Haven't been a while since I posted an article here, since its my semester break and I have some money I thought of buying new cards replacing dead X-Fi XtremeMusic, its Xonar HDAV1.3. I got it 2nd hand for less than the price of new one and since its out of warranty I looking to improve it...

Hey guys I need to know something, is there any good efficient headphones that I could drive it without the need of headphone amp?   I use Creative X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB modded to drive them. Currently I use Sennheiser HD-437 but it lacks treble detail no matter how much I modded it. I don't...

I wanted opinions, whether I should get the Ordnance DAC-1 or X-Fi Surround 5.1. The Ordnance DAC 1 uses the single chip PCM2704 DAC while the X-Fi Surround uses Cirrus Logic CS4361 DAC and have native ASIO with digital volume control to boot. Some link to Ordnance DAC-1 and X-Fi Surround 5.1...

Which one of this suit you best? 1) You proud of the things you build by yourself (doesn't have to be expensive or cheap) 2) You proud of buying the state-of-the-art/unique/expensive branded stuff I'm more to DIY kind of person, even when I have money I'd prefer to mod stuff and tune it...

Alright guys, this is not about sound quality but noise level. I could hear hissing when using coaxial connected to onboard sound (even to X-Fi AD_EXT), but luckily my onboard have optical as well. So does changing to optical will reduce this hissing? Because I might suspected PC have noisy...

My father just give me an old Audio Alchemy DDEv1.1 DAC, it uses CS8412 receiver and CS4303 DAC. Its analog out consists of OP275GP opamp and discrete output (?) This DAC is so old that Cirrus Logic don't support them anymore Sound wise, it's quite good, separation is nicely laid out, the...

I got a question regarding resistor mod on headphones, should it be done in parallel or series? If I do in series I would make it harder to drive (increase resistance), if in series it will reduce it ressitance and easier to drive, or is it wrong? I have 32 ohm headphones (Sennheiser HD437...

My Elite Pro suddenly decide its time for it to passed away all of the sudden. The L.E.D still works but Windows don't detect the card and there are no relay clicking when Windows starts. I'm looking for a new cards, I have some in my mind and what I think of it: 1) Xonar DS - It uses...

I've read that its possible not to use any opamp on this kind of DAC, so I plan to connect it directly to RCA out on my Elite Pro, but of course I need to use a capacitor to block DC, but how do I counter the out-of band frequency, I read from Prodigy HD2 (AK4396) thread here that I need to use...

I've changed to Windows 7 x64 7100 recently from XP 32-bit SP3, and been testing with mixed audio setting, from ASIO to WASAPI, and uses latest Foobar2000 and all its components. One thing though, in XP 32-bit I need to set to Audio Creation Mode and using ASIO to get bitperfect since KMixer...

I use Nokia N73 Music Edition (with LGC Jukebox as music player), looking for a suitable headphone to use with it, I have tried recabled Koss KSC-75, Sennheiser HD-201, Philips SHE9700 and an old Phillips HP200, so far the recabled Koss sounds the best, while the HD 201 is the worse of the lot...

Hello all, I need some advice here. I want to mod my Yulong PCM58 DAC with a better capacitor. The red one is for decoupling, while the blue one is on the signal path. Do you guys have any recommendation on the signal (blue color) path on which brand/type of capacitor should I use there? The...

Hello all, I need some advice here. I have X-Fi XtremeMusic currently, my internal X-Fi analog circuit is kaput because of excessive modding, so I can't use them no more, thankfully the digital out is still functional, so I feed to an external Yulong PCM58DAC, as the name implies, its based...

I waned to replace a capacitor with a better spec, the stock one is Nichicon Muse FX (green colored) 330uF 16V, I wanted to replace it with Sanyo OS-CON but I only have the 10V one, the only 16V caps that I have is only 180uF. This caps will be used on opamp supply caps, I measured the voltage...

I looking for good budget single channel opamp, the reason I say budget because I looking to buy 4 of them for my Yulong PCM58 DAC The stock one is Ti NE5534, sounds rather nice to be honest, I even tried LME49720 (convert to dual single DIY'ed) but still I prefer NE5534 over the LME49720...

What are the purpose/advantages of having differential outputs? My question is I currently run my X-Fi without opamp, is it OK just to solder the + (non inverting) part without the - (inverted phase) to the output?

I wanted to ask, which one is better? Is it better to use software volume (i.e Windows slider volume or foobar) or amplifier volume knob? I've tested that using software volume to 80% vs. 50% and I adjust the volume on the amplifier approximately to same volume, and i say that at 80% makes it...

I have some money right now, and I plan to buy new cards, this is the card within my budget with their prices 1) X-Fi XtremeMusic - RM230 2) X-Fi Fatal1ty (w/o I/O) - RM300 3) ASUS Xonar DX - RM340 4) X-Fi Elite Pro (w/o I/O) - RM370 5) Echo Mia Midi - RM400 I can buy the first two...

I always wanted to ask this but it may sounds stupid. When I wanted to ground my amplifier or DAC to wall socket, it makes a lot of background noises (hisses, buzzing etc) and end up just leave it as it is. I suspect that my house electrical have something wrong, since even when I open up...

I currently run on onboard AD1988B and using SPDF out to external DAC, it sounds wonderful (using latest foobar2000 and ASIO4ALL). Before this I've used the coax on the motherboard, but because it close to CPU PWM it makes some noise , but soon I found out that there is a SPDIF out close to the...

Does anyone have his problem? I using Yulong PCM58DAC, I love how it sounds when I don't use any opamp at all. But something bothers me when I listen to music, random clicks. At first I thought maybe not enough buffer so I raise it, but it still present. Then I notice this is only happen on...

I'm in dilemma when choosing new soundcard. I can get a good deal of X-Fi Fatal1ty, but I'm not sure about its driver (although I use XP, which I guess its OK). I can hotrod it to max to make it sound better, but I was hoping that I can get a great card out of the box, without any sort of...

My Prodigy HD2 is dead, so I left with my Yulong PCM58DAC (based on old obsolete BurrBrown PCM58, here is the spec). I've modded my SB Live! to output coax from AUD_EXT connector and connect it to my DAC. But as I found out, there is enormous amount of hissing when there is no signal, and at...

I currently using LME49720 on my Prodigy HD2 soundcard and decide to change them The LME is too sharp, too forward and lacks warmth, so I looking to counter this problem, while giving enough detail. Between those three which one is the best? LT1364 LT1361 LT1469

I want Prodigy HD2 owner to report whether their card is hot to touch or not After done several modding on the card, I noticed the card is very hot, that even a heatsink isn't sufficient anymore, that I need to actively cooled the card. Although the hotspot is concentrated on the Via Envy DSP...