Shigaraki Drive and DAC images

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#27
Better regulators

A few years ago, "The Audio Amateur" magazines published two articles on regulators.

The main point was based on the assumption that lower impedance was related to better audio quality.

So they measured chip regulators and several discrete circuits. At that time, the merits went to Sulzer's for low current and Bock/Jung for high current.

But it was interesting noting that on encapsulated types, the best were those on the 3X7 family, much superior to any 7XXX type. But there were two fixed-voltage sub-families, related to the 3X7 that measured well: LM340-X and LM320-X types.


Carlos E. Martinez
 
#31
Met with Mr. Kimura

Hello,
I was over in Kichijoji last year and decided to put and end to all the wondering about the 47 Labs brand. Is it really HiFi or all a load of snake oil?
So I rang Mr. Kimura up (with the help of an interpreter) and arranged for an appointment to hear the stuff for myself. I wanted to hear the whole range that he makes .He did indeed demonstrate the whole range to me over a bottle of beer (or three) including the Dac and PSU mentionad above.

I didn't worry much about the sound of the dac at all!

The real stand out was the sonic diferences when AB testing between the Pi tracer transport and the 4716 shigaraki transports (going thru the same DAC).
The difference was large (and also the price).Darn.

I have listened to (and serviced) a few red book players over the years and the pi tracer DAC combination was a very smooth and sweet sounding red book playing system.The high freq response had a very nice "sheen" to it (no grain at all)
I can Still remember the sound now.

The speakers on demo were the small full range models which were released last year.The whole system intergrated very well and sounded very smooth...but that Pi tracer!! (the price is just too way much for me!!)

I told him that I was interseted in audio and hinted at "making" some gear like his stuff. He said you can easlity make your on DAC (and gain clone) of course like these circuits and told me what chips he uses. He knows all about the internet goings ons" and this did not seem to phase him.He still sells the stuff.

Looking back I personally think it is something in the way that he makes the gear and and selects the components that makes his
products sound and (probably) better than a homemade one.
Slew rate, noise levels, distortion specs who knows what he is looking at?
Of course he would not comment about these specifics other than to tell me that the ceramic cases are made in a small factory near Hiroshima.
 
#32
For those who are interested, I got some more info:

The lowest visible cap is NOT the regulator cap but one of the input caps. The smoothing cap is right behind the regulator, as is the other regulator (in opposite direction of course). All the regulator caps are on the other side in the place you expect them (just follow the solder) 😉

Far more interesting are the copper planes but you should see them if you want to understand 😉

By the way, I'm still waiting to hear a version that sounds better than the Shigaraki😎
 
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