[Iron_Dreamer]

I just recieved one of these cards today, to mod for another head-fier, and I would like to know how to set up the card for the best sound quality. I am already downloading the VIA drivers and ASIO4all as recommended in stephonovich's review. The good wolfson DAC goes to the green front outputs, even though they are quite far apart, physically, right? Does this card take 24/192 input, or is it limited to 24/96?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well in normal 2-channel mode, the card will only work at 48kHz. If I set it to hi-sample rate mode, it will work at any sample rate 96kHz or less, but there is no sound output from any of the jacks, What is going on here? No sound, doesn't matter the sample rate, bit depth, or ouput plugin, be it ASIO4all, Directsound, waveout, or kernel streaming. Foobar runs fine, but nothing is heard from any jack.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Are you still having problems with the drivers you downloaded? If so, which version were they? Try either upgrading or downgrading.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I am using drivers v3.10a, and yes no sound output in high-sample rate mode, although foobar runs fine and there are no errors reported.

 

[Earwax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer The good wolfson DAC goes to the green front outputs, even though they are quite far apart, physically, right?

No, it's the bottom jack, nearest the square Toslink jack. ( black, I think )

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well, for some unknown reason, it started working using kernel streaming at 96kHz, 24-bit padded to 32, rear-out high-rez mode, which I know I have already tried with no luck, but who knows. Anyways, this card sure sounds nice, especially for the price, I mean I'm not dropping my EMU for this, but I think this card deserves to be very popular, if not standard as an entry level piece of gear for those who want a computer rig.

 

[james__bean]

I wasn't even using kernal streaming. I installed asio4all and and downloaded the kernal streaming component for foobar2k and now I'm in business

What settings do you guys use for asio4all though? I have no idea what to set my buffer to. I have my ks buffers at 3 and my buffer size at 1024. What should I have them at?

 

[james__bean]

Nevermind I still had it on waveout. How do you get this to work with kernel streaming

 

[Mr.Radar]

Try the 1.43d drivers (there's a site that has them but I don't have the link). They've so far had the least number of bugs.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I got KS working by installing the 3.10a drivers from viaarena.com, then selecting the high-rez 2-channel mode, and setting foobar to output 24-bit padded to 32-bit, dithered, resampled to 96kHz, and kernel streaming. Make sure all the volume sliders are turned up in the drivers for the best SQ.

 

[beats unbeaten]

Hey Iron Dreamer, care to fill us in on the mods you're making?

I've been eyeing possibilities on this thing for a while, but haven't touched it
as I'm either listening or busy

As far as volume sliders go, are you sure you want the master all the way up in hi-rez mode? I think it's unbalanced at anything but 50%. Maybe it's different with KS?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well, it seems perfectly balanced to me. I am going to change out the ouput coulpling caps for better ones, as well as some of the caps surrounding the voltage regulators on the upper-right corner, add some fast decoupling caps to the DAC's voltage rails, and isolate the clock crystals with silicone. I am still waiting for the guy I'm doing it for to return my PM's, though, so it might be a while before I can order the parts.

 

[beats unbeaten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer Well, it seems perfectly balanced to me. I am going to change out the ouput coulpling caps for better ones, as well as some of the caps surrounding the voltage regulators on the upper-right corner, add some fast decoupling caps to the DAC's voltage rails, and isolate the clock crystals with silicone. I am still waiting for the guy I'm doing it for to return my PM's, though, so it might be a while before I can order the parts.

For the caps around the voltage reg, which ones are coming out & what values are you replacing with?

And for the DAC's voltage rails, what vals are you using, and are you stacking the fast caps with the electrolytic/ceramic already there, or replacing those too?

Must get better sound