[b0bb]

But, those of us who would also like to do all of this but we don't have the knowledge, tools, or time, is there somewhere or someone you know who can do all of that ...? If someone wants to give me their point of view, it will be appreciated.

I have done hardware mods on the 004 and the previous 003, the biggest change is replacing the master clock.
All of the other mods produce an incremental benefit, the improvements from these mods combined equals the change of the master clock.
I posted a list of these mods a few posts up.

Master clock is the only mod I carried over from the 003 to the 004.

The work itself takes about 15mins to complete by someone with the right equipment.
The quickest is using hot tweezers, on less well equipped shops a hot air wand, it takes longer, will cost you more if they charge by time.

Look at how well their workshop is equipped when making your decision, it is a 1500Euro piece of equipment.

The leading makers of electronics rework equipment for those in the EU is JBC (Spain), Weller(UK), OK Int/Metcal (US), Pace (US) and Hakko (Japan).

The actual tweezer unit I use to remove the XO on my 004 is below. It is a Metcal PTZ tweezer, it is in the background of the picture.
https://www.okinternational.com/han...-MX-5241/Tweezers_Soldering_and_Rework_System

 

[b0bb]

I keep reading, admired for your knowledge and experience in changing some parts of the LKS to get better SQ results with your hardware updates. But, those of us who would also like to do all of this but we don't have the knowledge, tools, or time, is there somewhere or someone you know who can do all of that ...? If someone wants to give me their point of view, it will be appreciated.

Hardware mods are fun to watch other people do but it is extremely time consuming and the return on the investment is quite small.
If you are thinking of paying someone to do the work take a look at my other post on the hardware mod.

This is one of the reasons I am not in a hurry to repeat the work I did on the LKS003 for the LKS004.

The software route makes the most sense to me given your situation.
The audio performance improvements offered by the software method effectively made me lose interest in making hardware mods to the LKS004 DAC.

Now that you have set up the ASIO driver for the Amanero card, try HQPlayer on your Windows PC, it behaves very similar to Foobar.
Demo mode runs for 30 mins, it costs about 300 Euros with taxes.
http://www.signalyst.eu/consumer.html

If you have a Nvidia Video Card on your PC, HQPlayer can use it to offload some of the calculation work if it is reasonably capable like a GTX1060 and above.

If you have Linux skills, Signalyst offers a custom linux kernel tuned for audio use.

 

[b0bb]

The trace below shows the ethernet network traffic going into HQPlayer's network audio adapter.
The main processing engine is split off onto a separate computer and data delivered to a small low noise computer like a raspberry pi or custom build audio endpoints like Sotm SMS-200 or the Sonore microRendu via ethernet, this is then connected to the DAC via I2S or USB.

The player is operating at the equivalent of 384kHz sampling, the data rate is 51Mbit/s

This is the rate of the data coming in to the USB or I2S interfaces of the DAC.
@Gilberto 62 , this partially explains why you had problems with that long USB cable.

The maximum length of a USB 2.0 cable is 5m, this would have worked to the USB spec if the cable had be tested and certified by the USB implementers forum.
It is not legal to display the official USB logo on the packaging without certification as it is a trademark owned by the USBif

Uncertified cables would have worked fine for low traffic volume like a webcam or usb mouse but as soon as the data rate increases, it might fail, and it did in your case.

 

[Gilberto 62]

Good morning to everybody. "b0bb", I thank you for your information regarding that start of interest on my part about updating the lks hardware, but as you say, for the moment, since I am a novice, we will leave it as it is and I'll settle for reading to you, the experts, and be amazed at your knowledge.
Regarding what you say about the problems I have had with the Audioquest Diamond 5 meter usb cable ... do you mean that the problem is in its length of 5 meters ...? A cable that has cost me 1,500 euros, the same as our beloved LKS ...! But then, if the problem lies in the great length of the cable, why do they sell them ...? Well, what my hifi store is going to do is return that cable to Audioquest and bring me another. Do you think I will have the same problems again ...?
P.S. I write down the information provided by our partner "oldearwax", regarding the technician Rik Schultz. Thank you.

 

[b0bb]

Good morning to everybody. "b0bb", I thank you for your information regarding that start of interest on my part about updating the lks hardware, but as you say, for the moment, since I am a novice, we will leave it as it is and I'll settle for reading to you, the experts, and be amazed at your knowledge.
Regarding what you say about the problems I have had with the Audioquest Diamond 5 meter usb cable ... do you mean that the problem is in its length of 5 meters ...? A cable that has cost me 1,500 euros, the same as our beloved LKS ...! But then, if the problem lies in the great length of the cable, why do they sell them ...? Well, what my hifi store is going to do is return that cable to Audioquest and bring me another. Do you think I will have the same problems again ...?
P.S. I write down the information provided by our partner "oldearwax", regarding the technician Rik Schultz. Thank you.

The 5m length is right at the limit, if you still want to use the Audioquest, ask your dealer if they are willing to guarantee this, if not, I think there are better uses for 1500Euros
I believe Rik is in the US, you have to consider the cost of shipping the unit to and from the US and deal customs clearance problems each way.

If you can consider an alternative use for the 1500 Euros,

1)Sotm SMS-200 NAA is 540 Euros incl VAT
https://kopfhoererboutique.com/products/sotm-sms-200

2) HQplayer Desktop is 199 Euros before VAT
https://order.shareit.com/product?vendorid=200082742&productid=300930533&backlink=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.signalyst.com%2Fwebshop.html&currency=EUR&currencies=ALL

3)Ethernet switch Cisco SG100D-08-EU 90 Euros before VAT
https://www.amazon.de/Cisco-SG100D-08-EU-8-Port-Unmanaged-Switch/dp/B007VTZ0TE

4) Cat6 Ethernet cable to your length requirements 20-50 Euros
https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias=computers&field-keywords=cat6+ethernet

5)Use your existing PC

Connect your PC to the ethernet switch, SMS-200 to ethernet switch and use the short stock USB cable that LKS provided. Keep the SMS-200 close to the LKS.
Use a long ethernet cable from SMS-200 to the switch, Cat6 ethernet is good to 100m@1000Mbit/s
SMS-200 has a special Audio only very low noise USB port

Cisco switches have good built in XOs for their clocks.

This is a base system to get you started.
SMS-200 will handle 384KHz and DSD256, if you want more resolutions like DSD512/DSD1024 then you will have to get the more expensive SMS-1000 about 4k Euros

 

[Gilberto 62]

Thanks b0bb for all that necessary for a hardware update of the lks, but my only option would be to send it to someone (... Rick for example ...) in case he decided to do it since I will change as much as possible a light bulb in my house.
Regarding the blessed 5 meter cable. That is the distance from my pc to my audio system and I need those 5 meters or, buy a laptop to dedicate it exclusively to the audo system and place it there, so I would no longer need such a long cable. The problem is that I hate laptops and I am used to working with my pc and using it for everything, like htpc, audio, video, etc. I do not know what to do, because I am very, very surprised that the Audioquest Diamond 5m was damaged or defective, because we are talking about a recognized and guaranteed brand, it is not a little cable bought in a small Chinese store (... with no intention of offending nobody ..) but, at least here in Spain, the Chinese shops only sell garbage.

 

[b0bb]

Thanks b0bb for all that necessary for a hardware update of the lks, but my only option would be to send it to someone (... Rick for example ...) in case he decided to do it since I will change as much as possible a light bulb in my house.
Regarding the blessed 5 meter cable. That is the distance from my pc to my audio system and I need those 5 meters or, buy a laptop to dedicate it exclusively to the audo system and place it there, so I would no longer need such a long cable. The problem is that I hate laptops and I am used to working with my pc and using it for everything, like htpc, audio, video, etc. I do not know what to do, because I am very, very surprised that the Audioquest Diamond 5m was damaged or defective, because we are talking about a recognized and guaranteed brand, it is not a little cable bought in a small Chinese store (... with no intention of offending nobody ..) but, at least here in Spain, the Chinese shops only sell garbage.

You do not need to change how you use your PC on your deskop.
-Today you use Foobar to play your music
-Use HQplayer instead of Foobar in the new setup to play your music.
You do not need the extra laptop.
SMS200 box will work with HQPlayer as a sound interface just like the Amanero.
SMS200 also cleans up noisy signal from PC. LKS004 performance will suffer greatly if this step is not done.

 

[Gilberto 62]

Hello "b0bb". I sincerely thank you for your opinion and recommendations, but, as you already know, I am a newcomer to this digital world and I think it is better that, at the moment, I go little by little, step by step, because otherwise I choke, I collapse. I have managed (... thanks to the invaluable help of "hpsxrb" ...) to correctly configure Foobar and, for now, I am upsampling to dsd 512 and it shows it on the lks screen and, well, for now I start here . When the new 5-meter Diamond cable arrives, I hope everything goes well, if not, then I will completely discard that long length and open another alternative, perhaps the one you put me there. Thanks "b0bb", your opinion is very valuable to me and your knowledge is simply admirable. When I read to you, I think: "... this boy must work as a thermonuclear engineer at NASA ..."

 

[b0bb]

Hello "b0bb". I sincerely thank you for your opinion and recommendations, but, as you already know, I am a newcomer to this digital world and I think it is better that, at the moment, I go little by little, step by step, because otherwise I choke, I collapse. I have managed (... thanks to the invaluable help of "hpsxrb" ...) to correctly configure Foobar and, for now, I am upsampling to dsd 512 and it shows it on the lks screen and, well, for now I start here . When the new 5-meter Diamond cable arrives, I hope everything goes well, if not, then I will completely discard that long length and open another alternative, perhaps the one you put me there. Thanks "b0bb", your opinion is very valuable to me and your knowledge is simply admirable. When I read to you, I think: "... this boy must work as a thermonuclear engineer at NASA ..."

You will be fine as long as you keep to short USB cables like the one LKS provides .
With DSD512 you will be pushing the full 50Mbits/s through the link.

I see that you get frustrated easily when things do not work the way you want, please be kind to your Audioquest dealer if you have to return the cable for the second time.

 

[Gilberto 62]

Thank you very much, "b0bb"....

 

[hpsxrb]

Thank you b0bb for all the explanations !
The glare in the LKS and the highlight in the middle range, at the level of capacitors in addition to the 8 capacitors of Analog I / V section (to be replaced by Panasonic FM of the same value, with bypass of a Wima 0.15uF and a 100pf Corning Glass), have more points of origin ?

 

[b0bb]

Thank you b0bb for all the explanations !
The glare in the LKS and the highlight in the middle range, at the level of capacitors in addition to the 8 capacitors of Analog I / V section (to be replaced by Panasonic FM of the same value, with bypass of a Wima 0.15uF and a 100pf Corning Glass), have more points of origin ?

These are military spec parts, Ebay is the best place.

AVX bought the CGW factory.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AVX-GLASS-...966107?hash=item2c95ee091b:g:9usAAOSw0ThdwTS6

NOS CGW is very expensive, below is an example of price gouging
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CY06C161J-...387578?hash=item2ed58e97ba:g:6sEAAOSwxH1T75m0

 

[b0bb]

The 003 used a 100uF Panasonic FM + 150nF Wima Film Polypropylene + 100 pf CGW glass cap
The FM is good to 1MHz, Wima to 10MHz and CGW to 100MHz
I will be replicating this on the 004.

This gives the I/V the full 100MHz operating range of powersupply bypass.

DSD512 data rate is 50Mbit/s (measured in a previous post)
DSD1024 data rate is 100Mbit/s

So 100MHz range is quite reasonable and is what needs to be done to prepare the 004 for the maximum sample rate of DSD1024
At DSD1024 nearly all the internal signal processing in the ES9038 will be pushed aside.

DSD1024 stream is generated by HQPlayer.
At present a DSD512 stream consumes about 55% of my computer's (Intel i9-9900KS) capability, there is considerable room to spare.
DSD256 loads the computer to 35%

Here are the parts used on the 003
Black cap with the Red192D marking is the 100uF Panasonic FM
Black rectagular box next to it is the Corning CGW
Wima is on the underside of the DAC

Wima 0.15uF (150nF) on underside of DAC

 

[AuxInput]

If you can consider an alternative use for the 1500 Euros,

1)Sotm SMS-200 NAA is 540 Euros incl VAT
https://kopfhoererboutique.com/products/sotm-sms-200

2) HQplayer Desktop is 199 Euros before VAT
https://order.shareit.com/product?vendorid=200082742&productid=300930533&backlink=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.signalyst.com%2Fwebshop.html&currency=EUR&currencies=ALL

The Sotm SMS-200 that b0bb is proposing is what is called a "DLNA Renderer". It is essentially a digital transport/player that is controlled by a PC with DLNA media player software over an ethernet network. You need some sort of DLNA media software, such as the suggested HQPlayer. I have never used HQPlayer, but it does have a lot of upsampling and DSP options that are not available in other solutions. If you just want to do something basic without this advanced DSP, you can try something like Jriver, which is a lot cheaper (that DSP in HQPlayer does cost money). JRiver still has comprehensive DSP, such as parametric EQ and even can do room correction plugins if you really want that.

The Sotm SMS-200 is just about the cheapest DLNA renderer that I know of. Good find on b0bb! The SMS-200 will make a much better transport/player than the computer because it likely has better clocks and circuits for doing the USB data transmission. You can add a linear power supply upgrade later on if you want.

Sonore has much more expensive and capable set of offerings, starting with ultraRendu all the way up to Signature Rendu SE. The Sonore stuff will support up to DSD512 and includes a mode that supports HQ Player NAA Output. Much more expensive.

 

[Gilberto 62]

Good morning and thank you very much for your contribution "auxinput". As I have already written in a previous entrys, I am a novice, a beginner, totally inexperienced but thanks to you, I can go step by step. And the truth, my start has been with many stumbles and headaches, but with your invaluable help, I already have the Foobar configured correctly and, I know that it is nonsense and something ridiculous or insignificant to say it here, with all of you experts, connoisseurs , almost digital audio scientists, but I'm excited to say that on the screen of my lks, I can see this image ...