On Rawls visit last week, he gave me a useful tip. He was peering into the dac, looking at the changes I had made, and I could see the cogs cranking away, and then he came out with the tip to try.
The way I had run the i2s wires from input sockets to receiver chip socket on the dac board could be improved. I had run twisted pairs from each socket around the top of the case, and down into the dac board. At the dacboard end I had twisted the ground wires together and plugged them into the dac board. (did all this with Steven)
Here's how it was.....
You can see the i2s sockets in the top middle, the wires running up, then they pop out on the right going into the dac board.
What Rawl suggested was;
- dont run twisted pairs
- only use 1 ground (from the 3 x sockets, because they are already joined at the transport end)
- take them direct from input sockets to the dac board in free air across, dont run them around the outside.
I dont have alot of time for tuning/tinkering activities, my days/nights are consumed doing other things. But I happened to fall out of bed an hour early this morning, and decided to try his change.
Here is how it looks now,,,,,,
The picture is a bit of an optical illusion. The i2s wires are not as close to the tubes, as they look in that photo. They are a good couple of inches away.
Everything still works. Is it better? yeah, in the usual i2s way, more coherency and clarity.
Thanks Rawl !