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Valab Dac-First Impressions - Page 4

post #46 of 1577
11/17/08 at 1:20am
Thread Starter 
The 8 caps under the dac chips in my dac are 100uf, cant see the voltage but they are 85c not 105c. It really pisses me off where he shows Nichicon caps in the pictures and has them listed in the verbage of his ad. The power supply caps are junk also, I'm not sure what I'll do, it doesn't make a lot of sense to ship this back and get another one with god knows what caps in it, may happen all over again, or should I just keep this one and replace all the caps, that doesn't excite me either, the board and traces look fragile.

Phill
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post #47 of 1577
11/17/08 at 1:40am
I emailed him about the caps. I'll post if I get a response. I personally would just buy better caps and do the cap job myself but i'm impatient. Also you never know if you'll even get anything back. I wonder what caps to buy etc though. If you have any ideas please let me know. I forgot to check if the voltage regulator was what he claimed it was.

I also think it's bs to show and advertise better parts and skimp on them.
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post #48 of 1577
11/17/08 at 1:59am
Uh oh, I had the impression that it was pretty well built from external impressions but I haven't opened mine. I will have to pop mine open (received this past Monday) too sometime. I'm excpecting the cheap caps
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post #49 of 1577
11/17/08 at 2:44am
agreed, I was actually considering one since its so cheap before this "cheap cap" thing. Now I'm not too sure. It would depend on what he says about it.
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post #50 of 1577
11/17/08 at 2:45am
if it's only the caps that got skimped on we can swap those out and have the dac working as it was originally sold.
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post #51 of 1577
11/17/08 at 5:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by defec View Post
if it's only the caps that got skimped on we can swap those out and have the dac working as it was originally sold.
True, but you'd have to shell out extra for those caps that was originally promised in the product, just to make it equal to what you should have gotten in the first place.
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post #52 of 1577
11/17/08 at 12:01pm
Thread Starter 
I sent an E-Mail to Kevin stating that he cannot advertise using Nichicon caps and then switch to a cheap unreliable cap. I requested that he send me a new circuit board that I can swap out, I also told him I would like Nichicon caps in the board as he has advertised. I let him know that people at this forum are interested in the dac but will hold off from purchasing now that they know there can be problems with reliability and it is up to him to correct the problem. We will see if he makes any changes. Yes this dac is cheap but it can sound so good it will be a shame if this product goes down in flames because of cheap parts. Maybe the Giga Lab Moon dac is more reliable with better parts which is now sold at Pacific Valves?

Phill
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post #53 of 1577
11/17/08 at 1:03pm
Meh. I'm going crazy with all these DACs. They all seem great, get raving reviews etc but there is ALWAYS a drawback. I might just save a little longer and get a Headroom DAC.
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post #54 of 1577
11/17/08 at 3:27pm
This is absolutely terrible news. I've been burning in the DAC for a good 2 days, I'm gonna open it up once I get home to see if my board is suffering from the same design.

Thanks to Phill and everyone else for their investigative instincts, I probably wouldn't have opened it otherwise.
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post #55 of 1577
11/17/08 at 3:57pm
Thread Starter 
Take out the 2 top screws on the front panel, all 4 on the back panel and the circuit board just slides out, turn it over and have a look at the caps underneath the dac chips. Be careful not to touch any parts on the board that could store an electrical charge (Shock), do it at your own risk, just the standard disclaimer.

Phill
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post #56 of 1577
11/17/08 at 4:10pm
So far I've got nothing back from Kevin which I'm not at all surprised about. I doubt I ever will. I should probably leave him negative feedback. I agree the dac sounds actually really good. Believe it or not I like it more then a Benchmark/Lavry DA10. No accounting for taste right? Only major flaw to me is that the highs are a bit harsh. I probably only have 100-120 hours on it. I wonder if that would be much better with the advertised caps.
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post #57 of 1577
11/17/08 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricey20 View Post
True, but you'd have to shell out extra for those caps that was originally promised in the product, just to make it equal to what you should have gotten in the first place.
I completely agree. I'm just going by the assumption that Kevin won't make good on the unit's he already sold and that we are on our own.
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post #58 of 1577
11/17/08 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xan7hos View Post
This is absolutely terrible news. I've been burning in the DAC for a good 2 days, I'm gonna open it up once I get home to see if my board is suffering from the same design.

Thanks to Phill and everyone else for their investigative instincts, I probably wouldn't have opened it otherwise.
If you or anyone else has this dac with the advertised caps please post what make/model and value they are so us less fortunate/ripped off can modify our units to the same. Thanks.
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post #59 of 1577
11/17/08 at 4:16pm
I did warn people about any cost cutting alterations on the first page.

Better caps can certainly improve the sound quality, you will just replace them with quality caps if you can, or get someone else to perform the mod, I wouldn't send it back either...
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post #60 of 1577
11/17/08 at 7:52pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I have a new board coming from Kevin, when it will get here is another story. If the caps on your dacs are not failing I would leave them alone unless you are good with soldering in tight spaces with small parts, my hamfists do better on large boards with open areas.

phill
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