Soekris Dam Dac

[nige2000]

ran silver wire from both +/- 3.3v at switch to shift registers, i had intended 16 runs to gnd too but i got lazy so maybe thats for another day
definitely another improvement, transients are faster, more separation and clarity

looks a bit chaotic

wonder if theres a tidier way to do it

Very good - it could be a result of using silver wiring or a larger gauge (lower impedance) for power carrying wiring?

it does sound faster and less noise

I've no theoretical reason why but I've heard the difference silver wire can bring.

dont know how silver does what silver does, but i love the stuff for resolution and clarity
but unforgiving on the noisy and jittery
i dont usually use it for experiments coz of the cost
but i soldered to the pads and this fine silver wire is nice stuff
its doesnt mind been bent a few times and far less likely to rip a pad off this is why i used it

I think the quality of this tweaked DAC is now revealing these small improvements which otherwise remain hidden by noise & other distortions in "normal" DACs

yea there's definitely something special,
was listening to eva cassidy earlier the best of album
this album sounds a right bit different than it did a few mods ago, its not really so apparent in all tracks more so in acoustic and live stuff it kinda changes the way words are pronounced or strings are played but in a more accurate/natural way like the crack of a whip sounds natural, dacs arent usually fast/dynamic/resolution /low noise/low jitter enough to get the woosh /snap /echo /decay in a way thats well...... believable

It might be interesting to hear if 16 separate ground wires to the shift regs makes a difference & then if twisted wiring is any different

its all the wires i dont like, the close soldering its a bit of a nest

[randytsuch]

ran silver wire from both +/- 3.3v at switch to shift registers, i had intended 16 runs to gnd too but i got lazy so maybe thats for another day
definitely another improvement, transients are faster, more separation and clarity

looks a bit chaotic

wonder if theres a tidier way to do it

I normally use silver coated copper teflon insulated wire for power. We have lots of different gauges and colors at work. For signal, I'll use the gold plated silver, or occ copper.

It sounds like you got similar results to mine, by running individual wires to the SR's.
And I don't plan to try running twisted pairs either, it would be too much of a pain, and too easy to mess something up.

So on my DAC, I finally installed the partypak filter set, and set it to nos. I like vocals with nos, haven't tried the others yet.

And yesterday I added a 1.2v linear reg. I'm using a LT1764 adjustable reg. If you tie the ouput directly to the adjust pin, with no resistor, you get 1.2v out of it. I powered this from it's own battery. The 1764 has no heatsink, and barely gets warm.

So other than the isolated 3.3v, and power to the amanero, my dac is now battery powered. Four batteries now power my dac.

It was an improvement, but not a big one, at least not to me.

Next mod is to change from the amanero to an exD, see which one is better

Randy

[rickmcinnis]

Silver wire has its adherents.

I use it ONLY when the installation will not allow a proper sleeve over copper since it doesn't degrade in the same way as copper.

I think the sound is initially exciting but ultimately either incorrect or simply fatiguing.

I think Providence has great concern for us music lovers and made copper best for the transmission of music signals. For those with more money than sense Prov gave the silver alternative. Since most of the kilo-dollars systems I have heard and have heard about sound bad they will not notice the difference and will take solace in knowing they spent as much as they possibly could and this is important because anxiety can get in the way of reading about audio on the internet while the system is playing.

In the end all needs are met.

After reading the recommendations of a great Japanese audiophile, Mr. Yazaki of SPEC CORP, in this case, old Western Electric 16 gauge wire for speaker cable. An ordinary looking tinned, stranded copper wire with a plastic and cotton sleeve. The cotton sleeve part sounds OK but the rest of it sounds like EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG about what I have assumed is best. I was using a tubular copper wire I got from Chris Sommovigo that is as trick as it gets. I was very satisfied with the sound I was hearing with this. Of course, I had the assurance that it WAS TRICK and met my assumptions of what is correct so it HAD TO SOUND GOOD.

I installed the above and realized I had been missing lots of music. Literally, the impression was of something being left out. The original cable had tons of detail but the wholeness of the presentation was not there. I know the language is goofy but it is the best I can do. With the WE stuff the sound retains the detail but the context is more complete.

So many assumptions to work around.

Sorry for the aside post.

[randytsuch]

https://goo.gl/photos/g4TCQh7NzeeGtsqc9

Image, and link if you can't see the image.

I removed the 1.2v switcher, and the inductors and caps around the front end.

And I think it sounds a little better with all the stuff removed, could be my imagination, but seems better.
The inductors are a pain to remove, I had to break them with pliers, and then remove the pieces. Ferrite is brittle, so they are fairly easy to break like this.

I also tried my exD USB board, and I got it to work with windows 7, but I can't find server 2012 drivers for it, the drivers I have won't install on server 2012. So for now, its a no go, and I'm back to the amanero board.

The things left to try are to change power to the clock, change all the fpga caps (still have to order them) and to run the amanero from battery power.

At this time, I'm very impressed with this dac, after implementing the mods from Nigel.

If you can diy, this really is a killer dac for not much money. Using lifepo4 batteries, you don't need to get fancy power supplies, and it still sounds great.

And Happy Thanksgiving :)

Randy

[nige2000]

Have you a link to the edx driver

[randytsuch]

I got it here
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-da ... ver-25191/

I bought this card used, and the guy didn't have the driver for it.

I was looking at the sonore exd dac, it doesn't say it supports windows server 2012.

[nige2000]

I got it here
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-da ... ver-25191/

I bought this card used, and the guy didn't have the driver for it.

I was looking at the sonore exd dac, it doesn't say it supports windows server 2012.

admin command prompt

bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON


press enter

reboot

then install driver which is pretty old

have you a pic of the device

[randytsuch]

admin command prompt

bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON


press enter

reboot

then install driver which is pretty old

have you a pic of the device

I'll post a pic later. So this did not work, but it made me try harder. If I set windows 7 compatibility mode on for the setup program, then it runs. I have my amanero board connected now, so I need to reconnect the exD board to try it again.

I also made more changes.
I ran a separate power and ground wire to the clock, a small improvement.

Then I added another battery to run the amanero from, this was a big improvement, thanks for the suggestion Nige.
Since it is isolated and then processed in the fpga, I didn't think this would make a big difference, but I was wrong.

As of now, I'm very happy with this dac. Resolution, detail, the very low noise floor are very impressive with this dac, after these mods.

I started a blog on my experiences with setup and mods with this dac, I'll update it when I have some time.

Randy

[rickmcinnis]

Nigel/Randy,

I need your help.

Getting ready to solder in my batteries and I thought it would be a good idea to make sure my wires to the SR cap pads were not shorting.

When I measure three of the SR groups wires measure around 21k R to the ground point and the fourth measures 24k R. I have re-soldered the wires there just to make sure. I looked closely with a loupe to see if there is anything wrong and I do not see anything. It is the positive rail that is at the edge of the board that measures high.

Did either of you make a similar measurement?

Can you think of something that would explain this? Or is it just the way it is?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

[randytsuch]

Nigel/Randy,

I need your help.

Getting ready to solder in my batteries and I thought it would be a good idea to make sure my wires to the SR cap pads were not shorting.

When I measure three of the SR groups wires measure around 21k R to the ground point and the fourth measures 24k R. I have re-soldered the wires there just to make sure. I looked closely with a loupe to see if there is anything wrong and I do not see anything. It is the positive rail that is at the edge of the board that measures high.

Did either of you make a similar measurement?

Can you think of something that would explain this? Or is it just the way it is?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

What exactly are you measuring?

I just measured my dac. With it turned off, I measure 11.4k on the negative set of shift registers, 11.8k on the positive set.
I'm measuring from ground to the end of the wires that connect the battery to the board.

I'm wondering how you could measure a different value for one row. Even before I connected the wires. all of these places are shorted together on the board. So the resistance should be the same for the positive rows, and for the negative rows. This is if you measure from ground to the VCC pin of all the positive SRs, and to the ground pin of all the negative SRs.

Did you see my pics that show how I connected my SR's?

I updated my blog yesterday, there are pics there
http://randytsuch-audio.blogspot.com/20 ... dding.html

Randy