insomniac
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Post by insomniac on Dec 26, 2009 16:22:43 GMT
I dunno Chris, I think mine is quite an early Sun? You know, it's "still" in the NG-27 and I'm still listening to it..... I thought it would be a case of a quick listen and back to the Aune but, nope.... looks like the NG-27 is going to stay hooked up for a good few weeks. The soundstage is not as "expansive" as the Aune but that is not a bad thing.... the Sun / NG-27 combo is a very intimate listen and there's definitely something magical about it, albeit on a small "personal" scale.... maybe it's the glow of the Sun that's drawing me in (you just can't help looking at it can you?) or maybe it's the nice organic "tone" that's doing it..... whatever it is, I like it. Mike, I think you have one of the first V2 Sun's going by the fat teflon earth wire in the pics. The current model has a lighter gauge wire with an eyelet soldered on the end and of course Zeners in place of the LED's. There shouldn't be much sonic difference between the two but the Zener type won't pop an LED (or four), and die prematurely. Would you like a new type one sent over for comparison?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2009 17:17:37 GMT
The 12v 500ma smps wall wart that comes with it and a 12v 500ma transformer style wall wart (still not sure if I can hear a difference).
When I can lay my hands on a higher rated jobby I'll give it a go again with the Sunv2. (NG27 is marked 12-18v).
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Post by PinkFloyd on Dec 26, 2009 22:39:33 GMT
I dunno Chris, I think mine is quite an early Sun? You know, it's "still" in the NG-27 and I'm still listening to it..... I thought it would be a case of a quick listen and back to the Aune but, nope.... looks like the NG-27 is going to stay hooked up for a good few weeks. The soundstage is not as "expansive" as the Aune but that is not a bad thing.... the Sun / NG-27 combo is a very intimate listen and there's definitely something magical about it, albeit on a small "personal" scale.... maybe it's the glow of the Sun that's drawing me in (you just can't help looking at it can you?) or maybe it's the nice organic "tone" that's doing it..... whatever it is, I like it. Mike, I think you have one of the first V2 Sun's going by the fat teflon earth wire in the pics. The current model has a lighter gauge wire with an eyelet soldered on the end and of course Zeners in place of the LED's. There shouldn't be much sonic difference between the two but the Zener type won't pop an LED (or four), and die prematurely. Would you like a new type one sent over for comparison? Dave, I'm fine thanks...... the Sun I have is excellent and the LED's appear to be holding out ..... I'll try the earth, moon and sun out in a more suitable "doner" amp soon
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2010 23:00:42 GMT
For anyone who may be interested, there is now a MkII version of this very handy little DAC/amp. I still use my MkI with great frequency as a partner to the laptop. Although not a true battery powered portable, it is small enough to travel with the laptop, so when you set up anywhere with mains available it's great. As far as I can tell, without the aid of the MkI spec., it now has a power switch, RCA line out and is a tad prettier thanks to a new front panel. I'm not sure if any of the important circuitry has changed.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 13, 2010 23:08:34 GMT
For anyone who may be interested, there is now a MkII version of this very handy little DAC/amp. I still use my MkI with great frequency as a partner to the laptop. Although not a true battery powered portable, it is small enough to travel with the laptop, so when you set up anywhere with mains available it's great. As far as I can tell, without the aid of the MkI spec., it now has a power switch, RCA line out and is a tad prettier thanks to a new front panel. I'm not sure if any of the important circuitry has changed. Mostly cosmetic Chris... yours has stacked buffers (Buf 634)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2011 17:56:16 GMT
You know what it's like when you do some of these mods, though you think it sounds better, you'd like some REAL confirmation that what has been done is a true improvement. To this end, a colleague who had also purchased a NG27 a while ago decided he wanted to do the extra cap and stacked buffers mods. This gave us the chance to compare his standard-to-capmod-to-buffer-mod against mine complete. Firstly his standard against mine, was noticeably anaeminc in comparison and a little scratchy when the going got tough. Popped in the extra cap, in this case an Elna Silmic (his choice) and left it cooking for a couple of days. On return the anaemia had definitely been sorted, the sense weight and power had blossomed. There was still a lack of flow and "easiness" compared to mine, and the bass notes seemed just a snadge flabby. Today we stacked the buffers, only a couple of hours of burn later and the bass sounds much closer to mine, more noticeably the music is flowing better, with note and instrument definition improved. There remains a difference between the two units, could be gap in burn in time (mine has had months of burn in after modding) or even the different cap used this time around. His has slightly more bass "thump" and is a snadge warmer, whereas mine seems a bit more nimble and I prefer it's less warm tone, I'd call sweeter and more accurate Source was via laptop using varying quality of files and cans used were; Sennheiser HD560ovII, PX200, Porta Pros ( first time I've heard those) and Grado SR80i ( yewk, deffo not for me). I doubt I'll get to hear these two side by side again as said colleague is off home to Valencia as I write. PS I had another squint at the MKII version now up for sale, the board has had a reshuffle and I think the buffers have gone?
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Post by andrewr05 on Aug 11, 2012 16:59:50 GMT
Not really sure why this thread died out (and yes I realize it is over a year old), it was going really well.
I just read through the whole thing and was wondering if anyone ever did any direct comparisons between this and the MKII model?
I just recently picked one of these up and I believe I have the newer version as it says 'NG27 2011'.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2012 18:58:53 GMT
As far as I know no one else here has the lookmkII. Plus only 2 mki users. I still use my mki with a pinkie PSU added, very worthwhile along with the other mods you have read about. The ball is firmly in your court as until you revived the thread it had died a natural death
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Post by andrewr05 on Aug 12, 2012 2:43:17 GMT
Well once I receive it I'll give it a whirl and see what I think.
I'm new to headphone amps so we'll see what happens.
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Post by andrewr05 on Aug 20, 2012 12:39:27 GMT
Got this all set-up last night, I'm a terrible audiophile but I definitely think this amp is driving these MDRZX700s A LOT better than my onboard soundcard. It sounds a little shrill but there is definitely more midrange presence it feels like, these aren't overly bassy headphones anyways but it feels like they're giving a bit more ooomph in lowrange too. ?? It seems like this amp could VERY easily destroy these headphones though, the volume knob is maybe 1/16th of the way up and I don't think I'd ever have a need to go beyond this. Headphones are only a week old too, I wanna go easy on them and see if they wear in a bit. I definitely see why people say you should get aftermarket cups for these though, I have rather large ears and they barely reach my head and put quite a bit of pressure on the cartilage of my lower ear. So far so good though, I'd definitely recommend picking up one of these new ones to tinker around with.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 0:39:06 GMT
They are decent little units, especially for the size & price. Try messing with the volumes of the pc and the 27. I found it best for my ears to adjust the pc volume so that the 27 is always in the one through to three oclock range.
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Post by andrewr05 on Aug 22, 2012 16:48:10 GMT
I'd prefer to leave the volume in Windows at 100 and have the amplifiers knob be set low. I have no doubts whatsoever that this amp could blow these drivers if it were even at the 50% setting and Windows accidentally reset to full volume. However I'll give it a shot and see if the sound changes signifficantly on my unit. This unit doesn't seem to put out much heat either, even from an extended 5 houre use last night. A little warm on the edges but not bothersome. So far so good.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 22:17:45 GMT
That's the best thing to do, but you really need to find a way to modify the amplifier to have less gain. You are throwing away a lot of signal to noise ratio, and best performance. Alex
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 22:40:10 GMT
Alex,
If you could shine some light on how to do that I'm all ears! Mike posted a bunch of close ups on the first page of this thread.
To explain my findings on volume control usage, I, like Andrew, found the 27 a tad shouty with the pc on full vol. A few notches down and the 27 turned up but not near full, seems a good compromise.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 22:52:27 GMT
Alex, If you could shine some light on how to do that I'm all ears! Mike posted a bunch of close ups on the first page of this thread. To explain my findings on volume control usage, I, like Andrew, found the 27 a tad shouty with the pc on full vol. A few notches down and the 27 turned up but not near full, seems a good compromise. Hi Chris Unlike Frans and Leo who are very good at working things out from detailed photos, I would need to see some kind of schematic. Kind Regards Alex
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 22:58:09 GMT
As Alex says, adjusting the volume on a 16bit device reduces resolution, 1bit per every 6dB. If you apply a 12dB attenuation you are left with a 14bit system. This would not so bad in case you had a 24bit (or better) deivce as there will still be plenty DNR left. As you now have JRiver, until you figure how to reduce output level or gain of the amp I'd recommend you leave Windows volume at 100% and use the app to adjust the volume. It performs al calculations at 64bit and then applies dither to reduce output to 16bit. There will be still be some loss but slightly lower than using DirectSound's way. You can find it by click the speaker icon beneath the play/pause icon, select internal.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 23:16:43 GMT
Chris The 1st internal photo from Mike shows an OPA2134, and 2 x BUF634P which are just output buffers. If I had to hazard a guess, perhaps the gain MAY be set by the ratio of the 1K and 4.7K resistors you can see. There should be 2 lots if I am correct. IF I am correct ,replacing the 4.7K with say 3.3K will reduce the gain from 5.7 to 4.3.(1K + 3.3K/1K) If there are 2 lots of those resistors, and you are game, then try that. Some solder wick and a not too hot soldering iron, should make it easy to remove the 4.7K. This is something more up the Bosses alley ! Kind Regards Alex
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Aug 23, 2012 9:49:15 GMT
Could you use copper wire to bypass the output buffers and just use the OPA2134 op-amps? Similar to what Dr. Xin used to do in his portable headphone amps.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2012 10:09:16 GMT
Could you use copper wire to bypass the output buffers and just use the OPA2134 op-amps? Similar to what Dr. Xin used to do in his portable headphone amps. Miguel Why would you want to do that ? Buffers permit driving lower impedance headphones without much higher distortion due to loading of the main I.C. They also permit driving longer leads with their higher capacitance. If you want something like that, perhaps a CMOY might be a better alternative ? Alex
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2012 12:05:54 GMT
Alex & Javier,
As I've now switched back to my repaired 24bit ( with well set gain ) unit the volume control thang is of curiosity more than necessity.
That was a good point of using the JRivers vol though. Does that go for Foobar as well, maybe a leading question as I have tried that and found SQ to suffer more than the way I stated above, IMHO.
I might try tagging in some parallel resistors just to see if we're on the right track ( lousey pun ). If good I can then swap out properly.
Cheers guys.
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Post by andrewr05 on Aug 23, 2012 13:09:04 GMT
But you really need to find a way to modify the amplifier to have less gain. You are throwing away a lot of signal to noise ratio, and best performance. Perhaps I'll play around with it and try and figure something out. To explain my findings on volume control usage, I, like Andrew, found the 27 a tad shouty with the pc on full vol. A few notches down and the 27 turned up but not near full, seems a good compromise. +1 I tried having the Windows volume control at 85 and I could then turn the NG27s knob up to about 2 O'clock or so. Chris The 1st internal photo from Mike shows an OPA2134, and 2 x BUF634P which are just output buffers. Also note that the NG27 '2001' (essentially the MKII) I believe has a different layout and may not be similar. I haven't broken my down yet to confirm, I'll do that one of these days. As you now have JRiver ... Also is there a consensus that different media players actually produce higher-quality output or more bit-correct output?
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Aug 23, 2012 22:47:05 GMT
Could you use copper wire to bypass the output buffers and just use the OPA2134 op-amps? Similar to what Dr. Xin used to do in his portable headphone amps. Miguel Why would you want to do that ? Buffers permit driving lower impedance headphones without much higher distortion due to loading of the main I.C. They also permit driving longer leads with their higher capacitance. If you want something like that, perhaps a CMOY might be a better alternative ? Alex As a way to lower the output level.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2012 23:01:49 GMT
Miguel Why would you want to do that ? Buffers permit driving lower impedance headphones without much higher distortion due to loading of the main I.C. They also permit driving longer leads with their higher capacitance. If you want something like that, perhaps a CMOY might be a better alternative ? Alex As a way to lower the output level. Hi Miguel A buffer has UNITY gain, so bypassing it will not lower the level, only result in reduced capability when driving low impedance headphones. Alex
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2012 0:11:55 GMT
Yes they are, as I said in a previous post. Just to really muddy the waters there are THREE versions. 2011; like Andrews MKII; latest beast. and lastly the original that I and Mike have Ignore the extra power cap, LM4562 and stacked buffers as they were mods.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2012 0:17:08 GMT
chris, IIRC that 24bit device you are talking about is Will's PK plus the TE7022 based card, right? if so then I'd suggest you set JRiver to upsample everything (all sample rates) to 24/96 instead of letting DirectSound do it. The day you change to a W7 OS you could then use WASAPI. @andrew05, nope there is no general consensus on that subject, debate still open with some saying there are differences and other maintining there are not but JRiver's processing still is better than Window's own.
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