Electrocompaniet ECD1 Dac Troubleshooting

[jfmerk61]

Hello, new member here. This forum felt to me like a great place to ask a couple questions about my ECD1. First, here is my setup:
Node 2i, streaming Qobuz > ECD1 Dac > Herron VTSP-3A pre > Odyessy Khartago amp > KEF R11 speakers.
First, a general question, since the ECD1 is 2002 technology, can I do better with current technology for under $2K?

My issue I’m trying to understand and resolve is that when I play hi res music from Qobuz, it sounds as though there’s a blanket covering the speakers. I stumbled onto what corrects this and it is simply to toggle through the 4 input selections on the ECD1 and boom, the sound is clear, detailed and full. It will stay this way until everything is powered off. I have the Audio Clock Trim feature turned OFF on the Node. The ON position did the same thing. I use a coax connection between the Node and ECD1. There are 2 of them, both behave the same.

Interestingly, I found a review from March, 2010 on the ECD1 from hifinews.co.uk. In this review it was stated that;
“the venerable upsampler may operate at 192kHz but will not accept 192kHz inputs, and so both 96kHz and 192kHz source material are reduced to a -1dB/45kHz bandwidth with a mild +0.1 dB peak at 38kHz.”
I don’t know how important this is or isn’t. But hoping someone here can answer that for me. Perhaps it’s part of the problem I’m describing? Thank you for any comments and or suggestions!

Jeff

https://www.sarte-audio.com/sites/default/files/hifinewsmarch2010electrcomp.pdf

 

[AudioStudies]

I think there are excellent DACs now for much less than $2k that will top this older DAC.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Welcome to ASR.

You can get excellent DACs for the price or less that measurably outperform what you have. Okto Research is one that comes to mind. It has some capabilities your DAC didn't have as they weren't available back then. Plus very nice connectivity.

Okto dac8 stereo DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Okto dac8 stereo DAC. It was kindly sent to me by the company for review. It costs €1 089 from the company ($1,240 as of this writing). The version I have has the optional Raspberry Pi 4 module for streaming which costs an extra $89. Last I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Okto dac8 Stereo D/A processor

For his review of the Pink Faun 2.16x music server in the December 2020 issue, Kal Rubinson needed to use a Linux-compatible multichannel D/A processor. A little Googling uncovered the 8-channel dac8 PRO from Okto Research in the Czech Republic, so Kal borrowed one from the manufacturer. He...

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Okto Research

Objective performance

www.oktoresearch.com

Whether it will sound better is another question, and it may or may not. I don't know what is causing the blanket over the speakers effect. I doubt it is the filter you reference unless it has gone off value and gives some other response than it used to give. The symptoms you describe do sound like something is coming on not working properly and cycling the inputs causes it to reset. I've always thought the DAC you have is rather attractive myself.

 

[Matias]

It was a very good DAC in its time, but technology has marched on.

 

[restorer-john]

So you can reproduce the issue and solve it by cycling inputs reliably? Does it happen whichever input you use as a primary, as long as you cycle it?

Interesting for sure. Does it happen immediately, or after a period?

 

[Doodski]

So you can reproduce the issue and solve it by cycling inputs reliably? Does it happen whichever input you use as a primary, as long as you cycle it?

Interesting for sure. Does it happen immediately, or after a period?

This appears to be a prime use situation of using cold spray and or heat to check the ICs for issues.

 

[jfmerk61]

So you can reproduce the issue and solve it by cycling inputs reliably? Does it happen whichever input you use as a primary, as long as you cycle it?

Interesting for sure. Does it happen immediately, or after a period?

Thanks to all for the reply’s.

I’m still experimenting with reproducing the issue. I can say that it is most frequent at the first piece of music played. Yesterday I turned the system on and selected a 192kHz hi res piece of music. Lousy sound, toggle inputs and resolved the issue. Listened to multiple tracks from that album then moved on and selected a different piece of music. 48kHz hi res this time. First track was lousy. Toggle inputs again and resolved again. I will continue trying to collect the factual details of when it happens. I feel it’s most common at the start of listening.

It has happened regardless of whichever of the two available inputs I use. (#3 or #4)

Jeff

 

[jfmerk61]

This appears to be a prime use situation of using cold spray and or heat to check the ICs for issues.

Thank you! However, I’m not familiar with what you’ve mentioned. I think I get it, but not sure of how I would proceed. Send it back to the factory or to a proper repair center perhaps? Then again I need to decide if I want to invest in repairing the ECD1.

 

[Doodski]

Thank you! However, I’m not familiar with what you’ve mentioned. I think I get it, but not sure of how I would proceed. Send it back to the factory or to a proper repair center perhaps? Then again I need to decide if I want to invest in repairing the ECD1.

When diagnosing and troubleshooting a piece of gear with a fault like this it is helpful sometimes to use cold/freeze spray and carefully spray the ICs to see if the fault commences, gets worse or goes away. Additionally heat application can also be used to try and get a change of state. I get that it's a cool DAC, looks cool and has served you well although as peeps here have suggested it is a dated unit and DAC technology has improved over the years. You could spend maybe USD $250 on a new DAC and get better technology. The ECD1 is dated to about 2009?

 

[jfmerk61]

When diagnosing and troubleshooting a piece of gear with a fault like this it is helpful sometimes to use cold/freeze spray and carefully spray the ICs to see if the fault commences, gets worse or goes away. Additionally heat application can also be used to try and get a change of state. I get that it's a cool DAC, looks cool and has served you well although as peeps here have suggested it is a dated unit and DAC technology has improved over the years. You could spend maybe USD $250 on a new DAC and get better technology. The ECD1 is dated to about 2009?

Thank you for the freeze spray explanation. I understand the testing now.
The ECD1 was actually released in 2002, so I think I will continue using the ECD1 and try to learn more about the cause of the problem. If it can’t be resolved I’ll just start looking for a newer Dac. When it’s working properly is sounds great but I’d love to listen to some newer alternatives some day.

Again, I appreciate all the replies! Thank you !

Jeff

 

[Blumlein 88]

If you just want to satisfy curiosity, you can do that for less than $200. There are a couple other choices, but a Topping D10 Balanced ($139) or D10 S ($109) RCA outputs are quite good measuring devices. Very basic, plug in USB and output the audio signal. They also output SPDIF and Toslink for other DACs. Work up to 384 khz and display the sample rate. So you could listen to one of these in place of your current DAC and see what you think. Both are USB bus powered.