[Alireza326]

The presence of the opa2134 chips does not imply there are part of the signal path. Ask Kingwa about them. This should be quickly sorted out. The master-7 takes a no compromise approach. Kingwa would not mess the sound up with opamps.

thanks FredA
yes I know that, it couldn't be in signal path as kingwa said
but it is interesting for me to know that, what does this high grade good sounding 2134 chip do there?

 

[Alireza326]

  It's the DC servo control. It nulls out the DC out the output.
It's not in the signal path.

aha
that sound nice that kingwa uses this high grade chip for this purpose
thanks clemmaster

 

[FredA]

aha

that sound nice that kingwa uses this high grade chip for this purpose
thanks clemmaster

Indeed the opa2134 is very good. I am no expert in servo-control but they are used in high-end gears and are generally prefered to decoupling capacitors, which always add a coloration and are very expensive when choosing the best out there.

 

[borrego]

For DC servo purpose, an opamp needs to have high input impedence, low voltage offset and low voltage offset drift. OPA2134 was the old champ and OPA2140 is the new champ.

I recently replaced the 4 OPA2134 in my Master 1 preamp with OPA2140 (need soldering to SOIC to DIP8 adapters). The result is much quicker warm up time for optimal sound, and sligtly better bass texture. The improvement on amp cicuit will be more obvious due to higher gain. One may still prefer OPA2134 for "thicker" sound.

 

[riffer]

Well my Terasic USB Blaster from Digikey cost me $89.54CDN all in and the ebay one never showed, so I think the guys who actually get their $4CDN ebay blaster +32US for the upgrade are ahead of the game.slightly. Assuming the ebay blaster shows up, of course. Either way, a drop in the bucket in this hobby

 
Hey, my ebay blaster just showed up!  Ordered October 19th.  Good work China/Canada Post

 

[PeterCraig]

   
Hey, my ebay blaster just showed up!  Ordered October 19th.  Good work China/Canada Post

Mine showed up last week.  Ordered Oct 11th.  I got a refund, but I bought a replacement at triple the price back in November, so I don't think I am going to say anything to the seller as it would just cause more problems.

 

[DACLadder]

  The single black wire actually splits out into two wires from the base, but yes, the whole is supposed to be cut off if you have the 2016 upgrade, before the Amanero install.
 
The black multi-pin cable is not necessary for the Ref 5.32;  that's correct.

I received the Anamero USB replacement for the Ref 5.   But the Anamero board is longer than the USB32 board it is replacing so I could not mount it properly until I notched the corner of the Anamero board so that it would clear the tall "RE-5" assembly.
 
Also the plug-n-play cable assembly pinout was not compatible with the Ref 5 motherboard connector.  I had to swap some pins to get the signals correct.  I sent Kingwa an Email. 
 
Not a big deal.  But, the Ref 5 has never sounded better with Anamero USB board and 2016 F/W update. 
 

 

[seaice]

  But, the Ref 5 has never sounded better with Anamero USB board and 2016 F/W update. 
 

 
Versus your SU-1 via HDMI I2?

 

[sahmen]

  I received the Anamero USB replacement for the Ref 5.   But the Anamero board is longer than the USB32 board it is replacing so I could not mount it properly until I notched the corner of the Anamero board so that it would clear the tall "RE-5" assembly.
 
Also the plug-n-play cable assembly pinout was not compatible with the Ref 5 motherboard connector.  I had to swap some pins to get the signals correct.  I sent Kingwa an Email. 
 
 

Well, I am glad it worked out for you.  I also run into the fitment issue created by the different length of the Amanero board, but in my case, I found I could install the board without the corner getting in the way of anything important, so I did not need to notch off the corner.  The fit was not exactly perfect either, but since the Amanero could be installed securely without getting in the way of anything important, I left it there as is in with the less than perfect fit, and it worked.   
 
I am more intrigued by the issue you had with the plug and play ribbon cable, because the one on my Amarero board was exactly the same size and format as the one on the USB32 board it replaced, so the swap went without a hitch.  I wonder whether there were slight variations in the architectures of the Ref. 5.32...  At any rate, I would like to know what Kingwa says about that little mismatch.
 
I gather, nevertheless, from what you say here, that your workaround is working well, and I am glad to hear that. It's all good, apparently

 

[DACLadder]

   
Versus your SU-1 via HDMI

 
Unfortunately the Ref 5 DAC does not have an I2S input so can't compare.    
 
But that experience will come next as I also purchased Anamero USB module for the Master 7.  I just need to install it but will be a breeze.  Plenty of room in that box.  Kingwa said he considered Anamero best of the current USB interfaces.  But I am optimistic that I will be surprised.  
 
I still think the Off Ramp 5 gave the best M7 HDMI I2S experience but it does not like my Windows 10 upgrade. 

  But the memory is all before the 2016 FW upgrade....  So time to recalibrate.   

 

[DACLadder]

. I gather, nevertheless, from what you say here, that your workaround is working well, and I am glad to hear that. It's all good, apparently

Looking at your pictures I had a new type, black colored cable without the extra wire that connected to the control board.  It does appear the assembler made the correct jog in pin rotation for your grey cable. 
 
Yeah its all good for now!

 

[FredA]

Hi everyone.

I just acquired a set of China-made AKG k701. Like them quite a lot so far. I am driving them with an old buddy of mine: the NFB-5. I am looking for an amp to drive them properly and improve transparency, fed by my firmware-updated M7 using the balanced out. Was thinking of getting the NFB-1AMP. Anyone with this sort of combination or with a Master-9 and AKG K7xx?

PM me if you judge this non relevant to this thread.

Thanks in advance.

Fred

 

[i019791]

Audio gd SA-1 (four 1704 chips, upgraded firmware) -> Audio gd Master-9 -> AKG K701 (made in Austria, single ended) is nice here.
The cable of my K701 has only 3 wires and it is difficult to re-terminate it to xlr, I hope that your version is different.

 

[FredA]

Audio gd SA-1 (four 1704 chips, upgraded firmware) -> Audio gd Master-9 -> AKG K701 (made in Austria, single ended) is nice here.
The cable of my K701 has only 3 wires and it is difficult to re-terminate it to xlr, I hope that your version is different.

Great! The current version may have four wires, not sure but read that somewhere. So i guess it is a good combination. Hard to figure out right now for me since my heaphones are not yet fully broken in and the medium sound very colored. But otherwise, i like the bass response, it's clean and goes deep without being exagerated, just like my speaker's bass response. I am just worried with the highs with the new M7 firmware, could be too much.

 

[DACLadder]

   
(Amanero USB) Versus your SU-1 via HDMI I2?

I installed the Amanero USB board in the M7 with updated 2016 f/w.  Sounds good but still prefer the HDMI input at this time.  I can switch sources in about 5 seconds which helps in comparison. 
 
I get slightly more/ better bass with the HDMI input which means after years of experience jitter is probably lower using that input.  Soundstage is a little closed with the Amanero in comparison.  Vocals about the same.  The Amanero sounds really good though and the differences are slight.  Light years ahead of the old USB32 interface.  Some may prefer the Amanero as it seems warmer by a tiny amount.
 
In the meantime we'll get run time on the Amanero to see if it improves.   (Edited to correct spelling "amanero".)