The digital equivalent of rolling a new cartridge...

[jbeckva]

This is how us'n sophisticated deegetal folks "roll a new cartridge"...

First we get the Xonar out of the 'puter...



Take the black shield off with four screws in the back... old "bugs" are LM4562's...



Swap out the "bugs" (2 I to V converters, 1 buffer), and reverse the steps...

Now we're sporting BB OPA2134's! Gotta say I like that sound! Little more bass, lil warmer...

 

[laatsch55]

Looks like they had good caps to begin with.

 

[jbeckva]

Looks like they had good caps to begin with.

Eh?? I didn't replace the caps - was the op amps. The caps you see are what comes with it.. Nichicon FG's. The amps are socketed, as ASUS figured people would want to swap them in and out.

 

[BlazeES]

I like this kind of stuff!

 

[Gepetto]

Too bad this has to sit in a crappy PC environment with all that noise running around

 

[jbeckva]

Too bad this has to sit in a crappy PC environment with all that noise running around

Get yourself one, then connect it direct without a preamp and I guarantee you will change your tune. It has a 124db snr with a direct connection to the power supply

 

[Gepetto]

Perhaps one of these days Jer. I do very much like your choice of op amps for this upgrade. The OPA 134 series that you used is the best in my book.

 

[laatsch55]

Eh?? I didn't replace the caps - was the op amps. The caps you see are what comes with it.. Nichicon FG's. The amps are socketed, as ASUS figured people would want to swap them in and out.

I did not think you had swapped the caps. There is nowhere in your monologue mentioning any thing about caps. I just noticed that it came with pretty good caps to begin with....

 

[jbeckva]

I did not think you had swapped the caps. There is nowhere in your monologue mentioning any thing about caps. I just noticed that it came with pretty good caps to begin with....

Yah it does. It also comes with a nice specs/test report done up in parchment paper and all that...

Yeah Joe... they did a real good job of EMI shielding on it. On the power connector look very closely at the pics above - on the right top side is a full PC power connector socket. It doesn't take it's power from the PCI bus.

Might have to get some other amps to try tho.... these guys at head-fi.org did a real good writeup on the various combinations...

http://www.head-fi.org/t/421890/the-xonar-essence-stx-q-a-tweaking-impressions-thread

 

[Rat44]

Wonder how an ESI Juli@ compares to the Xonar ?
I was getting ready to spring for one of the Asus when somebody made me a good deal on a Juli@.