Gday All
Have had my SAKSA85 for about 3 months now and absolutely love it. Running a pair of Spendor LS3/5a, KEF Concertos and Pioneer s-910 Handles them all with ease and sound fantastic
Have been using my PC into a schiit DAC into the SAKSA. I'm considering running a conventional pre amp to run more inputs, phono pre amp, volume control and just general safety of operation.
Can anyone advise on any good experiences with pre amps and the SAKSA85
Edit: I purchase a Schiit SYS, which is a small volume control module which can switch between 2 inputs if required. I felt it dulled the sound slightly and the manner in which it controlled the volume didn't feel linear. i was often holding the volume at almost full blast for not very much sound.
Thanks in advance
Have had my SAKSA85 for about 3 months now and absolutely love it. Running a pair of Spendor LS3/5a, KEF Concertos and Pioneer s-910 Handles them all with ease and sound fantastic
Have been using my PC into a schiit DAC into the SAKSA. I'm considering running a conventional pre amp to run more inputs, phono pre amp, volume control and just general safety of operation.
Can anyone advise on any good experiences with pre amps and the SAKSA85
Edit: I purchase a Schiit SYS, which is a small volume control module which can switch between 2 inputs if required. I felt it dulled the sound slightly and the manner in which it controlled the volume didn't feel linear. i was often holding the volume at almost full blast for not very much sound.
Thanks in advance
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Hi Matthew,
Unfortunately no response from the membership on these questions.... I'm sorry.
It may be the Schiit has low output, but I suspect there is an issue there somewhere. Could you send to me a photo of your system to my email? I will look it over and try to figure out why the output is low and dulled, a good word!
Thank you for telling us you love your SAKSA! I must say it I it was the result of three previous models, Lifeforce, NAKSA 70 and then NAKSA 80, and like any developed component it's been through a few changes. You would only do all this R&D if you were slightly crazy - I'm lucky I still find audio as interesting as when I was a 12 year old building my first amp!
Cheers,
Hugh
Unfortunately no response from the membership on these questions.... I'm sorry.
It may be the Schiit has low output, but I suspect there is an issue there somewhere. Could you send to me a photo of your system to my email? I will look it over and try to figure out why the output is low and dulled, a good word!
Thank you for telling us you love your SAKSA! I must say it I it was the result of three previous models, Lifeforce, NAKSA 70 and then NAKSA 80, and like any developed component it's been through a few changes. You would only do all this R&D if you were slightly crazy - I'm lucky I still find audio as interesting as when I was a 12 year old building my first amp!
Cheers,
Hugh
When using just a potentiometer to control the volume, the quality of this pot becomes very important for sound quality, and in a product costing 50 bucks for the whole product with case and switches and everything you will not be getting a very high quality one.
Looking at the picture of the SYS board I see a fairly small potentiometer, and if you have just a reasonably revealing system (which you should have with the gear you are mentioning), I suspect this would be the cause of the slightly dulled sound.
The problem with having to crank the volume up high to get a good sound level could be a question of impedance matching through the input chain. The SYS has an input impedance of 10K and a max. output impedance of 5K- not sure if this is a problem, but someone (Hugh?) with more electronics knowledge than me will probably be able to tell.
The output of the Schiit DACs is around 2mV, which is pretty much standard, and since you did not have any issues with the DAC connected directly to the SAKSA that's probably not the issue.
You probably know this, but when using the DAC with an analogue volume control, the output from the computer to the DAC should be turned all the way up, otherwise you are trying to control the volume in two places
Cheers,
Jens
Looking at the picture of the SYS board I see a fairly small potentiometer, and if you have just a reasonably revealing system (which you should have with the gear you are mentioning), I suspect this would be the cause of the slightly dulled sound.
The problem with having to crank the volume up high to get a good sound level could be a question of impedance matching through the input chain. The SYS has an input impedance of 10K and a max. output impedance of 5K- not sure if this is a problem, but someone (Hugh?) with more electronics knowledge than me will probably be able to tell.
The output of the Schiit DACs is around 2mV, which is pretty much standard, and since you did not have any issues with the DAC connected directly to the SAKSA that's probably not the issue.
You probably know this, but when using the DAC with an analogue volume control, the output from the computer to the DAC should be turned all the way up, otherwise you are trying to control the volume in two places
Cheers,
Jens
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Matthew,
I have just looked at the schematic and original Bill of Materials for the saska85, and you may have one of the first batch that had a 1nF capacitor for C2 (the input RF filter) which is on the bottom of the PCB near the input terminals and the large central capacitor.
Later versions had this reduced to 330pF (which is what I put in mine) or 470pF.
When a 10 Kohm passive volume control is used ((like the Schiit SYS), then at half volume the source impedance is 2.5Kohm (5k//5k) and then the RF filter capacitor acts as a low pass filter and rolls off the upper frequency response. This is probably why you have a `dull' sound.
The solution is to either replace C2 with a 330pF (either np0 ceramic or polypropylene) capacitor, or use an active volume control which has a much lower source impedance (typically <100 ohms).
I'm using a Schiit Vali2+ headphone amp as a preamplifier with my amplifiers (I have 6), and it works very well considering the low price. It is also a very good headphone amp, which is why I bought it.
I have used my saska85 with a 20k passive volume control and it works fine, but then I have a 330pF polypropylene C2 capacitor. Currently my saska85 is connected to the TV and gets used every day.
As Jens suggested, make sure that the DAC is running at maximum output level. If using a PC, set it's volume to 100%.
I hope this all helps,
Regards,
Paul Bysouth
I have just looked at the schematic and original Bill of Materials for the saska85, and you may have one of the first batch that had a 1nF capacitor for C2 (the input RF filter) which is on the bottom of the PCB near the input terminals and the large central capacitor.
Later versions had this reduced to 330pF (which is what I put in mine) or 470pF.
When a 10 Kohm passive volume control is used ((like the Schiit SYS), then at half volume the source impedance is 2.5Kohm (5k//5k) and then the RF filter capacitor acts as a low pass filter and rolls off the upper frequency response. This is probably why you have a `dull' sound.
The solution is to either replace C2 with a 330pF (either np0 ceramic or polypropylene) capacitor, or use an active volume control which has a much lower source impedance (typically <100 ohms).
I'm using a Schiit Vali2+ headphone amp as a preamplifier with my amplifiers (I have 6), and it works very well considering the low price. It is also a very good headphone amp, which is why I bought it.
I have used my saska85 with a 20k passive volume control and it works fine, but then I have a 330pF polypropylene C2 capacitor. Currently my saska85 is connected to the TV and gets used every day.
As Jens suggested, make sure that the DAC is running at maximum output level. If using a PC, set it's volume to 100%.
I hope this all helps,
Regards,
Paul Bysouth
As Jens stated, the pot inside your Schiit SYS must (given its price) be pretty crap.
If you're looking for a preamp then I would suggest:
1. a tube pre would be a good combo - but with one proviso. I don't know what the SAKSA's input impedance is (Hugh doesn't seem to have added this amp to his web-site in the 5 years since he released it ) - but I would think it would be similar to the NAKSA ... so 26 or 28K.
Which means you need to be careful to choose a tube preamp which has an output impedance of no more than 1200 ohms, or so. (A lot of them have a significantly higher output impedance than this - so they only match with tube power amps ... which typically have a Zin of 100K or more.)
2. the active version of the Tortuga preamp, the Tortuga LDR300x V3 Active preamp.
Good luck!
Andy
If you're looking for a preamp then I would suggest:
1. a tube pre would be a good combo - but with one proviso. I don't know what the SAKSA's input impedance is (Hugh doesn't seem to have added this amp to his web-site in the 5 years since he released it
) - but I would think it would be similar to the NAKSA ... so 26 or 28K.Which means you need to be careful to choose a tube preamp which has an output impedance of no more than 1200 ohms, or so. (A lot of them have a significantly higher output impedance than this - so they only match with tube power amps ... which typically have a Zin of 100K or more.)
2. the active version of the Tortuga preamp, the Tortuga LDR300x V3 Active preamp.
Good luck!
Andy