Hi Ian,
When i first contacted the engineer i sent photos of all boards that needed caps replacing, the only one that was obviously damaged was the Dacapo PCB. Initially he said that he could not guarantee a full repair if i did not send complete units as he would not be able to test. I did not want to send the whole units as it was un-necessary and the postage would have been even more expensive than it already was. So, i removed all parts needed from the case work and this satisfied him, he would be able to power everything up and check thoroughly. From the damage viewed and from information that i gave him(regarding syptoms heard) he said that it shouldn't be a problem to repair. The actual cost of cap replacement and repair was 190.35, now, this was and still is a bit confusing to me, as the quote for individual cap replacement comes to the figure above. However, he assured me that if it needed repairing it would be done and that was the cost, so i believed that for the amount of caps to be replaced he had built the cost of repair into the quote. As far as the batteries for DC were concerned, i sourced and replaced them myself. The costs are separate.
In this whole sorry tale, the only thing that i am not trusting of is the actual amount of time that he spent testing the equipment after repair( i think we are both on the right track here). He was a little vague about how long everything was powered up and actally listened to, saying that it was simply not practical to have it tested over days and days. This did concern me, but , he was aware of the massive amount of effort that it had taken to get the units to him and the cost involved and the distance, i.e me currently living in Greece, so i thought he couldn't be so careless as not to test thoroughly knowing all this. Maybe not, who knows? If i think about that though, i just want to scream!!!!!
Let's hope JohnW will post again soon and may be able to point to the specific area of failure.
Regards, Steven.
John,
Depending on how the unit feels on power up, it can be 90% clear music with a hint of interference(hash) or really bad with barely audible sound, only from the right channel though. I don't know if this describes White Noise as i have struggled to find a definition for it.
Regards, Steven.
When i first contacted the engineer i sent photos of all boards that needed caps replacing, the only one that was obviously damaged was the Dacapo PCB. Initially he said that he could not guarantee a full repair if i did not send complete units as he would not be able to test. I did not want to send the whole units as it was un-necessary and the postage would have been even more expensive than it already was. So, i removed all parts needed from the case work and this satisfied him, he would be able to power everything up and check thoroughly. From the damage viewed and from information that i gave him(regarding syptoms heard) he said that it shouldn't be a problem to repair. The actual cost of cap replacement and repair was 190.35, now, this was and still is a bit confusing to me, as the quote for individual cap replacement comes to the figure above. However, he assured me that if it needed repairing it would be done and that was the cost, so i believed that for the amount of caps to be replaced he had built the cost of repair into the quote. As far as the batteries for DC were concerned, i sourced and replaced them myself. The costs are separate.
In this whole sorry tale, the only thing that i am not trusting of is the actual amount of time that he spent testing the equipment after repair( i think we are both on the right track here). He was a little vague about how long everything was powered up and actally listened to, saying that it was simply not practical to have it tested over days and days. This did concern me, but , he was aware of the massive amount of effort that it had taken to get the units to him and the cost involved and the distance, i.e me currently living in Greece, so i thought he couldn't be so careless as not to test thoroughly knowing all this. Maybe not, who knows? If i think about that though, i just want to scream!!!!!
Let's hope JohnW will post again soon and may be able to point to the specific area of failure.
Regards, Steven.
John,
Depending on how the unit feels on power up, it can be 90% clear music with a hint of interference(hash) or really bad with barely audible sound, only from the right channel though. I don't know if this describes White Noise as i have struggled to find a definition for it.
Regards, Steven.
It's been a while since I asked...
So....
....If anyone has a spare single Coaxial Digital Input card (not a clock lock one with two coaxial) I have been looking for one for years.
If anyone has one I would be very pleased to either purchase it or do a swap for a spare immaculate dual-coaxial clock lock D.I.C as needed to connect to a cardinal...
Although not as important to me as a single co-ax I would also be intrested in an optical one.
Thanks
John
So....
....If anyone has a spare single Coaxial Digital Input card (not a clock lock one with two coaxial) I have been looking for one for years.
If anyone has one I would be very pleased to either purchase it or do a swap for a spare immaculate dual-coaxial clock lock D.I.C as needed to connect to a cardinal...
Although not as important to me as a single co-ax I would also be intrested in an optical one.
Thanks
John
Hi John,
nothing nasty comes from the spaekers when Dacapo is powered up and not playing.
As i have been away from home alot of late, the system has been powered down on many occasions. On powering up again at certain times the fault was not evident, however as time went by it came back again. The last time i tried i had no audio at all with HDCD filter in and only r/h channel with 18 bit.
Any ideas?
steven.
nothing nasty comes from the spaekers when Dacapo is powered up and not playing.
As i have been away from home alot of late, the system has been powered down on many occasions. On powering up again at certain times the fault was not evident, however as time went by it came back again. The last time i tried i had no audio at all with HDCD filter in and only r/h channel with 18 bit.
Any ideas?
steven.
Ah ok,
Did wonder as I am seeing an issue where if I leave system powered up for a number of days (maybe even a week or so) when I go back to it I am getting White noise out of the speakers...
If I play somthing there is just a very slight hint of music getting through. It was like this when I got the unit and so far (4 or 5 years) it doesn't seem to have got worse.
Going to have to get my unit sorted before it goes the way of so many on here. I was going to have a local repair guy to replace caps etc. but in view of the white noise problem and after speaking to the repair guys at length not so sure I trust them to find a problem.
Have emailed John W to see if there is any small chance at all he might agree to have a little look at my units so I can hopefully, fingers crossed, have the problem identified and maybe fixed.
Was just wondering if it was the same issue as yours but doesn't sound the same at all.
John
Did wonder as I am seeing an issue where if I leave system powered up for a number of days (maybe even a week or so) when I go back to it I am getting White noise out of the speakers...
If I play somthing there is just a very slight hint of music getting through. It was like this when I got the unit and so far (4 or 5 years) it doesn't seem to have got worse.
Going to have to get my unit sorted before it goes the way of so many on here. I was going to have a local repair guy to replace caps etc. but in view of the white noise problem and after speaking to the repair guys at length not so sure I trust them to find a problem.
Have emailed John W to see if there is any small chance at all he might agree to have a little look at my units so I can hopefully, fingers crossed, have the problem identified and maybe fixed.
Was just wondering if it was the same issue as yours but doesn't sound the same at all.
John
Hi all,
Pls. forgive me for my recent silence - in an earlier post I mentioned that I need to make some major decisions - without going into much detail... well it appears that with the benefit of hindsight they turned out to be the correct ones to make at the time.
So we have been moving the production of my branded products to a new vendor in China - and you will now also see my designs in some major UK Hi-Fi brands....
Sorry I cannot go into more details at this time - but it’s a very positive move, I’m now in a “Playground” with every conceivable manufacturing process available onsite for unlimited design flexibility…. And not just limited to electronic products…
Last Wednesday we issued drawings for plastic tooling (45 day lead-time) and extrusion tooling drawings. Ironically, while I can handle electronics - mechanical casework is a constant problem - not so much design, but in tooling cost etc if they are to be done correctly. I personally hate the typical 19inch flat panel thick aluminium panel type designs… the first designs will be smaller “life style” designs, however with State of the art audio performance…
So we are currently moving my whole lab, design team and production - which is always a messy and complicated process - without the added complication of being in China. As I'm writing this, I can hear the builders across the block knocking down walls to clear one whole floor for my team.
I'm very excited about this new prospect as while I'm confident that my products will sell well, they would only be sold via internet distribution, leaving customers who wish to purchase via normal retail channels without the opportunity to listen and hopefully buy my designs. While my own brand will NOT BE sold via brick and mortar sales channels (to avoid conflict with my new “employers” own brands) – there own brands will incorporate the same design IP and ethos.
I promise to go into more detail later once the products are nearer to release – my own brands within the next 3 months – a DAC and matching power amplifier,
As a side note, we just released a Lifestyle OEM design (designed for a US company) to pilot production which is an integrated Amplifier / DAC unit with Valve cathode follower….. Which we are very proud off…. it turnout to be a very good little unit…. You can be sure to hear about this in the HiFi press before Christmas
John
Pls. forgive me for my recent silence - in an earlier post I mentioned that I need to make some major decisions - without going into much detail... well it appears that with the benefit of hindsight they turned out to be the correct ones to make at the time.
So we have been moving the production of my branded products to a new vendor in China - and you will now also see my designs in some major UK Hi-Fi brands....
Sorry I cannot go into more details at this time - but it’s a very positive move, I’m now in a “Playground” with every conceivable manufacturing process available onsite for unlimited design flexibility…. And not just limited to electronic products…
Last Wednesday we issued drawings for plastic tooling (45 day lead-time) and extrusion tooling drawings. Ironically, while I can handle electronics - mechanical casework is a constant problem - not so much design, but in tooling cost etc if they are to be done correctly. I personally hate the typical 19inch flat panel thick aluminium panel type designs… the first designs will be smaller “life style” designs, however with State of the art audio performance…
So we are currently moving my whole lab, design team and production - which is always a messy and complicated process - without the added complication of being in China. As I'm writing this, I can hear the builders across the block knocking down walls to clear one whole floor for my team.
I'm very excited about this new prospect as while I'm confident that my products will sell well, they would only be sold via internet distribution, leaving customers who wish to purchase via normal retail channels without the opportunity to listen and hopefully buy my designs. While my own brand will NOT BE sold via brick and mortar sales channels (to avoid conflict with my new “employers” own brands) – there own brands will incorporate the same design IP and ethos.
I promise to go into more detail later once the products are nearer to release – my own brands within the next 3 months – a DAC and matching power amplifier,
As a side note, we just released a Lifestyle OEM design (designed for a US company) to pilot production which is an integrated Amplifier / DAC unit with Valve cathode follower….. Which we are very proud off…. it turnout to be a very good little unit…. You can be sure to hear about this in the HiFi press before Christmas
John
Hi JohnW,
all sounds very exciting, but, very tiring also i'm sure. It goes without saying that i look forward to the time when your new products can be listened to, however( and i feel really bad for asking knowing how busy you must be) as this will still be a few months away and my Dacapo is still unwell do you think there may be an outside chance, that if i were to post the pcb to you, it would be possible for you to take a look at it for me?
ever hopeful,
Steven.
all sounds very exciting, but, very tiring also i'm sure. It goes without saying that i look forward to the time when your new products can be listened to, however( and i feel really bad for asking knowing how busy you must be) as this will still be a few months away and my Dacapo is still unwell do you think there may be an outside chance, that if i were to post the pcb to you, it would be possible for you to take a look at it for me?
ever hopeful,
Steven.
John,
I was just wondering - Previously you mentioned sometimes the Cardinal has issues trying to read the CD's that had maximum number of songs squeezed on them... Due to a change in the spec to allow the larger storage size.
This doesn't seem to be an issue on all cardinals and was wondering exactly what the issue was? Is it a case that it wasn't designed to spin at the correct speed for the inside rings or calibration of laser on this bit of the disk?
Is there any DIY tweak that could be done to improve it's reading of these disks?
Also did Sanyo ever make a laser head that was a drop in replacement that is better suited to CD-R's?
Just wondered - mine seems ok on the newer CD's and seems to read most CD-R's but sometimes start to get the odd very slight ticking coming through on CD-R's and I know some can't read them at all.
Anyway it was just on the offchance (esspecially now you have a cardinal) there may be some tweak that could be done to improve it's performance in this respect.
John
I was just wondering - Previously you mentioned sometimes the Cardinal has issues trying to read the CD's that had maximum number of songs squeezed on them... Due to a change in the spec to allow the larger storage size.
This doesn't seem to be an issue on all cardinals and was wondering exactly what the issue was? Is it a case that it wasn't designed to spin at the correct speed for the inside rings or calibration of laser on this bit of the disk?
Is there any DIY tweak that could be done to improve it's reading of these disks?
Also did Sanyo ever make a laser head that was a drop in replacement that is better suited to CD-R's?
Just wondered - mine seems ok on the newer CD's and seems to read most CD-R's but sometimes start to get the odd very slight ticking coming through on CD-R's and I know some can't read them at all.
Anyway it was just on the offchance (esspecially now you have a cardinal) there may be some tweak that could be done to improve it's performance in this respect.
John
advice please!
hello, any advice would be much much appreciated.
i have a much cherished da capo and would like to prolong its life. reading this forum has left me a little confused, though, as i am not the most technically minded.
is anyone able to tell me
1. exactly what needs to be replaced in my dac and where these are situated,
2. where or who the replacement components can be acquired from and
3. who may be able to carry out the work required.
i do so much want my dac to live as long as possible. i have had it for nearly 10 years now and heard nothing then or even now that comes close to the sublime sound that it makes.
thanks in advance!
frank
hello, any advice would be much much appreciated.
i have a much cherished da capo and would like to prolong its life. reading this forum has left me a little confused, though, as i am not the most technically minded.
is anyone able to tell me
1. exactly what needs to be replaced in my dac and where these are situated,
2. where or who the replacement components can be acquired from and
3. who may be able to carry out the work required.
i do so much want my dac to live as long as possible. i have had it for nearly 10 years now and heard nothing then or even now that comes close to the sublime sound that it makes.
thanks in advance!
frank
frank if you don't want to do the work yourself , it might be worth asking Tony at Coherent systems if he'd do the modification work.
http://www.coherent-systems.co.uk/repairs.asp
http://www.coherent-systems.co.uk/repairs.asp
Hi all, I played it safe and changed all the electrolytic caps within my Da capo board. Bought mine from E bay for £300 couple of months ago. Shocked by the quality, compared to my audio note signature 4.1 it sounded far more natural and realistic. It had also matched my all time favourite reference cd player REVOX B225 (not 226), which has overhauled power supplies, and discrete i/v converters and valve output.
I changed the caps to either black gate standards or cerafines. The capacitance went up to 4700uf via the black gate and probably overkill with the 15000uf on the cerafines, but that's all i had at home at the time.
Without any burn-in, within 10 seconds of switching on, I was immediately struck by the increased timbrel details to instruments, a cleaner more refined sound and there was a strange airy quality with the musicians seemingly floating around my head in a realistic three dimensional set up! Took me by surprise. (Please note my descriptions are only via the superb ultrasone 750 headphones and darkvoice tube headamp, which i believe are as accurate as my stacked quad 57 set ups) I think I understand this 3d effect as being due to the fact that the extra details were giving me clues as to the relationship between the musicians and their surrounding environment. The wonderful tonal palate also added to the realism. That is after a few minutes of switching on! The black gates are notoriously described as taking many many hours to burn in so i wonder if the cerafines were more likely at work here. Don't know, but do know from repeated experiments that such electrolytic upgrades more often than not only make subtle changes. These sound changes were not subtle. What potential is there in this dac? Mine came with the 1307 so what the better filters can do god only knows.
BUT I also noticed that the red indicator lights on front of the DACAPO were much much brighter, so bright I thought they were getting too much voltage. This then perhaps indicates why this DAC sounds so much better than before - the original electrolytics must have been on their last legs and so I never did hear its full potential.
We now need to compare the DAC with new black gates/cerafines versus new cheaper electrolytics. See if i can find time to do this.
I changed the caps to either black gate standards or cerafines. The capacitance went up to 4700uf via the black gate and probably overkill with the 15000uf on the cerafines, but that's all i had at home at the time.
Without any burn-in, within 10 seconds of switching on, I was immediately struck by the increased timbrel details to instruments, a cleaner more refined sound and there was a strange airy quality with the musicians seemingly floating around my head in a realistic three dimensional set up! Took me by surprise. (Please note my descriptions are only via the superb ultrasone 750 headphones and darkvoice tube headamp, which i believe are as accurate as my stacked quad 57 set ups) I think I understand this 3d effect as being due to the fact that the extra details were giving me clues as to the relationship between the musicians and their surrounding environment. The wonderful tonal palate also added to the realism. That is after a few minutes of switching on! The black gates are notoriously described as taking many many hours to burn in so i wonder if the cerafines were more likely at work here. Don't know, but do know from repeated experiments that such electrolytic upgrades more often than not only make subtle changes. These sound changes were not subtle. What potential is there in this dac? Mine came with the 1307 so what the better filters can do god only knows.
BUT I also noticed that the red indicator lights on front of the DACAPO were much much brighter, so bright I thought they were getting too much voltage. This then perhaps indicates why this DAC sounds so much better than before - the original electrolytics must have been on their last legs and so I never did hear its full potential.
We now need to compare the DAC with new black gates/cerafines versus new cheaper electrolytics. See if i can find time to do this.
John, given the way that high end audio via dvd/blu is going, ie better than anything on a cd, would you ever consider the inclusion of an HDMI plug on the back of one of the DACS so we could use them with 24/96 and beyond source material.
i think for a lot of listeners their cd transport is just that, pure CD, and those of us stuck in two channel world are therefore unable to do anything with the audio digital out from most DVDA/blu-ray players...
i think for a lot of listeners their cd transport is just that, pure CD, and those of us stuck in two channel world are therefore unable to do anything with the audio digital out from most DVDA/blu-ray players...
Even if you could put an input on the back it would still only be 16bit at the DAC.
Though when John was looking at new filter he did design a double width input card that could handle the newer formats...
If SACD really took off maybe we could get him to resserect the input card on it's own.
John
Though when John was looking at new filter he did design a double width input card that could handle the newer formats...
If SACD really took off maybe we could get him to resserect the input card on it's own.
John