Thanks very much for the info! The black goo makes me little bit worried once I open the back of the circuit board. Never tried LM4562, will order some from mouser then test.

My AudioEngine A2 left speaker has small problem due to one of its electrolytic capacitor leaked. I am little bit surprised that audioengine used those capacitors manufactured by TWBOR/TBOR so I planed to replace them all. Two questions need help: (1) One problem I am facing is how to deal with...

Quote: Originally Posted by wali How about STX and ST combo? lol I ran this test couple weeks ago. Here are the details. (STEP 1) Install ST card into my Win7 PC. (STEP 2) Load driver and Xonar Audio Center SW for ST. (STEP 3) Launch the Xonar ST Audio Center, everything...

Quote: Originally Posted by shabta The problem is no one including you has explained the flaw in Uncle Erik's logic about cost of parts. shabta, Thanks for sharing your view! In 1990, I started involving in the business in China, we spent 20M GBP to setup the first joint venture...

Just my 2 cents. Quote: Originally Posted by shabta So what about china? China has many well documented cases of Child Labor and Human rights abuse. Use google, you’ll find lots of reports. One of the greatest areas is in the assembly of electronic equipment such as PCB boards...

Quote: Originally Posted by wali Here is an idea, anti-static hair spray that one should use before listening to headphones. $99 a bottle? Too cheap, man! $999/bottle....

Quote: Originally Posted by sonance Well put. Each product should be judged on its own merit and value, not by its country of origin. +1

Quote: Originally Posted by linuxworks often times, keeping the board is worth more than the part. so I cut parts off if I really have to. just hate it when I ruin/lift a trace! not only is the board, then, mostly ruined but you lost your time and effort on THAT board. double loss...

To prevent 7812 regulator mounting screw from shorting to the PCB ground plane on the bottom side, I used Teflon screw.

Quote: Originally Posted by Currawong The problem with your big post though is, it basically says that it's impossible to build an amp cheaper than $500 without using dodgy parts or child labour, and, as one of the most well-known members here, you've implied that every Chinese company...

Part cost is just a factor but not the whole story. The labour cost could make a big difference. Because labour cost is so high in US, so it does not make sense to use very very poor quality parts because the saving on part cost alone is not significant comparing to labour cost while this...

Quote: Originally Posted by jalyst Garmanium/Applegd, Do you know of any good threads that focus purely on mods to the ST/STX? Preferably with work-plans, schematics, photos etc. Thanks! I did a search in the past but I did not see any thread have decent details like...

I owned MicroDAC years ago, sold it then bought UltraMicroDAC. Also I own both ST and STX. I prefer the UltraMicroDAC.

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium you wanted technical information, I give it & you turn it around into something different from what I'm actually saying. Anybody that reads what I was saying with an open mind would actually see what I'm saying the 500mv was a worst case scenerio...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium Bear this in mind also that since many amps already have some D.C. offset of thier own if the D.C. offset on the Xonar card is lower than the D.C. offset of the input of the following amp then the D.C. output of the following amp will in fact also...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium You missread me. The D.C. off set coming from the input of the following amp is of no consequence as its current is very very low & is protected by at least 1Kohm of resistance at the input of the following amp. The opamp on the card can easily...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium The D.C. offset risk is only to any outlying equipment as this only feeds the RCA jacks. D.C. offset is very low on these cards though I do understand your trepidation in doing this mod as some equipment is sensitive to D.C. offset. The D.C. offset...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium True but they do have an impact on sound quality. Enough to bring the performance up to anouther level. Most of the shorcomings compared to the more expensive DAC in the stereophile article can be traced to these caps. Remove these caps will...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium correct These two caps are just there to form high pass RC filter for blocking the DC.

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium Just removed the 2 big Caps & put wire in thier place didn't touch anything else here. Thanks! Actually just put in a wire should be OK if someone does not know how to desolder these caps.

Quote: Originally Posted by sokolov91 I will try that when I get some time, and you are not the first to wonder if it is the psu... I should hope not though as this is my PSU - Antec Truepower New 750W Power Supply ATX12V V2.3 Active PFC 80 Plus SLI Ready Blue so its not premium, but...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium yes it does Thanks! Quote: Originally Posted by germanium I'm definately very happy with my STX which I D.C. coupled the line out. For the D.C. coupled line out, do you mean remove/desolder two capacitors pointed by red...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium Yes I have a X58 chipset motherboard & it does have standard PCI slots as well as PCI express, however there are some X58 boards that do not have standard PCI slots or they may be very inconveniently placed. Avoid the supercomputer boards as they...

Quote: Originally Posted by macrog As you own both do you understand what I mean? Part 1. Objective Factors for ST/STX comparison The major circuits in audio path such as DAC, differential I/V converter circuit, buffer, headphone OpAmp circuit etc are exactly same between ST and...

Quote: Originally Posted by Shahrose Well, I've seen people say that jitter reduction produces an increase in soundstage, so it would follow that the STX would sound squashed in and unusual compared to a jitter-corrected ST. The specs that are better on the STX are already in a range...