I have been using the E1DA Cosmos for a few weeks now . Thanks to the measurements, I have already discarded to the recycle bin 2DACs and 1 amplifier . I also have had some good surprises when measuring old devices of mine. However being a non professionnal and considering the lack of extensive documentation, it has not been easy at all to get acquainted with this device. One have to read pages and pages of low SNR of forum posts.
Although all over I am very happy to have purchased this little tool , I want to share some of the difficuties I have met.
1- Grounding noise issues. This is not special to E1DA Cosmos but at the beginnig It was difficult to solve these problems. Now I always use an optical link from the battery powered laptop to the DAC which use a separate power, and the E1DA is powered by a power bank using a Y cable to the computer. I have studied the possibilty to buy an isolator but there is appparently no consensus on the right one to buy. Anyway it is certainly an interesting add-on for the Cosmos V2 that the designer is presently contemplating.
2-Mono vs Stereo . This also has been a terrible headache. When using the mono mode almost everything works straighfully. But when one try to use the stereo mode a lot of problem occur. In the main webpage it is clearly stated that Windows 10 doesn't need the driver but fortunately
@staticV3 has written here "To change hardware volume via the Sound Control panel, this driver is required". . Also the same
@staticV3 also kindfully recommended the use of Flexasio, Which I have done as ASIO4All is a nightmare. After having eventually and lately found these 2 statements and installing the driver and Flexasio together with its GUI, it's easier to use the Stereo mode. However I still cannot use Wasapi exclusive in REW, asio or not. Also now I can use RMAA in stereo using MME . I found it very useful for my comparisons it was not possible without the driver.
3-I am still comfused with the sensitivity settings. The sensitivities that I am finding are quite far from the official values. They are not the same in balanced or unbalanced mode.
But are they the same in mono and stereo mode ?
Here are the official values and what I have found
Sensitivity VRMS |
VRMS measured |
1.7 |
2,15 |
2.7 |
3,0 |
3.5 | 3.9 |
4.5 | |
6.7 |
7,35 |
7.6 |
8,38 |
8.5 | |
10 | |
Are these variations normal ? What about mono, stereo, balanced, unbalanced, expected values ? Could we get them ?