Originally Posted by joneeboi
vvs_75:
Sounds good, dude. What configuration did you go with? What's your take on CAvanessia's dock situation?
Is he triying to find traces to the dock pins?
Ok here we go.
My long term goal is to squeeze from ipod best sound possible for DIYer. Since I think that all DAC chips used in ipod very close in terms of SQ if not the same. I finally decided stop my choice on 1gen 4GB nano player. Small, flash memory player with color screen that all I need at this point. Since we must use output coupling capacitors, the only way is to get best sounding capasitors. There is no best! By best I mean sound that I am looking for and will sound best to my likening.
So I read impressions and reviews about V-Cap dock and since RWA using it made me think that V-Cap OIMP oil capacitor – best that you can find.
After reading impression like that:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/3418284-post25.html
I decided that V-Cap cap is way go. So I start looking for the best-lowest price I could find on these caps. And to my frustration I found that there is only one place you can buy them.
Along the road I found few tech articles with explanations why film caps better than any electrolytic for this application and to my luck I also stumble on this nice review that change my mind about V-Cap cap.
Capacitors: Sonicap vs. V-Cap OIMP vs. Multicap Vs. Mundorf on 10 Audio
According to the review, from those they were testing the best sounding capacitor goes:
1. Mundorf silver\oil - 4.7mF cost around $70
2. Sonicap Gen I - 4.7mF $11
3. V-Cap OIMP oil - 4.7mF $80
Since DIY always about best bang for the buck my choice was obvious - number 2!
Parts:
1.Sonicap Gen I - 4.7mF $11
Sonicaps
2. Piece of 0.75mm cooper laminated board (bought on Ebay)
3. Enclosure - Mouser part # 546-1455C1201 $11
(
1455C1201)
This is 120mm case which I cut to 90mm to mach length with my nano and mini3.
I think a lot easier to buy 80mm one. It slightly shorter than 1gen Nano. Mouser part # 546-1455C802BK – it’s a black one they out on clear cases.
(
1455C802BK)
The enclosure comes with aluminum ends made from the same material. I drilled wrong hole so I ended up using my custom SS plates.
4. Phone jack (really nice jack made in Japan) - Mouser part # 161-7300-EX $0.87 (
161-7300-EX)
Then I raped the caps in electric tape and cut the PCB to fit the caps
Next I drilled holes in the case back and caps enclosure.
Analog Ground (blue wire) I took from phone jack. It’s most convenient place plus the biggest pad I could find.
I decided to make new super-duper separate dock. :-)
Meanwhile I reworked my ipod.
Two 47mF BG bypassed with 0.047 Auricap then 100 ohm RIKEN in series with 100k Riken to AGND for each channel.
