E10, new USB DAC （ updated with photos of real E10 ) - Page 34

Hey guys! 

I ve been browsing the forum for a while now but never posted cause I always found the informations I needed to take decisions, great forum!

I have the E10 too, the first batch I think since I got it as soon as it came out. Great product for the price, I dont have the jack issue that is described a few pages before but an other one. When I hit pause button after playing some songs through Itunes, I dont hear any noise. Until now that s normal but 10 sec later I start earing a crackling noise in the left ear, nothing on the right ear. It gets softer when I turned the E10 volume button down but still noticeable. It sort of bothers me since I m not constantly playing music but like keeping headphones on... 

Does someone have this issue too? What could it be? I m relatively new to the hi-fi equipment field and I dunno every subtilities of DAC/Amps. Please give me some indications

by the way sorry for my average english, I m from France.

Does it happen with other players?

Yes it happens even without any players running on the computer. The crackling is louder on high gain than on low gain. I can't hear it while playing music though

Try another USB jack or computer. It might be defective, but it's strange that it only happens 10 seconds after you press pause. What about before playing any music?

I switched usb and there is no improvment, it also does it before playing music.

I m not sure how to explain it but right after the music, the DAC feels "ready" to receive a signal. There is this little background wind typical of an audio system turned on. But after a couple of seconds, it feels like the DAC realises there is no more signals coming and some part inside shuts off and the background wind dissapear, replaced by the crackling noise in the left ear. Does that make sens?

That's not normal right..? thanks for you help

I'm trying to open my E10. The back cover comes off easily (4 screws), but the front cover and the volume knob seem to be glued. I've seen pictures of opened E10s without any damage, so how do you do it?

The LED is too bright for me and I would like to replace the bass boost with a crossfeed circuit, or at least reduce the corner frequency.

Quote:

Originally Posted by netexzess 

I'm trying to open my E10. The back cover comes off easily (4 screws), but the front cover and the volume knob seem to be glued. I've seen pictures of opened E10s without any damage, so how do you do it?

 

The LED is too bright for me and I would like to replace the bass boost with a crossfeed circuit, or at least reduce the corner frequency.

I recall there being at least one screw on the inside of the faceplate, accessable with a thin screwdriver. I decided agains attempting to remove it because I there seemed to be glue as well and I wasn't confident in my ability to replace the screw.

I suppose that you could possibly fit a resistor in series with the LED to lower its intensity with steady hands, but I'm curious as to how you intend to insert a crossfeed into a mostly SMD circuit board. Even replacing a couple of resistors would be a huge pain, let alone the fact that to fit one in you'd probably be needing to recase the whole thing anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoetheArachnid 

I recall there being at least one screw on the inside of the faceplate, accessable with a thin screwdriver. I decided agains attempting to remove it because I there seemed to be glue as well and I wasn't confident in my ability to replace the screw.

 

I suppose that you could possibly fit a resistor in series with the LED to lower its intensity with steady hands, but I'm curious as to how you intend to insert a crossfeed into a mostly SMD circuit board. Even replacing a couple of resistors would be a huge pain, let alone the fact that to fit one in you'd probably be needing to recase the whole thing anyway.

I'm an electronics design engineer, thus I don't worry about replacing the LED resistor or adding 2 square-centimeters of PCB along with four wires. I do this kind of stuff every day. I just don't want to ruin the case (which is really nice) and I don't get the trick how to open it without damage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by netexzess 

I'm an electronics design engineer, thus I don't worry about replacing the LED resistor or adding 2 square-centimeters of PCB along with four wires. I do this kind of stuff every day. I just don't want to ruin the case (which is really nice) and I don't get the trick how to open it without damage.

 

Is there a way to remove small SM components? In your experience...

Knob was sitting very tightly in my E10 too, but came off with a harder pull. No glue.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by netexzess 
front cover and the volume knob seem to be glued

Cut a piece of transparent plastic-film or something and glue on to the LED from the outside :)

When I opened min, two of the screws didn't really fit when I reassembled it. It's not meant to be opened up. But hey - crossfeed would be nice :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by netexzess 

 

The LED is too bright for me and I would like to replace the bass boost with a crossfeed circuit, or at least reduce the corner frequency.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnityIsPower 

Is there a way to remove small SM components? In your experience...

Well, what is small, in your experience? The E10 has most passives in 0603 size and a smallest pitch of 0.5mm (TE7022L). Regarding prototypes and DIY stuff, that's rather easy to solder and desolder (a little bit harder for the IC) if you have the right tools. These are: fine tweezers, thin solder wire containing lead (e.g. Sn60Pb40, 0.5mm), thin solder wick (<= 0.8mm), soldering iron set somewhere between 300ºC and 400ºC with 1mm to 1.5mm tip. However, it's much harder if you need to do this at a production or rework quality level.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by active 

Knob was sitting very tightly in my E10 too, but came off with a harder pull. No glue.

That was a helpful hint. I levered off the volume knob using a screwdriver and then pushed the PCB through the case out of the back opening without removing the front plate at all. So far for the tricky part, now comes the easy stuff:

I increased the LED resistor R96 from 470R to 1k5, it's much darker and nicer now. At the moment I'm working on drawing the schematic and trying to find an easy way to add a crossfeed to the analog circuitry. I want it to attach it to the bass boost switch, removing the bass boost feature. If that does not work out, I'm going to increase the bass boost caps C72 and C63 from 47n to 100n or 150n, shifting it to a lower frequency. This should remove some "warmness" from the bass boss setting and thus make it more bearable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by netexzess 

I increased the LED resistor R96 from 470R to 1k5, it's much darker and nicer now. At the moment I'm working on drawing the schematic and trying to find an easy way to add a crossfeed to the analog circuitry. I want it to attach it to the bass boost switch, removing the bass boost feature. If that does not work out, I'm going to increase the bass boost caps C72 and C63 from 47n to 100n or 150n, shifting it to a lower frequency. This should remove some "warmness" from the bass boss setting and thus make it more bearable.

 

I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Would be interesting to see some pictures of the crossfeed in place if you do manage to fit it.

Very very happy with this unit, though I have a little problem with it...

everytime I go to the sound properties and changed the max output to 24/96, my PC just crashed, and even restart won't help, it won't load windows, until I unplug the E10 and changed USB port.

Anyone knows why?

Reinstalling Windows usually solves the problem. Driver clashes probably.