Home of unbiased, detailed HW reviews & mods. Where the iron meets the pad!
Well I currently have about 8 pages written of notes, thoughts on head to head Burson Play vs my custom ES9038Pro DAC. In the end it ended up … Continue Reading Apologies to the Neighbors (Burson Audio’s DAC Testing Reached 100.00dB max!!)
This single loose solder ball (could have fallen inside the enclosure at any point) might explain all the problems I had with getting the DAC to lock on … Continue Reading Ran Down (1st) ES9038PRO DAC main cause of the NLOCK | Stuck on Screen Issue w/ No Output! (~ 4 months of troubleshooting show me, it was not the dedicated TCXO clock module): Persistence Pays, this might work again!
After much delay, I was able to go and pick up the Burson Play DAC today. Included was an entire set of both the V6-OPA-D Vivid + V6-OPA-S Vivid and … Continue Reading Burson Play DAC Arrives
First off, I wanted to let everyone know that I plan to publish part 1 tomorrow night/Sunday morning instead of tonight. This was mainly because of the amount of time … Continue Reading Amanero: Upgrading Sanyo Oscon to Vishay BC capacitors | 1x SS3602 Sparkos Goes To Sparks, Literally
I have to say that solving the mystery of this hardware arrangement was both hilarious and extremely frustrating. Trying to catch one of 6 pins being rearranged is easy to … Continue Reading We Have Finally Cracked the Nut! Native DSD Decoding over I2S Up and Running! (A Preview In Photos included)
Here is a sneak peak at my reference DAC for all of the upcoming op-amp reviews. The Asian holiday really put a delay in this, but as always the hardware … Continue Reading The ES9038Pro DAC Returns! Expect Part 1 of Discrete Op-Amp Review by 3/10/18 (Saturday night)
I had to wait for the Asian holiday to end (Feb 22nd) for the seller to ship out a replacement ES9038Pro completed DAC, in the enclosure with dual toroidal transformers. … Continue Reading Replacement ES9038Pro DAC Now In Route!
As I mentioned in the previous article, I will use EBay as a vintage or high end/HiFi electronic components supplier when I see a deal. I have bought many … Continue Reading Precision Resistors Lot : Over 12,000 Dale & Vishay RN55C Military Spec Resistors! An EBay Treasure Chest
I am working on uploading a video for this common question I see in chat rooms on IRC and on forums in DIY. The big things to remember when … Continue Reading Making Custom I2S Cables
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 … Continue Reading Revived The Amanero! + Close Up of Uncapped Crystek CCHD-575 Oscillator!
Update 1/25: I realized after reading my own article and the quotes from Kimber cables that I had wired up my setup incorrectly. Kimber has one conductor carrying the … Continue Reading Kimber “Kables” Testing At Hallman Labs: The Skin Effect (Signal Freq vs. Conductor Gauge) & Cryo “HiFi Fuses”! (Update 1/25/18)
Update 1/21/18: I wanted to let everyone know how impressed I have been with this unit by just using the stock 5532 op-amps with this Douglas Self based circuit design. … Continue Reading DAC Accessory: XLR In -> RCA Out (Ckt Based on D. Self Design) Updated 1/22
I have a complete build video for this, but I wanted to go ahead and share what the working product looks like. It doesn’t make a ton of sound using … Continue Reading Video of DIY Plasma Speaker
In the photo below we have 4x Burson Audio V5-OPA-D, 4x Burson Audio V5-OPA-S, 3x V6-OPA-D “Vivid” along with two Orange Amplification discrete (Dual-DIP). Two of the V6-OPA-D casings lifted … Continue Reading Discrete Op-Amp Review, Prelude: Photos of Review Hardware (Burson V6-OPA-D “Vivid” Unskirted)
A quick look at Hallman Labs collection of DAC accessories or add-ons. Part 1
Quick shot of the ES9038P DAC up and running using optical output from the Creative ZXr to the ES9038 Optical Input.
