[]|[ GorE]

With the help of Ikon,i was able to complete a mod on the Audigy Value.The Audigy Value is the same card as the Live! 24bit but with a different DAC(WM8768) and 2 10uF caps near each of the opamps.

The card originally had about 34 caps.It now has 55 caps.All new caps were soldered behind the card and are either low ESR Electrolytic SAMWHA's or high tolerance Tantalum's by a local manufacturer.


Mod details :

0.1uF tantalum caps added to the existing 10 uF caps near the opamps,DAC and all of the voltage regulators.

Reason : Creative chose to do away with ALL 0.1uF caps on the card against the datasheet recommendations.

100uF reservoir cap meant for the DAC now has a 100uF and a 0.1uF added to it.
Total capacitance : 200.1 uF

22uF caps at the output of the +5V and -5V Regulators have been added with 470uF and 220uF 35V caps respectively.
I didnt have another 470uF in hand,so had to do with the 220uF one.

No caps added for the ADC.

The DAC and the DSP have now been heatsinked.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Results :

Objective : Almost no in RMAA results.

Subjective : Infra BASS ! The bass actually hurts my ears now ! Have to EQ to reduce the bass.The soundstage is more in the front and has more stereo separation.Different instruments sound all around you.Pretty freaky actually....the sound hasnt changed its tonality but is much more detailed aka can hear more details every second.
Theres no song on my computer whose lyrics beat me now.

And there are actually little things in songs that i am hearing for the first time.

Now for 2 crap pics :





Equipment used :

Foobar 24 bit 48Khz Resampling(PPHS Ultra mode).
Equalized HP805.
92kb Crossfeed
via Cmoy.
C1/S2 ACPI Cooling disabled.

Final thoughts :
Totally worth voiding the warranty.I modded mine 2 hours after buying it.
You get tonnes of details after the mod and no change in tonality whatsover.
Not bad at all for 25$ for the card and 5$ for the mod parts.

Go Creative !

 

[sgrossklass]

If anyone else should want to attempt this mod, I'd recommend to use X7R multilayer ceramics for the 100 nF parts (X7R actually is a common choice for bypass caps and the second best option after NPO/C0G which may not be available in capacities that large). Whether the big 'lytics need to be low-ESR parts by all means, hard to tell - the wires on the 470µ are fairly (too) long anyway here (--> parasitic inductance).

Can you still see 100 Hz harmonics from the PSU? With all the upgraded caps on the regulators these should be pretty much gone.

IMO, adding the bypass caps improves things because sigma-delta modulators as found in DACs and ADCs are stuff that works well into the MHz range, thus power needs to be clean up to rather high frequencies and voltages must not sag when power is drawn at these high freqs. I recently found a Wolfson appnote describing decoupling guidelines quite clearly, it's WAN-0129.

 

[]|[ GorE]

I know about the types of ceramics,btw but....... the vendors here havent heard of them.And i used 0.1uF caps BECAUSE thats what the manufacturers have specified in the datasheets.

Reduced the length of the 470uF cap.

 

[]|[ GorE]

Update:
Removed the cap at the output of the +5V LDO Regulator
Added 220uF cap to V+ and V- of the JRC4556.

 

[]|[ GorE]

Hows the length of the 0.1uF cap. legs ?