that was my thought but it seems not. i was very quick at soldering it to the board though and made sure the pad was nice and hot before touching the pin.
had a good listening session last night (silly o'clock hours) and my initial thoughts are that there is a lot more micro detail in the mid to upper registers and lets you see deeper into the mix. less background noise and blacker background. vocals are much better tamed with less evident s&t. mid/lower seems to be a bit tamer with an teeny weeny bit less bite and attack to drums and bass guitar but it makes for more pleasant listening. everything is a lot smoother but more open and the timing sounds right where the V2 always sounded in a bit of a hurry. the biggest difference are cymbals which have more 'sizzle' rather than 'splash', i'll have to dig something out with an opening and closing hihat to be sure.
dont know if its the .47 caps but the lower notes seem to be more within the mix rather than smashing my nut in.. lol. i'll swap the Rike's in a couple of days when everything has settled down. i must say from initial impressions that those Multicap's are rather nice.
had a good listening session last night (silly o'clock hours) and my initial thoughts are that there is a lot more micro detail in the mid to upper registers and lets you see deeper into the mix. less background noise and blacker background. vocals are much better tamed with less evident s&t. mid/lower seems to be a bit tamer with an teeny weeny bit less bite and attack to drums and bass guitar but it makes for more pleasant listening. everything is a lot smoother but more open and the timing sounds right where the V2 always sounded in a bit of a hurry. the biggest difference are cymbals which have more 'sizzle' rather than 'splash', i'll have to dig something out with an opening and closing hihat to be sure.
dont know if its the .47 caps but the lower notes seem to be more within the mix rather than smashing my nut in.. lol. i'll swap the Rike's in a couple of days when everything has settled down. i must say from initial impressions that those Multicap's are rather nice.
10 nights with an average of listening 6-8hrs each night. the caps were well used so no need to break them in and i would say everything is now well settled. i swapped out the 744 for the 134 a few nights ago and in these bards i must say they sound great. i still have the Multicaps in as i CBA changing them over for the Rikes. i will say though that the Multicaps sound pretty good if a bit forward and chesty in the vocals/mids but they keep a good grip on the music and dont get confused.
source Raspberry Pi with IQaudIO DAC+ with the phono connectors removed and wired straight into the Sapphire board IN's. no volume device apart from the 'hardware' volume control on the IQaudIO DAC+ via MoOde.
what can i say... well one word comes to mind ''superb''. the slight faults of the V2 have been fully taken care of. smooth, dynamic and open. no cause for alarm from the very low to the very high that i can tell so far, just effortless unstrained music.
thanks again Richard
Lance
source Raspberry Pi with IQaudIO DAC+ with the phono connectors removed and wired straight into the Sapphire board IN's. no volume device apart from the 'hardware' volume control on the IQaudIO DAC+ via MoOde.
what can i say... well one word comes to mind ''superb''. the slight faults of the V2 have been fully taken care of. smooth, dynamic and open. no cause for alarm from the very low to the very high that i can tell so far, just effortless unstrained music.
thanks again Richard
Lance
That is understatement. Sorry about the melted bits...
Glad you like the Multicaps, and the Sapphire3.
Richard
nobody sees it when the hood is on
? since i'm using the volume control from the IQaudIO DAC+ and not a conventional potentiometer what would the value of R2 be.
it was explained to me that the volume control was on the analogue side of the inbuilt digital headphone amp and controlled via ALSA which is the main output whether via the headphone socket or the phono sockets which is 2v rms output.
thanks
? since i'm using the volume control from the IQaudIO DAC+ and not a conventional potentiometer what would the value of R2 be.
it was explained to me that the volume control was on the analogue side of the inbuilt digital headphone amp and controlled via ALSA which is the main output whether via the headphone socket or the phono sockets which is 2v rms output.
thanks
Quite unlikely. These RPi DAC boards usually utilize digital volume control integrated in DAC chips. Although labelled as hardware-based in an effort to distinguish them from CPU-based ALSA software mixer, you are stuck to digital domain anyway. Just check source code of kernel modules that are loaded for your DAC board and everything should be clear.
i'm pretty convinced that its a digital volume control as it can be controlled by a rotary encoder via pads on the board. also the volume is not on the DAC its built into the amplifier (headphone) chip supposedly.
question remains, would changing the value of R2 make any difference to the sound quality due to not having a conventional potentiometer between source and input?
question remains, would changing the value of R2 make any difference to the sound quality due to not having a conventional potentiometer between source and input?
TPA6133A with built-in volume control?
I removed R2s. The op-amp input impedance is much higher. But I doubt such operation has any impact on the sound quality in practice. It's a matter of taste in this case.
ooohhh almost forgot.. while i was building the boards i found a great way to put the transistors in easily. i left the middle leg as is then cut a little off the left leg then a little more off the right leg. this let me put each leg in individually making it much easier than trying to juggle all the legs at once.
once all the transistors were in i put a small alloy flat plate on on the top of them, i then turned the boards over and pushed down on the back of the board and wiggled a little to make all the transistors the same hight then secured the board to the plate with an elastic band to stop it moving about before soldering.
once all the transistors were in i put a small alloy flat plate on on the top of them, i then turned the boards over and pushed down on the back of the board and wiggled a little to make all the transistors the same hight then secured the board to the plate with an elastic band to stop it moving about before soldering.
I've found if you bend out the middle lead so that the three leads form an isosceles triangle you can normally press fit the transistors into place without having to cut the leads or anything like that. They'll even stay put when you flip over the boards to solder them.
Good tip about the rubber bands. I'll have to remember that one.
Good tip about the rubber bands. I'll have to remember that one.
took the multicap's out about a week ago and put the rike's in.. big difference
rike's have better separation of instruments but still kept in the mix, placement of instruments now goes up/down/front, openness, depth. but the biggest difference is vocals. the multicap's sound like singers are singing into a polystyrene cups compared to the rike's which just get on with making vocals sound like vocals.
the multicap's sound good if your into classical music as the mids are a bit more forward and there was very little aggression but they are not in the same league as the rike's. yes the rike's are double the price but i would say worth it.
Sapphire Mk3 is simply superb, the Mk2 were more in your face and upfront where the Mk3 are much more musical and easier to listen to so much so i cant stop listening to it. i'm listening to instruments in the mix of albums i have been listening to for 30 odd years i never even knew were there. for some strange reason the Sapphire sounds stunning with electronic music like Goa and Trance
rike's have better separation of instruments but still kept in the mix, placement of instruments now goes up/down/front, openness, depth. but the biggest difference is vocals. the multicap's sound like singers are singing into a polystyrene cups compared to the rike's which just get on with making vocals sound like vocals.
the multicap's sound good if your into classical music as the mids are a bit more forward and there was very little aggression but they are not in the same league as the rike's. yes the rike's are double the price but i would say worth it.
Sapphire Mk3 is simply superb, the Mk2 were more in your face and upfront where the Mk3 are much more musical and easier to listen to so much so i cant stop listening to it. i'm listening to instruments in the mix of albums i have been listening to for 30 odd years i never even knew were there. for some strange reason the Sapphire sounds stunning with electronic music like Goa and Trance
over here they are £24.50+vat+postage each by chance i got mine on ebay at half price.
would i buy them at full price.. yes after hearing them but they are at the same price point as the Mundorf Mcap Supreme Silver in oil. so far with the limited caps i have purchased the reviews of Humble Homemade HiFi have been spot on (the review of the S caps has been superseded by the newer ones).
would i buy them at full price.. yes after hearing them but they are at the same price point as the Mundorf Mcap Supreme Silver in oil. so far with the limited caps i have purchased the reviews of Humble Homemade HiFi have been spot on (the review of the S caps has been superseded by the newer ones).
It would be nice to hear a comparison between the Rikes and the ClarityCaps I installed in my Sapphire 3. I bought MR ClarityCaps and Mundorf ZN, both .68uf, with the intention of trying them both against the Multicaps I broke in on Sapphire 2. The ClarityCaps sounded so good they relegated the Multicaps forever to my parts bin; and I've been so happy with them I haven't yet tried the Mundorfs. And I am still running AD8610's.
Very, very happy, indeed, with Sapphire 3. Been thinking about upgrading the volume pot as RJM has on his, I don't like the stiff, large steps of the one I built.
Very, very happy, indeed, with Sapphire 3. Been thinking about upgrading the volume pot as RJM has on his, I don't like the stiff, large steps of the one I built.
Attachments
now that the Sapphire has settled down and the rike's are in place i thought i would go back and compare some op amps (i'm bored). first ones in the sockets were the opa228 and i must say they sound nice but a little edgy (oscillating?) so it was then in with the opa227 and things are sounding a lot better they seem to me to have the nice openness of the opa134 but with better top end and tighter bottom end also a lot of the S&T sibilance has vanished. i seem to be able to hear the master tape hiss on some albums more clearly as well. before with the multicaps in the opa228/227 were not nice one bit (amp still bedding in). think i'll leave the opa227 in for a week and see how it goes.
need to get some browndogs and try these AD8610 i have sitting here.. lol
need to get some browndogs and try these AD8610 i have sitting here.. lol