depend how you implement the feedback and modulator. its just a rough idea, not even a back of the hand scribble, but it should work with the right devices. and thats all i'm saying ;) if for instanvce you look at probably the highest quality class D modules for pro and high power high end...

TBH I cant say I was very impressed with the design for the octave, the digital input and power supply is pretty ordinary IMO. hes hardly the first, comms instrumentation amps, comms logic chips, coms low noise jfets etc have all been used for many years, certainly in DIY. 'made for audio' is...

nope, sorry I think you have misunderstood what we are talking about. there is nothing vaguely like a high power RF fet in the Octave, it uses Industrial Coms DACs. i'm talking about crazy stuff like these LDMOS N-Channel MOS-FET and J-FET normally used for plasma cutters, Broadcast RF and...

what do you call low and at what VDS? quite a few of the parts I mentioned were SiC Jfets and bipolars, but I agree its an area with the mosfets certainly that is a big problem. another thing was the fact that a Semisouth Engineer is working to understand what parameters are important to audio...

Before I run off with some semi OT rambling, I also must thank you guys for a great article, as has been said it looks as if STAX are a well rounded company, with typically humble Japanese front men and it gives some welcome encouragement to makers of short run high quality 'hand made' boutique...

I speak mainly of the ceramics, there is more to specs than voltage and capacity. replacing them how you described will make the circuit performance worse. even replacing with the same type and increasing the capacitance may be worse by setting up resonances. as HF decoupling/bypass caps, the...

Handy Ray, I was commenting on the photos posted recently, since they were posted several times and people were talking about following recommendations and buying bunches of Elnas, I made the fairly reasonable deduction people would be replacing the 'crappy ceramics and SMD polymers' as is the...

I guess i'm to late, but I can help proof read the manual, it may help that I understand the technical lingo quite well to begin with. I have helped with the translation of several DIY product manuals. ahh its not very technical, you should be fine, though I do think the edits still need some work.

there is no way you have improved performance if those silmic are decoupling caps (well actually at this size they become reservoir caps), you do know that putting the 2 caps in series like that reduces the capacitance, rather than increasing it right? it only increases the voltage rating, which...

incorrect, it must be rated for the entire voltage ie. the DC offset + signal voltage swing raising the cap to 47uf from 4.7 will lower the 3db point and the point intermodulation starts by a decade (for example 4.5Hz vs 45Hz) if driving the same input impedance, I cannot tell you what the...

yep same thing as what i'm talking about, just done internaly, as you can see above i'd already looked that up in your manual to check it was possible and edited. I use ackodac these days for the main rig and have buff32 and buff II, but jumped ship before BIII and had to make sure it was doable...

you can test by just shorting across the line of SData1-SData8 inputs to test before working out how to do that the neatest

ahh sorry I thought they had made it so its able to be routed to all the dacs with the BIII in stereo mode, it depends on the dac implementation. PCM is louder or at least equal if the i2s is routed to all of the dacs. it depends on the source too, I havent tested Amanero in this way to see if...

I meant accessory 'upgrades' its great the cases you have pictured come with the player, I too have changed my mind, I thought you meant solid white too, I like the translucent white better than black

seriously? I think they will wisely leave the waffling about subjective sound quality to the experts...;)

nice work! PCM is also somewhat louder sometimes than spdif with ESS so make sure to level match for comparisons. the Amanero board is a nice little unit, great for the money :cool:

myself I stick to low inductance ceramic or thin film SMD, perhaps SMD PPS film. completely agreed, high class opamps are already running output stages in Class A or high bias AB for most loads. besides a CCS would be preferred for bias in a case/device that responds to it. indiscriminately...

yep, device first, accessories later :cool:

haha sorry... too dry? :D yeah I got it. indeed 3D printers and CNC are the future for niche hobbiests like us, even for short run PCB fabrication. Add in the spread of more accessible CLPD and FPGA programming tools and we can make our own hardwired firmware and dacs. actually seeing it on...

oh yeah, oh well another brilliant idea down the drain, killed by a minor detail. I expected the hardcase would not be viable, at this price level and in smallish numbers it would likely increase the cost of the unit by 25% or more. I like silicone cases myself, stops them slipping out and...

HolyCheese, asking for opinions on the comparative subjective SQ between the cowon and a device that isnt finished yet and nobody has heard, is not the best way to get meaningful information.

well thats odd, because particularly with multidriver IEMs, using a constantly varying output impedance driven by a low current dac output is a terrible idea technically, perhaps you like the erroneous frequency response you are getting?

but then you need a soft case to protect the hardcase from scratches....

probably something in the clocking or spdif output circuitry of AK100, jitter will be higher in the peculiar UAC1 version of iphone USB->i2s->spdif conversion also (notice the extra conversion too), even if onboard clock is the same. I prefer well done USB2.0-i2s to spdif in home hi-fi, but...

do you really mean transport? doesnt seem like you do, or you have made the mistake of thinking the Dac analogue specs listed apply to the digital out? there is no digital crosstalk, the crosstalk has no effect on digital output. I doubt you will find the AK100 still has lowest crosstalk for low...