Hi Guys,
Have just finished building up a DAC kit from LKS Audio that I bought from Taobao. I made a few changes and upgrades as they didn't cost too much and I was interested to see what they would add.
I originally just bought the chassis to use with another DAC as it was a reasonable price and looked really nice. When I got it the rear panel was a solid 8mm that had been CNC cut for this kit. I thought it was a removable panel that I could replace easily with a blank one, once a realised that I decide to buy the DAC mainboard power supply kit and front panel display and encoder.
I used some R-Core transformers as these really are silent in use and can be quite compact. When I first built it up I used 9V AC transformers for the DAC power rails which are pre regulated down to 5V before being regulated again on the DAC PCB. This was a lot of voltage for the regulators to drop and the heatsinks were putting out too much heat for me especially as the chassis is not well vented. I ordered a custom R-Core transformer from Taobao with three 6V windings and this keeps the heat down considerably. That transformer was physically larger and so I had to reposition it to the front where the transformers for the kit are designed to be mounted.
For the power supply I changed most of the components as those supplied in the kit were of lesser quality than the rest of the components on the board. I changed the diodes to 2A Vishay Trenchmos shottky and the filter capacitors to Chemicon 5600uF KYB. I replaced the 317 and 337 regulators with some plug in PCB boards, the three DAC rails are LT1963 fixed at 5V (bought from Taobao for a very low price) and the opamp supplies are TPS7A +15 and -15V modules from Tekdevice not so low price! Only change needed to the PCB was a wire jumper per channel to short adjust to ground. Output capacitor was changed to Panasonic 100uF FM to keep the ESR down. Film capacitors were the wimas supplied in the kit. The main PCB is already using LP38798 low noise regulator chips for all the DAC power voltages.
I got LKS to upgrade the main oscillator to a Crystek CCHD 575 100Mhz that is used in there upgraded commercial DAC, it cost US$35 for the change and there was a special on Taobao that day where I got US$35 off the cost of the mainboard so I basically got the clock upgraded for free! There is also a separate low noise regulator for the oscillator power supply which is right next to it on the board.
I also bought the I/V opamps LME49990 pre-mounted on adaptor boards for US$6 each. Buffer and single ended stage uses LME49710 DIP8 as I had some trouble with the AD4627 chips I bought as only one was working when I mounted it to an adapter PCB.
For USB input I have a Chinese knock off Amanero which is working surprisingly well given the ridiculously low price.
The display is a very nice looking VFD and the encoder changes input when pressed and controls volume when turned. The microprocessor on the board is able to control all the other settings such as filter and DPLL bandwidth but that only works through remote control and you really need the one LKS supplies for this as the code is custom. I spent some time trying to find a way to avoid buying it and use the hex codes directly but gave up and bought the remote. It works very well but is an ugly, cheap universal type so I will get my Harmony to learn from it and then it can sit in a cupboard out of the way!
Overall I think that this DAC chassis looks really nice and the kit is a good price considering it has proper I/V conversion circuitry and low noise regulators on the board and the board and has some flexibility to change components if you want. To me it sounds very nice but I don't have any of the other Sabre ES9018 DAC's to compare it to.
Have just finished building up a DAC kit from LKS Audio that I bought from Taobao. I made a few changes and upgrades as they didn't cost too much and I was interested to see what they would add.
I originally just bought the chassis to use with another DAC as it was a reasonable price and looked really nice. When I got it the rear panel was a solid 8mm that had been CNC cut for this kit. I thought it was a removable panel that I could replace easily with a blank one, once a realised that I decide to buy the DAC mainboard power supply kit and front panel display and encoder.
I used some R-Core transformers as these really are silent in use and can be quite compact. When I first built it up I used 9V AC transformers for the DAC power rails which are pre regulated down to 5V before being regulated again on the DAC PCB. This was a lot of voltage for the regulators to drop and the heatsinks were putting out too much heat for me especially as the chassis is not well vented. I ordered a custom R-Core transformer from Taobao with three 6V windings and this keeps the heat down considerably. That transformer was physically larger and so I had to reposition it to the front where the transformers for the kit are designed to be mounted.
For the power supply I changed most of the components as those supplied in the kit were of lesser quality than the rest of the components on the board. I changed the diodes to 2A Vishay Trenchmos shottky and the filter capacitors to Chemicon 5600uF KYB. I replaced the 317 and 337 regulators with some plug in PCB boards, the three DAC rails are LT1963 fixed at 5V (bought from Taobao for a very low price) and the opamp supplies are TPS7A +15 and -15V modules from Tekdevice not so low price! Only change needed to the PCB was a wire jumper per channel to short adjust to ground. Output capacitor was changed to Panasonic 100uF FM to keep the ESR down. Film capacitors were the wimas supplied in the kit. The main PCB is already using LP38798 low noise regulator chips for all the DAC power voltages.
I got LKS to upgrade the main oscillator to a Crystek CCHD 575 100Mhz that is used in there upgraded commercial DAC, it cost US$35 for the change and there was a special on Taobao that day where I got US$35 off the cost of the mainboard so I basically got the clock upgraded for free! There is also a separate low noise regulator for the oscillator power supply which is right next to it on the board.
I also bought the I/V opamps LME49990 pre-mounted on adaptor boards for US$6 each. Buffer and single ended stage uses LME49710 DIP8 as I had some trouble with the AD4627 chips I bought as only one was working when I mounted it to an adapter PCB.
For USB input I have a Chinese knock off Amanero which is working surprisingly well given the ridiculously low price.
The display is a very nice looking VFD and the encoder changes input when pressed and controls volume when turned. The microprocessor on the board is able to control all the other settings such as filter and DPLL bandwidth but that only works through remote control and you really need the one LKS supplies for this as the code is custom. I spent some time trying to find a way to avoid buying it and use the hex codes directly but gave up and bought the remote. It works very well but is an ugly, cheap universal type so I will get my Harmony to learn from it and then it can sit in a cupboard out of the way!
Overall I think that this DAC chassis looks really nice and the kit is a good price considering it has proper I/V conversion circuitry and low noise regulators on the board and the board and has some flexibility to change components if you want. To me it sounds very nice but I don't have any of the other Sabre ES9018 DAC's to compare it to.
Hi, I have the same board with the display but without the chassis nor Amanero.
The modifications that you made seem to me to be very good, I have not done any except the opamp, which I replaced with AD797.
At the moment I am trying to use this board with a Raspberry Pi and Moode or Volumio through I2S, but there is any problems with drivers.
Where did you buy Amanero board?
Regards, Daniel.
The modifications that you made seem to me to be very good, I have not done any except the opamp, which I replaced with AD797.
At the moment I am trying to use this board with a Raspberry Pi and Moode or Volumio through I2S, but there is any problems with drivers.
Where did you buy Amanero board?
Regards, Daniel.
I bought the Amanero clone from Taobao here
https://world.taobao.com/item/534782051888.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.q2GdSR#detail
It was the cheapest good quality board I could find and it works just as well as an official Amanero and I think can use the official drivers although I have only tested on a Mac so no drivers needed.
The oscillator used is a bit of an unknown but as the DAC is effectively clocked from the Crystek on the mainboard it didn't bother me. I was initially just going to use optical but the clone was so cheap it seemed worth adding.
Connecting the amanero to the board was more difficult than I thought as the mainboard uses round pin headers. I cut up some opamp sockets with round pins and soldered those to a normal square pin header to bridge the gap.
https://world.taobao.com/item/534782051888.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.q2GdSR#detail
It was the cheapest good quality board I could find and it works just as well as an official Amanero and I think can use the official drivers although I have only tested on a Mac so no drivers needed.
The oscillator used is a bit of an unknown but as the DAC is effectively clocked from the Crystek on the mainboard it didn't bother me. I was initially just going to use optical but the clone was so cheap it seemed worth adding.
Connecting the amanero to the board was more difficult than I thought as the mainboard uses round pin headers. I cut up some opamp sockets with round pins and soldered those to a normal square pin header to bridge the gap.
Hi Fluid
Great looking build....!
Have an question about Your nice little PCB's for LT1963 to LM317 conversion.
Is that Your own design or are they available somewhere.
Last time I just have bend the legs of "poor" LT1963 and do some nasty surgery to fit it into LM317 spot, so pretty interested in Your PCB's.
Rosendorfer.
Great looking build....!
Have an question about Your nice little PCB's for LT1963 to LM317 conversion.
Is that Your own design or are they available somewhere.
Last time I just have bend the legs of "poor" LT1963 and do some nasty surgery to fit it into LM317 spot, so pretty interested in Your PCB's.
Rosendorfer.
The main power supply board on the left has +/- 15 V for the opamp supply and then 3 x +5V as pre-regulation for the mainboard which has more low noise regulators for the various DAC rails 2 x 3.3V and 1.2V, there are two more 3.3V regulators for the clock and other circuitry.
Thanks!
The board I have is using LP38798 regulators from TI
LP38798 | Single Channel LDO | Linear Regulator (LDO) | Description & parametrics
They are an alternative to the LT1763 which were used on the first runs of the board. The TI reg is not so well known but if you look at the specs it is very good. The fact that these regs were already on the board is one of the reasons I bought it, they are tiny and come in a WSON package which makes them really hard to work with DIY.
Thanks! I bought the PCB's from Taobao because they were very cheap and already set to 5V. Unfortunately they don't seem to be available at the moment.
I bought them from this store
https://shop57125352.world.taobao.com/?spm=a312a.7728556.2015080705.4.mq5NsC
and this is the same board but on an agent's website
https://www.sgtaobao.com/product/525899807378/
Thanks Perceval. This is the only kit that LKS makes available, there are other choices in ready built models that have been upgraded over time.
I have the same Crystek oscillator that is used in the highest model DAC from LKS. The amanero I use is a cheap clone but it works well. The main difference with the LKS Amanero board is that it has six independent power supply regulators and the choice to use an add in LT3042 power supply just for the amanero board. It is significantly more expensive and I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost particularly when the mainboard has a really good crystal with low noise power supply onboard and the ES9018 is working in Async mode.
I have the same Crystek oscillator that is used in the highest model DAC from LKS. The amanero I use is a cheap clone but it works well. The main difference with the LKS Amanero board is that it has six independent power supply regulators and the choice to use an add in LT3042 power supply just for the amanero board. It is significantly more expensive and I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost particularly when the mainboard has a really good crystal with low noise power supply onboard and the ES9018 is working in Async mode.
I think it sounds very good with First One, but I have only listened to both for a short period of time with bookshelf speakers in a nearfield setup.
Both are good value for money for what you get.
I am building a 25 driver full range line array and the First One 1.4M and LKS DAC will be used with that when it is finished.
Both are good value for money for what you get.
I am building a 25 driver full range line array and the First One 1.4M and LKS DAC will be used with that when it is finished.
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