[oscar2k23]

i need some help, I decided to go ahead and do this project. Everything was going good, until  at the end i noticed that one of the little tabs had been ripped from the circuit. Now when I am hearing something through my headphones, I can hear hissing in the left hear all the time. I checked to make sure that the opamp was properly seated and everything looks good. During the project I mistakenly removed one of these and now I am getting hissing. I can still hear the music but the distortion is there. Here is a picture of the damaged circuit.
 

 

[ReTiCuLe]

Hey Apocalypsee,
 
 
I saw you saying that the current LM4562NA's from National aren't good to use anymore on the X-fi anymore? Is this true? I just ordered some Samples from National for my PCI-E X-Fi Titanium. I used the same samples 2 years ago on my Xtreme Music.
 
In addition does anyone happen to have a diagram for the 2-Speaker oAMP to replace or is it identical to the PCI versions?
 
Thank you,
- John

 

[ReTiCuLe]

Bump

 

[ReTiCuLe]

Anyone have an answer? ->
 
I saw Apoc saying that the current LM4562NA's from National aren't good to use anymore on the X-fi anymore? Is this true? I just ordered some Samples from National for my PCI-E X-Fi Titanium. I used the same samples 2 years ago on my Xtreme Music.
 
In addition does anyone happen to have a diagram for the 2-Speaker oAMP to replace or is it identical to the PCI versions?
 
Thank you,

 

[mathesar]

Does modding an X-Fi XtremeMusic make that much of a difference? All 3 of my headphones already sound so loud & clean as is directly connected to Line Out 1.

 

[Amatsu]

@mathesar
 
I just changed the opamp (LM4562) 2 days ago after having the X-Fi music for over 2 years and it really does makes a difference, specially the bass, it's more defined and punchier. Overall the sound has more life.
I'm really glad I decided to change it, especially since it didn't cost me anything (ordered some free samples), it was my first opamp solder job and it took me 3 tries, but patience is the key.

 

[Bad_dude]

I have modded this card over 2 years now and it sounds, to me, better than the Asus Xonar D2P or D2X.  The highs are better.  For music or games, this is still the best option.

 

[mathesar]

Quote:

@mathesar
 
I just changed the opamp (LM4562) 2 days ago after having the X-Fi music for over 2 years and it really does makes a difference, specially the bass, it's more defined and punchier. Overall the sound has more life.
I'm really glad I decided to change it, especially since it didn't cost me anything (ordered some free samples), it was my first opamp solder job and it took me 3 tries, but patience is the key.

 
Interesting. Guess ill have to research the thread and do this myself, is there any known side effects?
 
Thanks.

 

[Amatsu]

God, I love this little opamp more and more everyday, I'm just realising what a POS the old one was, the OP was right, it deserves to die.

 

[vodkex]

Hi, I've been reading this thread for a while, and I've learnt a lot from it. I have an xtrememusic which I'm modding, not exactly with the caps you guys recommend but some rubycons and nichicons I've salvaged from an old sony sound system from 1995... and to be sincere, I do notice the difference between the stock jamicon/g-luxon crap and these other caps.

I live in Argentina so it's a bit difficult to get good components, but I was able to order some OPA1612s as free samples from TI, they should be arriving in two days. I'll change that opamp later down the road when I get it, but for now my card just rocks. I can't wait to hear it rock even more!



My question is... I've done the caps mod, in a little while I'll change the opamp... so I'm left with shorting/removing the 4 decoupling caps. I've read here that it isn't something dangerous to do if you have an amp connected to the card, since it'll have its own decoupling caps and nothing could be potentially damaged... trouble is, I have an amp.. it's an old sweet kenwood KA-300B, but I have it somewhere else driving some 25w speakers with a modded Audigy SE in another PC. In my rig I have my x-fi, but no amp to connect it to, just my modded sennheiser HD202 (I've made them open cans with let's say.. another "housing" for the drivers... man how horrible was the stock closed sound is just something I can't even begin to describe!).
 
Ok, my point is, if I short/remove the decoupling caps; the dc offset without an amp can kill my HD202s? If they are killed well, I'll have to spend U$S 50 (AR$ 200) to get them back, not to mention all the burn-in time lost! I'd like to keep those US$ 50 in my pocket...  Common sense tells me that without something there to supress that DC offset, it can be dangerous... but anyway, this is the only thing that's left unclear for me, if someone can clear this doubt for me, I'll be really thankful.

 

[inteificio]

HI,
 
I would just like to add thanks for the mod info.
 
I have just completed the opamp swap on my Elite pro.
The sound has changed significantly.
I was always irritated by the sound of the Elite Pro, after so many positive reviews I expected a lot.
The CMSS 3D for phones was impressive, really impressive. (headphone amp was terrible, so using an external one); but the sound quality was dreadful.
 
I have just finished the mod, so no time for the chips to 'burn in' or even warm up and the improvement is significant.
The reason I delayed so much is I was expecting the improvement to be negligible , but my expectations were wrong, very wrong.
 
My surround set up no longer has a weak link.
 
I am off to spend the rest of the day 'testing' the set up, nothing to do with lazy movie watching, it is serious testing..honest.
 
The rest of my setup (if anyone cares)
Rotel RB-991 / 993 / 995
Acoustic Energy 309, 301, 308 and whatever the matching centre speaker is.
 
This sounds great.

 

[vodkex]

I've done the following:
 

1. Opamp changed to OPA1612A
2. Caps changed 100%, used rubycons and nichicons from an old sony music system's mainboard from 1995

 
It sounds amazing!!! But I bought this x-fi used, it has 2 years on it... It sounded great already when compared to the audigy SE I was upgrading from, but right off the bat there was something wrong with this x-fi, like not being able to get the calibration signal down to -1 dB as indicated by the program, only to about -2.5 or -2.2 dB, after that the left channel distorts quite badly.. it's in audio creation mode, all eax effects disabled, bit perfect mode activated.. as it should be.. have a look at the RMAA calibration graphs at 92%, 94% and 100% volume. It's the line out that's borked, the line-in's working fine.
 
92% | http://www.imagebam.com/image/9ff7ce114169363
94% | http://www.imagebam.com/image/ae2c81114169367
100% | http://www.imagebam.com/image/855e39114169372
RMAA graphs at 92% | http://www.imagebam.com/image/cc87b3114169384
RMAA results at 92% w/ audigy SE | http://www.imagebam.com/image/d7e8d8114169378
 
I've changed all the caps thinking there was a bad one somewhere causing all this, but unfortunately it wasn't the case. I thought maybe the stock opamp was doing things wrong, but it wasn't. It hasn't changed with all the mods applied. I'm at a loss, clearly the left channel is ****ed up... I can't seem to find what's wrong with this card. Mind you, it sounds great to me, the best I've ever heard and much better than my old audigy SE, but it makes me uneasy to know that my card isn't right. What could be broken? the DAC chip? Any ideas folks?
 

 

[schwallman]

 

I'm about to do the mod myself. I picked up an xtrememusic since I liked the one in my computer at work. Didn't know about the mods until yesterday. Got the required stuff on order today. Listening to it stock right now and it's actually really nice now. Im excited about doing the mod because if it sounds better than stock then I'm in for a real treat. Hybrid is currently blowing my mind.

 

[schwallman]

From this image my 7 and 8 pads are gone after a bad job taking off the opamp. i can see the 7 might be able to be salvaged but where would 8 be soldered to?
 
Quote:

I'm in the middle of upgrading my Xtreme Music with new opamps and capacitors. Unfortunately I've learnt the hard way how fragile the solder pads are on these things and have managed to rip two of them off. One is for the mic opamp and I just can't seem to trace what it's supposed to be connected to. If anyone knows or if anyone with an untouched card could look into it I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[schwallman]

Is this thread dead?