I didn’t record this soldering job because I was not expecting this to go well. I had one of my oscillator sockets (only socket without an oscillator) get destroyed between 3 different configurations I tried to do to fix a missing pad. I eventually gave up on any SMD working because one of the 4 pads was almost completely gone.

Below is a picture of the Amanero once I had the oscillator socket back in place.

Picture of the revived Amanero with all three oscillator sockets in place

Here is the shot of the underside where you can see two of the doughnut solder pad are gone on the back side so I had to solder 2 on the back and 2 on the front side. This is why you can see a soldering gap/burn made to one of the 4 legs on the top side picture.

Shot of the underside of the Amanero. I had to use Flux to get solder to flow down the legs without pads.

This process took me about 25 minutes because I was trying to be as careful as possible. This unit was about to become unusable if I couldn’t get the socket to make connection. Luckily the flux on the back side allowing the solder to work its way down the legs without pads making a connection from one side of the PCB to the other! Here is the Crystek CCHD-575 with the cover removed.

Close up of what was left of the CCHD-575 after multiple install attempts and a removal. It might still be okay.

 

Lets go a little closer!!

 

Crystek CCHD-575 Delidded Microscope View Illustrated
Using my 3.6MP 600x Microscope, I notice that you can make connection with the pads at the top too! So I may be able to use this guy after all.

 

I will have both a full size TCXO 22.5792 MHz oscillator and a clone of the Amanero module I already have shown here. So I am going to replace the Sanyo OScon (the purple capacitors in the photos above) with some Vishay BC capacitors of the same value. This will allow me to compare these mods on the Amanero for others to know.

Shucks, I just noticed in the picture below I lost one of the pads in all of the attempts at making a connection to get this thing going again and avoid delaying my reviews. Sadly that didn’t work, but putting another socket back in did! These oscillator sockets really are bad ass.

20180123_2001171666040502.jpg
Flip side of the Crystek CCHD-575 showing the logo and the fact a pad is lifted so unless that happens to be the NC (no connection) pad, this guy is probably dead.

 

I am just happy I still have this Amanero in the game to compare against another Amanero and an XMOS unit too! It’s going to be quite the DSD shoot out! Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

One thought on “Revived The Amanero! + Close Up of Uncapped Crystek CCHD-575 Oscillator!”

  • Mariusz

    I’m interested in this Chinese Amanero, how do you rate it, is it worth buying?

    Is there a big improvement in the sound quality after the upgrade of the oscillators?

    Reply

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