Audio-GD Reference 5.2 (New Balanced 4x PCM1704UK DAC) - Page 16

Has anyone else tried cutting the caps on Ref 5? I am kind of hesitating about doing it 

Do you feel your setup lacks sharpness or sparkle? 

If not, you probably don't need the mod.

 

Retrospectively, I think I would not have done the mod if my main headphones were HE-400 or HE-4. The Ref-5 dark signature would have helped tame the treble for those 2 brats!

It's not that my setup lacks sharpness or sparkle, but I feel it has somewhat emphasized lower end (especially when I switched from C-2.1 to the balanced NFB-6). It seems to me that this mod would bring the sound more to the neutral ground.

 

I am using Denon D2000, which can't be described as a dark headphone, but it can certainly abuse excess of bass.

I think the headphone is responsible for this.

 

When I did the mod, it pretty much improved sharpness (or bite) without changing the rest of the presentation.

I will try to play with the power cables first, because I have deliberately put inferior (but more bass heavy) power cord on C-2.1 to squeeze out a bit more lower end out of it, but it seems NFB-6 does not need this kind of hack. Anyway, thanks for posting your experiences.

Can anyone tell me what the TCXO for USB32 upgrade is that Audio-gd is offering?

 

4, Upgrade TCXO for USB-32 chip .
There is a TCXO can upgrade for the USB-32, cost is USD20 without shipping delay

 

Is the TCXO upgrading an existing chip or is this an addition?

 

How are individuals enjoying the USB32 upgrade compared to the Tenor chip?  Has the software matured enough at this point?

 

As a Reference 5.2 owner, any extra performance that I could squeeze out of my DAC is good in my books.

The TCXO upgrade applies for the USB-32 module. They replace the crystal oscillator (the clock) with a thermally-controlled one (one for which the frequency does not vary with temperature).
Saying this produce a better sound than the stock clock is an other call, though.

In theory, a clock that varies with frequency is worst than a clock that doesn't.
In practice, it's very hard to switch from one clock to the other to tell them apart.

According to Kingwa's statement and people who could compare the tenor and Via chip (either built-in or in the DI), the latter sounded better and, above all, has mature drivers (which the tenor lacks)

Very informative Clemmaster, thank you.

Being that Kingwa releases updates to his products frequently, I will keep this upgrade on my radar and pull the trigger once its settled down.

The Reference 5.2 pairs well in my setup and anything I can do to improve its performance is good in my books.

TCXO has a been an upgrade offered by him for a while (I have it in my DI V3, NFB-16 and my older DI-DSP). I am pretty skeptical about improvements in digital music but I felt there was an improvement using this clock over the stock one- vocals sounded "closer", like music was a few rows closer if that makes sense (upsampled of course).

I came across a strange issue tonight with my DAC. Read on.

 

Up until now I've been feeding the Reference 5.2 a digital coax signal from an Auzentech X-Meridian 2G and tonight I decided to try out the USB connection. Downloaded v1.1 x64 drivers for the Tenor chip. Installation went smooth and following a reboot I was up and running, except it did not sound right.  The center stage was no longer in the center instead it was in the middle-left side (very apparent with vocals).  Switching back to the coax input indeed confirmed this.

 

The troubleshooting began.  Verified balance was set correctly in windows. Played with the different playback rates. Different files. Different music players. Removed the USB drivers, rebooted. Installed USB drivers, rebooted. Same result.

 

Needless to say, I'm back feeding the RE5.2 a coax signal and everything sounds golden.

 

Anyone seen this before or has any idea what is going on?

Figured out what's happening.

 

When running USB input to the RE5.2, changing the input to another source and back to USB causes the USB to shift the center stage.  Not sure whether this is an Audio-gd design flaw or a Tenor chip "POS" driver/hardware flaw (I'm guessing the latter).

 

Can someone confirm whether a similar issue exists when running on the USB32 chip?  Thanks in advance.

You could try using the v1.0 drivers. In a similar setup with v1.0, I do not have the issue you desribe.

Correction on my part, I had v1.0 drivers installed during my initial testing.

 

 

AudiogdUSBSwPkg_v1p1p27p0a_20120409 = v1.0

AudiogdUSBSwPkg_v1p1p27p2a_20120725 = v1.1

 

Removed v1.0 and installed v1.1 drivers.  With 1.1, the center image is stuck at left-center regardless of what I do.  With v1.0 drivers, center image will be fine until I switch inputs.  Tried the experiment on a laptop with same results.

 

When the shift of center image occurs, the volume level between left and right channel is unaffected.  Back to coax I go.

Is restarting the dac or/and PC before switching inputs with v1.0 ok in all cases ?

Yes it is i0. What's easier is to unplug the USB cable from the DAC and plug it back in for the stage to correct itself. This is with v1.0. V1.1 is completely broken.

My recommendation is that people stick with v1.0 for their USB needs.