[thoppa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif For the ST or STX, HDAV 1.3 or other cards that have seperate molex for input this modification would be uneeded. Only logic is taken from the board for these cards. For those cards which take their power from the PCI slot this modification could yeild some excellent results. You like the OPA2134s over the AD8599's for I/V?

Yeah, the OPA2134 seems to blend well with everything else that's going on. Before the mods, they put the vocals right into my head and it was too tight, but now with the better XO and power, the vocals have moved away and the soundstage is really natural - just like the AD8599 were before the mods but not quite as wide. I've also got some OPA2107 and 2132 to try - gotta love free samples eh ?

I hope someone tries this cable riser mod ! I'll send my cable to anyone who will for a very good price....

 

[thoppa]

Interesting reading. To be honest, it seems like a 'must do everything possible'; analaudiophilia is a dangerous disease....

It would tell me to strip my computer down into its parts, mount all of them independently on cement/rubber/wood plinths, isolate them in helmhotz cages and float the whole thing on a bed of air.

I did a year of Physics at Lancaster Uni, including time in a cryogenics lab. That was built underground, in a room within a room. And in the middle of that room was the probe and helium4 source and computer, all fully screened, and that little 'room' was floated on air. By going 100% to eliminate all forms of energy they were able to get to something like 1/10,000 of a degree above absolute zero. Why ? I never did work that out. I guess it's just to see if they could.

It's completely off-topic but I've been looking at camera megapixels, photosite density and size, nyquist frequencies etc and come to the conclusion that most compact cameras with 12 megapixel sensors are, in theory, just marketing. The sensor is generally little fingernail size so it really shouldn't go above about 10 megapixels because any more than that is simply lost - a bit like any frequencies above 22Khz are 'lost' on CD.

I wonder at what point are changes simply 'lost' ? I'm just trying to keep my sanity here....

So filter beads - yes please. Mobo 'tweaks'...hmmm... but maybe I should think about changing the XO on my mobo.... ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif hahaha, hacking the 3.3/5V/12V pins through a riser...wickkkiiid!!! I'm using some ferrite beads from Chomerics, I'll try to look up the filtering freqs...they are meant to clean power cables I think, and so far they seem to do the job quite nicely...but it's always hard to ignore placebo as you know well, Spread Spectrum is no good! it constantly kills the spikes of the motherboard oscillator. this PDF from the cplay author advises to disable it: http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf and any serious link on google does too: spread spectrum motherboard bios audio - Google Search you really don't want to constantly kill spikes...I whined to Gigabyte to get a BIOS where I could disable it, they gave it to me custom made...as they don't allow to disable it on any of their mobos(company's policy), but they goofed up w/ the PLL coeffs so I wasn't able to o/c anymore. I think the good days of Gigabyte are long gone, their new BIOS coders don't know jack

 

[leeperry]

I like his extreme approach to HTPC. I've followed most of his "realistic" advices, like killing as many residents apps as you can, run them in low priority on single cores(and run your media player in high priority on 4 cores)...increase the windows timer granularity and MT threads quantum. I've also messed w/ the NT core priority % so high priority would have a 64x higher priority than low. my system is definitely snappier, and that's why I hate TSR's(the Xonar drivers carry 3 of them, no good to me).

as you can see, that Asus mobo I'm getting soon carries very low ripple/crosstalk. this gotta be good

sure, go ahead! change the crystal of your graphic card and mobo! but kill SS as well. I'd love to change the graphic card PLL tbh, coz the stock ones suck in Reclock...way way way too jittery! I'm not quite getting 48.0000~Hz...I'm more getting something between 47.999~ and 48.001~, luckily Reclock takes care of that!

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interesting reading. To be honest, it seems like a 'must do everything possible'; analaudiophilia is a dangerous disease.... It would tell me to strip my computer down into its parts, mount all of them independently on cement/rubber/wood plinths, isolate them in helmhotz cages and float the whole thing on a bed of air. I did a year of Physics at Lancaster Uni, including time in a cryogenics lab. That was built underground, in a room within a room. And in the middle of that room was the probe and helium4 source and computer, all fully screened, and that little 'room' was floated on air. By going 100% to eliminate all forms of energy they were able to get to something like 1/10,000 of a degree above absolute zero. Why ? I never did work that out. I guess it's just to see if they could. It's completely off-topic but I've been looking at camera megapixels, photosite density and size, nyquist frequencies etc and come to the conclusion that most compact cameras with 12 megapixel sensors are, in theory, just marketing. The sensor is generally little fingernail size so it really shouldn't go above about 10 megapixels because any more than that is simply lost - a bit like any frequencies above 22Khz are 'lost' on CD. I wonder at what point are changes simply 'lost' ? I'm just trying to keep my sanity here.... So filter beads - yes please. Mobo 'tweaks'...hmmm... but maybe I should think about changing the XO on my mobo.... ?

There is a fine line between modifications that make sense and just crazy stuff. You have to make up your mind which is which.

 

[leeperry]

god****...when, where and how will that audio odyssey ever stop?

I've ditched my BeQuiet 500W to install the Corsair 400W...that yields the lowest ripple results in all the tests I've seen so far, even lower than the Corsair 620W(that carries a solid cap on its 12V rail).

well, where do I start?

I loved the OPA2132P as buffer, but sound was -I dunno, hard to explain- harsh and not totally right...like screaming a bit in the trebles, sorta distorted....and now it just seems to sound WAY clearer and cleaner

SS seems to have improved as well! my next upgrade is swapping my cheapo GA-P31-DS3L for the P5K Premium, which is said to have a killer PCB w/ very low crosstalk.

anyway, this Corsair 400W looks killer in technical tests, and man is it audible!

 

[leeperry]

it's funny how the Corsair 400W completely fails in that german test: Google Traduction

but well, they didn't measure ripple...which is what mattters the most to us

and their top PSU costs twice more than the Corsair for only 425W, and the second best is fanless and costs 4 times more.

I think it's like graphic cards tests that only aim at 3D games testing, and completely overlook HTPC use(PLL jitter, sharpness, HDMI features, IVTC, RGB conversion)..

 

[sonci]

Do you really noticed the difference SQ between 2 atx PSU,
What headphones do you use?
Thats crazy man, considering you have the same motherboard, which will add its riple anyway, and considering both of PSU are good,

Thats, just placebo,
Would you noticed the same difference if you see a bad review of the Corsair psu?

 

[leeperry]

well I've seen bad reviews of the corsair...and I still think that it sounds a heck better than the BeQuiet 500W(that doesn't have a very good build quality, they even soldered onto the female power plug directly...in quality PSU's they solder on a separate PCB).

I use a cd1k(same drivers as cd3k), and yes the power supply ripple does matter...I will swap the mobo on monday, I hope it'll improve even further.

you can disable 2 types of Spread Spectrum on the P5K Premium(PCI-E and CPU) and it's got a very low crosstalk PCB

about the audible diff? the SS is clearer, each instrument is more clearly defined...it's less muddy, the headstage is wider too, and the trebles are less distorted....makes me crave for a killer stabilized PSU like thoppa's!

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif well I've seen bad reviews of the corsair...and I still think that it sounds a heck better than the BeQuiet 500W(that doesn't have a very good build quality, they even soldered onto the female power plug directly...in quality PSU's they solder on a separate PCB). I use a cd1k(same drivers as cd3k), and yes the power supply ripple does matter...I will swap the mobo on monday, I hope it'll improve even further. you can disable 2 types of Spread Spectrum on the P5K Premium(PCI-E and CPU) and it's got a very low crosstalk PCB about the audible diff? the SS is clearer, each instrument is more clearly defined...it's less muddy, the headstage is wider too, and the trebles are less distorted....makes me crave for a killer stabilized PSU like thoppa's!

How much did you spend in total,
Why dont you sell everything and get a Lavry DAC?.

The spread spectrum should be enabled or disabled for better audio?

 

[leeperry]

after I sell my old parts, the psu/mobo upgrade will have cost me something along the lines of $30

SS should be disabled, it's making the PCI-E and CPU PLL over-oscillate on purpose..the last thing you want.

I've posted links about SS in the previous pages

 

[ROBSCIX]

The trouble with cards that pull their power from the slots is the power running through all the tracings on the board. Getting dirtier and dirtier from EMI/RFI.
You PSU can be clean but by the time it reaches the card I would say it would be much more messy and more dirty with interference.

Thoppa and I talked about using a riser card and modifying it to allow you to input cleaner power from a outside source. I have also been talking with a few that desigg circuits that fit over the cards and allow the power for the opamps amplification to come from a outside source. Both are excellent ideas for cards that draw their power right form the board.
The card itself can draw logic from teh board that is not what interests us. Where the problem would be is the cards getting these dirtier power signals from the slot and using them for driving the amplifications sections.

I am working on a few projects that will help guys get around this trouble with their cards. With slight or no modificaiton to the original card.

 

[leeperry]

you can also read Skylab's impressions on this DAC: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/re...01-psu-391485/

he said that a killer PSU improved the SQ a great deal...it's prolly stabilized w/ uber-low ripple.

the lower the ripple, the clearer the sound(less crap from the PSU to color the sound)...if my HD2 had an external molex, I would prolly go external stabilized PSU...sadly, I think only the Asus soundcards have that...and they are really not to my taste

 

[awesom-o]

edit: never mind, unnecessary comment..

 

[leeperry]

well, I always like to do/undo mods...the BeQuiet 500W sounds terrible compared to the Corsair 400W....a bit like a Realtek onboard to give you an idea of the difference

the SS is narrower, the trebles are mushy, the bass is dull...the PSU is clearly not a component to be underestimated! next upgrade = Audio-GD Earth on the final buffer

and I've just installed the P5K Premium, it's good stuff so far(it uses a 8 pins EATX connector, better for ground shielding I think)...if it wasn't for the fixed sample rate drivers(and inexistent updates), I'd make me wanna try the STX again

I love how each upgrade makes the former config totally unbearable...upgraditis is a nasty sickness.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoppa /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't need to do this cos my ST psu is doing very well, but if anyone wants to give it a go and needs a riser cable, let me know, because I don't need this anymore.

a more elegant solution for ppl running PCI soundcards is this: PCI-E express 1X to PCI riser 32bits card adapter - eBay (item 220442793840 end time Nov-23-09 05:54:07 PST)

I'll prolly grab one