The F5 has high input impedance, so you should be able to drive it with almost anything, but to you question regarding sound quality of soundcards, you would probably get more educated answers in the computer source section.😉
I tried driving F5 with my soundcard but i couldnt get good sound.It needs preamp or buffer.I will write there too.
I have the emu 0404, probably same output stage and it drives the F5 just fine. Is your sound distorted to too low. If distorted, try to play around with all the different volume settings on your sound-card and pc.
I use the same card myself. It is able to drive the f5 to max output if set to 4db in the i/o control panel. It works without any issues, but the amp clearly points out the entry level source. The difference between this card and the buffalo is pretty staggering.
My card is modded with black gates and opamps. Much better than stock, but easily beaten by a good dac. As long as the source is able to push about 5 volts, it should be fine. Most pro cards will do 4v no problem.
You can tweak the gain on the F5 by increasing the value of the feedback resistors, but you have to re-bias the amplifier etc., etc. and the distortion will be different.
ok i will try.and one question.If i increase the gain does input and output impedance changes ? thanks
In the past i did not know +4db of the card and i could not get high power from F5 amp.The soundcard was distorting.I changed njm opamps with lm4562.The specifications of card is very good and you say that a good dac can beat it.How ? I see that most dacs does not have as good specification as emu1212m.I think i will use elna silmic 2 to mod capacitors.Is it worth to do?Can you show me your mod on another topic or email me the pictures?thank you
I use the Buffalo (version 1). The version 2 is even better, supposedly, but a little too $$$ for me.
1212m uses a CS4398 - by any standards, easily beaten by PCM179xx, Sabre and Sabre32. A friend recently compared a Essence STX (PCM1792 and stuffed with exotics) and it beat out the 1212m pretty easily.
With most amplifiers, the difference is very small but with the F5, it becomes really easy to spot which card is playing. The +4dB is set from the I/O control, not in the front mixer page - it will distort if you push the sliders to +4dB. Leave the mixer at default levels, and use the monitor control for volume. For further discussion, email me - I'll send along the pictures in a few days - will have to dismantle the entire audio rack to pull out the PC.
1212m uses a CS4398 - by any standards, easily beaten by PCM179xx, Sabre and Sabre32. A friend recently compared a Essence STX (PCM1792 and stuffed with exotics) and it beat out the 1212m pretty easily.
With most amplifiers, the difference is very small but with the F5, it becomes really easy to spot which card is playing. The +4dB is set from the I/O control, not in the front mixer page - it will distort if you push the sliders to +4dB. Leave the mixer at default levels, and use the monitor control for volume. For further discussion, email me - I'll send along the pictures in a few days - will have to dismantle the entire audio rack to pull out the PC.
my notebooks sound card is internal Realtek HDMI Output.Is it better than emu1212m? maybe can have a better chip?
umut1001, could you describe what the problem is? There is nothing wrong with a stock emu1212m sound card and it should be able to play just fine. It may however not sound as good as a nice cd-player, but you need to tell us whats wrong. The suggestions you have gotten are probably fine for some cases, but thats a lot of time wasted if your problem is just a driver or settings issue...
hi.It is card problem and i will write to another topic.thanks
this is thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/158598-emu1212m-prodgy-hd2-output.html#post2047807
Last edited:
Balanced input F5 ??
Could someone take a look at this mod and comment?
I have a balanced source and would like to feed it to the F5.
Could someone take a look at this mod and comment?
I have a balanced source and would like to feed it to the F5.
Attachments
Last edited:
...but you get to build two nifty F5s per channel, and even reduce the B+ and bridge them for significantly more output power...
_-_-bear
_-_-bear
^^^
Has anyone built a balanced F5 ? Bridged ? Will this help with the gain . Bridged means 4 times the output correct ? .....Please do expound
Has anyone built a balanced F5 ? Bridged ? Will this help with the gain . Bridged means 4 times the output correct ? .....Please do expound
You can easily build a balanced F5 with dual diff pairs.
Who wants the glory of posting the schematic?
😎
Who wants the glory of posting the schematic?
😎
