[geoffalter11]

Hi all... I have a question for you LKS users, if you don’t mind. I currently own a Vinshine R2R Reference which is based on the Soekris DAC. Do you feel it would be an upgrade to the Vinshine? I know my question is pretty subjective, but curious what you all think. I have read thru this thread and the LKS sounds like a great DAC. Price wise the two are fairly similar. I use the Vinshine thru USB as it converts to I2S. Not sure if that is common for all DACs. I am using balanced with a THX 789 currently. Thanks for any and all responses.

 

[xiamen]

Hi all... I have a question for you LKS users, if you don’t mind. I currently own a Vinshine R2R Reference which is based on the Soekris DAC. Do you feel it would be an upgrade to the Vinshine? I know my question is pretty subjective, but curious what you all think. I have read thru this thread and the LKS sounds like a great DAC. Price wise the two are fairly similar. I use the Vinshine thru USB as it converts to I2S. Not sure if that is common for all DACs. I am using balanced with a THX 789 currently. Thanks for any and all responses.

The 004 is similar vintage to your dac, a few years old. Why aren't you looking at newer dacs, like from Vinshine themselves. Personally, I think technologies move on. In general, you get improvements at cost effectivity with newer versions.

 

[geoffalter11]

The 004 is similar vintage to your dac, a few years old. Why aren't you looking at newer dacs, like from Vinshine themselves. Personally, I think technologies move on. In general, you get improvements at cost effectivity with newer versions.

I am looking at them all. Alvin thinks I should move to a Pontus. I have also looked at the Matrix Sabre DAC.

 

[tdrood]

You have the minimum recommended capacitive bypass, I would leave it alone and move on.


If you really wanted to take this further, then take heed of what your instrument is trying to tell you.
2.6ohm ESR between the ground and power planes means that decoupling on the board in not effective, adding a bigger cap may not amount to much.

You could have a dry solder joint if you mixed leaded and unleaded solder or did not adequately heat the joint while using unleaded solder.

I measured the three spare 0.1mF caps (identical to the installed ones) and they all read 2.4-ohm esr out of circuit. I could put in a 1mF but the data sheet clearly specifies 0.1mF closest to Vdd pin and 1.0mF within 1-2 inches from the Vdd pin. I assumed that the 004 would have 1mF decoupling cap within 2 inches of the oem clock, and that’s why I used the 0.1mF. To be clear, I am not questioning your judgement - quite the contrary, I am trying to learn from you. That said, I will do whatever you think is optimal. Thanks b0bb!

T

 

[b0bb]

I measured the three spare 0.1mF caps (identical to the installed ones) and they all read 2.4-ohm esr out of circuit. I could put in a 1mF but the data sheet clearly specifies 0.1mF closest to Vdd pin and 1.0mF within 1-2 inches from the Vdd pin. I assumed that the 004 would have 1mF decoupling cap within 2 inches of the oem clock, and that’s why I used the 0.1mF. To be clear, I am not questioning your judgement - quite the contrary, I am trying to learn from you. That said, I will do whatever you think is optimal. Thanks b0bb!

T

Sometimes parts come with an anti-corrosion lacquer coating, you could try to burn it off and see if things improve, for ROHS unleaded solder coated parts the iron has to be set at 750F/400C to completely melt the solder, also make sure you have properly accounted for the DC resistance of the probe leads. Measure the 1uF cap while you are at it.

If none of the above lowers the measured ESR you will need to start spending money on a 300MHz BW or better oscilloscope and/or better ESR meter if you are looking for specific answers.

With the scope you can look around what is actually happening on the VDD pin, the more effective the decoupling, the lower the peak to peak noise voltage, on my unmodified Gen1 004 it is 200mV

 

[Ethereal Sound]

Just curious, is the heat output on this DAC still an issue for some people? I'm trying to decide between this and possibly a used Auralic Vega G1 and not sure how it would compare.

 

[xiamen]

I am looking at them all. Alvin thinks I should move to a Pontus. I have also looked at the Matrix Sabre DAC.

The 004 does use many high quality components. I would say a few years ago it was one of the better dacs on the market. In my mind, it has a few shortcomings, and it's a pity LKS did not come up with a new version like a 005. I don't like the Amanero usb/i2s bridge they used. They fiddled with the firmware for this for years now and still hasn't fix up all the problems. The clock they came with is very low spec, power supply has noise issues etc. But if you are a modder and can get one at cheap price (like what someone posted earlier re one of massdrop campaigns), then it is worth it. It's more moddable than for example the Matrix Sabre especially at the moment you get generous help from someone like Bobb on this forum. I still have my 004 and will one day when I have nothing better to do, sit down and do all those mods detailed in the last few hundred pages on this forum.

 

[geoffalter11]

The 004 does use many high quality components. I would say a few years ago it was one of the better dacs on the market. In my mind, it has a few shortcomings, and it's a pity LKS did not come up with a new version like a 005. I don't like the Amanero usb/i2s bridge they used. They fiddled with the firmware for this for years now and still hasn't fix up all the problems. The clock they came with is very low spec, power supply has noise issues etc. But if you are a modder and can get one at cheap price (like what someone posted earlier re one of massdrop campaigns), then it is worth it. It's more moddable than for example the Matrix Sabre especially at the moment you get generous help from someone like Bobb on this forum. I still have my 004 and will one day when I have nothing better to do, sit down and do all those mods detailed in the last few hundred pages on this forum.

Thank you. I appreciate what you have written. My Vinshine uses a similar Amanero USB/I2S bridge. I ended up buying a Schiit Wyrd to clean my USB signal. That was the single biggest improvement I have made to the sound of my system. I recently tested it again and removed the Wyrd, then put it back in and the difference is not subtle. I am not a fiddler or modder. I do not have the ability to do any of what Bobb is helping everyone do. It isn't in my nature to open up a piece of equipment and modify the components. The first 20 pages of this thread gushes over this DAC, and then it changes. That was the reason for the questions. I owned a Metrum Musette before the Vinshine and I ended up selling for a 65% reduction as no one would buy it. You are right, technology moves on. The truth is that my DAC sounds really good. Most likely I will need to spend significantly more to improve my DAC as selling a Vinshine won't net me close to what I invested. I have only owned 1 Sigma DAC. It was in my Audeze Deckard, which was my first piece when I started in the hobby. I immediately switched to a R2R/NOS DAC and have only owned that type since. Thanks again for the feedback. I think I need to save up and then decide. I spent the last couple weeks with a TT2 on a loaner program. I was blown away by it's ability to extract detail in such a pristine and musical way. Then again the TT2 is significantly more expensive than my Vinshine. Nonetheless, my Vinshine didn't sound $3500 less. Price to performance was closer than that.

 

[MartinWT]

I bought the LKS specifically for its I2S input. As with all great plans, I found after much use that I just could not get the same frequency balance and tonality that I could achieve from the S/PDIF inputs. I changed my streamer to one (the Asus Tinker Board S) that provides USB output into my Mutec reclocker so that I could send AES to the LKS. The DAC revels in the high quality reclocked signal via AES and does a far better job than it ever did via I2S. It goes to show that sometimes you have to stop and re-target. I rate the LKS, with a different clock and some power supply capacitor changes, very highly when playing from AES.

 

[oldearwax]

Here is what my XO output looks like, limited by the 200Mhz Probe BW, which acts as a low pass filter, output looks like a near sinewave instead of a squarewave as a result. ....

The output is quite distorted, try using the X10 probe setting and check the probe + scope capacitive loading is below 20pf

Thank you b0bb.


My second attempt:

I remount the SiTime clock.
Fig a was mounted with some wires. Waveform is distorted ... notice the discontinuity in rise time.
Fig b was mounted without the wires, but slightly offset (using both the long and short pads of the rhea board)...
waveform is traced with full bandwidth and 250MHz. Due to the test fixture (grounding and probe impedance)
Fig b doesn't look like a square wave. With a much shorter ground of the probe, I saw the "square" wave.

 

[MartinWT]

Found out today that my USB input is the Amanero Combo384 board despite having ordered the LKS with the basic USB option. I'm not complaining!

 

[MartinWT]

I have a problem. I came to my system and found that it wouldn't play music. After a lot of troubleshooting, I have established that the LKS is at fault. All four S/PDIF inputs (BNC, co-ax, optical, AES) show the same symptoms: when I start playing music it locks and shows the correct sample rate, but there is no audio output. The USB input works normally.

I guess that S/PDIF is switched between the four inputs and then there is common receive circuitry. It appears to be receiving the clock but not decoding the music. If USB works, then I guess by the time the audio appears on the I2S bus all is well.

Could anyone give me pointers as to what may be the problem? Receive chip? Coupling cap? Something else?

 

[oldearwax]

.... All four S/PDIF inputs (BNC, co-ax, optical, AES) show the same symptoms: when I start playing music it locks and shows the correct sample rate, but there is no audio output. The USB input works normally.

I guess that S/PDIF is switched between the four inputs and then there is common receive circuitry. It appears to be receiving the clock but not decoding the music. If USB works, then I guess by the time the audio appears on the I2S bus all is well.
...

Sorry to hear that.
I don't have the schematic of LKS. So what follows is just a wild guess.
NB: LKS uses dual ES9038. So LKS and "Tone board" architectures may be
completely different.

I read the schematic of the "Tone Board" which also uses ES9038: spif goes into ES9038 via GPIO
and usb is converted to i2c before entering ES9038.

Is it possible on the LKS .. all the serial inputs go thru analog switch/multiplexer before reaching
ES9038 ? If so, look for analog switches and GPIO pins (17 or 18) of ES9038 ?

 

[MartinWT]

Thanks. Is there a power rail that could have failed that only feeds the S/PDIF circuitry?

 

[xiamen]

Thanks. Is there a power rail that could have failed that only feeds the S/PDIF circuitry?

If it's power to s/pdif circuitry problem only, then usb input should work. Try that. Are you sure it's LKS. Have you try system with different dac. If it doesn't seem to be decoding, may be the clock. I would use multimeter to check if there is correct voltage to clock. .