DAC 2496 (AK4393) DAC KIT With CS8416+AK4393+5532

Nothing, you should only apply the suggeste mods... ;)

Start with regulators and LPF capacitors...

Okay :)

on my to do list is : change the 3 nichicon in the psu to Nichicon FW 2200uF 63 v (ordered) change the 2 caps after to Silmic II 220uF 50v(ordered). Change the "c3" digital cap, to Sanyo SEPC 470uF 16v (ordered) change the 3 regulators to Mc****CTG (right ???? ) Other things to change, who has a good improvement ??
 
I have a completely standard DAC at the moment, but having now read the whole thread will probably get another kit and start modding that.

I see mention of hot regulators. My 15-0-15 transformer was actually putting out 17-0-17 and I did have hot regulators.

Putting a 50R (ish) resistor in each lead (not centre tap) brought the voltage down to 15 and no more hot regs.:D
 
Thanks :up:
Btw. Any recommendations for the wires between the dac and the RCA chassis plugs ? I use ordinary copper wire (1mm2) But think i can do this better.

Not twisted and not screened solid copper wire, AWG23-24(0,5-0,6mm) for live and AWG20(0.8mm) for ground.

OCC teflon tubing insulated copper (live) and silver (ground) are great for this app.

Just put the two wires parallel, insert in cotton tubing and the cotton tubing in polyelifin heat-shrink and you have a fantastic signal cable for internal hook-up.

You can find all from PartsConnexion or eBay.
 
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I have a completely standard DAC at the moment, but having now read the whole thread will probably get another kit and start modding that.

I see mention of hot regulators. My 15-0-15 transformer was actually putting out 17-0-17 and I did have hot regulators.

Putting a 50R (ish) resistor in each lead (not centre tap) brought the voltage down to 15 and no more hot regs.:D

That is a very ineffective way to deal with that problem. To do what I will propose you should put the rectifier bridge and filter capacitors on a separate pcb, but it's the best thing to do.

You should put that 50 ohms resistor AFTER the electrolytic capacitor; and then another capacitor after the resistor, also to ground. In this way you should have a CRC filter, lowering the voltage going into the regulator and filtering the DC voltage even further.

You can use this external board to put discrete Schottky diodes as a your bridge, which should clean the AC voltage a bit more.

IMHO this should be done on all raw voltages going into the regulators.
 
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Has anyone confirmed it will accept a 192k file?Also since I'll be using this with a PC's SPDIF output I want to add a pulse transformer for isolation.Does anyone no of a good source of a good one?

I've got some albums in 192k and the DAC plays them really well.

Vendor might send you a chip for free, they are usually pretty good with these things. Soldering it is another thing though. Good luck with it.

I've contacted 'along1986090', the person from whom I bought the DAC on eBay and he immediately offered me a new chip for absolutely free, despite the fact that I bought the DAC 3 months ago. :worship:
 
Am I the only one who misses some bass? and dynamic. Maybe something is wrong with my DAC ??

Dac chip itself requires minimum 20 hours run-in period prior a healthy decision. Bare kit parts should not affect that much as you mentioned. You may have some trouble in analog LPF section including opamp. Using active devices like opamps in signal path requires a lot of attention.

I suggest you to trial direct-out mod for sure what you did after 20 hours of run-in period.

Link here:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-kit-cs8416-ak4393-5532-a-13.html#post2594885

I have to also notice that importance of Jitter can't be avoided in all aspects of digital signal processing. Since that this dac kit hasn't its own clock source (despite CS8416 itself), your souncard's jitter performance should directly affect on final result.
 
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hi all
Can anyone provide any advice on which DAC kit/board is the best option?

I would like the usb option as well. Still deciding whether I buy a complete pre-built item or a kit.

You will have to be more clear with your question.
Are you asking whether to buy the AK4393 kit or the AK4396 kit?
OR
Are you asking what is the "best" DAC on earth?

If you want USB with the AK4393/96 kit you need to buy a USB to SPDIF converter which I have mentioned earlier on in this thread.
Check out the teralink X2 or the HA-info on ebay.
 
Old cat5 network cable.

Okay. Just 2 of the 8 copper wires to each plug ? And why not cat 6 or 7 ??




erin said:
Not twisted and not screened solid copper wire, AWG23-24(0,5-0,6mm) for live and AWG20(0.8mm) for ground.

OCC teflon tubing insulated copper (live) and silver (ground) are great for this app.

Just put the two wires parallel, insert in cotton tubing and the cotton tubing in polyelifin heat-shrink and you have a fantastic signal cable for internal hook-up.

You can find all from PartsConnexion or eBay.

Do you have any url`s to a guide ore something like that :) ?
 
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I'm going to start work on my AK4393 DAC this week. Unfortunately I can't afford a pair of new transformers at the moment, but I do have a 0v-8V / 15V-0V-15V one which is curently being used with my Gigaworks 24/192 DAC. Would this be suitable as a temporary measure for this DAC?

Did anyone ever do any detailed listening between the AK4393 and the AK4396 types? Perhaps I should wait a little longer and get the AK4396 version instead?

Cheers,

- John