CoolerMaster Musketeer III

[DragonMaster]

Yes, it's a computer product, but ...

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Musketeer III/

 

[mr-mac]

got one didn't do enough except lower the ouput volume...

I do fancy getting an external 5.25 alluminium drve caddy and installing it in that with a few upgrades and an HQ PSU which might make it into a nice computer external headphone amp....

Not got enough knowledge to sort out good PSU and know what to do to make it from a buffer to an amp....

Does look nice and nail your colours to the flagpole if you like valves...

 

[DragonMaster]

To rise the output it's probably just two resistors.

For a PSU the best would be to DIY one if it's the only thing you're going to put in your external 5¼" enclosure.

 

[mr-mac]

Yeah reckon want to raise output (was thinking some better and bigger caps as well) and an HQ PSU (then have an input an output on the rear) and it has the headphone socket on the front....

It would be my very first forrey into DIY so hope someone else has the same idea and leads the way....

John

 

[DragonMaster]

Bigger caps would help probably, it would be fun to have the schematic also... Do you know the tube type?

 

[mr-mac]

a chinese 12AU7 seems to be the tube installed in the unit

John

 

[Spasticteapot]

I'd try and see if you could use the tube in place of the cheap op-amp buffer on some soundcards. A better quality tube may also be in order.

 

[DragonMaster]

I'd try and see if you could use the tube in place of the cheap op-amp buffer on some soundcards. A better quality tube may also be in order.

Raising the gain and bypassing the buffer should help, but we would have to watch impedance and things like that...

As for the tube, I don't know how it's connected. If it's soldered, then for changing tubes he would need to find one that doesn't have steel legs first.

 

[mr-mac]

I think it's in a tube holder so changing should be easy enough, there are no op-amps on the musketeer at all.

John

 

[DragonMaster]

Not the Musketeer, but the soundcard. The sound card's output is passing in a cheap output stage with electrolytic caps and a cheap opamp (Sometimes, there's no opamp, it's the codec's output directly, but still with the same cheap electrolytics)

 

[mr-mac]

Gonna get a decent sound card or output to a DIY DAC that will sit with the headphone amp

John

 

[DragonMaster]

If you don't matter about 16/48 only, there's a great little TI chip out there that gives an excellent sound output.

There's the AudioTrak OPTO Play(USB play-only) that can play 24/96 in stereo.

 

[DragonMaster]

Does it sound good at least?

 

[rjm]

Unfortunately it was built too cheaply to be of any interest to audiophiles, and not cheaply enough to be of interest to the gamer crowd.

I imagine the circuit is a hybrid headphone amplifier along the lines of the SOHA project, and it would be interesting to reverse engineer it just to see how the topology is implemented on a shoestring budget, and especially how they do the DC-DC conversion.

Maybe with a complete repopulation of the PCB it could be made to sound half-decent, but I'm not optimistic.

I saw one in the store in Osaka on the weekend. Almost picked one up but decided to look into it further before shelling out my 6300 yen.

Richard

 

[mr-mac]

I think rather than an amp it is actually a valve buffer...

 

[neutron7]

wouldnt putting the output from your soundcard through -nothing extra- sound better than putting it through a bunch of extra cables and connectors and more circuitry?

especially inside the PC there is a lot of noise to be picked up, and the better sound cards do their best to isolate the output from all the computer hash.