[rodentmacbeastie]

Has anyone tried or heard of hard wiring transports to DAC to preamp to amp to phones/speakers? I mean in a moddest setup you could probably save $500 in RCA connectors alone. The sonic improvements must be quite noticable as well. The only downside is the labour and inconvenience factor, right?

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodentmacbeastie The only downside is the labour and inconvenience factor, right?

Also it would limit any future upgrade potential and resale value of the equipment.

 

[rodentmacbeastie]

Also it would limit any future upgrade potential and resale value of the equipment.[/QUOTE

If you remove the female connectors and carefully solder the wires, later allowing for the re-install of the connectors, the only downside is effort, right?

 

[memepool]

So long as you are comfortable with soldering directly to the main circuit board? In the case of a CD player which you are using as a transport as opposed to a dedicated transport then it would also make sense to bypass the internal DAC as well.
It's not really going to save you that much on interconnects though because you are still going to need to use interconnects just without the plugs surely.

 

[rodentmacbeastie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool So long as you are comfortable with soldering directly to the main circuit board? In the case of a CD player which you are using as a transport as opposed to a dedicated transport then it would also make sense to bypass the internal DAC as well. It's not really going to save you that much on interconnects though because you are still going to need to use interconnects just without the plugs surely.

Yep cables needed, but at $40 per set of Eichman bullets with how many connections needed it could add up fast!

Skipping the DAC is accomplished by using the digital outs of a player is it not? I would be interested in skipping everything to put out a I2S signaldirectly to a DAC with such an input.

 

[LeonvB]

I guess it depends on what you call a modest setup. In what I would call a modest setup, there's no DAC, or pre-amp. Let alone $500 in connectors.

 

[ya8282]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeonvB I guess it depends on what you call a modest setup. In what I would call a modest setup, there's no DAC, or pre-amp. Let alone $500 in connectors.

$500 in connectors is a bit excessive. Once you get to that level of investment in audio equipment, I would think that an extra $500 or $5000 is probably of little concern.

You also won't save anything since you're buying the interconnects with connectors attached (unless you are talking about making your own). You will also lose some length on your interconnect cables by chopping them off and probably will want to buy posts that you can solder them to reduce the chances of shorting your equipment with stray solder.

There's also corrosion to worry about since your wires are no longer sealed by the plugs. Let us know the results if you decide to try it though with illustrations

 

[Garbz]

Why not just rip out the stupid RCA connectors and replace them with superior DIN connectors? One of the biggest problems with interconnects is not the cable but the RCA connector.

While you're at it rip out the RCAs from your transport and DAC and replace them with 75ohm BNCs.

 

[Carl]

Wiring your transport to your DAC using I2S is actually a good idea, provided you can get the cable runs short enough and you don't rip the cables out.

In terms of analogue domain stuff, you trade off one set of connectors, and the soldering/crimping that holds them together, for a single solder joint. There's advantages to be had, but they are probably too small to make it worthwhile.

 

[Thaddy]

Hasn't Patrick done something similar to this?

 

[Tachikoma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thaddy Hasn't Patrick done something similar to this?

I think most of his mods were in the analogue sections.

 

[studeb]

i did this, ran the I2S signal from the chip straight (TDA 1541) to the dac (Perpetual technologies P-3A). Was it better that the RCA digital feed? yes, but it was not a night and day difference.

 

[Garbz]

I think he was talking about removing connectors and soldering, not using a different source feed.

 

[Herandu]

This has been done before, and is still on sale today. It is called a Music Centre. In the old days it even had a turntable hard wired into it, and was sold in a wooden cabinet with a glass door at the front. Ppopular UK makes were Fidelity, Bush, Binatone. Alba, Amstrad.

But based on those attempts I would say that I shall stick to what I have. Sound quality is far inferior than wiring them up with your own interconnects.

 

[Patrick82]

Cheap Toslink from computer to DAC works fine. Compared to Valhalla digital cable it was a small difference.
The biggest difference was hardwiring headphone cable into amp and bypassing the output PCB and $100 WBT binding posts, the improvement was bigger than upgrading from stock cable into the cable being used.
The 2nd biggest difference was hardwiring interconnect and bypassing $50 WBT Nextgen female connectors and $40 Eichmann Bullet male connectors.
Hardwiring power cords and removing $80 Wattgate connectors also made an improvement but only subtle.