Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif so they're lying?
All the coupling is done with solid state electrolytics, surface mount metalized films only used as output filters much like on the Asus Xonar cards though Asuses are not surface mount.
Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif @Germanium, Did you get a STX or a ST yet?
Finally picked it up yesterday at Frys Electronics in Renton Wa. Supperb sounding card either way but removing caps nearest RCA jacks & putting
wire in thier place definately helps somewhat. Even more open sounding. can tell this even listing to my system though speakers laying in bed. can hear thing that I didn't notice with the Asus D2/PM. No loss of warmth, only improved detail, imaging & sound staging. Not huge but definately better.
You removed the DC blocking caps and just bypassed them with wire?
This seemed to be a easy upgrade for many soundcards. Providing the card isn't putting out a substantial amount of DC but I would think you know about that. I am just mentioning it for other readers. Many times, depending on what is next in your system these caps can be redundant as inputs on many devices have DC blocks.
I know about the dangers of D.C. coupling & the D.C. offset is very very low on this card. Less than 2 millivolts. This is low enough to feed even most D.C. coupled amps directly without issues. I do do measurements before D.C. coupling.
All in all I'm very happy with this card. significantly better than the Xonar D2/PM Which is D.C. coupled from the factory.
Kudos to Asus for finding such a high degree of performance increase over even the already high quality of the D2/PM. It is very noticable without sacrificing the musicality of the D2/PM. It retains all the tube like warm of the previous card with a lot more detail than the others already high detail.
The St card does not appear to be available in the USA yet.
I figured you did, as I said I was mentioning it for other readers of the thread. Just in case.
Yes, the card sounds pretty good straight out of the box, better with a few mods and opamp replacements.
The ST is supposed to be coming to the USA this month sometime.
Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif I figured you did, as I said I was mentioning it for other readers of the thread. Just in case.
Yes, the card sounds pretty good straight out of the box, better with a few mods and opamp replacements.
The ST is supposed to be coming to the USA this month sometime.
Have you tried D.C. coupling the RCA outputs yet? To try it out temporary you can just bypass those two caps on the back side of the board & see how it sounds to you. Let me knoe if you do. Like to hear you oppinion.
Has anyone tried direct coupling the rear RCA outputs yet by eliminating the 2 coupling caps nearest them & puting wire in thier place??
or even just bypassing the temporarely with wire as a test?
are you referring to the capacitors labelled as CE8 & CE14 on the PCB?
tempted to try but hesitating because not long ago I blow my Grado 325i in another DAC. I suspected it was due to lack of DC protection from defective opamp . i plugged the metal can opamp wrongly several times and eventually corrected it but the opamp was dead. when i used another good opamp, i noticed i blew the headphone.
Originally Posted by germanium /img/forum/go_quote.gif A cable with 1/4" stereo phono plug on one end & RCA plugs on the other end.
I got one but it´s cheap and extremely thin so I doubt the cable is enough. Where can you get decent cables like that? I only found it in one shop here that specializes in audio cables and accessories.
I got some time with it now so I can do a fair comparison even though I run a more expensive zu pivot cable on my lineout. Am I right that the line out and headphone out uses the same op amp but the line out also uses the lme4562 or what it´s in the buffer?
Sometimes I really do notice the lower SNR but otherwise the headphone out is livelier which is great on my headphone Pro which almost control my headphones all to well at times. It´s more lively where the lineout often sounds a bit sterile.
Originally Posted by Wfolio /img/forum/go_quote.gif are you referring to the capacitors labelled as CE8 & CE14 on the PCB?
tempted to try but hesitating because not long ago I blow my Grado 325i in another DAC. I suspected it was due to lack of DC protection from defective opamp . i plugged the metal can opamp wrongly several times and eventually corrected it but the opamp was dead. when i used another good opamp, i noticed i blew the headphone.
Didn't write down the cap #s but they are the 2 gold colored metal can caps nearest the 2 RCA jacks. Looked at some high resolution photos so I didn't have to take my computer apart again & one of them is the CE8 so I assume the other one you mentioned is correct also.
Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif I got one but it´s cheap and extremely thin so I doubt the cable is enough. Where can you get decent cables like that? I only found it in one shop here that specializes in audio cables and accessories.
I got some time with it now so I can do a fair comparison even though I run a more expensive zu pivot cable on my lineout. Am I right that the line out and headphone out uses the same op amp but the line out also uses the lme4562 or what it´s in the buffer?
Sometimes I really do notice the lower SNR but otherwise the headphone out is livelier which is great on my headphone Pro which almost control my headphones all to well at times. It´s more lively where the lineout often sounds a bit sterile.
Your impressions of the line- out & the headphone out is exactly as I expected of this card stock. Eliminating the CE8 & CE14 caps & putting wire in thier place rectifies that situation.
If you still get a difference in sound that may be your amp thats connected to the line-outs. My heaphone out amp on my Onkyo P304 preamp was very colored before I modified the headphone amp section & D.C. coupled it. Now it sounds identical to the headphone out of the Xonar STX card when driven by the modded line out.
It is however truely hard to do a direct comparison with this card as there is a difference in gain between any of the gain settings for the headphone out amp & the line out. There is no matching gain setting between them.
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