[number1sixerfan]

I just bought an emu 1212 and I was just curious as to what people here have done to theirs and what you all think made the card better and what made little difference to none.

State the card you have and what mods have been done to it and you impressions of the performance after the mods. Let the thread begin!

 

[number1sixerfan]

anyone??

 

[uzziah]

search

0404
bridged output caps
removed output buffering opamps
replaced opamp with ad8620
will: replace output ananlog caps with sanyo oscon with slightly higher capacitence

 

[number1sixerfan]

Did a search. I just wanted to start a thread where everyone could state their mods and what they feel helped or didn't. It could be a very useful sticky imo.

 

[uzziah]

i think you're right. people seem to be so darn close-offish about this stuff. basically the mods i mentioned and the "biasing into class A with a crd" mod are the only ones i know about. you of course could modify the analog in, and digital in and out, but most people just want to mod the analog out. yes, let's get a sticky with "how to mod all things PC" shall we? though it sort of goes in DIY section, but folks there are very less pc-oriented, so let's put it here

 

[number1sixerfan]

bump

 

[llmobll]

I think the reason not to many people are posting is because there aren't that many people who have modded a 1212m. The 0404 community is alive but the 1212 hasnt' had such a big following. Other than the usual suspects, iron dreamer and the like, it's hard to get some actual info about mods.

 

[morphie]

*points at signature* mod made by Zemo. I couldnt say exactly what was improved, but I had the chance to compare to a non modded card and this one definatly sounds better to me ^^

 

[doctorcilantro]

Is anyone modding 1212M's for a price?

Dr. C

 

[lucpes]

Basicly, I just got my 1212m and I did a bit of photoshop in order to do solder work only once. I won't go "over budget" with the caps, so I chose Panasonic FC (sounds relatively good and is cheap) for the PS/analog section and SANYO SEP for digital (I can only get these at Farnell).

So far I only changed the 220uf/35V supply caps (no need to go over 25V as the max voltage on the card is either + or - 12VDC) and bridged the coupling caps between the DAC and the analog filter and all I can say is 'WOW'. Still need to do the rest though...

Comments?

white: original; green: new component (capacitance/voltage)

- change Vq to 82uf/6.3V SANYO SEP if Panasonic FC is too bright
- change FILT+ to 180uf/16V SEP if FC is too bright

Allow at least a couple of days for cap burn-in and change one or two caps at a time only. Don't forget to add the opamp capacitors between rails.

Links to the CS4398 DAC and evaluation board:

CS4398 datasheet
http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDat...CS4398_PP3.pdf

CS4398 evaluation board
http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/rdDatasheet/CDB4398.pdf

 

[lucpes]

I changed some things around on the above pics, I tried to keep most of the small capacitors within a reasonable 6.3mm body and <2.5mm between leads in order to keep all components on the solder side.
Will update with data

as soon as the caps arrive from Farnell UK.

Some other 'tweaks':
- use shorter cable for Digital/Analog board connection, made out of a floppy cable. Crimping one of those is easy if you have enough patience.
Result - less grain overall.

- place the digital board in the 3rd PCI slot and the analog in the 5th (bottom of the case). Take a slot bracket to place in slot 4 and screw a sheet of aluminium on it so that it covers the analog board (block RFI). Make sure that the aluminum sheet DOES NOT touch anything on the motherboard or the cards. Of course, this would mean that the bottom 3 PCI slots are gone with this 'tweak'.
Result - widened <- S O U N D S T A G E ->

* add 1R5 2W resistor on the 12V line from the floppy connector. Cut the unused 5V and ground wires. Should help keep noise from entering the board ground.

* 1820 or AudioDock upgrade only.

 

[lucpes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorcilantro Is anyone modding 1212M's for a price? Dr. C

PM Iron Dreamer on that.

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/priva...pm&userid=5368

 

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by llmobll I think the reason not to many people are posting is because there aren't that many people who have modded a 1212m. The 0404 community is alive but the 1212 hasnt' had such a big following. Other than the usual suspects, iron dreamer and the like, it's hard to get some actual info about mods.

I meant any emu's. Not just 1212s.

 

[zhoufang]

Anyone have figured out what the big 1000uF/16V cap on the 0202 analog card is for?
I want to know it to help me deciding what size/quality of cap to replace it with.

 

[lucpes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zhoufang Anyone have figured out what the big 1000uF/16V cap on the 0202 analog card is for? I want to know it to help me deciding what size/quality of cap to replace it with.

The 1000uF capacitor doesn't have anything to do with the analog section.
I'd leave it alone as most likely won't do any good for sound quality, or maybe change it with something with reasonable physical size (5mm pitch lead/ < 15mm height to fit in PCI clearance specs) @16V.

It sure wouldn't hurt replacing it, just make sure the analog board still fits in your PC case.