What resistor to use?

[Sagen]

Hi, I have a dac ( Henry Dac MK3 ).
I want to change the resistors on the output.
The analoge line from chip to RCA.
It have now a surfes monted resistor ( 470R ).
I list up some here, what to use for best ( clean sound without coloring and low noise ).


Audio Note Silver Tantalum.
Shinkoh Tantalum.
Charcroft Z-foil.
Holco Metal Films.
Kiwame Carbon Film.

 

[Markw4]

A good metal film should be the cleanest. However, probably the the resistor isn't the biggest problem with the dac sound quality.

Schematic is at the end of:
https://www.henryaudio.com/uploads/fact_sheet_mkII.pdf

DAC Chip data sheet shows the output resistors on page 15:
https://www.akm.com/content/dam/doc.../audio-dac/ak4430et/ak4430et-en-datasheet.pdf

 

[wlowes]

Hi, I have a dac ( Henry Dac MK3 ).
I want to change the resistors on the output.
The analoge line from chip to RCA.
It have now a surfes monted resistor ( 470R ).
I list up some here, what to use for best ( clean sound without coloring and low noise ).


Audio Note Silver Tantalum.
Shinkoh Tantalum.
Charcroft Z-foil.
Holco Metal Films.
Kiwame Carbon Film.

Of these I would bet on the Z-foil.

I tried several in an I/V resistor for DAC output.
Takman metal foil, reasonable.
Shinkoh Tantalum terrible.
Kiwame Carbon Film colored.
Amtrans Carbon. Terrible
Bulk foil - pretty good.
Finally self made manganin wonderful. The clean, clear, NO noise you seek.
I believe Rhopoint makes some commercially that you can buy although I have not used them personally.

 

[Mark Tillotson]

Any metal film should do. For surface mount that means thin-film, _not_ thick-film. Larger in size is good within reason (ie rate dissipation limit generously). If the existing resistors are large thin film SMT there's no reason to change.

 

[Max Headroom]

Of these I would bet on the Z-foil.

I tried several in an I/V resistor for DAC output.
Takman metal foil, reasonable.
Shinkoh Tantalum terrible.
Kiwame Carbon Film colored.
Amtrans Carbon. Terrible
Bulk foil - pretty good.
Finally self made manganin wonderful. The clean, clear, NO noise you seek.
I believe Rhopoint makes some commercially that you can buy although I have not used them personally.

More details please....what do you mean by terrible, and could you describe the diy Manganin resistors please.


Thanks, Dan.

 

[wlowes]

More details please....what do you mean by terrible, and could you describe the diy Manganin resistors please.


Thanks, Dan.

It has been a while, but from memory I'd say the sound was distorted. Kind of smeared/fuzzy. I was disappointed because I had read that the original AN resistors were special, so I had high hopes. But not in that application for me.
I was actually surprised that there was any difference in sound based on resistors, but in certain applications, I now believe there is more to be gained from resistor selection than from capacitors.
In the old blog section, I described the Manganin resistor creation. Let me know if that answers your question.
2013 Holiday Projects - Ridding the system of resistor problems - diyAudio

 

[Max Headroom]

It has been a while, but from memory I'd say the sound was distorted. Kind of smeared/fuzzy. I was disappointed because I had read that the original AN resistors were special, so I had high hopes. But not in that application for me.

Ok thanks.

I was actually surprised that there was any difference in sound based on resistors, but in certain applications, I now believe there is more to be gained from resistor selection than from capacitors.

Agreed that resistors 'sound' more than is generally accepted.
I run 75R coax as speaker cables with 75R terminating (shunt) resistors at each end and have compared MF to CF in this application.
The MF sound clear and benign, I found the CF sounded quite coloured, 'warm' sounding but definitely coloured and slightly 'dirty'.

Standard theory would have us believe that there should be no audible difference however I found the differences to be clearly audible with the MF resistors much preferable.

In the old blog section, I described the Manganin resistor creation. Let me know if that answers your question.
2013 Holiday Projects - Ridding the system of resistor problems - diyAudio

Glad you had such success !.
BTW the second photo in the blog does not expand, ie stays as thumbnail.


Dan.

 

[Sagen]

Markw4: As you say the resistor would not do miricals ( :

New dac will do a better job.