Thanks very much for the info! The black goo makes me little bit worried once I open the back of the circuit board. Never tried LM4562, will order some from mouser then test.

My AudioEngine A2 left speaker has small problem due to one of its electrolytic capacitor leaked. I am little bit surprised that audioengine used those capacitors manufactured by TWBOR/TBOR so I planed to replace them all. Two questions need help: (1) One problem I am facing is how to deal with...

Quote: Originally Posted by wali How about STX and ST combo? lol I ran this test couple weeks ago. Here are the details. (STEP 1) Install ST card into my Win7 PC. (STEP 2) Load driver and Xonar Audio Center SW for ST. (STEP 3) Launch the Xonar ST Audio Center, everything...

Quote: Originally Posted by shabta The problem is no one including you has explained the flaw in Uncle Erik's logic about cost of parts. shabta, Thanks for sharing your view! In 1990, I started involving in the business in China, we spent 20M GBP to setup the first joint venture...

Just my 2 cents. Quote: Originally Posted by shabta So what about china? China has many well documented cases of Child Labor and Human rights abuse. Use google, you’ll find lots of reports. One of the greatest areas is in the assembly of electronic equipment such as PCB boards...

Quote: Originally Posted by wali Here is an idea, anti-static hair spray that one should use before listening to headphones. $99 a bottle? Too cheap, man! $999/bottle....

Quote: Originally Posted by sonance Well put. Each product should be judged on its own merit and value, not by its country of origin. +1

Quote: Originally Posted by linuxworks often times, keeping the board is worth more than the part. so I cut parts off if I really have to. just hate it when I ruin/lift a trace! not only is the board, then, mostly ruined but you lost your time and effort on THAT board. double loss...

To prevent 7812 regulator mounting screw from shorting to the PCB ground plane on the bottom side, I used Teflon screw.

Quote: Originally Posted by Currawong The problem with your big post though is, it basically says that it's impossible to build an amp cheaper than $500 without using dodgy parts or child labour, and, as one of the most well-known members here, you've implied that every Chinese company...

Part cost is just a factor but not the whole story. The labour cost could make a big difference. Because labour cost is so high in US, so it does not make sense to use very very poor quality parts because the saving on part cost alone is not significant comparing to labour cost while this...

Quote: Originally Posted by jalyst Garmanium/Applegd, Do you know of any good threads that focus purely on mods to the ST/STX? Preferably with work-plans, schematics, photos etc. Thanks! I did a search in the past but I did not see any thread have decent details like...

I owned MicroDAC years ago, sold it then bought UltraMicroDAC. Also I own both ST and STX. I prefer the UltraMicroDAC.

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium you wanted technical information, I give it & you turn it around into something different from what I'm actually saying. Anybody that reads what I was saying with an open mind would actually see what I'm saying the 500mv was a worst case scenerio...

Quote: Originally Posted by germanium Bear this in mind also that since many amps already have some D.C. offset of thier own if the D.C. offset on the Xonar card is lower than the D.C. offset of the input of the following amp then the D.C. output of the following amp will in fact also...