[ayt999]

lol, so how many people have my Hammerfall convinced that they need a new soundcard?

this is getting quite interesting.

I'm still looking for a way to get cleaner power to the card... maybe a bypass would be the best way to go? I'll need to start looking at very clean external power supplies then.

 

[lan]

Can't be many people since it's a relatively expensive card. It's better to spend your $ on 1212m + amp and/or headphones first. Iron's and Ed are just insane

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Can't be many people since it's a relatively expensive card. It's better to spend your $ on 1212m + amp and/or headphones first. Iron's and Ed are just insane

Well, that, and they both aready have very nice amps and cans... but yeah, they're a bit insane.

 

[ayt999]

hehe, maybe I need to send it out on a tour of potential buyers a bit.

so who wants to hear a modded Hammerfall DSP 9632 after lan?

 

[Scrith]

The Hammerall sounds like an interesting source upgrade (I have a stock 1212M), but I'm wondering if I'd be better off just getting a good external DAC (Benchmark, Electrocompaniet, etc), rather than upgrading my sound card everytime a new one comes out (plus, maybe the next Audigy card will have decent digital output, in which case I'd have the best of both worlds, music and gaming that is, with an external DAC).

Has anybody compared a HDSP9632 or 1212M (modified or stock) to external DACs such as the Benchmark?

 

[ayt999]

but the Hammerfall has been out for a while... I got mine before the E-MU craze started, before it was announced actually.

raif brought his Benchmark DAC to the Berkeley meet, and I of course had my RME hammerfall there. maybe you can find impressions in the Berkeley meet thread? I didn't compare the two, but possibly someone else had. I know raif and NeilPert were in the room where those equipment were so they might have a thing to say.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Today's progress:

I recieved the Blackgates, and proceeded to first install the N's in place of the standard coupling caps. I used 47uF instead of the stock 200uF, since that would have been very expensive, there is still no DC on the output, even with the loudest possible signal and in high gain mode. Instant improvement, even w/o burn-in, the sound felt as if a veil had been lifted, it was much more direct and tangible than before.

Next, I put in the FK's for the caps around the voltage regulators and clock crystal. I used 100uF instead of the stock 47uF. Wow! The speed and precision of the sound was improved greatly. The cymbals and drums now sound at least as good as my E-MU (haven't had time to compare a lot yet) and possibly even better. Cymbals went from "chsssssss, chsssss" to "chsst!, chsst!", and drums changed from thumps to solid thwacks (using the intro of the Dream Theater song "6:00" which Edwood is very familiar with, thanks to me).

I did not change out the caps on the middle lower area of the card, as they are all used for the ADC section. Also I put all the new caps lying down on the back. The stick up maybe 1cm from the back, so there is room for all but the thickest PCI cards in the slot above (my TV tuner card's shield is too thick). So this will be a 1-slot card, even with the mods.

Considering the improvements of only the blackgates, I can't wait to see what the opamps and polypropylenes will do. Hopefully they should be here tomorrow or the next day.

 

[ayt999]

so my card if officially out of warranty? how cool is that.

great to hear that it improved by that much with just the cap upgrade. any more info on how the sound changed? better treble / bass extension? anything else you want to add?

be sure to do an RMAA test on it.

 

[lan]

Scrith, if you can afford an $800+ external DAC and can get some powerconditioning, certainly investigate what they have to offer. It is ultimately better to get it out of the computer.

Iron_Dreamer, I forgot, your 1212m has which caps? regular blackgates?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ayt999 great to hear that it improved by that much with just the cap upgrade. any more info on how the sound changed? better treble / bass extension? anything else you want to add?

It is definitely better than my modded EMU, with upsamping on the HDSP to 176.4, I definitely just had an eargasm listening to Dio - Holy Diver like never before. Bass extension of the stock HDSP was great, this one sound just a little better. I don't know that the highs sound any more extended, the definitely are tighter and more realistic/accurate sounding. No harshness to speak of. The PRaT and soundstage I am hearing has really got me going. I definitely want this card now

I am still going to add the LT1364 opamps with great decoupling and the polypropyplene caps in paralell with the electroylics. The sound should only improve, though I am wondering how it will improve from how good it already is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Iron_Dreamer, I forgot, your 1212m has which caps? regular blackgates?

Yes, it has regular blackgates in all positions except coupling caps, which are N's.

 

[Edwood]

Once the escrow and closing madness for the condo settles I will start with the PCI bus power bypass mod. The best part is that I can do the mods to a PCI riser card, so there is a possibility for this "adapter" to be used with most sound cards, and perhaps some cases with some modding.

Can someone find out which voltages the HDSP uses? There are two kinds of PCI power supplies.

I am going to start with using off the shelf regulated wallwarts, then after that perhaps to more expensive linear PSU's if the improvement is noticeable at least.

-Ed

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Here are the RMAA results so far: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~miklic/RMAA/HDSPBG.htm

Inconclusive to say the least. However I can definitely say that the BG's made a MAJOR sound difference, for the better. Of course they only had 4hrs burn-in at the time of the RMAA test.

 

[lan]

Well let's just wait until further burnin. The distortion figures are down but noise, crosstalk, and dynamic range are a litle worst. How are the emu figures in comparision so far?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Well let's just wait until further burnin. The distortion figures are down but noise, crosstalk, and dynamic range are a litle worst. How are the emu figures in comparision so far?

The EMU is worse in FR (high end rolloff), better in noise/DR/crosstalk (by a few DB's in unbalanced, 6 more for balanced), and quite a bit better in both distortion measures, .0003 and .0009 if I recall properly.

I should say that those figures for the HDSP are from an unbalanced test, since I've not any XLR cables.

 

[Glassman]

try cross measuring them both.. the slight high end rolloff seen on E-MU is intentional.. it should be about 0.5dB @ 20kHz both for input and output, thus 1dB in loopback.. E-MU has better ADC so use it for measuring RME..