[Tzuky]

I have read it... well not the full article.. I know I am doing stupid things with the op-amps but still In comparison there is a major difference between opa2134 and opa 2604 in some departments.. one being stereo separation.. the 2604 reproduces the recording much better sepperating L and R channel... the 2134 not so much.. so there are some difference in opamps the problem is puting one in the place of other does not guarantie any gain inquality because the board is made for the other one.. on the other hand I`m pretty sure that the chinese guys have put this DAC together to work well enough.. and I seriously dough that they have done many measurements... or more like try to use chips that peole think are good.. and make `em work.. in this case with FX-Audio they have made a good sounding dac with not so much good sounding headphone amp.. probably by mistake... combining parts.. and copy other companys board layout.. soo.. no harm to try some other chips if they are also cheap... to see what will happen lol

 

[istinnstudio]

do not worry... experiments are cool... I wish sometimes I had the knowledge and equipment to do so...
for this specific device.. I use  their tube buffer, it is relatively cheap and might give you some missing "mojo" in a more delicate and safe way than changing the op-amp. It is called fx-audio tube-01.
After this one, I use some additional software effects that sound great ...
I use foobar2000 with some brilliant free vst plugins as dsp effects, only pc/windows.

 

[istinnstudio]

I would like to sum up the possible improvements, so here are some questions to organize this effort :
 
 
can you post a table/list of all the electrolyte capacitors that can be changed, so all of them will be noted?
can we point the audio path that is related with them? RCA and/or Head-amp? Can we use bigger capacitance? (tested or not)
other ideas

 

[Tzuky]

To be honest I have no idea... That is why I changed the capacitors with the same values as the one originally used, hoping to gain something with the use of better components (as for the 1000 uf caps I used `em because I was certen that they are for power supply but that was a guess.. I am nowhere near 100% sure.. so if the do good or bad time will tell) I do think that the DAC now sounds cleaner but the difference is not much and to be 100% hones there might be some "placebo" effect.. you know when people tink that is better so they "hear" it sounds better... buy any means I do think that at least the effect will be keeping this thing alive in the future because the capacitors with questionable quality and brand (fakes probably?) might fail at any time... If you got fine tip soldering iron... (if not you can get one for less than 10$... 40 Watt is more than enough) check out some tutorials online about soldering and start modding.. it is fun job at least for me. Just be careful with the Iron and you will be fine...

 

[Tzuky]

I have checked the Tube 01.. looks cool but for now I`ll try not to spend any more money because I already spent the price of the DAC on cables upgrade capacitors and power supply lol.. so now it costs me about 100$ with all the upgrades...

 

[Eujin]

Hi,
90% that the big caps only for AMP (3 for the left channel and 3 for the right). CS4398 use 10mf. 
I found only one varient - Panasonic Caps , its < 18 mm. Elna and Nichicon > 20mm and you can't close the case. 
CS4398 good DAC but only if use good analog base (i mean caps, resistors, trans and ets). So first you cand do - remove all small caps and use Elna or Nichicon. I check all caps and its no good. Inaccuracy (error) 10-15% it's to big for audio.
Second part - check voltage on OPA2134 and TAP6120 on the both channels shold be near 9V. Use blue resistor to tune second channel like first. Spin gently and carefully.
Also you can try to change 2134 to analog to find "own your sound" but ... Read the conclusions next ...
In sum : its a chip Chinese DAC/AMP which is a clone of japanese DAC-X6j . If there is no fault it sounds better then Creative X-Fi HD and Asus Xonar U7 which coast twice as much. So ... do not pay a lot of money to upgrade this device. 

 

[istinnstudio]

Useful information Eujin. Only Tzuky can confirm if the case can close ok with those nichicon ka capacitors.

 

[Tzuky]

  Hi,
90% that the big caps only for AMP (3 for the left channel and 3 for the right). CS4398 use 10mf. 
I found only one varient - Panasonic Caps , its < 18 mm. Elna and Nichicon > 20mm and you can't close the case. 
CS4398 good DAC but only if use good analog base (i mean caps, resistors, trans and ets). So first you cand do - remove all small caps and use Elna or Nichicon. I check all caps and its no good. Inaccuracy (error) 10-15% it's to big for audio.
Second part - check voltage on OPA2134 and TAP6120 on the both channels shold be near 9V. Use blue resistor to tune second channel like first. Spin gently and carefully.
Also you can try to change 2134 to analog to find "own your sound" but ... Read the conclusions next ...
In sum : its a chip Chinese DAC/AMP which is a clone of japanese DAC-X6j . If there is no fault it sounds better then Creative X-Fi HD and Asus Xonar U7 which coast twice as much. So ... do not pay a lot of money to upgrade this device. 

Thank you for your input! My device closes perfectly... and on the headphone amp note... I guess I have made "estetic" upgrade with these capacitors because I dont use the AMP anyways you are right, this thing sounds very good for the price!

 

[bfhyan]

I have purchased one 2 weeks ago from Aliexpress, but it has not arrived yet.Probably will take like 2 months as usual...
 
I'm new to the audiophile world, bought my HD598 like a month ago and wanted to try out a DAC. My other two options were Fiio E10k and SMSL M3, but those 2 were quite more expensive than the X6, so I decided to give it a try. Some friends of mine told me that the Power Source that comes with it is pretty bad, and that with a better one the amplification could get a lot better, anyone has any thought on this?
And was my choice good, considering I paid 54 dollars for it?

 

[GouryellaIV]

  I have purchased one 2 weeks ago from Aliexpress, but it has not arrived yet.Probably will take like 2 months as usual...
 
I'm new to the audiophile world, bought my HD598 like a month ago and wanted to try out a DAC. My other two options were Fiio E10k and SMSL M3, but those 2 were quite more expensive than the X6, so I decided to give it a try. Some friends of mine told me that the Power Source that comes with it is pretty bad, and that with a better one the amplification could get a lot better, anyone has any thought on this?
And was my choice good, considering I paid 54 dollars for it?

did you choose ePacket as shipping method? its usually free for the X6 for many sellers, its supposed to take at least 2 weeks or less

 

[bfhyan]

The time it takes to arrives is usually 2 weeks to a month.
But the custom service here is very slow, sometimes the products stays there for 1-2 months...

 

[Tzuky]

Eujin do you have an idea, are the 4.7 uf capacitors in the line level (RCA) signal path? I just received the new ones and will change them in few hours but I am not actualy sure will they do something for the DAC or only the AMP? Thank you in advance!

 

[Tzuky]

GouryellaIV itis a good device.. Better DAC than headphone AMP in my opinion but good nevertheless.

 

[Tzuky]

Final upgrade.. 4.7 uf capacitors replaced with Nichicon FW series... Nothing special but still bette then the original... Not sure if I find a difference in audio lol... Anyways finnished the plan! Cheers!

 

[Eujin]

Tzuky, all caps on the your pic just for amp chain. But as you can remember we have OPA2134 that give "color" (i mean warm sound) befor AMP and 4,7 and 10 caps can do any affect. But I changed 4.7 -> 10 and 10->22 like on a japan version (dac-x6j). I try to find any  schematics with OPA2134 and 4.7 caps and a can't do it. IMHO you can use 4.7 and 10 caps but if you have any time and 10 and 22 (datasheet recommendation)caps try to change it. The most difficult-  is to feel the difference "before" and "after" . 
Any new idea for people who want to somthing chage Change op275 to LME49720.