Soundcard clocks

[planarboy]

Shouldnt we be able to buy a soundblaster and clock upgrade it? is the SMT too small to work on?
I'd love to run a modded soundcard thru optical to as good a dac as i can afford, or build.
It would be convenient FLAC music, sounding as good as it can within my budget, for when I'm doing things, not just sitting there with my record player.
But has it been done, I wonder.
Sorry , I did spend 35 minutes searching this up.
And while I'm bangin' on about it, can 5.1 squeeze through an optical toslink?
It'd be 500 or so well spent bucks if it's at all possible.
Thanks for any help, either encourage me or put me to rest.

[cuibono]

Yes, the clock upgrade is doable. I've done it and so have others. SMD is no problem if you know what you're doing. If you know a little about layout, search for the 'kwak clock' schematic on this board. If you don't have any idea where to start, you can buy a ready made tent clock, from guido tent. Black lion audio also sells ready made mods for certain cards.

I don't know about the 5.1 though, but you should be able to find that stuff on the net. I'm pretty sure SPDIF is limited to stereo, so I would guess optical is the same.

EDIT: look at this thread, particularly post #7

[rfbrw]

Originally posted by planarboy

And while I'm bangin' on about it, can 5.1 squeeze through an optical toslink?

Look for AC3/DTS Pass Through AKA 'passthru'.

[lumanauw]

What happen if the IC is 5V and the replacement clock is 3V3? Vice versa, what happen if the IC is 3V3 and the replacement clock is 5V?

[OneyedK]

Originally posted by lumanauw
What happen if the IC is 5V and the replacement clock is 3V3?

If you are lucky, the logic inside the IC has threshold for 0 and 1 that are large enough. (most of the time, the edges of the clock signal are used, so no problem)

Originally posted by lumanauw
what happen if the IC is 3V3 and the replacement clock is 5V?

Add a series resistor between clock and IC and you'll be fine...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tent XO's accept 3.3 and 5V as power source. So if the IC is on a 3.3V power supply, supply the XO with 3.3V... (same with 5V) The PFM Flea power supply can easily be adapted.

[lumanauw]

Is this means a sinusoidal clock can be inputted to XI and everything works fine?

Between XI and XO, there's always one logic inverter there?

[OneyedK]

Originally posted by lumanauw
Is this means a sinusoidal clock can be inputted to XI and everything works fine?

Yeps, don't forget to remove both capacitors connected to XI and XO!

[lumanauw]

Thanks

Actually, I'm afraid that if the replacement clock and the IC are not at the same voltage spec (3V3 and 5V), the ON/OFF wouldn't be 50%-50%.