Hi,
I finished the testing of the voltage regulators in a bad way
First of all my results to the ldovr 3045 is kind of similar to what was already reported: it seems like the 3045 has more definition and feels kind of more precise or sounds kind of faster (for a lack of better words)
But
The trade off is definitely imaging, the soundstage collapses a bit and all in all I would give the favor to the lf50 for most of the songs I listened to.
Now to the bad part: as I wanted to try some other voltage regulators 50cent to 45€ I must have made a mistake and fried something (probably when connecting one of the 1117 sparkos labs regulator which has a different output pin design but I couldn’t reconstruct my failure
Fact is I now have only about 6ohm resistance between ground and the lf50 out connection and when I connect the lf50 in a regular way it heats up and shuts off so I guess I fried the 74vhct244
Any tips on what to do now? Desoldering the chip seems not like an easy task but with 4decks swapping the mainboard isn’t done easy either as my soldering equipment and skills don’t reach into the smd and desoldering regions ^^
I still hope it’s just a resistor or a cap I fried but I’m kind of getting desperate here
TLDR: lf50 > 3045 and be careful mixing different regulator models
Yoy are probably right. I removed LT-3045 and put in the LF-50 reg.
It doesn’t take long to hear the difference. LT-3045 have more punchy/tighter bass and maybe more clarity and detail, but it comes with a price it seems. On good recordings everything is fine, but when playing my favourite artists I have to turn down the volume after a while when the listening fatigue set in.
I have had some time wondering about what could be wrong this last weeks, and the reason is that a new preamp arrive, and different upgrades in dddac have been done. The sound was not bad at all, but is now more the way that I like it with LF-50 back in place.
LT-3045 measure better than LF-50, but i remeber reading about some sort of feedback in the Ldovr version, and maybe this is the reason I like LF-50 better ?
I feel some explanation is needed according LT-3045 and why I like it and recommend it to other members a while ago. When I replace LF-50 with LT-3045 my dddac that time had WaveIo and I was quite impressed, but after Ian’s FifoPi with Accusilicon clocks was installed it seems that this is not a good match against LT-3045. FifoPi is much better than WaveIo alone, and in my setup this combination of LT-3045 and FifoPi is leaning forward to a more clean or analytic sound. LF-50 is more forgiving and warmer I think. I will not switch back to LT-3045 as my setup is now.
But this is in my setup, and others can possibly live happy with LT-3045.
But this is in my setup, and others can possibly live happy with LT-3045.
Just to be clear on the matter, it is only the LF50/LT3045 on the mainboard, not the ones on the dacdecks?
In my case,yes. I will keep the 3045 on the dac boards. Best sound so far after putting LF-50 back on place (5v i2s mainboard).
LT-3045 - WaveIo is a very good combo.
LT-3045 - WaveIo - FifoPi not good, to much detail and a bit to tight all over.
LF-50 - WaveIo - FifoPi, best so far, more natural. In fact it sounds so good that I’m not shure that I will go for LifePo on 3.3vdc - FifoPi.
LT-3045 - WaveIo is a very good combo.
LT-3045 - WaveIo - FifoPi not good, to much detail and a bit to tight all over.
LF-50 - WaveIo - FifoPi, best so far, more natural. In fact it sounds so good that I’m not shure that I will go for LifePo on 3.3vdc - FifoPi.
I have to disagree with you Smoothdancer.
I tried your suggestions on both the Allo Kali and the LT-3045 regulator. Both of them is a step in the wrong direction for me.
So to my ears, LT-50 is better with only WaveIo also.
I very much like that you try things out, but I would suggest you listen longer before making conclusion.
Keep up the good work
I think we are in the same ballpark. Both of us have ditched the Kali and LT-3045 for the same reasons. It just takes some listening to get it.
I just made a SS amplifier which blew me away at first, and slowly the listening fatigue crept up on me.
Your musical affairs loudspeakers will perform better with a nice tube amplifier, also in the bass section.
Neurochrome?
Had a whatsbestforum guy over from London during last weekend and he had an interesting view; if you use high damping factor ss amps on very powerful compression drivers, they tend to be overdamped and loose their natural decay and timbre and sound lifeless
my experience tells me the same...
sry for off topic....
Well, that might also explain why my TUMOS concept sounds so well/natural on Marco's (from Audio-Creative) horn set…
oopsss, now I did it as well (sry for off topic....)
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