Quote: Originally Posted by tubes Z, I've been told by the MFR that the minimum value that should be used for the coupling cap is 4.7uf, anything lower will limit bass, at the top end you can go up to a 100uf cap. In the early Valab version they used a 50uf and now use a 10uf coupling...

Quote: Originally Posted by krisno I hear thay many people really dislike black gate.. I dunno for what reason though. They really don't sound to good. Can you tell me what sound difference you got with swapping out tantalum for black gate? Was the dac still warm? realistic? sweet...

Quote: Originally Posted by krisno Hi guys After alot of testing, what is your recommended replacement for the Tantanium output caps? But it seems a bit too much hassle. So I ask you, do I have to bypass the v-caps, or can I just use the v-caps? Or can I just use the sonic caps...

Quote: Originally Posted by tubes Adriaan, I think it was a 47uf Bill replaced with a 220uf. I think Bill made a mistake, on the board they call these capacitors 47uf, but I am quite sure Bill has the same capacitors I have on my 2009 Valab: LG330 C, which means Nichicon LG...

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill Allen Well I finally got around to doing the first Mod on the Cyro'd Control Dac. Off to the solder bench to put in the 220uf Blackgate NX. Removing the 8 screws on the front/back, the 3 screws holding down the Dac board & soldering in the new BG took...

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill Allen Well I finally got around to doing the first Mod on the Cyro'd Control Dac. First thing I did was put the C-Dac back in the system and took a serious listen to Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Understand this is one of my most difficult recording for me...

From the beginning I have used my 2009 Valab upside down and I have put thermal compound on the TDA1534's. Upside down it dissipates heat much better, it only gets warm,never hot.

Quote: Originally Posted by adam2434 That is very interesting that you only measured -1.2 dB at 20 kHz. Everything I’ve read indicates a 3 dB reduction at 20 kHz for NOS DACs due to the “sin(x)/x rolloff” phenomenon. I wonder why/how the Valab is different in that regard. Did you...

Quote: Originally Posted by tubes Adriaan, have you tried any film caps? Yes, I did, mainly on valve microphones including some exotic and expensive polypropylenes. For me a well chosen straight Black Gate still is the best compromise, the higher capacity polypropylenes are...

Quote: Originally Posted by dcolak It's really not that hard to have computer output 44Khz/16bit over its S/PDIF or USB. Foobar is one of the programs that offers all one needs to do that, with the plethora of output options (DirectSound, ASIO, KS, WASAPI). What' more, you can...

Quote: Originally Posted by erin Hang on. PC settings have a lot do do with getting the most out of this DAC, Since it IS a USB DAC! I think its quite relevant. Also this seems to be the only forum on the internet to discus the Valab, so any information or suggestions seem relevant...

Quote: Originally Posted by tubes We all know about the so called distortion complaint, the MFR has stated that a change of resistor fixes the problem yet it's the same old pissen and moanin from the same group of people. I haven't heard anything constructive from this group since the...

Quote: Originally Posted by tubes You know guys I'm not trying to defend this dac, if it has a problem and it can be fixed then great. The thing is you guys have honed in on this distortion issue even going so far as calling it incompetence. You all know about the fix which very easy to...

Quote: Originally Posted by PatOMalley Are you saying that the CDs that cause clipping are the compressed overamped ones? Let me know what CD and track. I will fetch one just to have a listen. I have Amy Whinehouse ~ Back to Black; that has to be a candidate. No, that is not...

"No change! I do not agree to change to solve problem from 'wrong' record. Clipping is not problem from dac but from records with too high basal output. We spent all week to study this problem. We made final decision, we decide to keep out design and its sound charactristic. Some records will...

Quote: Originally Posted by dcolak Let us know when the new batch is ready for shipping. They will be available at: vintage_audio_lab on Ebay? It is really not necessary to buy a new Valab for this distortion problem. The instruction Tubes gave is very clear, I would advise...

Quote: Originally Posted by dcolak Where am I coming from? That's why I wanted to buy me a Valab DAC, thinking, it won't clip. Unfortunately, it shares the same problem that Gigalabs Moon DAC has. Replace the 390 ohm resistor for a 330 ohm and all your problems are over...

Quote: Originally Posted by tubes Hi Adriaan243, a full discription of how you adjust the blue trimpot would be a great help for those of us that have no fear of arming ourselves with a soldering iron but are not yet electrical engineers. Thanks. I did it by adjusting for lowest...

I changed the 390 ohm resistor, now a Caddock 330 ohm and adusted the blue trimpot for best clipping behavior. The DAC now clips at the maximum level, as it should. A slightly lower level may even be safer. For more information: http://www.dddac. DDDAC 1543

I tested my Valab thoroughly using a professional AD converter. Result: Frequency response flatter then I expexted, -0.2 20hz, -0.5 10khz, -1.2 20 khz. My Valab is definitely hard clipping at -3 db, no question about it! I found out that the 340 ohm resistor in the output is actually a 390...

This kind of DAC does not use any kind of filtering like commercial DAC's. Your sine waves will always show all kinds of harmonics because of the missing 20khz brickwall filter. This is also one of the reasons this DAC sounds different from commercial DAC's.

I have been a producer/engineer (classical) for 35years. This Valab DAC is an amazing little gem and does not distort. Basically it is wrong to use Windows for quality audio, it may introduce all kind of problems like truncation of bits, jitter, resampling and so on. Using a CD or DVD player...