[smodtactical]

Whitigir how is your heavily modded LKS sounding now compared to other top DACs you've heard?

 

[Whitigir]

Whitigir how is your heavily modded LKS sounding now compared to other top DACs you've heard?

It is not heavily modded lol, but it has always been at the high-end segments. The only down fall is that it is Async and has it own clocks which generated upon the main 100mhz in there. Until this clock is upgraded, any sources input would be just as good as this clock itself regardless of source.

Simply saying, with lks004, you don’t have to worry about bad sources, where as for other DAC, you may have to

 

[b0bb]

Thanks @b0bb. By your post here, this OCXO is drop in upgrades for lks004 and has better performances than 950X. But pulsar is better ? It look like the Muse caps will need to be replaced anyways to better stabilize the regulator. Why was it used in the first place here though ? Probably for more analog sounding to offset Sabres and 575 glares? Then I better keep on with Nichicon FP

I will just drop in an Rhea - dip socket and dip the cheap OCXO now while waiting for pulsar at the end of the year, hopefully they come back to it. I found the adapter board for crystek! Thanks B0bb

This AOCJY1 is actually the same terminals configurations as 950X but pin1 will need to short to ground ? Or is it unnecessary?

Also saw your explaination on the stability of this OCXO vs 950X. It seems the stability in it accuracy is too crazy. It just explains why the OCXO uses a lot of power and is higher ppm rating than 950x. This AOCJY1 is 50PPB and not 25PPM like Crystek!

So far I am very happy with the 950X, can’t see how the OCXO will do

I left my AOCJY1 unconnected, you could pull it to ground and see what happens.


Take your time with the mods the 950 will take about 2 weeks to burn in if left powered on 24x7

I had the CCHD950X for about 1year before switching, it is quite a step up from stock. I waited for about 10months for the Pulsar to become available.

They are custom made in small batches, much better that the OEM spec. I bought the AOCJY1 while waiting.

AOCJY1 has a tremendous dynamic presentation, the 950s are laid back and the soundstage closedin in comparison.
Pulsar is the AOCJY1 with an even bigger soundstage and resolving ability and much warmer as it is not stressing the power supply as much.
Downside is that micropower consumption and high stability does not come at a discount.

 

[Whitigir]

Alright, thanks @b0bb . I have just put in the Dip 14 socket and getting ready for my OCXO. It is coming tuesday and in the mean time I modified my 950X Frankenstein style to Dip in, and the capacitors are upgraded

I shall be ready for Pulsar and that OCXO drop in! This is awesome. The clock upgrades vastly improve the DSD performances, and I do not understand why, but who cares ? As long as my ears is happy

The Nichicon FP is a little confusion, I dropped my jaw when seeing it body code....I thought I was getting 470uF again, but it is actually 47uF where the 470uF would be marked as 471

I also encountered a strange issue, I used to get dpll to lose lock at BW01 when cold crank up. It would need 15 minutes. But now it is no longer dropping it even when cold ... what ?

 

[b0bb]

Alright, thanks @b0bb

I also encountered a strange issue, I used to get dpll to lose lock at BW01 when cold crank up. It would need 15 minutes. But now it is no longer dropping it even when cold ... what ?

15mins sounds about right for normal XO warm up, manufacturer specs specifically jitter, are not guaranteed until then.
The newer crystal is a 25ppm XO compared to a 50ppm on the stock XO, so the cold power on variance is correspondingly lower.

BW01 is the lowest PLL lock range, if the phase deviation between the master clock and the clock of your incoming audio stream exceeds this it will not lock onto the signal.

Your source material is jittery.

 

[Whitigir]

15mins sounds about right for normal XO warm up, manufacturer specs specifically jitter, are not guaranteed until then.
The newer crystal is a 25ppm XO compared to a 50ppm on the stock XO, so the cold power on variance is correspondingly lower.

BW01 is the lowest PLL lock range, if the phase deviation between the master clock and the clock of your incoming audio stream exceeds this it will not lock onto the signal.

Your source material is jittery.

Yes, that Amanero and I need a PCIE USB card with better clock, or is there something I can do to upgrade my motherboard clock ? Though at BW01 it no longer lose lock now Even at cold, I do want to know how to improve my PC in USB application

 

[b0bb]

Yes, that Amanero and I need a PCIE USB card with better clock, or is there something I can do to upgrade my motherboard clock ? Though at BW01 it no longer lose lock now Even at cold, I do want to know how to improve my PC in USB application

The motherboard clock should not be touched, first determine if the problem can be handled by changing the transport link.
If the Pink Faun via I2S is showing the same behavior, it is likely the software you are using for playback (foobar,j river, hqplayer etc).

If you want to change the USB output from the PC, take a look at what Pink Faun or SotM have on offer.

DSD on the LKS has the potential to quite good, in that case BW01 is a non-option if the Amanero is the source, I would not worry over this.

 

[Whitigir]

The motherboard clock should not be touched, first determine if the problem can be handled by changing the transport link.
If the Pink Faun via I2S is showing the same behavior, it is likely the software you are using for playback (foobar,j river, hqplayer etc).

If you want to change the USB output from the PC, take a look at what Pink Faun or SotM have on offer.

DSD on the LKS has the potential to quite good, in that case BW01 is a non-option if the Amanero is the source, I would not worry over this.

Pinkfaun i2s is actually great, but it is limited to 192Khz. I would love to get dsd1024 on the lks004. The only bridge module available now is the diyinhk one with Xmos216.

My usb output now has no problem doing 44.1 or 48k at BW01. Unless I am using upsampling to 384khz or so. The software I am using now is the HQPlayer, though using Oversampling on the HQPlayer degrade the sound, so I better leave it as is, or DSD512

Yes, DSD512 sounds awesome, and changing the clock is a huge improvements, and I am staying on BW15 without worrying

 

[littlexx26]

Pinkfaun i2s is actually great, but it is limited to 192Khz. I would love to get dsd1024 on the lks004. The only bridge module available now is the diyinhk one with Xmos216.

My usb output now has no problem doing 44.1 or 48k at BW01. Unless I am using upsampling to 384khz or so. The software I am using now is the HQPlayer, though using Oversampling on the HQPlayer degrade the sound, so I better leave it as is, or DSD512

Yes, DSD512 sounds awesome, and changing the clock is a huge improvements, and I am staying on BW15 without worrying

You need to stay at BW15 for DSD512?

 

[Whitigir]

You need to stay at BW15 for DSD512?

Depends on the filters and modulators options, but yes....because Amanero suck, but it doesn’t matter for DSD Native

 

[Chopin75]

Maybe a dumb question, are the internal clocks for DAC always a Master clock ar 10mhz ?

 

[Whitigir]

Maybe a dumb question, are the internal clocks for DAC always a Master clock ar 10mhz ?

You meant can it take external master clock ? If so, no...lks004 generates it own by this 100Mhz. So the better the clock, the better the performances whether it is DSD or pcm. However, because of this, it is less susceptible to bad or good sources than my R2R7

 

[xiamen]

Alright, thanks @b0bb . I have just put in the Dip 14 socket and getting ready for my OCXO. It is coming tuesday and in the mean time I modified my 950X Frankenstein style to Dip in, and the capacitors are upgraded

I shall be ready for Pulsar and that OCXO drop in! This is awesome. The clock upgrades vastly improve the DSD performances, and I do not understand why, but who cares ? As long as my ears is happy

The Nichicon FP is a little confusion, I dropped my jaw when seeing it body code....I thought I was getting 470uF again, but it is actually 47uF where the 470uF would be marked as 471

I also encountered a strange issue, I used to get dpll to lose lock at BW01 when cold crank up. It would need 15 minutes. But now it is no longer dropping it even when cold ... what ?

I was going to just enjoy music for a while. But you got me intrigued. How do I get the correct XO adapter. Can you give me a part number and where to get it. Do it put it on the same way you describe with the 950x directly? What's dip 14 socket? Is that part of the adapter or something you have to get separately? What do you mean when you say you have to "Frankenstein" the 950X to fit? Thanks Whitgir.

 

[Whitigir]

I was going to just enjoy music for a while. But you got me intrigued. How do I get the correct XO adapter. Can you give me a part number and where to get it. Do it put it on the same way you describe with the 950x directly? What's dip 14 socket? Is that part of the adapter or something you have to get separately? What do you mean when you say you have to "Frankenstein" the 950X to fit? Thanks Whitgir.

14 DIP socket can be found on Mouser. It has 14 Pins, and I had to modify it by taking out 8 Pins and leave the 4 corner Pins which fit in the holes perfectly on the 004 as shown

Part link: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/855-D2814-42

It was easy to use a hot solder iron and push out the unnecessary pins. The stock 575 clock need to be hotgun out, or you can easily make a caged solid wires to use a hot soldering iron instead, check some YouTube videos for it. Then you can solder in the DIP socket.

I had to Frankenstein my 950X as I had it sit on another DIP socket with solid silver wires running to it terminals, it was hell to make it happen, but it happened....you could see how ugly it look here.

 

[Chopin75]

You meant can it take external master clock ? If so, no...lks004 generates it own by this 100Mhz. So the better the clock, the better the performances whether it is DSD or pcm. However, because of this, it is less susceptible to bad or good sources than my R2R7

I am wondering if it can take in masterclock or word clock to allow sync of 3 DACs to do the M-ch. the brooklyn Mytec has this feature. But r2r and this lk004 do not. Some other SD Dac has clock input but i have not seen a R2R with this feature.