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Creative Live 24bit opamp / cap mod

post #1 of 17
11/27/10 at 4:47pm
Thread Starter 

I have a creative labs SBlive 24bit and I'm trying to get a bit more quality out of it. Mind you I'm on a tight budget (hence why I still have a live). I replaced the stock NJM4556 primary opamp with a spare LM4562 and replaced the <DAC power cap?> with a nichicon muse of the same value. I have a few more nichicon muse caps and 2 more LM4562's left over from a X-FI mod commission to work with. I'm looking for all the power caps on the analog side to replace and any advice. normal_smile%20.gif Here is a pic of the simi' modded card as is.Live.jpg

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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 24bit 7.1 Channel Audio Card Part Number: SB0410,...
post #2 of 17
11/28/10 at 6:38am

I´ve chosen another way to improve sq in my Audigy SE  (same soundcard as yours).  I´ve built a "Faraday´s cage" around it.  To my surprise, it works !  Now, Í can hear details in music, I can´t hear before.

(The soundcard is inside the silvery box,  that is "grounded"  to the computer case by the aluminium part below it)

 

audigyblindagem001.jpgaudigyblindagem003.jpg

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post #3 of 17
11/28/10 at 5:06pm
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by nagual View Post
I´ve chosen another way to improve sq in my Audigy SE  (same soundcard as yours).  I´ve built a "Faraday´s cage" around it.  To my surprise, it works !  Now, Í can hear details in music, I can´t hear before.

(The soundcard is inside the silvery box,  that is "grounded"  to the computer case by the aluminium part below it)


Good idea. I had planned to use some left over ERS paper or something to isolate the card from RF noise when I'm done modding the card. I might even go for something similar to yours with a permanent housing, assuming I have the room in my case. I'm thinking of recapping the whole card if I can get enough audio grade caps for cheap. 


Edited by ACE 256 - 11/28/10 at 5:07pm
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post #4 of 17
11/28/10 at 6:11pm

At first (second photo), there was no improvement at all, but when it was fully grounded with the aluminium part (first photo), most of the "hummm" and  "hisss"  fade away  biggrin.gif.

Good luck with the project, and let us know about your progress !

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post #5 of 17
11/29/10 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 

After a lot of searching traces I back tracked to the opamp power caps and the opamp Vreg power cap. The + and - opamp buffer caps are marked in red and black respectively. The power cap for the whole analog side is in blue. I also made a shield out of a few layers of 80 connector IDE cable and static bags. The stock buffer caps for the opamps where only 22uF!!!! eek.gif No wonder it was clipping low frequencies so badly at full volume. smily_headphones1.gif

 

Live.JPGFin.jpg

shield.jpgDonejpg.jpg

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post #6 of 17
11/29/10 at 7:08pm

IIRC when I had this card, its main chip is hot. Is it wise to cover it up like that?

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post #7 of 17
11/30/10 at 4:57am
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by thuantran View Post

IIRC when I had this card, its main chip is hot. Is it wise to cover it up like that?



Good point. It does tend to run a little warm. I left the lower side of the card partly open, and I put a heatsink on the main chip. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of that side of the card. I could take the card back out later today and take more pics if anyone wants more. normal_smile%20.gif

 

Update: I soft modded the live to an X-FI extreme audio. CMSS and everything else works great but ASIO no longer works. frown.gif


Edited by ACE 256 - 11/30/10 at 5:01am
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post #8 of 17
11/30/10 at 10:43am

I accidentally started a new thread when I should have just joined into this one. I'm interested in making a Faraday cage. Is that first one made out of tinfoil?! I thought for some reason it had to be a special paper. Can it just be any conductive metal material?

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post #9 of 17
11/30/10 at 11:29am
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by T.B.N. View Post

I accidentally started a new thread when I should have just joined into this one. I'm interested in making a Faraday cage. Is that first one made out of tinfoil?! I thought for some reason it had to be a special paper. Can it just be any conductive metal material?



It doesnt really matter what the miterial is made of as long as it blocks RF from reaching the card. I generally go by how well it blocks a cell phone signal or a wi-fi signal. Some anti-static bags are good RF shields, just put your cell phone into one, If you loose signal it will work great. This doesn't test the broad spectrum of frequencies but it does give you a general idea of how well it works. Normally it is best to ground it to your computer case like nagual did. In my case this resulted in a faint 60hz hum over all channels. I'm assuming this is due to my apartment's crappy wiring and lack of a working ground. redface.gif

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post #10 of 17
11/30/10 at 3:46pm

I have an anti-static bag that would probably fit. Obviously it won't be grounded as it's not conductive, but it seemed to cut down my cell phones signal strength by a few bars.

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post #11 of 17
12/4/10 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 

Update: Apparently ASIO and any form of software recording fails. Line-in works, but no "What U Hear" recording. Any one had smiler experiences?

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post #12 of 17
12/4/10 at 12:54pm

In my Audigy,  Asio4all + Daniel_K´s SupportPack_2_7  works OK  with WMP11, Foobar, and uLilith.

(Don´t made any recordings, though)

Running  WinXP SP3.


Edited by nagual - 12/4/10 at 1:08pm
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post #13 of 17
12/5/10 at 10:21am

Great thread!

 

I happen to own one of this buggers! I'm running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. It's a shame this card it's not supported by the kX project, I would like to try the driver, but well...

Anyway, curious thing, when I first installed the card, I didn't have internet so Windows didn't installed it automatically, then I searched a bit and found out that Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio it's very similar, so I downloaded it's drivers and force windows to install them. Worked perfectly, except it didn't show the jacks information. Later on windows update offered a driver update, and I'm using the "normal" driver now.

 

I'll mess with it after I mod my card, but I'm not sure how to start.

 

What opamps and capacitors should I use? I heard at another thread that film capacitors are much better, but I researched for types of capacitors and there are so many!

I'm a PC hardware distributor and have access to dead motherboards which have many kinds of capacitors. =D

 

What should I look for? Big ass values? Solid ones?

 

The big green capacitors I see replaced at the pics are all the front green jack uses?

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post #14 of 17
1/5/11 at 2:03pm

hey to what you changed those stock buffer caps for the opamps  22uF? I'm thinking about to upgrade my audigy platinum too. thanks

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post #15 of 17
1/8/11 at 6:27pm

anyone?

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