I feel uncool again.
Think i will be ok with 32bit 4GB ram hardware on Win8?
 
All the toys!

maverick-d1-opa627.jpg


Actually got those with the D1 and just shuffled them into the D1+. Lets hear it for sockets! Wasn't aware the D2 used them. Significant improvement over the stock LMs ...

On. I didna even know W8 came in 32 bit! That said, high res audio can work a computer pretty hard, so I felt it was worth upgrading my trusty old HTPC to a newer tech APU that could run W8 64bit comfortably. One BIG advantage is I could kill most of the fans - the old system had SIX of them all whirring away. The two on the back panel in the pic aren't even hooked up ... only fan running is the one on the processor, and that runs slow. You gotta just hear it if you put your ear right up to the case - perfect for the audio room.

htpc-gigabyte-001.jpg


OS and applications are on the solid state drive, and all the music is on a high speed HD and is pre-cached to memory by jRiver Media Center. A boatload more processing power now on a motherboard that's just barely peeking out from under the fan. Fun fact ... an ITX "mini" board bolts right into any ATX case using the standard attachment points.

PS ... one problem I did have was noise on playback using the onboard USB controller. Just way too much interference from all the other USB doodads found on today's systems. I added a PCIe expansion card that gives me a completely separate USB channel and gets juice directly from the power supply. Only thing plugged into that card is the DAC and ADC, so no more crosstalk or timing issues. Crystal clear and quiet and only $20 ...
 
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sKiZo said:
All the toys!

maverick-d1-opa627.jpg


Actually got those with the D1 and just shuffled them into the D1+. Lets hear it for sockets! Wasn't aware the D2 used them. Significant improvement over the stock LMs ...

On. I didna even know W8 came in 32 bit! That said, high res audio can work a computer pretty hard, so I felt it was worth upgrading my trusty old HTPC to a newer tech APU that could run W8 64bit comfortably. One BIG advantage is I could kill most of the fans - the old system had SIX of them all whirring away. The two on the back panel in the pic aren't even hooked up ... only fan running is the one on the processor, and that runs slow. You gotta just hear it if you put your ear right up to the case - perfect for the audio room.

htpc-gigabyte-001.jpg


OS and applications are on the solid state drive, and all the music is on a high speed HD and is pre-cached to memory by jRiver Media Center. A boatload more processing power now on a motherboard that's just barely peeking out from under the fan. Fun fact ... an ITX "mini" board bolts right into any ATX case using the standard attachment points.

PS ... one problem I did have was noise on playback using the onboard USB controller. Just way too much interference from all the other USB doodads found on today's systems. I added a PCIe expansion card that gives me a completely separate USB channel and gets juice directly from the power supply. Only thing plugged into that card is the DAC and ADC, so no more crosstalk or timing issues. Crystal clear and quiet and only $20 ...
Click to expand...

A solid-state driver is a good idea. jitter from the cpu is difficult to eliminate. I have been reading people doing experiments placing boxes containing zinc-coated bb's on top of the DAC. I want to try that out and look forward upgrading the opamps.
 
I did a few more upgrades- replaced the two 330uf caps with Muse, all of the 10uf and 3.3uf caps with silmic II, and the 220uf with a fine gold. Didnt have 47uf 35v on hand, i left those alone. I must say the cap upgrade really cleaned up the high-end. I am very satisfied with this D2 now, and cant imagine the sound after opamp upgrade!
 

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Some Upgrades to Maverick D2

The Maverick D2 is a great DAC as supplied. The the factory upgrades or later post-purchase upgrades also available directly from Maverick, or other retailers, for op amps and tubes is indeed a worthwhile and notable sonic improvement.

Additional improvements to the sound can be obtained with further modifications.

  • On the solid state side: the sound improvement of installing discrete component op amps is category changing. WOW.
  • The other available “plug and play” socket is the tube. This allows for additional modifications beyond “Tube rolling”.

Posted on another AudioKarma thread is the build-out of these specific modifications:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=642024
 
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I have had the original D2 for a while and have been enjoying it. The Opamp upgrades provided from Maverick are due to arrive tomorrow, I will be posting my findings on the different opamps. From what I have been reading, its definitely worth the time and money.
 
JoshHendi said:
I have had the original D2 for a while and have been enjoying it. The Opamp upgrades provided from Maverick are due to arrive tomorrow, I will be posting my findings on the different opamps. From what I have been reading, its definitely worth the time and money.
Click to expand...

I ordered mine with the Op Amps and NOS tube upgrade, so I never heard the stock version. My D2 sounds great.
 
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