Quote: I have to say that while listening to my STX now, after all mods, I can't imagine how a DAC could perform better   The sound is so amazingly detailed and alive, full of warm and punchy bass   I just tried to swap out the 3x 4562 for 3 x lm 49990 mounted on adapters; the...

Just tried to solder the oscillator output pin directly to the PCB, no more wires, but same result, cold, edgy and unpleasant sound   I'm concerned about grounding anyway: the oscillator ground PIN is connected to a ground point near the old quartz, and VDD pin to the +5V of a dedicated low...

Ok, replaced the oscillator output cable with a naked cat 5 wire   Well, things seems improved, instruments definition and focus are ok, sound stage is good, but ... I don't know, the music is still uninteresting, uninvolving, voices have quite a metallic flavour, especially on sibilant, and...

Germanium, this is a very good idea   While I'm aware of insulation induced distortion (all of my signal cable are made from enamelled or cat 5 wire), I don't know why I didn't take care of it in this case, and used a normal multistranded wire !!   And here we are talking about a 24 Mhz...

Good point   My amp run very hot when fed with HF noise, so I used to think it was spending a lot of energy amplifing that noise, I didn't consider the interaction between switching frequency and noise frequency...    Anyway, returning to the original topic, if someone could help me to...

Quote: The essence one was in my plan, but for the same price there is the NFB-2...   It would be very nice to have a comparison

From a NY guy, he sell on ebay   I don't know if posting link to vendors is permitted here  

PurpleAngel, LM49990 are on the way right now, I've ordered them soldered on dip 8 adapters (two chips for each adapter)    I can tell a little story here about STX harshness: this problem is really apparent through my main system (DIY amp based on TA3020) than my headphone (sennheiser...

You put me in severe trouble, leeperry   While looking at audio-gd site for NFB-12, I discovered NFB-2 and NFB-3, complete discrete output section, top quality components ...   I can't resist, my wife could kill me...   I guess both are superior to asus essence one    Anyway my...

I've considered that option, but it takes time, and I was in urgency to replace my defunct previous DAC   The point is: I love music, but I can't afford the cost of a really good off the shelf dac, so I start from something cheaper and try to improve it   Often the difference in sound...

Wow, that NFB-12 looks really interesting ...   what about feedback?   I heard about a lot of faulty items from this manufacturer

I agree with you, when I bought the STX, one year ago, I was disappointed; harsh and aggressive, not very pleasant   The return policy in Italy doesn't include money back, so I had two options: resell immediately, loosing at least a third of the value, or try to address the card faults  ...

No, few money really, few euros in caps, the biggest expense is the Vanguard, 25 euro shipped   A lot of spent time of course, but this is part of the fun   Anyway I owned other dacs and CDP, and none of them approached the SQ reached by my modded STX, nor the same stock card    

But anyway this is not the case, I supplied the Vanguard with a dedicated PSU taking power directly from 12V on the molex   My only doubt is about ground    

No, not chaotically, I follow a method   I add caps once a time and I carefully measure ripple before and after with oscilloscope   Sometimes I had to come back and remove the cap or change for a different type or value   In some places I found improvement with stacked film, in...