[bazelio]

Great thread!  Currently considering the M11 to drive HD600s and at some point Beyer T1 Gen2s (don't own yet).
 
I've read several pages in this thread and I like what you guys are saying.  The sound signature sounds like what I'd try to achieve in a R2R DAC / Tube Amp stack.  Moljnir2 for example.  Actually in the same price range, the Gung MB / Moljnir2 stack seems most appealing.  It's probably asking too much for someone out there to have directly compared the this to the MB11 though.   
 
BTW, solder shorts on the FPGA pins sounds like a late workaround or bug fix.  Very sketchy too.  It'd be interesting to determine which pins and what their function is on the FPGA chip.

 

[Khragon]

Guess I'll have to open mine up too to check this out.

In the mean time, I like to report that the m11 powered my tekton speakers beautifully. The m11 has very quick and precise bass compared to the ragnarok, I much prefer it for pairing with the tekton. Tekton speakers have great imaging and sounded more laid back compared to the hd800. Bass on the tekton isn't as impactful as the zu and made worse when using with the ragnarok. So far pretty happy with my m11 purchase, sold my ragnarok.

 

[Ivan303]

 
Quote:

   
BTW, solder shorts on the FPGA pins sounds like a late workaround or bug fix.  Very sketchy too.  It'd be interesting to determine which pins and what their function is on the FPGA chip.

Below is a pic (I hope) of my Cyclone II chip with the same pins shorted in at least two cases on the right side of the chip, near the top and three pins shorted about half way down.

 

[johnzz4]

Below is a pic (I hope) of my Cyclone II chip with the same pins shorted in at least two cases on the right side of the chip, near the top and three pins shorted about half way down.

Ivan, are your bypass pins jumped from the factory?

Also, have you tried jumping IPS0 and IPS1 to try NOS? This is where we're getting the channel imbalance.

 

[Ivan303]

  The glue was put on a jumper for the bypass pins.  I don't think it was intended to be on the dither pins.  I have e-mailed Kingwa about the jumper but not the shorted IC chips.  Whether it's good design or not, I think it's intentional since they appear to be in the same place on cans and my units.

Agree, and it 'might' have been put on to prevent the jumper from coming off in shipment.
 
Mine was applied in a sloppy manner as well.
 
More concerning is the general sloppy way the parts are mounted and soldered in place.
 
Also note that the 'AMANERO' board does not have the same brand of TCXO as the OEM boards that one can purchase (MEC).  Instead there are  SCTF TCXO likely from SHENZHEN  ELECTRONICS CO.,LTD mounted on what is likely a 'licensed' from AMANERO design.  Should that make any difference?  Who knows, likely not.  Far more important might be all of those 100uf 5V caps that we see which are NOT found on the AMANERO version as well as a well regulated 5V supply from the Master 11 rather than the crappy one from the USB cable. 
 
One hopes.

 

[Ivan303]

Ivan, are your bypass pins jumped from the factory?

Also, have you tried jumping IPS0 and IPS1 to try NOS? This is where we're getting the channel imbalance.

Only one set of pins (bypass) are jumpered, the top pair and yes there is glue on them.  I have yet to mess with the jumpers.
 
Want to let it burn in and get used to the sound before I mess with jumpers.  The only reason I opened it was to look for the solder bridges and to check the AMANERO card which is CLEARLY not stock and looks like the two TCXO are of a differing make.
 
Also do not know if a CRYSTEK 'femto' clock chip will fit in the space available on the 'AMANERO-like' card in the Maser 11. 

 

[bazelio]

What's the specific part number on the Cyclone II?  I can't quite read it in the pics.  I found the pin out data sheets, but there are several different variants.

 

[john57]

  What's the specific part number on the Cyclone II?  I can't quite read it in the pics.  I found the pin out data sheets, but there are several different variants.

 

[bazelio]

OK, here's the pin list.
 
Care to try to determine exactly which pins are shorted, maybe by counting from a corner as a reference?
 
https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/dp/cyclone2/ep2c8_ep2c8a.pdf

 

[Ivan303]

  What's the specific part number on the Cyclone II?  I can't quite read it in the pics.  I found the pin out data sheets, but there are several different variants.

 
Picture from an earlier post is above.

 

[bazelio]

By the way, tentatively, I think they're just tying off some unused pins by shorting them to the nearest GND pin that's actually connected on the board.  E.g., unused CLK inputs should be grounded.
 
So to me, it just looks like a board workaround.  But, geez, pretty sloppy.  Kinda makes me cringe when I consider purchasing this piece of equipment.  Hmm.

 

[bazelio]

  i was playing around with the jumper settings for the first time and noticed that when i switch from the default x8 OS to lower OS, vocal sound shifts to the left channel more on my headphone. i notice this shift the most at x1 OS. I cannot tell whether this is due to channel imbalance or not (don't have a SPL meter)....  I tried with different vocal tracks and different headphones and i get the same result every time. To make this worse, i felt that the DSP bypass jumper did nothing for me so i took out my multimeter and found that the pins are already shorted without the jumper on.... i guess i have a faulty M11??? i'm so frustrated

 
 
Sorry if I missed it, but why were you playing around with the jumper settings in the first place?  Just to tinker, or was there a specific purpose?
 
Thanks.  Just curious because as I consider the M11, I'm starting to get turned off by the sloppy work I'm seeing in some of these pictures.  Glue, sloppy soldering, etc.

 

[john57]

  By the way, tentatively, I think they're just tying off some unused pins by shorting them to the nearest GND pin that's actually connected on the board.  
 
Really just looks like a board workaround.  But, geez, pretty sloppy.

That seems that way.  It has been my experience even if they are connected by the same land on the board solder-bridges can form easier on those pins. Here is another picture of a similar chip and it is easy to tell what group of pins are tie together and some are not in use. The press in dot is the reference corner upper left.   That all I am going to say about this and I am going to spend more time enjoying my wonderful oldie reference 5 ROC stack! 
 

 

[Ivan303]

   
 
Sorry if I missed it, but why were you playing around with the jumper settings in the first place?  Just to tinker, or was there a specific purpose?
 
Thanks.  Just curious because as I consider the M11, I'm starting to get turned off by the sloppy work I'm seeing in some of these pictures.  Glue, sloppy soldering, etc.

In fairness, there is even a package of spare jumpers included with the product, so playing with jumpers is an expected behavior.  What is less expected in channel imbalance as one works their way from 8x oversampling to 0x oversampling.
 
Admittedly, I intended to keep this thing as it was shipped as it makes no sense for a manufacturer to shop a product configured for less than the best possible sound.
 
But still.

 

[munce31]

Is anyone else getting stuttering/drop-outs/clicks after a 3-4 hours with the USB?
 
I tried optical last night and it appears to have the same issues...
 
Could be related to the heat?