Apologies in advance if this is posted in the wrong forum, seemed like the best spot.
My dac (not a diy, actual production dac), has about 25millivolts DC at it's output and after passing through the voltage gain of my amp (hypex ncore400) I end up with 500mVDC at my speaker output. This translates into lots of pop when sometimes stopping music playback, powering down amps, adjusting volume or muting. I was just wondering what would be the best way to remove this DC before it gets to my amp without hurting the sound quality.
Thanks
My dac (not a diy, actual production dac), has about 25millivolts DC at it's output and after passing through the voltage gain of my amp (hypex ncore400) I end up with 500mVDC at my speaker output. This translates into lots of pop when sometimes stopping music playback, powering down amps, adjusting volume or muting. I was just wondering what would be the best way to remove this DC before it gets to my amp without hurting the sound quality.
Thanks
Would a 1uf film capacitor be the right choice?
It will depend only upon the Hypex input impedance (sorry, too lazy to check).
Why don't you mention anything about the dac? Reluctant to tamper with it?
It may turn out that a simple opamp replacement will reduce the offset sufficiently.
I am hesitant to tamper with anything made by people who know what they are doing, especially when it is under warranty for 3 years
I actually just did some more tests since some of my setup recently changed.
The dac is actually outputting closer to 50millivolts DC now. I was previously using the built in attenuator on the dac, now I have a preamp so it is set to bypass and the full voltage out of the dac has resulted in more DC as well. Fortunately now, it seems my preamp takes care of the DC, the resulting DC output at my speaker outputs is now only 200millivolts at maximum attenuation of the preamp, at regular listening levels it is only like 20mV
I actually just did some more tests since some of my setup recently changed.
The dac is actually outputting closer to 50millivolts DC now. I was previously using the built in attenuator on the dac, now I have a preamp so it is set to bypass and the full voltage out of the dac has resulted in more DC as well. Fortunately now, it seems my preamp takes care of the DC, the resulting DC output at my speaker outputs is now only 200millivolts at maximum attenuation of the preamp, at regular listening levels it is only like 20mV
Ignorant question but do larger caps lower the cutoff frequency or smaller caps?
Larger caps, but they also add more in the signal path. Smaller caps are more transparent-sounding.
I'm afraid to ask but what would be a good cap?
Was looking at the mundorf supreme silver/oil or silver/gold/oil/etc but they seem a little rich for my blood, especially since i'm running balanced and need 4, so I started looking at the regular mundorf supremes which aren't bad at $18.90 a piece.
Then there are the other mundorf MKP M caps (white with red writing), only $3 each.
Was looking at the mundorf supreme silver/oil or silver/gold/oil/etc but they seem a little rich for my blood, especially since i'm running balanced and need 4, so I started looking at the regular mundorf supremes which aren't bad at $18.90 a piece.
Then there are the other mundorf MKP M caps (white with red writing), only $3 each.
I'm afraid to ask but what would be a good cap?
It would really depend upon how good your unnamed dac is and how high are your expectations. Count yourself lucky the Hypex is so high impedance
The dac is actually outputting closer to 50millivolts DC now. I was previously using the built in attenuator on the dac, now I have a preamp so it is set to bypass and the full voltage out of the dac has resulted in more DC as well. Fortunately now, it seems my preamp takes care of the DC, the resulting DC output at my speaker outputs is now only 200millivolts at maximum attenuation of the preamp, at regular listening levels it is only like 20mV
50mV of offset is outright defective in my view. Your preamp is being used effectively as an attenuator, so this explains the reduction of DC as well as AC at normal listening levels. Still, not listing your equipment when asking for advice is wrong.
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