[bimmer100]

Thanks to you. This mod should be quite easy. I will try to save the orginal oscillators, that should be a bit tricky. I will alternate the de-soldering between the two txcos, and try to drain the heat somehow.

chipquik might work too...but remove as much solder as possible first with a wick.
 
let it fully cool after you remove the solder. 
 
chipquik is pretty sweet, keeps the solder in liquid form for a long time so you can pull the crystal out. it's very low temp too. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyaz4Zrd78
 
good luck. the breeze truly should be a breeze to do. just be careful to not damage the traces on the pcb. 
 
 
or try something to this effect.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzfNrbDfIY

 

[bimmer100]

So I'm toying with the idea of getting the m2tech Evo 2 DDC
It's been out about 6months. I may have my diu8 up for sale if this works out. I actually have been looking for a DDC with everything the diu8 has and a remote plus display. And a smaller footprint. But I am first wanting to see photos of the insides. I can only find the dated m2tech Evo ... Not Evo two.
The old one isnt impressive, I understand the new one should be pretty damn good.
Problem is cost is 599. So would likely let my diu8 go for 400 with crystek mod. But only if I actually like the m2tech evo2 more. :/ tough choice.
I wish I knew the power implementation of the m2tech. I know their old stuff isn't too great, but we shall see.

 

[InsanityOne]

So I'm toying with the idea of getting the m2tech Evo 2 DDC
It's been out about 6months. I may have my diu8 up for sale if this works out. I actually have been looking for a DDC with everything the diu8 has and a remote plus display. And a smaller footprint. But I am first wanting to see photos of the insides. I can only find the dated m2tech Evo ... Not Evo two.
The old one isnt impressive, I understand the new one should be pretty damn good.

Problem is cost is 599. So would likely let my diu8 go for 400 with crystek mod. But only if I actually like the m2tech evo2 more. :/ tough choice.
I wish I knew the power implementation of the m2tech. I know their old stuff isn't too great, but we shall see.

What an interesting looking DDC! Unfortunately I was unable to find any photos of the interior either. Although it looks like the base unit the M2Tech Hiface Evo 2 does not have a built in power supply, but instead uses an external power-brick. I am basing that off of this quote:
 

 It can be powered by the USB bus or by an external power supply like the Evo Supply Two.

 
But it looks like the way to go would be to purchase the M2Tech Evo Supply Two which matches perfectly and is made to supply the Hiface Evo 2 among other products. And then if you wanted to go even further and get the true "Triple-Stack" you could pick up the M2Tech Evo Clock Two! Although it looks like you would be paying close to $1750 for all three units or around $1200 for just the Hiface Evo 2 / Evo Supply Two.
 
- Insan1tyOne 

 

[FredA]

chipquik might work too...but remove as much solder as possible first with a wick.

let it fully cool after you remove the solder. 

chipquik is pretty sweet, keeps the solder in liquid form for a long time so you can pull the crystal out. it's very low temp too. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyaz4Zrd78

good luck. the breeze truly should be a breeze to do. just be careful to not damage the traces on the pcb. 


or try something to this effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzfNrbDfIY

Interesting method.

I should be able to manage with my solder pump and iron set to some lower temp. It's just 8 rather small soldering point to undo. No stress. Just have to go slowly.

My oscillators are on their way.

Should be my ddc for a long time. There is no much improvment margin, i figure. If i just get a small upgrade, i will be happy. The intona made the lower bass more impactful, which helped with Tord Gustavsen trio's recordings that were missing some and improved the sound on many other levels, so there is not much left to improve on. After new usb cables and maybe a 6-inch cat8 supra rj45 cable i will crimp myself, that should be it for a long while.

 

[FredA]

I did the mod this morning. Took me 1.5 hour. Screwed up 2 pins on the jyec clocks but i believe they are still good otherwise. I took the occasion to wash all soldering points with alcool. The original soldering job was ok but not very clean.

Too early to judge the sound but i would say i lost something at this point. But i am confident it will be better after 100 hours.

 

[bimmer100]

I now have two pairs of 957's that are extra, and with the 1% tolerance murata bypass caps installed.
 
I just installed the NDK's tonight and they are even slightly better. Definitely a pain to work with. These require some patience and nerves of steel.
felt like I was performing surgery. But I can't imagine doing it without a hot air and low temp sra paste. The temp is ultra sensitive and would fry in a short moment if you tried using an iron.

 

[bimmer100]

 

 

 
they are TINY TINY, damn little ndk's.  but the bypass caps are about a quarter of the NDK's size...soo.... but they are not sensitive to heat like the NDKS

 

[bimmer100]

I did the mod this morning. Took me 1.5 hour. Screwed up 2 pins on the jyec clocks but i believe they are still good otherwise. I took the occasion to wash all soldering points with alcool. The original soldering job was ok but not very clean.

Too early to judge the sound but i would say i lost something at this point. But i am confident it will be better after 100 hours.

so I can't tell, but did you not use dip14 sockets? did you actually solder the crysteks ?

 

[FredA]

so I can't tell, but did you not use dip14 sockets? did you actually solder the crysteks ?

I used sockets from the electronics store nearby. The round hole type but no gold plating.

It is starting to pay off. Took about 8 hours to get an even deeper bass and sweeter and more relaxed sound. The crysteks are well worth the effort. I will get the ndks if ever they become available pre-mounted. I am thinking of trying to upgrade the usb clock at some point. An even easier mod.

Resolution has increased as well with the crysteks, to the extent i don't think it can be improved anymore, could be proven wrong, who knows. Ultimately, a dac as good as the m7 will "sound like clock", the rest being so transparent especially using the acss connection and turning off the pll. It is to say that jitter is the determining factor of sound quality in my setup.

 

[bimmer100]

 
I love HDMI i2s but am excited to give this Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme digital rca/coax cable a try. Purty cable! It will feed my Vanatoo T1's more than likely. Also have a Mad Scientest Audio Heretic carbon fiber cable to test too. 

 

[FredA]

80 hours later, the Crysteks have improved. The sound seems louder with them. Definitely an increase in resolution. Better imaging, quite fascinating on some occasion. Bill Evan's Waltz for Debby never sounded so good. Smoother sound, most definitely, flawless with that regard.

I still miss something from the jyecs however, can't say what exactly, but overall the crysteks makes the sound a significant 2-3 percents better. I am sure the best is yet to come. I will keep you posted. I am also enjoying a .5 to 1 percent improvment with the insertion of the supra usb cable just before the intona. Small but noticeable.

 

[FredA]

I did some component swapping today. Decided to go intona to schiit wyrd to usb interface.

Sounds as good as wyrd into intona, or quite hard to tell the difference.

The surprise: i prefer the sound of the di2014 with that configuration. The sound is fuller with it, although not as pin-point. But musicality is better. i think it is a clock thing for the most part. I will try this same configuration putting back jyecs oscillators into the breeze and compare. Funny but the di2014 reminds me a lot of the breeze with jyecs. The di2014 sounds very organic, very full, and the depth is very good, probably better than with the breeze (note that i only use signal of the 48k family with it, which help since it has just one oscillator of that same family). One point in its favor, it was developped using audio-gd gears so its a good match.

The crysteks made the sound more accurate but brighter, that is for sure, and that does not help the balance of my setup. The di2014 is a very good ddc and the intona/wyrd combination helps it quite a lot. The soldering job on the di2014 and general built quality is quite a few notches better than the breeze's, not comparable to be honest.

Kingwa knows its stuff.

 

[Currawong]

I've had mine for a couple of weeks and it is doing a good job against the more expensive gear I have here. Feeding the Yggdrasil it doesn't result in as good dynamics as the better (and vastly more expensive) converters or streamers I have here. It's more mellow and spacious-sounding. I'm sadly not brave enough to try a clock swap. 

 

[schalliol]

Is this USB 2 or 3? It seems to suggest input of 1, 2, and 3 are supported on the specs page, but I can't imagine USB 1 would be sufficient, and I don't know if it will just accept a USB 3 cable or if it's an actual USB 3 device.

 

[bimmer100]

I've had mine for a couple of weeks and it is doing a good job against the more expensive gear I have here. Feeding the Yggdrasil it doesn't result in as good dynamics as the better (and vastly more expensive) converters or streamers I have here. It's more mellow and spacious-sounding. I'm sadly not brave enough to try a clock swap. 

After modding it with NDK and or 957'e it really sounds great. I have extra parts of you are interested to do it.




Kingwa wouldn't even sell me a spare xmos board as he didn't think I could remove the xmos board out of the diu8 as he said it was too difficult.
I had asked if he could install clocks... But refused. So asked if I could buy a spare xmos board in case my attempt was failed...
Haha. No fail. It worked very well in fact.
Not easy.
Kingwa said he would sell me one if I could remove the board....
Sad!!' I didn't even need to remove the board for the mod!!!
What a waste of time.

Anyhow, I can prob do this mod in 2hours and not even need to remove the board.

I have the precise 3mm tip for hot air gun. But if you want NDK's then I need to order more.
I have 957's.


Basically if you like ultra detailed vocals and higher freq with no noise whatsoever. The 957's are the way to go.
If you like bass that is very textured and controlled then the NDK is the way to go.
I have extra 957's already mounted and with high spec bypass caps installed. Pm me if you want to work something out.
I do have an extra xmos board too haha.
But don't and won't need it.
I've got the process down pretty well