[xiamen]

"I assume you have checked voltages from the red/white wires etc". ....maybe not? I'm not quite sure of what you mean?
cheers!

You said "Right: ...on both the amanero board and the PSU board I can now confirm the readings are 4.70v on pins 1/2 & 3/4 respectively. Had a little more patience today to get a proper contact on the pins with the probes, using a gunsons pocket meter 2, VOLTS DC: 0 20V Accuracy + 0.8% + 2 digits Impedance 1 Meg ohm.". So you did checked voltages.

 

[b0bb]

hi,
1) the continuity is good/fine on all four pins.
2) on the diagram, what is: "EN"?
didn't realise there were any spring contacts! ~ thanks for warning.
I'll do the soldering tomorrow, bit late now ('here').

....many thanks for continued support.

EN is the enable pin, should be at least 2/3rds of supply voltage to turn on regulator.

 

[Main Source]

I would think that depends what pre-amp you are bypassing and comparing to. There are pre-amp out there that costs many times the price of the LKS004. With the lfe, I'm intrigued. I always though red book cd or sacd don't have lfe outputs, just movies. May be you are just directing the low frequencies to the SVS SB-2000 as well to give the bass a boost?

Thanks for responding. The only pre-amp I ever used was in the receiver , either a denon(x4200) or marantz(sr7010) but I realized my monitors would probably open up a bit with a dedicated 2 channel amp, even though I was using the AVR's with only 2 speakers attached and using the sub output on the receiver for bass(subwoofers) , it occured to me that maybe I could utilize all 4 outputs on the LKS, THE pair of balanced and the pair of unbalanced since I didnt see a selector switch I assumed the audio signal would be output to all four outputs simultaneously ;. This turned out to be the case `, I have an IFI Micro IUSB, IDefender, and an IGalvanic all with carbon audioquest cables , rocket 33 speaker wire and several other de-crapifiers. I got most of that stuff heavily discounted as I worked at Magnolia. I tell you none of that stuff came anywhere near the clarity and low noise floor that I heard when I got rid of the receiver. The speakers outputting from the Marantz mm7025/DAC combo sound fantastic although I would have rather used a higher end amp I got it for 300 bucks due to my employee discount,, down from 800, it puts out 140 watts for each channel and has balanced inputs . So the pair of subs act as a left and right speaker only just outputting bass through the remaining unbalanced outputs of the LKS.

As for content I mainly use Tidal Masters through windows, wav ,FLAC from HDtracks.com and even some SACD's if I break out the oppo 203. So there is no LFE just bass frequencies which get sent to all 4 speakers equally(2 subs, 2 speakers), it sounds great but I cant help thinking some sort of crossover would benefit me

 

[Paul Staples]

You said "Right: ...on both the amanero board and the PSU board I can now confirm the readings are 4.70v on pins 1/2 & 3/4 respectively. Had a little more patience today to get a proper contact on the pins with the probes, using a gunsons pocket meter 2, VOLTS DC: 0 20V Accuracy + 0.8% + 2 digits Impedance 1 Meg ohm.". So you did checked voltages.

OK I tried the flash just with the USB cable, you didn't say anything about being connected to the PSU as well and that is why it didn't work! (LOL).
So, I tried it again with the PSU connected this time and following the online instructions on Head-fi ('here').
It worked!! Amazing!! Much appreciated....
see pic:

So now I guess I wont need to check the six regulators? (for voltage).....
i.e. firmware corruption, wink wink!

 

[Paul Staples]

managed to blow the fuse with the mains contact that is nearest to the bottom of the chassis as the protective rubber boot is quite lose on the faston spade terminal on the IEC socket at the back when the rear panel was unscrewed.
I don't know the amperage of the 250v fuse in the IEC housing. anyone know please?
Cheers!

...it's gold and white.

 

[Paul Staples]

EN is the enable pin, should be at least 2/3rds of supply voltage to turn on regulator.

I was about to declare the amanero board as 'dead' and buy a new one from china costing £140 + shipping + customs charges. I am grateful for @b0bb suggestions and very grateful for the hardware tests. But then @xiamen suggested a software solution, i.e. to re-install the firmware (flash) and this turned out to be the problem!
I thought, well, as the board is probably dead anyway (?), I might as well try it and see what happens. Nothing lost and all to gain! So, I tried it, and it worked, great!
Thanks to both b0bb and xiamen for their combined help and support, most grateful to you both, Cheers!

 

[xiamen]

Thanks for responding. The only pre-amp I ever used was in the receiver , either a denon(x4200) or marantz(sr7010) but I realized my monitors would probably open up a bit with a dedicated 2 channel amp, even though I was using the AVR's with only 2 speakers attached and using the sub output on the receiver for bass(subwoofers) , it occured to me that maybe I could utilize all 4 outputs on the LKS, THE pair of balanced and the pair of unbalanced since I didnt see a selector switch I assumed the audio signal would be output to all four outputs simultaneously ;. This turned out to be the case `, I have an IFI Micro IUSB, IDefender, and an IGalvanic all with carbon audioquest cables , rocket 33 speaker wire and several other de-crapifiers. I got most of that stuff heavily discounted as I worked at Magnolia. I tell you none of that stuff came anywhere near the clarity and low noise floor that I heard when I got rid of the receiver. The speakers outputting from the Marantz mm7025/DAC combo sound fantastic although I would have rather used a higher end amp I got it for 300 bucks due to my employee discount,, down from 800, it puts out 140 watts for each channel and has balanced inputs . So the pair of subs act as a left and right speaker only just outputting bass through the remaining unbalanced outputs of the LKS.

As for content I mainly use Tidal Masters through windows, wav ,FLAC from HDtracks.com and even some SACD's if I break out the oppo 203. So there is no LFE just bass frequencies which get sent to all 4 speakers equally(2 subs, 2 speakers), it sounds great but I cant help thinking some sort of crossover would benefit me

Can't see how you can crossover between the balanced and unbalanced outputs. But are you comparing LKS004 preamp/dedicated power amp with AVR pre/power amp? May be the improvement is just from the power amp section. You can try connect the LKS004 output (without using the LKS004 as pre-amp) back to the AVR and have AVR pre-outs to the dedicated power amp. This is you are truly comparing LKS004 pre-amp with AVR pre-amp. This will then allow you to connect the sub-woofers to the AVR (and thereby using the AVR crossover) and compare that to connecting to the LKS004 XLR directly (with no crossover). This way you can also have hdmi inputs to the AVR (for movies) and still take advantage of the dedicated power amp.

 

[Main Source]

Can't see how you can crossover between the balanced and unbalanced outputs. But are you comparing LKS004 preamp/dedicated power amp with AVR pre/power amp? May be the improvement is just from the power amp section. You can try connect the LKS004 output (without using the LKS004 as pre-amp) back to the AVR and have AVR pre-outs to the dedicated power amp. This is you are truly comparing LKS004 pre-amp with AVR pre-amp. This will then allow you to connect the sub-woofers to the AVR (and thereby using the AVR crossover) and compare that to connecting to the LKS004 XLR directly (with no crossover). This way you can also have hdmi inputs to the AVR (for movies) and still take advantage of the dedicated power amp.

That was my original configuration , then I remembered Paul S. saying " the best pre-amp is no pre-amp at all" or something to that effect. So I cut out the AVR, Im just going to leave it as is, dont really need the crossover, even though it would help isolate the lower end a bit better. The LKS has really impressed me, I also have a bunch of smsl dacs like the m8 and an IFI Micro IDSD Black label for my sennheisers and the LKS smokes the lot of em, hands down

I think next would be to begin modding it or send it to a pro modder, and maybe mess with a pink faun or singxer, we will see, thanks for the input!

 

[Paul Staples]

@Whitigir @b0bb @xiamen

or anyone?

managed to blow the fuse with the mains contact that is nearest to the bottom of the chassis as the protective rubber boot is quite lose on the faston spade terminal on the IEC socket at the back when the rear panel was unscrewed.
I don't know the amperage of the 250v fuse in the IEC housing. anyone know please?
Cheers!

...it's gold and white.

 

[b0bb]

If there are markings on the endcaps, post the photos of the fuse

 

[Paul Staples]

If there are markings on the endcaps, post the photos of the fuse

...no markings as far as I can see!
Time for me to give a little bit back to the forum:

Received a message from Jinbo. He has stated that the 250v (UK) fuse should be 3.15 amps. This may hopefully help others with same question.

 

[Forgisound]

I would like to share the latest LKS 004 sound impressions.
Meanwhile, I bought Singxer SU-1 Bridge and SoTM SMS 200 Ultra streamer. With SMS 200 Ultra, everything has come to its naught. Bass gained on volume and definition, overall, the sound was further cleansed by distortion. The sound image is now wide and deep. The timbar of the piano is perfect, brilliantly focused, the violin sounds very clear and precise. Dynamics is great. Despite its exceptional precision, the sound is not only clinically clean, but still highly involved.
I just know what LKS 004 can do.

 

[Whitigir]

One of the biggest upgrade to LKs004 is the clock. If anyone who can do it, just do it. The rest can be left alone

 

[Forgisound]

One of the biggest upgrade to LKs004 is the clock. If anyone who can do it, just do it. The rest can be left alone

Yes, but for older model with stronger regulator. I have newest model. I believe Bobb that Crystek 950X can help, so I ordered it. But I'm sorry I can not fit an even better clock.
Which clock did you upgrade?

 

[Whitigir]

Yes, but for older model with stronger regulator. I have newest model. I believe Bobb that Crystek 950X can help, so I ordered it. But I'm sorry I can not fit an even better clock.
Which clock did you upgrade?

I have an older model and fit it with Abracon OCXO