Instruction manual

5
Operation
When the power switch is flipped to the up position, your dAck! is energized and ready
for use. A blue indicator on the front panel will illuminate, showing that the circuit is receiving
power. When there is a compatible signal at the digital input, a green indicator will also
illuminate, showing that there is a data latch. Some digital transports maintain a datastream even
when not playing while others latch only when playing music, so the behavior of the latch
indicator will depend on your particular transport. The dAck! is designed to latch quickly to
incoming digital signals. If for some reason the unit fails to latch when first turned on, quickly
cycling power on the unit may yield the latch condition.
The dAck! will sound great as soon as it is turned on. However, allowing a few minutes
for the circuit to stabilize will result in best performance. Since the circuit does not run hot, the
only major break-in will be in forming and conditioning capacitor dielectrics. This will occur
over the course of a couple weeks, after which the unit will give a slightly warmer, fuller sound.
Since it has been designed for utmost simplicity, the dAck! will only decode 16-bit stereo
signals up to 96KHz (includes formats from personal computers). If provided with 24-bit stereo
data, it will truncate the data to 16 bits. If the input contains the wrong type of signal (for
example, DTS 5.1 from a DVD), the dAck! will still try to interpret the incorrect data, producing
noise from its analog outputs. In the case of multi-channel movies, the dAck! will only work
properly if the digital source is configured to downsample to two-channel stereo.
Important!
¾ For best battery life, we recommend that you not use your
dAck! for more than 8 hours between recharge cycles, or
about 10 CDs.
¾ When your dAck! is not being used, it should always be
switched to charge mode (switch in down position).
¾ Do not forget to turn off your dAck! when not in use or you may
severely diminish its battery performance.
†
†
Note: If you discover you have forgotten to turn your dAck! off for several hours, immediately switch it into
charge mode and allow it to reach float charge (green) mode before use.