[udo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio Udo, what mods did you get for the Zhalou?

Power, clock and opamp.


Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio it needs to burned in for about 220 hours IMO! At first you will notice it is quite bright, and not that thrilling, but once burned in its reveals its true nature, a thing of beauty!

Brightness, yes, especially the headphones but that may also be due to the combination.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio oh and btw I have a top secret new mod coming from Lawrence soon for my Zhalou, it already shipped! I will reveal it after I install it! should be only a few days. !! Ill post pics and impressions, it may need a bit of burn in i duno. Ill give you a clue, it is socketed in the Zhalou and its not an opamp =)

Hmmm. Now I really need to have a look in the device...

 

[udo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio nope its not tube output!!

Hmm. On the DAC board only the opamps are socketed...
There's three of them.
Line out, XLR, etc?

So what else...

Power regulators? LM336 or something replaced by ....?
Those are the only socketed parts besides the opamps that I can see in the pics you posted of a modded Zhalou 1.3?

 

[TigzStudio]

its a new clock!. rated quite a bit higher then the current moded one i have in it.!...

its like 1ppm instead of the one i have now is 50ppm or some such..

yo2tup will post a pic or 2 when it arrives!.

 

[udo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio its a new clock!. rated quite a bit higher then the current moded one i have in it.!... its like 1ppm instead of the one i have now is 50ppm or some such.. yo2tup will post a pic or 2 when it arrives!.

Please do!
Also: technically, would one be able to perceive the difference in clocks?
I mean: worst case jitter situations comapred for both clocks maybe?

Maybe I need to start comparing to other D/A's in my home...
(after burn in)

 

[RogerWilco]

Hello TigzStudio -- I am also awaiting this next mod from lawrence to come in.I am already very impressed with this dac ,but if the mod improves beyond this it will just add to my musical bliss.


Hello Sean H--Nice pictures.I don't see why the OPA627 would not work.I would think any op-amp would work.Thats what is so nice about having a non socketed op-amp in the dac.Give us your impressions also.


Hello udo---It does take some time to burn in.I hope you enjoy the dac as much as i have.




And TigzStudio is right---the little dac just sounds like music.

 

[udo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RogerWilco Hello udo---It does take some time to burn in.I hope you enjoy the dac as much as i have.

I think I will. I will give it time. Just had it playing music for another few hours. Or is being powered on (not playing) good enough?

BTW: About the clock mod: how does this work for a DAC? I mean: audio is piped into it over S/PDIF and the transmitter is the party dictating the speed. If the speed is within certain limits the DAC locks and only transmission jitter (short term variation) could be damped without going into sample rate conversion. (that is what I udnerstand from it)
PLLs etc do filter short term fluctuations and is the ppm spec for keeping that one frequency? (or rather the bitclock which is e.g. 256*Fs but fixed because it is crystal generated)
How do the PLLs and the very good (ppm wise) crystal work together?

 

[TigzStudio]

to burn in you need to have the transport sending that digital signal to the zhalou, then just plug some headphones into the zhalou to listen every once in a while. Then after about 200 hours hook it to the main system!.

 

[udo]

Lawrence sent me these.
Nothing much to see I guess.

I guess it is a better quality crystal on the same clock upgrade board as for the normal clock upgrade.

 

[udo]

BTW, about the burn-in:

I feel the extra treble (highs) drop off quickly after some burn-in of the Zhaolu 1.3 DAC. Is it me getting used to it or is it really a change of the colouring of the sound?
What else could change over the next few days?

 

[TigzStudio]

i think it should start to open up and the layering improves, and the harshness will be gone. so long as you are 24/7 burning in over the next few days.


about that clock, looks like it is the same one my friend and I just received (im waiting for him to give me mine to test)... but its the 1 ppm vs. 50 ppm....

lemme say this.. my friend has noticed a good improvement, says it sounds much more focused.
When I asked him about any sibilance ? and he says there is none ..and if there was a slight bit before, with this new clock it is gone!..

sounds good!... we will see once he listens to it some more on more varied recordings.!

I will do the same and report back.

go Team Zhalou!... whoever loves their Zhalou put "Team Zhalou!" in their sigs!!

 

[Xsgear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio lets just say,... this dac is a keeper for sure! and I doubt I will find any kind of source that will beat it by a large margin... maybe a $4,000 or $6,000 dollar source, but I doubt it will beat this bad boy by that big of a margin.....anyone out there with a meridian g08 to compare to a fully modded zhalou?!?!?... or maybe a high end cary..?

I have been following this thread with great interest.

But, really, it seems way over hyped. As Applebook already asked, what other DACs have you/anyone compared this to?

Let's ignore the "$4,000 or $6,000" case above (come on!) and focus on the Benchmark and Del Canto 2, both of which sell for only $800 on the used market and would be expected to hold their re-sale value *very* well.

Thanks!

 

[grawk]

I think it's just a matter of diminishing returns. Each successive step costs a lot more. I'm pretty happy with my box stock zhalou. At this point, I don't feel like my dac is what's holding me back.

 

[TigzStudio]

i would LOVE to do a comparison with a benchmark dac1 vs. zhalou fully modded...


problem is I dont want to buy a dac1 because im extremely satisfied with the Zhalou! (however I may get a dac1 for my studio recording setup!! when i start layin' down some tracks!) prbly in the next 3 months...lot of research to do first though....

sorry I just get excited when i think about my Zhalou....

I know of a well regarded member who told me in a PM not long ago that he prefers his Zhalou (fully modded) to the eastsound cd-e5...

the eastsound cd-e5 was stated by a few members here to come very close the merdian ($4,000) source (direct comparisons done side by side in a meet with the same equipment)... ergo somewhat of a basis for my statement.


I would love to know when the next meet is in California (preferably Bay Area). and I will bring my Zhalou fully modded to compare against all the other high end dacs and source.


Any head-fi members in the San Jose, Walnut Creek, San Fransisco areas? with meridians, benchmark or other well regarded source?

 

[udo]

In a fully modded Zhaolu one cannot do the headphone mod due to size restrictions.
So all I could do to push the headphone amp to the limits is an opamp swap?
What will I get? DY2000 as for the line out? (where can I find datasheets?)
Something else?

 

[Jimmysilvers]

The DY2000 is very mysterious, it by all accounts is an Analog Devices Op-amp, but when I contacted them about it, they did not recognise the model. I am going to send them more info at some point to see if they can yet still identify this op-amp.