Home of unbiased, detailed HW reviews & mods. Where the iron meets the pad!
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.
Literally just posting some new pictures because I had a few people asking to see what this looks like with the high end discrete op-amps, so here you are! Thanks … Continue Reading Pictures of ES9038Pro DAC w/ Burson Audio V5-OPA and Orange Amplification’s discrete design!
Just a few pictures of the 95% finished ES9038Pro + Amanero DAC build and a few words on why it took so long!
I have the ES9038Pro DAC playing both DSD/DSF and the more well known, high res capable codec, FLAC. Except on this DAC it goes up to 32 bits and 384 … Continue Reading Procedure For Mounting Transformers (One of Many Ways) for ES9038Pro DAC + Amanero
Finally have the DAC OLED screen coming on and the Amanero is recognized in Windows!
Thanks to Hifiengine.com I was able to get my hands on the official service manuals and the owners manuals + every schematic!! HiFiEngine is free to register and after that … Continue Reading Sansui AU-517 Works!! (Schematics & More Inside)
