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Onkyo ND-S1 PSU upgrade - Page 2

post #16 of 27
8/26/11 at 9:26am

Playing music through the Onkyo dock and iPod classic, with custom PSU by Mike Grierson (rock-grotto). smily_headphones1.gif

Difference with standard wall wart is not massive, but immediately noticeable, it took actually a few seconds to realize the better instrument separation and less grainy mids. The dock still sounds different from my Halide Bridge, but not in a bad way.

The upper mids is smoother, some recordings are slightly harsh with the Halide, and some instruments like the harpsichord have more weight.

With the Halide some low level details are easier to spot and the stage is still a bit deeper: having said that I'm hugely happy with the Onkyo dock.

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post #17 of 27
8/26/11 at 12:54pm

I'm really glad you like it massi. I love my unit but was worried you might not like it and I know spending money on something that doesn't suit you kind of puts you in a bad mood but in audio world its a lot about buying>trying>selling. When the last part doesn't happen then it feels good. How is the build quality of the unit?

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post #18 of 27
8/26/11 at 2:54pm

You're a very wise man Peter. I'm kinda sick of this game, I mean buying, selling, trying etc etc.

Having a PC as source definitely doesn't help, you know, upgrade the OS, change the player, change the settings, disable services, configure the network...

 

Going back to the dock, it feels a bit cheap, plasticky, but it looks nice.

The PSU is very heavy, well built, with a nice blue button. It gets warm after an hour, but not hot. The DC connector is not loose, it has a good grip. I'll post some pictures tomorrow :-)

 

The only issue with the dock is that I'll probably need to buy another classic, I don't like to synchronize the music from the PC often, so I'm trying to to fit my library in a couple of ipods. Tonight I also used my iPhone with last.fm and it works perfectly, despite the dock not being iphone certified.

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post #19 of 27
8/26/11 at 3:38pm

hehe thanks for the compliment massi, can say the same for you :D

Next thing on my "to buy" list is an iPad two. I think it would make a great companion for the Onkyo dock. I would like to listen to Sky.fm directly and not have to record songs and then put them on my ipod like I have to do now. I will however need to source someone who has experience with making a full fledged digital ipod LOD or more precisely and extension cable.

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post #20 of 27
8/27/11 at 7:02am
I read the nd-s1 has very clean digital output, so it really should be quite an ideal non-computer non-cd transport. The main reason I decided not to get a linear psu for my archos 5+docking station is because I can tell the spdif is pretty horrible and can't be fixed with a better psu.
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post #21 of 27
8/27/11 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by realmassy View Post
 Tonight I also used my iPhone with last.fm and it works perfectly, despite the dock not being iphone certified.


It does work fine with an iPhone, Onkyo just didn't "pay" for the certification. the only problem you might have is hearing radio interference from the signal.

they advised to turn it off while using it (and that came from Onky themselves)

 

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post #22 of 27
8/28/11 at 4:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrainferno View Post




It does work fine with an iPhone, Onkyo just didn't "pay" for the certification. the only problem you might have is hearing radio interference from the signal.

they advised to turn it off while using it (and that came from Onky themselves)

 

 

If I disable the network I won't be able to stream from last.fm or spotify, but I got no noise anyway
 

 

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post #23 of 27
8/28/11 at 4:15am
Quote:

Originally Posted by realmassy View Post

 

but I got no noise anyway

 

 


That's because you have a great Onkyo dock ;)

 

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post #24 of 27
9/28/11 at 10:41pm
Thread Starter 

I have had a chance to try out the Russ Andrews PSU now (connected to the mains via a Supra screened mains cable, as is all my equipment). It doesn't make a huge difference, but the improvement is noticeable and worthwhile. In particular, the bass is now much tighter and better defined (although imaging capabilities and ultimate resolution still lag behind the CD section of the Consonance 2.3). There is no discernable noise (as some RA users have reported), but then this appears to be a completely different design from the DACMagic PSU.

 

It doesn't make CD obsolete, but it makes listening to AIFFs via the iPod Classic enjoyable. Does anyone have any details on the jitter performance of the Onkyo dock? I presume this must be what is costing resolution, if it is substantially inferior to a typical CD transport. Ultimately, I would have thought some sort of offboard reclocking data buffer (working in a similar way to Chord DACs of old) might be worthwhile, if such things exist. Do they?

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post #25 of 27
1/10/12 at 4:29pm

This linear power supply was recommended to me and works really well.  The power cord that goes from the PSU to the Onkyo ND-S1 has the right connector as well.  Search Teralink on ebay: $43 USD + shipping ($13 to the US)

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  You have to open it up and adjust the trim pot to 5.1 v or you will FRY your dock.  The factory default is 8.5v.  Its easy to do if you have a voltmeter.

 

 

http://www.teradak.com/en/product_view.asp?ID=209

 

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post #26 of 27
1/11/12 at 12:59pm

I finally plugged in a good quality coax cable on my onkyo dock and I am finding that my dock is finally in the same league of sound quality as PureMusic playing from my mac. It must have taken at least 200 hours of burn in but I finally like my dock. I use a  power supply from Vintage Audii Lab off eBay. I have never used the stock power. 

 

It is a great feeling to eventually love something that I only kept because I couldn't be bothered selling. The sound is now great. Now if only the remote Could run through all of the menu on my iPod classic then I would be really impressed. This is now the weak link. 

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post #27 of 27
4/21/12 at 8:50am

i use the DC-1 PSU from http://www.head-fi.org/t/604438/onkyo-nd-s1-custom-power-supply-psu-dc1-custom-hifi-cables-uk

 

for my Onkyo

 

Here's my quote at http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/ custom - hifi - cables dot co dot uk
 

Tonight I did an A/B comparison between the stock 'wall wart' PSU that came with the Onkyo ND-S1 and my custom made PSU from Custom HiFi Cables Ltd.
Source component was my 3Gs iPhone playing Linn Radio's Jazz station streaming at 320 kbs.

I've been running the system with the Custom PSU for several weeks now. So tonight was merely substituting in the stock PSU

Simply put, NO comparison. With the stock PSU, everything sounds shut in, closed in, two dimensional, no air around the instruments or voices. The soundstage is much much wider with the Custom PSU. Everything is more dynamic. I wasn't expecting such a leap between the two

Bottom line, the Custom PSU makes me want to listen to music (exactly why I bought the Onkyo in the first place) the stock PSU is uninspiring, uninvolving. hence no desire to listen to the music.

Before going to the Onkyo and an existing DAC, I was just taking the analog signal out of the LOD iPhone port into my headphone amp. That signal was uninspiring as well.

I thought about buying a $200 plus LOD cable from the iPhone to my headphone amp before I knew about the Onkyo. The wadia iPhone transport was way too much money to even consider.

All things considered, the money in the Onkyo and Custom PSU was a far better choice than buying a very nice analog LOD cable. Cheers!
 
David (US)

 

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