petng Posted October 12, 2021 Author Posted October 12, 2021 Just got my Dac back yesterday . A big shout out to Bryan who did an excellent job on the mods. The dac internally looks factory fresh. Had a listen yesterday after a 12 hr burn in. To be honest the sound is very underwhelming atm. But that is be expected. A full transplant of resistors, caps, digital cable, power cable and iec will need a few weeks to settle in. Bryan expressed the the niobium’s will be the longest to burn in. Can’t wait for the burn in period to finish!!!! 1 1
ICUToo Posted October 12, 2021 Posted October 12, 2021 Thanks for the photo story- keep us updated on the sound 1
petng Posted October 25, 2021 Author Posted October 25, 2021 Hello Gav Good to hear from you. Its been a long and rocky road with the upgraded dac. The first day I got the dac back it sounded really muffled and diffused. Over the next 7 days, the dac improved but i could not stand to listen to it for more than 10 mins. Something sounded off. Main culprit was a lack of ease to the music and mostly the bass sounded held back. Spoke to Byran who assured me that my experience correlated to his experience. According to Bryan he did similar mods to a Oto amp and when he first fired up the amp he thought he wired something incorrectly for it sounded out of phase. From what Bryan and what i have read on the net, it will take another 2 weeks of 24/7 with signal for the dac properly burn in. Atm i am listening to the dac briefly at night via Lumin U1, Riveria AIC 10 headphone amp and Grado GS3000e. The dac has not wowed me yet. For someone who has never heard of my dac, they would probably be quite impressed with its current sound. But i have had this dac for over 5 years and know it very well. Am looking forward to fast forward 2 weeks to hear the results. Stay tuned. 2
gavtron Posted October 28, 2021 Posted October 28, 2021 @petng - I know how many totl ones you've had / listened to over the years so I'm guessing this upgrade will be pretty special!
PKay Posted October 28, 2021 Posted October 28, 2021 (edited) On 29/09/2021 at 8:31 PM, petng said: Thanks mate. The work was not done by myself. It’s the work of Audionote importer Bryan Fletcher . No wonder it looks so good - Bryan does great work. I hope further burn in improves the sound, if it doesn't you could send it back to Bryan for a quick check. Edited October 28, 2021 by PKay 1
muon* Posted October 29, 2021 Posted October 29, 2021 No doubt Bryan would sort it if there is an issue, but feel he's spot on with it needing more run time. I'm a little curious of the niobium resistors, I may need to try some at some point. 1
petng Posted November 4, 2021 Author Posted November 4, 2021 Happy to report that the Dac with more than 500 hrs on it has opened up beautifully. The bass no longer sound shunted. Around 350 hrs i did feel the upper mids was a bit aggressive, but now has tamed down to a point where it just has a bit of forwardness to the sound which makes it such an exciting listen. Overall the dac really excels in communicating music. All the details, bass etc are there but it all sounds so natural. At this point i m very happy with how the mods has increased the quality of an already outstanding dac. I still feel that the dac has not fully broken in yet. Any improvements from now is pure bonus. Thumbs up to Bryan for his patience and great expertise. 6 3
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