To address your question about sound quality...
1. Realize that different people listen (literally) differently. With all good intentions, people here offer equipment comparisons without describing what qualities about the sound are affected (in their systems) and what are those effects. Understandable - it takes time and creative writing... This applies to everything I write as well! To me, the most important quality is sound stage - the recording and everything about the system has to be "right" to make the speakers seem to disappear and give you the spatial sensation of being at a live performance. If you're only talking about one system component of many, well, what does 'better or worse sound quality' actually mean? Sorry if that sounds snarky, but SQ is for each of us to define our own way and I think that apples are often compared to oranges.
2. In my experience the sound quality of SPDIF can be excellent if the signal is treated with the same care as we tend to treat I2S. Typically, it is either not galvanically isolated or shielded or it is subjected to optical transmission jitter. Because of that I agree that asynchronous rendering of SPDIF by the Buffalo is usually preferable. Though in my most recent rig I can flip between sync and async for SPDIF and with a nearby NDK NZ2520SDA 49MHz external oscillator I don't hear a difference. Nor do I hear a difference between the 49MHz oscillator and the onboard 100MHz oscillator in async mode.
3. I agree that restoring the original master clock frequency to a sound stream is always beneficial. If you remove the Cronus then I suggest adding a streamer that also performs that function.
Cheers,
Frank
Yes! A pet peeve of mine! Also, what components make up the whole playback system should be told.
The bad news is that my ES9038 board went defective. It is my own fault because for a few seconds VDD has been 3.3V instead of 1.2V. And that is way above the maximum rating as stated in the datasheet. The right channel is completely dead now and the left channel is still playing. So the conclusion is that the ES9038 is defective. I do not have the skills nor the equipment to replace the ES9038 pro. I see that Buffalo-IIIsePro38 is still available so that is the easiest way to solve it, but it is a shame nonetheless.
I already sent Brian an email, but got no reply. I just saw Brian's announcement about the future of Twisted Pear Audio and I certainly respect his decision. All I can say is that I am grateful for all the great products and support Brian and Russ have offered for so many years!
For now I went back to my old BuffaloIII ES9018, but although that sounds fine, I miss the resolution and liveliness of the ES9038.
Any ideas before ordering a new one?
Peter
I already sent Brian an email, but got no reply. I just saw Brian's announcement about the future of Twisted Pear Audio and I certainly respect his decision. All I can say is that I am grateful for all the great products and support Brian and Russ have offered for so many years!
For now I went back to my old BuffaloIII ES9018, but although that sounds fine, I miss the resolution and liveliness of the ES9038.
Any ideas before ordering a new one?
Peter
I have done that in the past and it turned out to be a blown trident (although I don't recall having issues in only one channel). Have you checked the voltage output of the all trident to confirm they're measuring correctly?
I am about to post a number of Twisted Pear parts on the for sale forums as part of clearing some things out if you are interested in the 9038 or anything else listed:
Below Buffalo DACs all with Tridents:
Buffalo II
BuffPro 9028
BuffPro 9038
Other Parts:
Mercury
Ivy
Legato v3.1
Legato v2
Hermes + Amanero
Otto II unassembled
Cronus
Centaur
2 Placid HD
1 Placid HD BP
I am about to post a number of Twisted Pear parts on the for sale forums as part of clearing some things out if you are interested in the 9038 or anything else listed:
Below Buffalo DACs all with Tridents:
Buffalo II
BuffPro 9028
BuffPro 9038
Other Parts:
Mercury
Ivy
Legato v3.1
Legato v2
Hermes + Amanero
Otto II unassembled
Cronus
Centaur
2 Placid HD
1 Placid HD BP
It
I have removed the DAC chip using heated air. However, replacing it correctly requires the backing ground solder to flow and that is significantly trickier. There are heating recipes on YouTube if you decide to give it a try. Correctly soldering the pins requires perfect alignment to tack a few single pins and then a soldering iron stroke along each row in the presence of water soluble flux to flow what solder is already present.
Best of luck!
I’d say it boils down to time vs. money vs. adventuresome experimentation.
I have removed the DAC chip using heated air. However, replacing it correctly requires the backing ground solder to flow and that is significantly trickier. There are heating recipes on YouTube if you decide to give it a try. Correctly soldering the pins requires perfect alignment to tack a few single pins and then a soldering iron stroke along each row in the presence of water soluble flux to flow what solder is already present.
Best of luck!
Can anyone point me to any information about the low volume start up problem and especially any cure for it? I am finding my B38 pro sometime starts up in this low volume mode. The only cure I have found is unplugging waiting a few moments and powering back up. Is there a permanent firmware solution?
I have witnessed the 9038 output dropping by ~75% upon very minor manipulation while the B3 was running on a test platform. As you describe, it could only be restored by cold restart. However, when built into a proper chassis, that same board only ever produced the lower output, which was 100% stable. In my experience, the ES9028 & 38 configuration registers can easily be corrupted by handling and ESD. Although I have very rarely seen spurious volume range decreases when handling a different ES9028 rig, I have no concrete suggestions other than to install a brand new firmware chip. Good luck!
Frank
Frank
I didn’t mean to quote the entire post. In any case you might try running the 9018 into the Mercury. Some of the sound is the newer DAC but quite a bit I suspect is the current to voltage converter design.
I have an odd trouble here. I have all the parts for the Buffalo III ES9038pro, Mercury (The whole package including transformers etc). I have just finished building my chassis from wood, and I have started to put things together. I have none previous experience with electronics, so I have been reading a lot of forums lately, and I trying to learn.
The problem: In a box where I was supposed to receive the 5DCV PSU Centaur, I got all the parts for that, except that the board itself is Cronus, not Centaur. I sent email to Brian about this, but for what I understand, he is retiring from Twisted Pear, so probably I have to tackle this problem some other way.
There is no stock anymore for Centaur in TwistedPear shop.
Would anyone of you be so kind to take 2 photos from Centaur: One from the upperside, and one from underside? What I am trying to achieve here is to figure out how to wire those Centaur components together, when I dont have the actual board. Is that silly idea? Can I deduce the wirings by those 2 photos?
thanks,
Marko
The problem: In a box where I was supposed to receive the 5DCV PSU Centaur, I got all the parts for that, except that the board itself is Cronus, not Centaur. I sent email to Brian about this, but for what I understand, he is retiring from Twisted Pear, so probably I have to tackle this problem some other way.
There is no stock anymore for Centaur in TwistedPear shop.
Would anyone of you be so kind to take 2 photos from Centaur: One from the upperside, and one from underside? What I am trying to achieve here is to figure out how to wire those Centaur components together, when I dont have the actual board. Is that silly idea? Can I deduce the wirings by those 2 photos?
thanks,
Marko
hi everyone, hoping to get some help here on my Buffalo III SE DAC. I'm seeing MUTE light on, LOCK light not off. Using SPDIF input only. I have tried another SPDIF input, as well as SPDIF input using optical to SPDIF converter. No luck.
When this happened initially I opened it up to see one of the regulators LED was out. I forget what little thing I did, might have just been reseating it, or resoldering the out/G/in pins that connect the regulator to DAC (at some point I did both), but got the LED back on. But have unable to get the Buffalo to lock on a signal. Measuring 5.5V on Placid, and 15V on placid HD. IVY III is output board.
Regulators measuring 3.27V on 3.3boards, and 1.17V on 1.2V board.
Any tips on how to troubleshoot this? Considering buying another board w/regulators as a last ditch effort.
When this happened initially I opened it up to see one of the regulators LED was out. I forget what little thing I did, might have just been reseating it, or resoldering the out/G/in pins that connect the regulator to DAC (at some point I did both), but got the LED back on. But have unable to get the Buffalo to lock on a signal. Measuring 5.5V on Placid, and 15V on placid HD. IVY III is output board.
Regulators measuring 3.27V on 3.3boards, and 1.17V on 1.2V board.
Any tips on how to troubleshoot this? Considering buying another board w/regulators as a last ditch effort.
Check your current on the Placid, maybe kick it up a little as the reg voltages are all a little low for 5.5 volts At the Placid. the leds indicate a not valid signal but a lock on a clock. unplug the spdif source and observe the lock led go out. The mute should still be lit. The default is for the I2S input to be selected, assume you have jumped the proper pins to select spdif 1 as input. Reconnect the spdif and if playing music the lock led should light and the mute led go out. Make certain you are feeding a spdif stereo signal and not an encoded multichannel. Does a hard power restart change anything?
Thanks for getting back to me on this. I have Version 1.0 Buffalo III SE board. Only SPDIF 1 input is wired. It was all working until at one point it stopped. In as far as jumpers and switches, what i can make sense is that SPDIF auto detect should be enabled, which it is. All switches are set to ON position, which manual says is default and only problematic if using external input selector board (like the SPDIF-4). I have tried to set jump "RESET" connection but no change. Otherwise jumper is between 3.3V and PB4 headers as digital volume control is not used.
I do see your point about mute being on if there is no signal. At this time I cannot get lock to engage in any instance. Have tried two other connections, which were verified working on my OPUS DAC (one spdif from phono cable, other optical to spdif converter).
Did try to increase current to 480mv on the placid, no change. When you say power restart you mean just off-on again? Or like a power flush with switch on and power disconnected? Have tried both, no change.
What I am suspecting is the 1.2V regulator. If someone might be kind to measure the voltage across theirs I would appreciate it as a reference. I am getting 1.18V out of that, wonder if that is damaged and outputting too low voltage.
1.18 V is low but should be fine for normal sample rate material. It would indicate the regulator is probably working. Your meter may not be calibrated as all voltages were indicating low. Check the batteries in the meter. If you have an I2s source you could try that. I would check the wires from the spdif to the board. Perhaps a cold solder joint or hidden break is preventing the signal from reaching the board.
Hmm, ok. I will pickup a replacement 9V battery in the next few days for the voltmeter. I don't have a I2s source currently, but in the process of acquiring a waveio i2s board. I have tried two different spdif connections than the current, no change there. Here are pics of the internals.
