Asr Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 I was going to post these pics on the other site but this is probably a better site to post these pics on. At a Colorado 7/26/08 meet that I organized, Mikhail traded me a Square Wave w/ DAC for the previous non-DAC one that I had. (It had developed a few problems.) Yay for free upgrade, except when I took it home and used it in DAC mode the next day after the meet there was pretty much no bass. I mean literally. It seemed like everything from 200Hz down was just plain not there. I even compared with a HeadAmp Pico to make sure the problem wasn't with the computer or some other such setting. I asked Filburt and he said this is probably due to the coupling caps. I'll let the pics do the talking:
tkam Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 Did Mikhail give you any info on the dac? I think it's a great idea to do the whole amp/dac combo.
Asr Posted August 8, 2008 Author Report Posted August 8, 2008 No, and I neglected to ask, but it's shown up there in the first pic. I'm sure someone here can offer some input on it. I have no idea if it's a good DAC or not. But from what I can tell from the frequencies above 200Hz, it's at least decent-sounding. The lack of bass makes it impossible to critically listen tho.
n_maher Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 Hmmm, it's pretty hard to screw up the output coupling cap of a DAC to act as a high pass filter unless the input impedance of the next stage is really low. At least in my limited knowledge world it seems like it should be.
Asr Posted August 8, 2008 Author Report Posted August 8, 2008 Well if there's anyone here (or elsewhere, that someone might know of) that could fix my no-bass issue, I'd like to get it fixed. Will pay for time/effort and return shipping of course. I could send it back to Mikhail of course but I'd rather not do that unless necessary.
kevin gilmore Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 Assuming the 8 pin chip next to the uac3553b is an eeprom, it holds all of the configuration data. Some of that data includes the dynamic bass configuration stuff. So likely the eeprom got zotched and needs to be reprogrammed. The dac board does not look like mikhail's work, so you need to figure out who made it and see if it is upgradable or configurable over the usb port. (highly likely it is with proper software) Its the Xitel board, and software is available under non-disclosure...
purk Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 I was going to post these pics on the other site but this is probably a better site to post these pics on. At a Colorado 7/26/08 meet that I organized, Mikhail traded me a Square Wave w/ DAC for the previous non-DAC one that I had. (It had developed a few problems.) Yay for free upgrade, except when I took it home and used it in DAC mode the next day after the meet there was pretty much no bass. I mean literally. It seemed like everything from 200Hz down was just plain not there. I even compared with a HeadAmp Pico to make sure the problem wasn't with the computer or some other such setting. I asked Filburt and he said this is probably due to the coupling caps. I'll let the pics do the talking: I had the same problem with that DAC as well. It was bright and thin when Mikhail let me on loan for 3 weeks. The amp itself sounds pretty good but using internal dac doesn't produce a good result in my experience.
n_maher Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 Who doesn't notice something like this before they send it out?
909 Posted August 8, 2008 Report Posted August 8, 2008 - Mikhail - he sent me some NOS tubes back in the day, half were bad and I mean really bad.
CD44hi Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Same here. I had a squarewave/DAC combo over a period of two weeks back in March '07. I could never figure out if I had a defective unit in terms of the DAC or what. Agree with purk, at least in the unit I heard, it sounded thin.
tkam Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Looks to me like the "dac" is this ripped out of its case and stuffed in the squarewave.
jp11801 Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 you have got to be shitting me a $50 dac in that amp
n_maher Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 sure looks like it, you can see in one of asr's pictures where the name is (Xitel) and it seems like the part profile for the mini jack is on the end with the green wires. Steve, could we get a straight down shot of the DAC board? And john, he throws away the enclosure so it's probably only worth $40 then.
purk Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 l actually told mikhail to omit the dac out of the sq. wave after i heard it a year ago. The dac in sq. wave was not even as good as the Corda Aria. OTOH, the balanced sq. wave was right there with the best of HR offerings. Of course, the beta22 is my current favorite among SS amps.
tkam Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Well I still think having the dac as an option is a good idea but it'd be nice if he used something that's not a piece of shit.
CD44hi Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Well I still think having the dac as an option is a good idea but it'd be nice if he used something that's not a piece of shit. agreed!
PFKMan23 Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Well I still think having the dac as an option is a good idea but it'd be nice if he used something that's not a piece of shit. tkam made a funny!!
lostonetr Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 howz much this DAC normally cost as an upgrade with SP?
deepak Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 howz much this DAC normally cost as an upgrade with SP? $19000
lostonetr Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 lol right? Or was that serious? with SP, I can't quite tell.
Doctor Pork Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 If the DAC of this thing struggles to compete with the Aria DAC, I hope that he don't charge much money for this "upgrade" as the Aria DAC essentially was a bonus thrown in for free. Given the anemic and lifeless sound of that DAC, it certainly feels good knowing that I didn't pay extra for it back then. Atleast the sound was clean if that is much of a compliment...
aerius Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 Looks to me like the "dac" is this ripped out of its case and stuffed in the squarewave. Great. It's nice to know that he's taking a page out of the RSA how-to manual.
riceboy Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 - Mikhail - he sent me some NOS tubes back in the day, half were bad and I mean really bad. I know this is off the subject of the Squarewave, but I just did order two NOS tubes from Mikhail and one of them was missing the black locator base . He is sending replacements, but I was pretty bummed after waiting like a month to get them
Dusty Chalk Posted August 9, 2008 Report Posted August 9, 2008 howz much this DAC normally cost as an upgrade with SP?Did you not read the thread? There was a post that said it was probably from a $50 DAC.
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