[Imperfectcircle]

Has anyone done any upgrades such as opamps or caps for this card?? I know its not the greatest sounding card, but its all I have until I can afford a dac. I see it uses crappy 4558 opamps and crappy output caps. I have some AD8269 opamps i was thinking of trying , as for the output caps its hard to trace the circuit since its so tiny to see which caps are for which output. Anyone have any ideas??
thanks

 

[chris_ah1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imperfectcircle /img/forum/go_quote.gif Has anyone done any upgrades such as opamps or caps for this card?? I know its not the greatest sounding card, but its all I have until I can afford a dac. I see it uses crappy 4558 opamps and crappy output caps. I have some AD8269 opamps i was thinking of trying , as for the output caps its hard to trace the circuit since its so tiny to see which caps are for which output. Anyone have any ideas?? thanks

How much can you afford currently?

I know the x-fi isn't meant to sound very good, but I have to admit it seems very pleasing to me - especially for long listening durations. Rather than worry about the x-fi, how about listening to the tunes and waiting until you can afford $300 or so for the musiland or great march madness dac.

Perhaps I'm the minority who thinks that with the right headphones+foobar+asio the x-fi is quite pleasurable.

I wouldn't mess with a device like the x-fi since it isn't well modded/documented. It's not like swapping out opamps in amplifiers. I know I don't personally have a soldering iron fine enough to use with the x-fi. I also wouldn't want to totally invalidate the warranty for a subtle change.

try to be patient?

 

[uraflit]

i'd agree with chris_ah1 on that one. but if you want to take the risk... i don't know anyone that has actually tried to mod an x-fi O_O

 

[Budgie]

I will be changing the left/right output coupling caps on my X-Fi this weekend. I won't be able to post pics, but I can let you know what I find out. I only use stereo out from mine.
I have no complaints about the sound of this card and suspect that a lot of the bad comments on this forum are along the lines of "all Creative Labs products are crap" or the result of system matching issues in the system they tried it in... Ignore the bad press and trust your own ears!

 

[humanflyz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budgie /img/forum/go_quote.gif I will be changing the left/right output coupling caps on my X-Fi this weekend. I won't be able to post pics, but I can let you know what I find out. I only use stereo out from mine. I have no complaints about the sound of this card and suspect that a lot of the bad comments on this forum are along the lines of "all Creative Labs products are crap" or the result of system matching issues in the system they tried it in... Ignore the bad press and trust your own ears!

On its own, the X-Fi is OK, but when compared to a hi-fi source component, it doesn't stand a chance.

 

[ManAtWork]

Quote:

Originally Posted by humanflyz /img/forum/go_quote.gif On its own, the X-Fi is OK, but when compared to a hi-fi source component, it doesn't stand a chance.

Exactly. I played CD with the Plextor + X-Fi + Foobar 2000 + ASIO combo in my computer, with the same amp, the sound is not able to match my Marantz 7500. A very big difference.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by humanflyz /img/forum/go_quote.gif On its own, the X-Fi is OK, but when compared to a hi-fi source component, it doesn't stand a chance.

What about something actually in it's price range..

 

[chris_ah1]

Lucky my home sources probably add up to 30Kg+ of denon gear otherwise I wouldn't appreciate my x-fi when at uni :S

lol.

then again, as the poster above said - my x-fi is 50grams or so and cost £50. TANSTAAFL

 

[Budgie]

Trying to ID the output caps is being difficult. That black mask on the board hides the traces well, and checking by tracking resistance is getting frustrating. Looks like the main channels (L/R) opamp is the JRC4556a labeled U2. That would explain why it can drive headphones directly from the jack (same chip as in the Grado headphone amp if memory serves.) I will keep trying on the caps.

 

[Budgie]

(Is this thread dead?)

I decided to just solder some wire directly to the output pins of the opamp and route them to caps located off the circuit board then to RCA jacks hanging out the back of the computer. Down and dirty but easy.