WAF means Wife acceptance factor. It can be either high or low.😉
But let's return to topic. ( I just wanted to show with a single pic that this great dac we all love so much defends its place in one quite expencive setup)
Phew..not a lot of time boet.
On the Lundahls. I have a good audio buddy who prefers the high H lundahls. Since he has only one board..(so do I) he tried the low H/hi curent Lundahls and the high H/low current versions..He preferred the high H versions.
Anyway...I don't even know if they'll send stuff to an address that is different than that of your credit card. Perhaps make a definitive list of what you want first and foremost. And take it from there.
My 4 board DDDac with Sowters came alive this morning. Finally finished the inside hookup. My build is largely stock, with some slightly larger power transformers, and Deode's power boards in a separate case. My dac boards have Silmic II in all positions, but is otherwise standard.
Making music well. Just started the burn in. Pictures later.
Question to the masses : I adjusted the power supplies with no load to 5 and 12 volts. With the whole unit hooked up, the voltage reading is a bit lower when measured at the Wave i/O board and DDDAC base board. Should I adjust for 5 and 12 under load? or leave them as is?
Thanks.
Making music well. Just started the burn in. Pictures later.
Question to the masses : I adjusted the power supplies with no load to 5 and 12 volts. With the whole unit hooked up, the voltage reading is a bit lower when measured at the Wave i/O board and DDDAC base board. Should I adjust for 5 and 12 under load? or leave them as is?
Thanks.
the 12V is not so critical. The 5Volt must be adjusted pretty acurately after 10 minutes or so, being connected to the WaveIO whilst turned on (Play Music). Otherwise it might be not recognized. Just had an instance here from someone where the DAC was just not working due a too low voltage on WaveIO...
Thanks Deode. I have it playing in the room for a few hours, I will re-adjust when I go back up there.
Sounding good so far 😉
Sounding good so far 😉
Hi Chahn,
10v will be to high for cronus, you can just put an extra R-C stage in the raw PS and design the resistor to drop to around 5-6v, that will do the trick.
what do you think about the sound in comparison to your bbb-S03?
Regards,
Stefan,
It's probably still early days, however, Hermes/Cronus combo seems more complete. In term of sq, there seems to be more accurate and wider dynamic range. The Bass is noticeablely articulate and tighter. Top ends seem more resolutions, hence all micro-dynamics are now effortlessly audible. The downside is since it is more accurate and better on either ends of the spectrum, the midrange/timbre seem overly shadowed and overall sound seem closer to a digital sounding than what it was with S03 in place. May be more burn in time is required? Or perhaps a better clock use, or if I use the same digital side raw ps to Cronus? Too many variables....!?
Thanks for the tip, I thought of introduce another RC to raw ps to get it to 5.5VDC into Cronus. Will keep you posted if interest?
Ok...! I now managed to regain the missing timbre from TP Hermes/Cronus out from DDDAC. The sound stage is much wider than S03 and yet pin sharp imaging. Again.., ps plays the importance in sq! The improved timbre/midrange did not compromise speed nor transient. Every bit were previously there still there but with better midrange! So less sometime meant more. Basically I completely removed the ps for Cronus, and tapped on the raw unregulated digital ps by a 82R resistor. Spot on 5.1-5.5V raw DC input into Cronus inbuilt regulator. 😉
Please share your findings should you have similar setup?
Cheers.
Very nice, and demanding setup! My complements amooth dancer! Wish I could have an evening with glass of nice red wine and your room 🙂
Thx D3ncityD3nt. Italian red wine is my favourite.
After I replaced Buffalo IIIse dual mono with dddac, my setup took a huge step forward.
It's a detailed and analog sound signature now. Love it.
After I replaced Buffalo IIIse dual mono with dddac, my setup took a huge step forward.
It's a detailed and analog sound signature now. Love it.
Nebbiolo from Piemonte maybe?
If so, I'll knuck to your door next time I'll be visiting Norway. 🙂
With a big bottle!
Do you mind? 🙂
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Once we talk about safety of our preciouse dac.
Since there is no safety measures naither on the shunts nor the psu. Do you guys have any idea on how to make your dac confortable for long stint? In this setup (raw psu, shunts) whole electronics are opened for current spikes, surges from mains.
My brother (an electronic, but not for audio) adviced me to place surge arrester like this CG75L LITTELFUSE - Arrester: surge arrester | TME - Electronic components somwhere after the rectifire, another friend mentioned about voltage dependent resistor before the main traffo, another just to use UPS. I was thinking to make a small copy of Equi-tech balanced mains supply.
What is your take on this matter. Do you have any ideas/experiences? What would be the best solution?
Since there is no safety measures naither on the shunts nor the psu. Do you guys have any idea on how to make your dac confortable for long stint? In this setup (raw psu, shunts) whole electronics are opened for current spikes, surges from mains.
My brother (an electronic, but not for audio) adviced me to place surge arrester like this CG75L LITTELFUSE - Arrester: surge arrester | TME - Electronic components somwhere after the rectifire, another friend mentioned about voltage dependent resistor before the main traffo, another just to use UPS. I was thinking to make a small copy of Equi-tech balanced mains supply.
What is your take on this matter. Do you have any ideas/experiences? What would be the best solution?
Carefull with putting these devices in the PS line, sound quality is prone to suffer.......
The shunts will regulate voltage so variations will be under control. I do not know if they are fast enough to block spikes. I am using a shunted cd player with nos dac since 12 years and it still is working good though!
Hi Chanh,
Nice results! I am doing the same.
So the difference you wrote down was only due to using the raw dac PS for the cronus, or did you change anything else?
I just removed the caps from cronus clock PS and soldered in some nice Panasonic organic polymers: 180uf for input and 150uf for the other two. ESR is much lower on these caps so this will help with a cleaner clock signal. First impressions are that it is cleaner sounding (not per se better;-)). I will let it play a while now.
Regards,
Hi Stefan,
I have narrowed down the culprit of this edginess from TP setup. That it was from the diyinhk ps supplying the 5V into Cronus. So over the last few days, I played with different ps, Doede stock, Doede modded, Salas Shunt, direct from 5V Tentlab shunt via 5V i2s headers, and of course the resistors tapping to raw unregulated ps. Among them all, I found raw unregulated ps sounded best. The analogue sound came back to me as how it was. So here on I tried find the appropriate resistor value, did with 47R and again with two 47R in series. Measured the drop voltages and did the linear equation based on 230VAC into my raw ps. So when x=5VDC, y=85.15R. There is no 85R in my bin, so I used 34R 1W and 47R 2W in series. Final voltage came out close to target 5VDC.
I was also thinking of further mod to Cronus, with better clocks and OSCon SP. similar to you, I will wait for this settle in a bit prior further modification.
Here are some close up I took;
I have narrowed down the culprit of this edginess from TP setup. That it was from the diyinhk ps supplying the 5V into Cronus. So over the last few days, I played with different ps, Doede stock, Doede modded, Salas Shunt, direct from 5V Tentlab shunt via 5V i2s headers, and of course the resistors tapping to raw unregulated ps. Among them all, I found raw unregulated ps sounded best. The analogue sound came back to me as how it was. So here on I tried find the appropriate resistor value, did with 47R and again with two 47R in series. Measured the drop voltages and did the linear equation based on 230VAC into my raw ps. So when x=5VDC, y=85.15R. There is no 85R in my bin, so I used 34R 1W and 47R 2W in series. Final voltage came out close to target 5VDC.
I was also thinking of further mod to Cronus, with better clocks and OSCon SP. similar to you, I will wait for this settle in a bit prior further modification.
Here are some close up I took;
Chanh, nice development.
Did you notice a good improvement when you put the shunt regs on the main board?
Thanks
Did you notice a good improvement when you put the shunt regs on the main board?
Thanks
Thanks!
Wrt Shunts on digital or Mainboard, there was improvement but it was not as noticeable as the 8V Shunt on analogue side of DAC. Personally, if I knew, digital size of DAC would not been invested. For the same fund, I rather invested in a nice raw unregulated setup with audio grade EI or RCore Transformer. Hope it helps?
Chanh
Thanks mate, I meant on the main blue motherboard, if there isn't much noticeable difference then I'll give it a miss, thanks again.
AC Power Filters
Depending on your AC power source and RFI/EMI environment, filtering the AC properly can be another step in the quest for audio perfection. Also, the parts for the following DIY AC filters cost less than one choke.
IMO the following links have the best designs and ideas regarding AC line filtering:
AC filter by Lukasz F.
AC filterr DIY ESA SILK
John Risch has done similar AC filter circuits:
http://www.geocities.ws/jonrisch/surge.htm
His design has been extensively reported on the audioasylum.com web site.
Tweakers' Asylum: REVIEW: DIY by Jon Risch AC filter according to JR Power Conditioner/Surge Protector by Lukasz F.
Depending on your AC power source and RFI/EMI environment, filtering the AC properly can be another step in the quest for audio perfection. Also, the parts for the following DIY AC filters cost less than one choke.
IMO the following links have the best designs and ideas regarding AC line filtering:
AC filter by Lukasz F.
AC filterr DIY ESA SILK
John Risch has done similar AC filter circuits:
http://www.geocities.ws/jonrisch/surge.htm
His design has been extensively reported on the audioasylum.com web site.
Tweakers' Asylum: REVIEW: DIY by Jon Risch AC filter according to JR Power Conditioner/Surge Protector by Lukasz F.
For those that want a ready built alternative, Schurter make IEC receptacle that includes a double pole switch and EMI filtering. Part number 4304.5022.
I have used these on my source equipment with great success 🙂