[Tomus4]

Hi b0bb,
 
Did you checked Burson v5 in the I/V circut?  

 

[penguin69]

  Hi b0bb,
 
Did you checked Burson v5 in the I/V circut?  

I'm fairly sure that b0bb posted earlier in this thread that Burson had told him that the v5 should not be used in the I/V section.

 

[Tomus4]

Do you know why? I have response from Burson:
Hi Thomasz,
 
Thank you for your email and your interest in our audio opamps.
 
For the LKS, V5 is the best.  Our V5 and V5i both can work in the i/v stage.   No problems. 
 
Best regards,
 
Alex
  Burson Audio| www.BursonAudio.com | info@bursonaudio.com 
Supreme Sound Audio| www.SSAudio.com.au | opamp@bursonaudio.com

 

[penguin69]

Ah - maybe I mis-remembered. I thought b0bb said the v5i's weren't suitable.
 
FWIW, I've got v4 Bursons in the output stage of the LKS - they also sound good.

 

[Tomus4]

I'am thinking about v4 too. It seems to have better parameters then v5. And becouse it have 40mA Quiescent Current vs 30 mA Ticha it might be good for I/V. 
On  the one side I have seen opinion that v5 is the best - http://www.head-fi.org/t/784790/burson-supreme-sound-audio-v5-opa-d-v5-opa-s-review and above Burson sales suggestion. On the other side my country Burson's dealer and parameters (Open-loop gain (dB), 
Common-Mode Rejection Ratio, Total Harmonic Distortion) point v4 is better.

 

[b0bb]

Originally Posted by Tomus4 
 
Hi b0bb,
 
Did you checked Burson v5 in the I/V circut? 
 
 
Yes.
 
The soundstage shrank and the top end extension and spaciousness was gone giving a darker, more veiled presentation.
 
The ES9018 needs to have compensation capacitance added across the I/V resistor to counteract the capacitance at the opamp input.
This is the DAC output capacitance + the opamp input capacitance.
 
The stock opamp used in the LKS (OPA1612) and the Ticha 994 have input capacitances of 8pf and 6pf respectively, this makes a very straight forward swap.
 
The Burson V5 on the other hand, has a FET input, typical capacitance is between 2X-5X higher, this means the default 220pF compensation cap has to be adjusted.

 

[b0bb]

 
Ah - maybe I mis-remembered. I thought b0bb said the v5i's weren't suitable.
 
FWIW, I've got v4 Bursons in the output stage of the LKS - they also sound good.

There were 2 versions.
The recommendation from Burson for the older version with yellow base was to not use it in the I/V converter position.
 
The newer one with the black base sounded better and Burson told me it has incremental improvements, that one did not have issue with working as the I/V converter.
 
Sound quality wise the 994 was better  but this could possibly be fixed.

 

[Tomus4]

Thank you very much for response b0bb.
What do you thing about Burson v4 ? Did you checked it in RCA and I/V section?

 

[penguin69]

So the Crystek 950 is now in situ, with the Twisted Pear adaptor board underneath it, and the 14 pin DIP adaptor below it.

The task was less than straightforward as the original soldering for the external XO board had caused the PCB land to come free, and I wasn't confident that I could replace it and ensure a decent contact with the PCB. I also needed to truncate the top left pin of the 14 pin adaptor so that it did not make contact with the 'voltage in' PCB land, as I wanted to avail of the regulated voltage output from the board in the bottom right of the picture.

It's no oil painting, but everything seems to work ok. I'm kind of surprised that I didn't screw something up or irrepairarably damage a component. I'll do some extended listening tomorrow and assess the improvements.

I'd like to put the lid on the LKS temporarily in order to keep animals away from my handiwork (and the 240v AC, which I doubt is good for their fur). However, I am a little concerned that the jump lead providing the regulated voltage to the Vin pin may work loose.

If it does come free, then I assume the DAC will let me know by going silent as soon as it detects no input on PIN 24. Is this correct?

 

[b0bb]

I'd like to put the lid on the LKS temporarily in order to keep animals away from my handiwork (and the 240v AC, which I doubt is good for their fur). However, I am a little concerned that the jump lead providing the regulated voltage to the Vin pin may work loose.

If it does come free, then I assume the DAC will let me know by going silent as soon as it detects no input on PIN 24. Is this correct?

The jump lead carrying power should be secured, it can do a lot of damage if the lead touches anything else on the motherboard.

 

[b0bb]

  Thank you very much for response b0bb.
What do you thing about Burson v4 ? Did you checked it in RCA and I/V section?

I do not have the V4 and would probably used something like this in the RCA section only.

 

[penguin69]

  The jump lead carrying power should be secured, it can do a lot of damage if the lead touches anything else on the motherboard.

Okay, noted b0bb - I'll find a small adapter which secures it. It's tensioned to spring upward at the moment, so I've kept the lid off.
 
Thanks again for all the help. It would never have occurred to me to swap out the stock XO to improve the sound. Really, the LKS was brittle and thin to listen when I first got it - I couldn't stand it. Now it's smooth and detailed.
 
The Ticha's are due any day for the I/V section. Looking forward to those.
 
Out of curiosity, can the ES9018 operate without a master clock? Probably a stupid question, but if the chip is receiving, say, an S/PDIF signal then it does at least have a (probably jittery) clock source even if it doesn't have a master reference.
 
The reason I ask is I would like to test how 'bad' the LKS can sound, compared to how good. My thinkinh was I could put a temporary switch on the voltage supply to the XO in order to test this. I did try this manually about a week ago (I simply unsoldered the supply) but I lost all sound. And whilst I understand how S/PDIF works, I unfortunately have little idea how the Amanero board feeds a signal to the Sabre DACs.

 

[b0bb]

   
Out of curiosity, can the ES9018 operate without a master clock?

 
The 9018 requires the use of a master clock.

 

[Coolzo]

Out of curiosity, has anyone compared this to something like the gustard x20u?
I have a x20u, but am considering this unit.

I am also curious about this. Seriously considering either one or the other.

 

[justbenice]

Hi B0bb, 
Are there anyway to reduce the supply voltage for the opamps in the output stage ? I tried 2 blue trimpot but it doesn't work.