The Zero MOD Thread - 24/192 DAC/H/Amp - Page 8

after few post here ,I think what I need is the OPA EARTH ,only one more question before I order it ,what is the difference between OPA-EARTH Dual OPA and OPA-EARTH Single OPA ?,thank

One is single-channel the other is dual-channel, you need the dual.

No worries, buddy, you need just the one HDAM and I think you'll find the OPA Earth and ideal match for those 600's. Check with Penchum, leothan, as he has a set and I don't, I use 650's. Maybe with PP and others too. Heck, you might go gaga over the OPA Moon with them! One great thing with Kingwa at audio-gd is that they have special deals where you can 'buy 1 get two others free' sort of thing. I've got a great mix of parts that way.
Yes, if it's neutral you prefer, go Earth, you won't regret it. You just gently pull the op-amp out of the DAC on the right hand side of the case, looking from the front and pop the HDAM in place of it, making sure that the half moon on the bottom of the HDAM is facing to the back of the case, matching the half moon cut-out on the op-amp base. Solder your ground wire to the RCA output jack's ground leg and you're away. Now, I realise that you may want to lay your HDAM flat inside the case, instead of having it standing up directly in the socket, as I prefer, and so you will need a set of the extension cables that you will have to order with the HDAM, laying the unit on it's side between the amp and DAC board. There are pictures of this abounding on this site.

S-Man

great ,thank alot ,I will try now

snipping cap mod

Hi there guys!

Have someone of you tried the "cap snipping mod" cutting off those capacitors in the Dac and Pre-amp sections?

I'd like to do it but i fear bad consequences, like sound becoming TOO bright for my ears.... anyone giving me some advice?

i'm using a pair of HD-600 directly connected to ZERO.

Thanks

I currently have the snipped HDAM Earth + LT1364 Zero, and it seems that the Burson mod is a natural next step, but when first ordering caps from ussr-tubes.com, I guess I might just as well get some for some of the other mods, like adding 0.033 ufs to the DAC chip.


So, in short, what do I get to do a FrankenZero Light?


Cheers

Oops, sorry, early morning brain fade! See the next post, heh heh ...
S-Man

Hi fdbf, from what I can gather after months on the Zero thread, the cap snip (on the DAC board) may affect those headphones that are already a little bright up top, virtually everybody else has only found a benefit to be had by getting rid of them. I don't know of anyone else with either 650's, like myself and many others, or with 600's that has had any problems at all with the 'snip'.
You don't even have to pull the board. Only the ones at the back though, by the RCA output jacks. However, in your case, since you are not even using the DAC out to another amp I wouldn't bother yet, you can do that any time.

IF you mean the ones beside the op-amps in the Zero's amp, I'm not really a fan of just cutting them out, they usually have to do with the operational stability of the op-amp. They can be replaced for sure with better caps. I've actually replaced some in another amp of mine with slightly larger values to no ill effect - 100pF instead of 22 or 47pF. Just snipping what's there could lead to instability with some cans.
S-Man

Hey, I have two silly questions. On another forum they suggest getting 3 HDAMs for the Zero. On the Introduction page by Currawong it says "as the ZERO doesn't have enough grunt to power 3 HDAMs." Any chance someone could clear this up for me? How many HDAMs do I get? And assuming getting 3 isn't the worst idea ever, it would be stupid to have say, 2x Moon 1x Sun in one Zero right?

I don't know if this is necessary information, but I will be connecting headphones directly to the Zero.

You get one dual HDAM for the DAC, using an all HDAM solution (1 for the DAC, 2 for the amp) would require heavy modding to grantee that "grunt".

The only reason to get more than one for the ZERO is to try to find the HDAM you like to most, most would recommend the OPA-Earth for the DAC.

Grunt to power headphones? If so, my headphones aren't very demanding.

To power the HDAM units.

What you suggest would be a gamble, personally I do not gamble, you may, and you may find it satisfactory, or not.

Hello all, I just received my HDAM from audio-gd. I ordered an OPA-Moon Dual OPA with a 200mm extension wire.

Here's what I received:




Is this correct? It looks different from the HDAM on audio-gd's site, which has 3 sides instead of two:



Lastly, is the white wire attached to the HDAM the wire I'm supposed to ground?

Thank you all in advance for the advice.

Than is a single channel, you need the dual one, so you got the wrong version..

The white wire is the ground wire, not the extension lead!

The corrrect version would look like this:
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/OPA/OPA-MOON1.jpg
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/OPA/OPA-MOON2.jpg
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/OPA/OPA-MOON3.jpg

And the extension lead would be this "thing" on the side of the HDAM: http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/OPA/lead.jpg