[quawn0418]

Said f it, did the mod, worth it? Yes...sucks that the warranty vanishes with it though...having a hard time placing the lid back on becuase the inside looks so damn pretty lol

 

[Lolito]

Said f it, did the mod, worth it? Yes...sucks that the warranty vanishes with it though...having a hard time placing the lid back on becuase the inside looks so damn pretty lol

That is a sweet setup, gonna order those jumpers too, but they send a lot, was thinking on selling them, 4 jumpers pieces kit, 3€ worldwide shipping included. What do you think?

We could make it rasta, or rainbow, each jumper of a different color.

 

[Muataz]

This hobby is just crazy people with headphones ..The difference is the Asylum's front door is open with 'All welcome please come in' on the sign...

So small.. I am getting old, this was a pain.. wire hard to strip.. wife came home to find me on the bedroom floor. With my soldering gear so I can do it and watch baby on the camera next door. Not the garage... Got flux on the carpet.. ultra sonic cleaned in 100% IPA and deoxit...

@Muataz How the hell did you do yours so tight... My wire is thick High voltage. Sleeving... You must have tiny Elf fingers
Good job sir...

My fingers are big but I used small Pliers

 

[Middy]

Been playing again with the PC.. shielded the internal cables and SSD... Contact cleaned all the connections. Ram More latency tweaks... Nice as an extra layering of detail again but still mileage to go squeezing more SQ out.
The SA1 giving as good as it gets.... I'd love to see what mixed out does..
I may try this....
SRC DX but it's expensive, in my case it can clean up and bypass the USB on my Qutest..
"SRC•DX USB to DX Bridge – AudioWise" https://audiowise-canada.myshopify.com/products/src-dx-usb-to-dual-spdif-interface

I hate this hobby there's always something more....

 

[shwnwllms]

For anyone willing to wait till October, Drop has the SA-1 up for $539

 

[deafenears]

Said f it, did the mod, worth it? Yes...sucks that the warranty vanishes with it though...having a hard time placing the lid back on becuase the inside looks so damn pretty lol

Very nice. A sheet of perspex should do it. Also swap out the RME with the anniversary edition with the clear top to match

 

[J Mirra]

I did the jumpers last night I was not expecting much as I really liked the SA-1 as it was. I was bowled over last night but I thought no do not make a write up until the morning as I have always fall into the music more on a night while relaxed.

So this morning I have jumped right on to double check and what I heard last night is still present.

Focusrite 4i4 > RCA >SA-1 >XLR >HD800 (Dupont)

Separation, every sound has its own space, width increase, depth the vocalist is out in front of me now.

Imaging, there is no glare at all to get in the way of frequencies giving a precise reality to the instruments and vocalist to my ears. (You can still hear if the engineer has pushed the limiter / compressor to hard and it is clipping, no way to get rid of that)

A real upgrade from what was already a good amp.

Thanks everyone that has posted about this.

 

[Muataz]

I did the jumpers last night I was not expecting much as I really liked the SA-1 as it was. I was bowled over last night but I thought no do not make a write up until the morning as I have always fall into the music more on a night while relaxed.

So this morning I have jumped right on to double check and what I heard last night is still present.

Focusrite 4i4 > RCA >SA-1 >XLR >HD800 (Dupont)

Separation, every sound has its own space, width increase, depth the vocalist is out in front of me now.

Imaging, there is no glare at all to get in the way of frequencies giving a precise reality to the instruments and vocalist to my ears. (You can still hear if the engineer has pushed the limiter / compressor to hard and it is clipping, no way to get rid of that)

A real upgrade from what was already a good amp.

Thanks everyone that has posted about this.

Good to hear you liked it.
If you have Audio-GD DAC can you tried it with SA-1.

 

[J Mirra]

Good to hear you liked it.
If you have Audio-GD DAC can you tried it with SA-1.

The R2R-11 is softer at the further reaches of the sound stage which makes it seem like is not a wide where the 4i4 is more detailed at the left and right edges. The vocal is also softer slightly.

The sound of the 4i4 is not harsh at all just more detailed but this is to be expected as the R2R was bought for a tube like presentation.
Pre DC mod the R2R-11 had better depth than the 4i4 but after the mod now the 4i4 has great depth.

I do like the 4i4 over the 11 with this mod one for the extra detail and width and two because I use the card for creating music and it has great low latency within Cubase.

 

[shwnwllms]

All of you taking the plunge has got me considering it for the first time. I’m very happy with it vanilla, but could it possibly get better? Any X16 owners try it yet? (I don’t have a multimeter laying around to test mine for DC leakage)

 

[Muataz]

All of you taking the plunge has got me considering it for the first time. I’m very happy with it vanilla, but could it possibly get better? Any X16 owners try it yet? (I don’t have a multimeter laying around to test mine for DC leakage)

I don't think any new DAC will have issue. Yours for sure.

 

[quawn0418]

All of you taking the plunge has got me considering it for the first time. I’m very happy with it vanilla, but could it possibly get better? Any X16 owners try it yet? (I don’t have a multimeter laying around to test mine for DC leakage)

You should only have problems with poorly designed (cheap) dacs. Just about every dac has offset, it’s about how much offset, as too much can be harmful ofcorse, don’t quote me but I think your fine, gustard makes really nice stuff.

 

[Lolito]

I don't know if it was my head tricking me, or the dac or anything else, but i started getting headache with my modded sa1, like ultra sound vibrations or something like that that gives a bit of ear pain, could be just my ears, I don't know, but was getting ear pain. Again, maybe not related, but I removed the jumpers and will try again like this. Anyone else experienced this thing?

It could also be that I had two different dacs connected and on, only one playing music, but, maybe that was it? I will test and check that...

 

[NascentAP]

Nabokov?? Iceland souns good for the summer of the future.



even better recorded though:

Singxer+DCmod+ares2+bjork+raimundo BINGO!!!

I remember you having the E30 and now it appears you have the Ares II. Given your experience here, I guess it’s safe to assume that the E30 and the Ares II are safe to pair with a modded SA-1. That’s reassuring and thanks for posting about it.

 

[Lolito]

I remember you having the E30 and now it appears you have the Ares II. Given your experience here, I guess it’s safe to assume that the E30 and the Ares II are safe to pair with a modded SA-1. That’s reassuring and thanks for posting about it.

No, it is never safe to assume anything. Not only I did not tested it deeply, but also I just removed the mod jumpers due to issues that might or might not be related.
Furthermore, there will never be anything safe working with this kind of extreme low quality and niché use... I mean, topping, no comments, and then Denafrips, that you have to connect the dac in such a sequence, with a usb 2.0 hub between the dac and the mac, with nothing else on that hubm, otherwise the mac doesn't even boot.

So go figure where the safety is...

Often I understand metal 571, when he says if he was starting again he would buy a magni a modi a sundara and be done with wasting time with crap for nothing worth it really, and just enjoy.