[Luckbad]

  It is a good idea when you take the cover off to take many pictures with the camera at the highest resolution. I do this when I take the cover off on any amp which a good reference to have at a later date.

 
Agreed. As soon as I think I might play with jumpers, I start taking pics. Also... fancy seeing you here in the Master 11 thread. Did the Ref 5 + Roc make your head explode enough that you want this beast now? It had that effect on me.

 

[Articnoise]

  People seem to really dig the Belkin Gold USB cables as the best bang-for-the-buck USB cable. http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F3U133V-06-GLD-6-Foot-Hi-Speed-Cable/dp/B000621N26
 
I have one of these and an AudioQuest Cinnamon and I can't tell any difference at all. I can tell the difference between both and a crappy USB cable that came with some random component years ago. That thing sucks.

 

Yes Belkin Gold USB seems to be a good budget choice. IME the USB cables that comes with the Master 7 and other generic ones I have tried sounds like crap. I do not normally use that word but in this regard I do as I have found them limiting the SQ big time. I would say that not using at least a good budget USB cable for like 20 USD in a system with gears on the level of Hegel HD 20 or Master 7 etc is not ideal.

 

IME the “quality” of the USB cable make a much bigger SQ difference than changing headphone cables.

 

The difference, money no object: Power cable > >Digital cable >> I C > headphone cable

 

The difference, low budget: (best bang-for-the-buck) Digital cable >>>> IC >> headphone cable

 

This is only my opinion so no need for anyone to get upset. 

 

[Luckbad]

   

Yes Belkin Gold USB seems to be a good budget choice. IME the USB cables that comes with the Master 7 and other generic ones I have tried sounds like crap. I do not normally use that word but in this regard I do as I have found them limiting the SQ big time. I would say that not using at least a good budget USB cable for like 20 USD in a system with gears on the level of Hegel HD 20 or Master 7 etc is not ideal.

 

IME the “quality” of the USB cable make a much bigger SQ difference than changing headphone cables.

 

The difference, money no object: Power cable > >Digital cable >> I C > headphone cable

 

The difference, low budget: (best bang-for-the-buck) Digital cable >>>> IC >> headphone cable

 

This is only my opinion so no need for anyone to get upset. 

 
What power cables do you favor? I have a handful of Monprice 14AWG Power Cords that seemed as good to me as most that I've tried, but I haven't gone up the ladder at all. I've seen some talk of the Pangea stuff being good.

 

[Articnoise]

   
What power cables do you favor? I have a handful of Monprice 14AWG Power Cords that seemed as good to me as most that I've tried, but I haven't gone up the ladder at all. I've seen some talk of the Pangea stuff being good.

 

I didn’t include power cables in the low budget comparison as to beast a generic power in all areas cost a lot IMO. I have not heard all power cords, and is not Monoprice a generic power cord?

 

What power cables to favor? The somehow stupid answer is the one you like with your gear. I personally like LessLoss, Jorma Design, Furutech and Nordost’s better power cords, but hay they cost very very much so no best bang-for-the-buck buy here

.

 

[cans4dessert]

Does anybody have any shorts on the DSP chip pins? i have solder shorting some pins on one side of the DSP as shown in the photo. are these normal?

 

 
i also have shorts on the little chip which i have no clue what it's for:

 

[munce31]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Not exactly the clearest pictures I've taken, but I cannot see any solder shorting on mine.

 

[munce31]

Hey Guys,
 
Do any of you get stuttering or clicks after about 3-4 hours? By this time, the amp is quite warm to the touch. 
 
I find that I turn off and let it cool for about 4-5 minutes, it comes good again, until the clicks/stutter coming back again. 
 
Is this due to the heat? Perhaps it needs an internal fan to draw the hot air out?
 
EDIT: This was using USB. Its as if its like loosing clock?
 
I'm now using optical and not experiencing any stutter/clicks so far.
 
- Vince

 

[johnzz4]

  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

 
Hi Cans - glad to see I'm not alone..  Take a look at my post below from a couple weeks back:
 
So, I got around to playing the the jumpers and tried bypassing the PLL - didn't notice any difference.  Pulled that jumper out and then put in two jumpers on IPS0 and IPS1 to try out NOS.  It was an interesting change in sound but one I couldn't fully evaluate since there was pretty significant channel imbalance (left channel was louder).  I put on my headphones backwards to make sure my ear wasn't blocked or something, and the imbalance followed.  I then went back to 8x oversampling and the channel imbalance was gone. Went back and forth one more time to confirm my findings.  Did anyone that played with the jumpers run into this?
 
I'm still not sure what's going on, but I put it back to stock settings.  That said, my OCD is nagging me that something isn't right.  I contacted Kingwa and his response was that it has to be the USB cable or computer.  I don't think so...  I wish I tried the multimeter on those pins.  Sigh.  Please keep me posted on how this unfolds.

 

[johnzz4]

Something's up - take a look at mine...  It's almost like they're trying to prevent the use of the bypass and dither pins.  The dab of glue looks deliberate.  Also, I'm not sure if the black post next to where the 'bypass' pins would be is a jumper or what, but  there's glue all over it.  Looks like they revised something.
 

 

[johnzz4]

  Does anybody have any shorts on the DSP chip pins? i have solder shorting some pins on one side of the DSP as shown in the photo. are these normal?

 

 
i also have shorts on the little chip which i have no clue what it's for:
 

 
Cans - I took some pics of the chips and they seem to have shorted pins in about the same spots, so it's likely intentional:
 

 

 

[johnzz4]

I'm wondering if any of these changes have to do with the factory installed Amanero card..

 

[Khragon]

Something's up - take a look at mine...  It's almost like they're trying to prevent the use of the bypass and dither pins.  The dab of glue looks deliberate.  Also, I'm not sure if the black post next to where the 'bypass' pins would be is a jumper or what, but  there's glue all over it.  Looks like they revised something.

I don't think the glue us suppose to be there. I would contact kingwa. Also tell him about the short on the nos pins. I'm not sure if the shorts on the IC is deliberate, but if they are, shorting them using soldern is poor design. They should be shorted in the traces. I would check with kingwa that too. Please keep us posted.

 

[Ivan303]

I don't think the glue us suppose to be there. I would contact kingwa. Also tell him about the short on the nos pins. I'm not sure if the shorts on the IC is deliberate, but if they are, shorting them using soldern is poor design. They should be shorted in the traces. I would check with kingwa that too. Please keep us posted.

Oh my, looks like it's time to open up my new Audio-gd Master 11 and take a few pictures.
 
If I can figure out how to post them here, I will.
 
Lots of pins on that Cyclone II FPGA, most are not even used so perhaps that's explains the lax QA/QC on those obvious solder bridges.  And yes, there is a good chance those are intentional as you would almost have to work to make those types of mistakes as a 'board house'. 

 

[johnzz4]

I had a glued on jumper on the bypass pins.  Interesting.  I'm going to check them to see if they're shorted.

 

[johnzz4]

I don't think the glue us suppose to be there. I would contact kingwa. Also tell him about the short on the nos pins. I'm not sure if the shorts on the IC is deliberate, but if they are, shorting them using soldern is poor design. They should be shorted in the traces. I would check with kingwa that too. Please keep us posted.

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.