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Valab NOS DAC - subjective listening and modifications - Page 68

post #1006 of 1994
9/22/09 at 4:08pm
IMHO that advice is similar to using solder as universal audio glue, you really need a sound (pun intended) electrical connection before you apply any solder. The advice of applying a bit of solder to the components works pretty well as it makes making the solder joint easier.

If you want/need to use the left over leads you may want to try to make sure you have enough length left in order to give both the new and the old lead a couple of twists entwining them before you start soldering.

Soldering the big fat leads most high quality components have on a PCB is indeed almost impossible as it was mentioned, I usually connect any new components directly to a solid lead of another component that has a direct connection to the new part ( a PCB layout and schematic do help) in an attempt to hard wire(usually leaving me with a nuclear plant unable to close any original housing).

I once listened to the effects of individual solder joints and was quite shocked to hear the effect of bad soldering (well even a good solder joint should be prevented if possible)
Spending mega bucks on exotic components imho warrants the extra bit of care in connecting them.
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post #1007 of 1994
9/22/09 at 7:56pm
A quick question, do these mundorf caps have polarity? Gotta make sure before I solder it
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post #1008 of 1994
9/22/09 at 8:25pm
Thread Starter 

nein

No polarity but I understand connecting the outer foil to incoming signal allows the cap to act as a shield. So signal in outer foil and out inner foil. But in most cases this may make little difference.

I think if the caps are in a high EMI venue or are in a high gain situation like a phono preamp, or situated close to a transformer ... etc.


Quote:
Originally Posted by MikoLayer View Post
A quick question, do these mundorf caps have polarity? Gotta make sure before I solder it
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post #1009 of 1994
9/22/09 at 9:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeW View Post
I hope they fit, the damn things are almost as big as a D-Cell battery hehe, I opened up my dac and looked again and there's not nearly as much room as the picture makes it out to be. Good luck, and some pic's would be nice when it's all done.

Actually I also opened up my older 2.1 dac and compared them side by side, and I think I was mistaken to which one has more space, the luxery version just has so much more jammed into it, reclocker board, bigger power supply and the filter caps, and it's also got larger digital decoupling capacitors, they are about twice as tall as the ones in my 2.1 dac. I also noticed my older 2.1 dac seemed to be put together much better, it looks like a pro job compared to my Luxery version, which in comparison seems dirty, and sloppy. The 2.1 board is very clean, where the 3.0 Version had hair in it, and lots of Flux, and alot more scorch marks, and alot of the caps don't sit flush to the board, and on the actual Dac chips section all the solder looks milky and the PCB has what appears to be dried fluid stians, as if this board where the last one in the box sitting on the docks. (moist enviroment). I guess the Rookie put mine together, perhaps I just expect to much out of china, my Head Direct EF-1 is much much better put together though. (also a china product) My Clock crystals also say Teradak on them instead of Valab like the ones in all the pictures. I know Teradak is the oem for valab products, but untill this point all the valab dac's have had "Valab" enscribed clocks. I can't find much information on 45mhz TCXO's what little info I did find leads me to believe they are for scientific measuring instruments and not tailored for audio.

Dac's closing in on 80 hrs now, really starting to open up and sound better, this pretty much exactly mirror's the way my 2.1 dac broke in, but their are obvious improvments in clairity and resolution (as compared to 2.1 dac), and also bass slam, but it's hard to get a handle on how much of an improvement until the dac's fully broke in.

I wonder if adding a pulse transformer to the coax will have as signifigant a differnce for me as it does for the older dacs without the reclocker board, the reclocker may completely mitigate the need for a coupling transformer, it certainly couldent hurt though.
I think I could fit one of them in, if it's ok to let the cap sit on top of other stuff. Two is definitely pushing it, I still can't figure out a way to get the lid to close fully with both of them in, and thats even without positioning them so soldering wouldn't be too challenging. Maybe I should look into ways to cut some small openings on the lid...
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post #1010 of 1994
9/22/09 at 10:46pm
yeah I was a bit concerned with their size. You may have to do what Bill Allen did. He drilled holes in the back of his(for wire leads) and put them in a metal box on top of the chasis. There are pictures somewhere around here.
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post #1011 of 1994
9/23/09 at 2:55pm
This may have been posted already, but here's a great collection of high resolution images of the various models of Teradak Dacs, there's also some nice pics of the Teralink X here. I noticed there is one set of pictures called "V 2.5 and 3.0 patch" I looked at the pictures but don't really understand them, maybe someone else can look at it and figure it out. somthing about a 300R resistor. I also notice in alot of the pictures here, the dac's have the same 45.1584 mhz clock as my unit has. I guess they just changed the part.

Michael's Profile - Windows Live
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post #1012 of 1994
9/23/09 at 11:07pm

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post #1013 of 1994
9/25/09 at 10:57am

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post #1014 of 1994
9/25/09 at 3:34pm

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post #1015 of 1994
9/27/09 at 5:25am
I've been talking to Michael, and if im understanding him correctly, the newer models with the 45.1584mhz clock are not designed to work at 96khz or 48khz, although mine works fine at 48khz, im assuming 45mhz is not the right "integer" or "divider" for 96khz but somehow works for 48. Here's what Michael had to say about it.

Quote:
Hi,
I am very sorry for your experiences on our DAC. Especially you bought 3 our DACs. We should help you solve the issue you met.

Your DAC is no problem. Indeed the new DAC installed reclock module only works for 44.1k (88.2k) base music.
For operating 48k base (48k, 96k, 192k), it should use another TCXO. We use the 45.1584M because most of the user use 44.1k base music. For current architecture, we don't have method to discriminate the input sampling frequency. Therefore, we only can choose one TCXO for reclocking. For using 96k music, the reclock module should use different frequency (24.576M or 49.152M)). Or you should modify the DAC by bypassing the reclock module. In the future, we will use different method to support 44.1k/48k bases music.
I guess this explains the noise at 96khz (unlistenable) My old dac does not have a reclocker that's why I did not have this problem. I can also play 24/96 fine thru the USB input, which bypasses this secondary reclocker. Im still getting some high frequency "wine" noise at 44.1 and 88.2khz though. It's very soft and only noticeable with my headamp turned up all the way, it's twice as loud at 88.2 Im thinking it's my sound card because my Oppo 980h does not do this, and I tried my motherboard optical out and it was silent at 44.1 and did have some noise at 88.2, but it's motherboard quality spdif so that's not really surprizing. I also get a similiar "wine" noise on my old dac but only at 96khz. I wish some other people could try 96khz and report back with the 2.5 or 3.0 dacs.

I think I need to invest in a better transport, either a better soundcard, or usb to spdif converter, im looking into maybe an EMU 0404 PCI, Musiland 01/02, or that new M2Tech Hiface.

Dac's around 190 hrs now or so and sounding quite good, markedly better then my older 2.1 dac, which now sounds "dull"
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post #1016 of 1994
9/27/09 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 

what time is it?

I am glad I got the late 2008 version even if it does have a wandering trace path. No extra clock, though. I am thinking those late 2008 and early 2009 versions are classics. The holy grail [with some modding] slipped in and out of the production line.

It would be if a non-reclocked version were available.

1. Reclocked
2. non-reclocked
3. clock upgrade board

Those choices should meet TERADAC's marketing price-points: <$200.00
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post #1017 of 1994
9/27/09 at 4:07pm
well, I've got both versions, and the newer one is a good step up, but who knows how much is being done by what. Maybe 90% of it is the better power supply, maybe it has somthing to do with the reclocker. Im probably gonna start modding this one soon, at least the output caps and a transformer. Could you post some more detailed instructions on how to install that Lunhal transformer pat? I've seen your pictures.. how did you connect the actual transformer to the coax plug, or is it connected?

It looks like I can easily fit the Sonicap 4.7 uf caps inside this chasis, i'll possibly replace the digital coupling caps with vishay too. The DIR9001 mod is tempting, but I fear it's a bit out of my league, that chip and legs are so small. I've already taken this 3.0 version completely apart to look it over, I noticed it's been "modified" straight from the factory though, some traces are cut and wires ran on the back of the PCB, michael suggested that this was normal though. It's got somthing to do with the power supply. I wonder if replacing the 4 big 1000uf caps in power supply with blackgates is worthwhile.
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post #1018 of 1994
9/28/09 at 1:06am

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post #1019 of 1994
9/28/09 at 7:19pm
Thread Starter 

Who's Yahudi?

A little birdie told me about replacing the fuse in the DC30 /w a ceramic cryo from HiFi tuning. Nice increase in cymbal reality. Does that "more like metal than white noise" thing right off the bat. It didn't sound like white noise before but the thing is almost photographic in presentation with the fuse thingy.

More focus or snapto.

Not a huge change but noticeable.

I got it on sale ...
And I added PRP resistors back at output. Pure happiness.

How that Lundahl hooks up is:

Have a look at the Datasheet.

Pin 4 rests on center[+] and pin 3 on rim[-] of RCA connector.
Pin 2 goes to "coax" on PCB and pin 1 goes to ground on PCB.
With it sitting right on the RCA it looks like this:


That is one way to hook it up.
This way leaves the caps on or off the board but presumes that there are DC blocking caps or a transformer at the output of the transport.

Ultimately I removed the caps, jumpered the one and ran the output from the transformer right to the 110ohm resistor:

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post #1020 of 1994
10/3/09 at 3:34am
I ordered my 4.7 uf sonicaps a few days ago, should be getting them any day now. What the best way to install them? as far as soldering them, I know you said to desolder the old caps and suck all the crap solder off, that sounds simple enough, should I use some kind of heatshrink tube to insulate the leads? or can I just use carefully routed "bare" leads, does it matter which lead go's to what side, polarity?

If I don't have enough "lead" on the cap I can just solder some teflon insulated copper/silver wire to the lead and heatshrink it?

got 250+ hrs now, sounds good this dac is alot mroe detailed and resolving then the older version, im sure because of power supply. I do have some sibilance and the high's are a bit to sparkly, there is alot of warmth and bass but the lowest lows are simply not there, this happend on the older version too, I guess it's a limitation of the older dac chips, maybe replacing these output caps will help get some more bottom end.

Thanks
Mike
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