Author Topic: Treblid's Media Player  (Read 5036 times)

Offline treblid

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 391
  • Liked: 15
Treblid's Media Player
« on: September 04, 2010, 11:38:01 PM »
This is my media player... Basically a computer in a Silverstone HTPC case with a built in 7" touchscreen LCD, and using an Asus Essense STX with 3 Burson OpAmps.

Had a colleague do the OPA swap for me as the Burson OPA pins don't really fit that well and I have zero skills in electronics and soldering... After various experiments, he think this is the best way.. And so far so good.



Apparently changing those gold Nichicon caps to ELNA (IIRC) will change the sound with more weight in the midrange, but I have no idea how to do that... :p

This card also has it's own power input (not drawing power from the PCI-e bus I think).. But as usual the Computer PSU isn't terribly good power source. When there's a ground loop in the setup the high pitch switching noise from the PSU will creep in...   :'( In time I will try to figure out how to add a 2nd power PSU to feed this card, and see if the switching noise will leak out.



2 more OPAs at the back... Just touching the CPU heatsink..  Amazingly there is no hiss, well nothing I can hear anyway ;D...

The Operating System I'm using is Linux, playback software for now is something call XMMS (Looks like Window WinAmp)... Will try other software in time.

All my music files are stored on a NAS, the lower right black box below. Most are MP3s, but I will convert what I have now to FLACs in time.



Technically this isn't a transport as I'm using the card's DAC (the PC with a custom built kernel is the transport)...

With this card it's best to use Linux I think. As of this writing the Windows drivers is pretty sh!tty.

Still a work in progress...  So far, the verdict is - using a computer really isn't a good idea...  :D Not yet anyway..

Offline kajak12

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2468
  • Liked: 78
    • http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php
Re: Treblid's Media Player
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2010, 11:41:47 PM »
what value are the caps that your looking at swaping?
i might have some idea for you trblid
still discovering the link between electronics and audio reproduction.so much to learn and so little time

Offline treblid

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 391
  • Liked: 15
Re: Treblid's Media Player
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2010, 12:05:37 AM »
what value are the caps that your looking at swaping?
i might have some idea for you trblid
I have no idea at all  :P..  Are they written on the caps? I will try to have a look at them tomorrow and post them here.

Edit:
Oh, forgot to mention, the Linux driver for the card gave me two options

1) DAC filter - slow rolloff and sharp rolloff
2) DAC Oversampling - 64x and 128x

These features aren't available in the Windows version AFAIK, still experimentating... Too bad I can't turn them off... :(

« Last Edit: September 05, 2010, 12:12:04 AM by treblid »

Offline kajak12

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2468
  • Liked: 78
    • http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php
Re: Treblid's Media Player
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2010, 12:15:08 AM »
what value are the caps that your looking at swaping?
i might have some idea for you trblid
I have no idea at all  :P..  Are they written on the caps? I will try to have a look at them tomorrow and post them here.

Edit:
Oh, forgot to mention, the Linux driver for the card gave me two options

1) DAC filter - slow rolloff and sharp rolloff
2) DAC Oversampling - 64x and 128x

These features aren't available in the Windows version AFAIK, still experimentating... Too bad I can't turn them off... :(


they will be written on the caps something like 15uf 16v
still discovering the link between electronics and audio reproduction.so much to learn and so little time

Offline treblid

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 391
  • Liked: 15
Re: Treblid's Media Player
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2010, 12:32:34 AM »
they will be written on the caps something like 15uf 16v
Quite alot of different ones:

220uf 16V
100uf 25V
22uf 25V
47uf 25V

I think that's it.. Can I use the same values caps for all, or they must match exactly?

Offline kajak12

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2468
  • Liked: 78
    • http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php
Re: Treblid's Media Player
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2010, 02:11:58 AM »
they will be written on the caps something like 15uf 16v
Quite alot of different ones:

220uf 16V
100uf 25V
22uf 25V
47uf 25V

I think that's it.. Can I use the same values caps for all, or they must match exactly?

the voltage can be higher. the uf can be higher also and in some cases lower aswell its a matter of playing around with diffrent caps.
look for elna cerefine or panasonic fc
still discovering the link between electronics and audio reproduction.so much to learn and so little time