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Valab Dac-First Impressions - Page 5

post #61 of 1577
11/17/08 at 8:22pm
wow, he actually replied to you. So far he's ignored me. Do you know if board is going to come with the advertised caps or just the 8 on the bottom fixed? Soldering in new caps wouldn't be much of a problem for me. I'm just a bit confused on what to get to install. Nichicon, Blackgate, Elna, Panasonic FC etc.
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post #62 of 1577
11/17/08 at 11:29pm
Thread Starter 
He replied to my first E-Mail not my second, I have no idea which caps I'll get if I even get the new board. I went to a site today and looked at 100uf 25v Nichicon caps, they are $0.68 ea I believe. Anything will be better than than the fugiwan caps that are in there. If new caps take care of the edge on the highs then this dac will sound super. I had a Benchmark Dac several years ago, audio memory is not reliable but I do believe the Valab is quite a bit better. From what I have read the Blackgates are a terrible value, very expensive and no better than Elna or Nichicon. Kevin did say in his E-Mail that he makes a lot of changes and he cant change his ad every time he makes a change in parts, this must be a Far East way of thinking, to us it's deceptive advertising and I told him that in so many words. I made it clear that many buyers of this dac are members of our forum and they are not pleased and his sales from this forum anyway will dry up until he corrects the problems with his dac.

Phill
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post #63 of 1577
11/17/08 at 11:44pm
I received a replay from him a bit ago. I pasted it below.

This dac keep revising in PCB layout and part choice. So I do not keep listing. It always stop selling and relist after I finish a new revising. Every batch of DAC ship out will keep progression. This product is not branded one, but hand build product in my home factory.

Thes caps inside your dac is not cost down choice. All 105 degree c lolerance type. Nichicon caps is not expensive caps at all, so I do not need to cost down from caps.

Only caps you replace which will get better sound are otput caps, which are these 2 blue caps. I use Philips caps there. Blackgate N type cap is very good upgrade.
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post #64 of 1577
11/17/08 at 11:49pm
I had some black gate N 10uf's around that were well broken in so I tried them in the dac. I ended up putting back in the Phillips after awhile. Bass was way gone with the Blackgates. Maybe it would reappear if I left them in awhile. I never really got into the Blackgate sound in other digital projects that I've tried them in. To be fair to the black gates, the original cap was 47uf. The 47uf Blackgate's i had around will not fit in the dac. The good news is that the board took a few cap swaps without any traces lifting etc.
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post #65 of 1577
11/17/08 at 11:57pm
Please keep us posted on the replacement u get. I ended up ordering a audio sector spdif(bnc) dac with transformer and dual cardas RCA mounted on a wood block for 410. I'm still interested in trying the valab though
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post #66 of 1577
11/17/08 at 11:57pm
Thread Starter 
Kevin told me anything 4.7uf and above can be used for coupling caps. How did the blackgates do with the edginess in the highs? How did the caps look on the dac chips on the bottom of the board?

Phill
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post #67 of 1577
11/18/08 at 12:01am
Thread Starter 
Ricey20, didn't you have a Cambridge 840c? I had the 740c and the Valab is in another league, the 740 was flat boring and lifeless.

Phill
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post #68 of 1577
11/18/08 at 12:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tubes View Post
Kevin told me anything 4.7uf and above can be used for coupling caps. How did the blackgates do with the edginess in the highs? How did the caps look on the dac chips on the bottom of the board?

Phill
Maybe the Philips were 4.7 and not 47uf. If you have your unit open before I do and can check please let me know.

The blackgates had slightly less glare on the highs but the over all sound wasn't as good to me. Bass was gone. Maybe it would have came online after awhile. I can put them back in and let them run in again. Do caps need to be reburned in if not used for awhile?

caps on the bottom are okay so far. They are some super generic 47uf 105degree caps. The only 105degree caps in the unit. I guess you weren't so lucky with your 100uf's.
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post #69 of 1577
11/18/08 at 12:33am
Thread Starter 
The coupling caps in mine are 47uf. I woudn't think the blackgates need to burn in again but it may take them a little while to come around again. The caps on my dac chips are Honsing, sounds like you may have different caps, what ever was in the parts bin at the time. Was the transparancy still there with the Blackgates? I wish there was more room for different coupling caps.

Phill
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post #70 of 1577
11/18/08 at 12:39am
maybe something like this would be ideal.

http://www.tech-diy.com/wima_10u.jpg
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post #71 of 1577
11/18/08 at 12:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tubes View Post
The coupling caps in mine are 47uf. I woudn't think the blackgates need to burn in again but it may take them a little while to come around again. The caps on my dac chips are Honsing, sounds like you may have different caps, what ever was in the parts bin at the time. Was the transparancy still there with the Blackgates? I wish there was more room for different coupling caps.

Phill
Yeah the blackgates weren't horrible. they just have the same sound signature in everything that I've tried them in so far. It's hard to put my finger on but it's there. It still sounded good, I just thought it missed something overall when compared to the original caps. I've read where people have called them dry sounding.

I also popped in some Elna Cerafine 47uf's at first for a bit but it was way too eggy. they had no time what so ever on them so it's not really fair. We probably need a good small film cap that will fit.
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post #72 of 1577
11/18/08 at 3:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tubes View Post
Ricey20, didn't you have a Cambridge 840c? I had the 740c and the Valab is in another league, the 740 was flat boring and lifeless.

Phill
Yea I used to have a 840c. Sold it once I got my Cary 306. It wasn't bad but was a bit on the bright side.
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post #73 of 1577
11/18/08 at 7:31am
i'm shocked when i read the poor quality on Valab DAC
until now i've got no confirmation wether my unit has been shipped or not
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post #74 of 1577
11/18/08 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 
The problem is there seems to be no consistency with some of the parts he uses, I would rather pay a few dollars extra for good parts so one doesn't have to go through shipping a unit back to Taiwan.

Phill
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post #75 of 1577
11/18/08 at 11:59am
It's the same with the Zero in a way. There have been reports about badly done soldering on later batches and also that Lawrence that sent out modded Zeros that were modded in the wrong way.
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