[lordearl]

01 does not have a headphone output....(in my earlier post I was assuming Dave was referring to how it might sound in conjunction with a headphone amp)

 

[Mikeb]

I was assuming the musiland 01US which has an headphone output, but the 01USD doesn't (D standing for digital only I assume), very similar names bit confusing.

 

[lordearl]

hhaha yeah ultra confusing - BTW can't speak for the headphone output, but the Musiland 01 US does in fact sound pretty good on my Beyers, and that's after testing it on about 3 headphone amps....

 

[mmerrill99]

I have done some more mods on my unit - completely turning off all the output stage & sending I2S to a 2 channel Sabre Vout DAC - excellent sound - best I've heard coming out of this unit so far. Thread here Musiland 01US USB DAC I2S into Sabre - diyAudio

 

[Wood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkeny /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have done some more mods on my unit - completely turning off all the output stage & sending I2S to a 2 channel Sabre Vout DAC - excellent sound - best I've heard coming out of this unit so far. Thread here Musiland 01US USB DAC I2S into Sabre - diyAudio

Excellent work!!!

 

[Wood]

Jkeny, the replacement crystal, does it run ok direct from the board power?

Also appreciate it if you point me in the direction obtained it from.

Tah!

 

[glt]

I had a brief discussion with jkeny regarding the replacement of the crystal with a clock, but we did not conclude anything.

But here is my take:

The cypress chip has an internal clock and uses an external crystal as reference. You can replace the crystal with a clock but is that better or worse?. The cypress chip doesn't know it and the clock is still generated internally.

The external clock still uses a built in crystal

crystal specification don't vary much. Most are spec'ed at 50 ppm. The data sheet requires a 100 ppm crystal. The best crystals are spec'ed at 10 ppm but may not be available for the specified load capacitance.

So my take is (in order of priority): use clean digital power so the internal clock can perform better, replace crystal with a crystal of better spec.

Other opinions?

 

[mmerrill99]

Yes I would like to experiment with crystals as glt brought up a very good point but I don't know a source for low jitter crystals - anybody help? Using an external USB supply is gives some clean power to the Cypress chip although it has to go through a 3.3V regulator first. I did try bypassing this regulator with a direct 3.3V but noticed no improvement. Now this was a while ago & the system may not have been as refined as it is now!

I definitely hear benefits to the sound with the low jitter clock in place that I put in but this may be largely due to the better power supply feeding it. I'm running it off an external 3.3V battery - I might just try it off the 3.3V regulator & see if there is any difference. It's a Crystek clock from Mouser C3391-24.000 Crystek Crystals Oscillators

 

[Lil' Knight]

Just pulled the trigger on the 01 USD. Can't wait to try it with my Buffalo32s.

Anyone knows how long would it take to ship to the States?

 

[Ultratone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just pulled the trigger on the 01 USD. Can't wait to try it with my Buffalo32s. Anyone knows how long would it take to ship to the States?

Ordered mine on a Sunday and got it on Thursday, ordered from coolfungadget on EPay. That's to Western New York.

 

[Wood]

Here is an easy and cheap way to provide external power without modifying a usb cable.

I bought a very cheap powered usb hub this type,

USB 2.0 4 Port Powered Hub on eBay (end time 08-Dec-09 16:38:31 GMT)


disconnected its power input from its usb cable so it was dependent only on its smps supply, and then replaced the cap with a quality Panasonic fm. This particular hub has 2 empty cap spaces on its pcb, so I added 2 more caps there. Finally removed the annoying red led, no need to waste power for that!

Compared to the current regulated psu, I was previously using I could tell no difference after extensive listening.

 

[Lil' Knight]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ultratone /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ordered mine on a Sunday and got it on Thursday, ordered from coolfungadget on EPay. That's to Western New York.

Thanks

Hopefully I'll receive it soon.

 

[Wood]

glt, jkeny, thank you both for your input on the crystal mod. I decided to keep out of the debate for a while because I replace 17 caps throughout my system including 6 Teflon’s in the audio path, so you can imagine the mud. Anyway coming out of it now so some refection.

Apart from the modified usb hub I tried recently, I think the best sound I get out of this Musiland is via the Toslink, not my first choice, but it avoids the questionable pulse transformer on the spidf and bnc. After close listening this is the preferred output despite the fact I am only using fibre and not glass connector. This strongly suggests the pulse transformers need an upgrade.

The direct connection I was using before, bypassing the pulse transformers, and using a short wire directly to my dac pcb, does produce slightly more noise than the toslink connection. I am sure that any improvement would require at least a glass toslink, and better still a high quality pulse transformer on the Musiland board (and dac).

As for the crystal mod, I can see in theory it should not improve matters much, as it’s only used as a reference point for the Cypress chip. If , jkeny, could determine whether the improvement came from his independent psu or the new crystal, or indeed both, it would be interesting to see if theory crashes once again.

As an aside, the latest driver 1.7.0, gave me very bad glare. I compared with early drivers and although the glare was reduced with early ones I got more noise instead.... dilemma. Then I wrapped plasticine around the caps in my speakers to dampen them... no more glare. You guys figure that one out! The new driver sounds great now.

 

[glt]

Wood,

Do you mean speaker crossover caps? That's interesting.

The crystal mod would require more research I feel. First we'll have to determine the correct CL specification (I think it is 12 pF). The typical 12pF, 24 MHz can crystal is typically 50 ppm and the best you can get are 10 ppm. Then there is quartz vs ceramic crystals, and in theory, the quartz are supposed to be "better" than ceramic. Then there are companies that manufacture "low phase noise crystals" but those are not available through the normal channels.

So I do agree to leave the crystal alone until more research is done.

 

[lordearl]

Wood - the power mod sounds easy enough for us DIY morons out there, do you have some pics?