TarnishedEars, great write up, definitely lots of issues with the card.
I am gonna try covering up pin 15, then pin 16 then both together of the hdmi and see if I can get the stupid demphasis flag to shut off (I will see if I can call PSA to confirm if those are indeed used as Ted had suggested)
Highstream, I had in my initial post (53 I think) mentioned the switch and how it affected the output of the card. It does read a bit like gibberish now that I read it.
“The selector switch on the board is labeled PASS, 2.0 CH and 5.1CH, but it seems like that corresponds to 44/16, PCM (including DOP of DSD64) and straight up DSD 64 (also includes the other PCM 192k and lower)”
You may want to set your SACD priority to DSD instead of Auto. I get home late and will also try to let you know my settings. I have never used USB as an input into the OPPO
So Highstream told me that this thread lost a bunch of stuff
Quick thing for those still interested, covering Pin 15 gets rid of the de-emphasis flag on the DirectStream DAC when using that board.
Not sure if just the little hole on the end needs to be covered, I put the tiniest sliver of electrical tape over the small hole and continued it to the metal inside the male end. If someone knows, that would be great to understand that.
I just rehooked up the box and playing DSD via USB flash drive here’s what I found, with 2.0CH setting on the card:
– DSD on USB gets PCM, e.g., 88.x/24.
– Oppo’s HDMI out audio setting does not have a DSD choice, only Auto, LPCM and Bitstream
Switching the card to 5.1CH:
-DSD plays as DSD64. However, if I switch to Coax, there is no sound unless I switch the Oppo SACD Output to PCM; i.e., Auto is not recognizing coax/PCM. That’s the case whether the coax cable is run from the Oppo to the dac or from the card to the dac.
DSD does seem to sound better in this mode than coax, although the substantial difference in volume - DSD is louder in this mode - makes it hard to compare
With the Oppo SACD output setting still Auto or DSD, switching the DS to coax while watching TV causes an awful repeating hash noise. Have to switch the SACD setting to PCM to stop it. So to get DSD audio and use TV, one has to switch the Oppo back and forth on the fly.
If they haven’t been notified yet, the seller, and via them the manufacturer, ought to be made aware of these problems, especially the difference between 2.0 and 5.1CH, which I’m not aware of the purpose of.
Many thanks to the PS Audio team for digging my posts out off of the old forum and re-posting them here! I really do appreciate this guys!!!
FYI - I have spend a few more hours fiddling with the settings since my initial post about all of the problems with this card. And…Guess what: I have now identified exactly one set of settings which gets you to the promised land! With these settings, I can now get this card to decode EVERYTHING in its native format to the I2S output!
I’m going to try disconnecting pin 15 on the card, and see if this addresses the only remaining issue: the Demphasis always being on. This may involve cutting a trace on the board to pin 15.
I’ll try to post some screen shots of the relevant screens on my oppo later today, and maybe a shot of the underside of the board as well to show where to make the cut or cuts.
I did try drilling out pin 15 from the underside of the board (I have a spare board) and maybe I don’t understand how it works, but after drilling it out there it still showed the flag. So far tape has been my only working solution. Can’t wait to hear how it goes TarnishedEars!
Ok, I’ve solved the de- emphasis problem on this board! And no drilling, or cutting, or taping-over pins is required! Simply de-solder R47 from the top side of the board, and you will have disconnected Pin 15 with no ill side-effects which I can see. PCM works without de-emphasis now, and DSD works just as it did.
R47 is located in-between the I2S connector and the coaxial output, so it is easy to identify. Its small though, and it requires a magnifying-lamp for me to be able to see it well enough to desolder it.
My initial sonic impression is that it doesn’t sound quite a good as does my Vanity HD card (the soundstage narrows noticeably, and the bass does not seem to go as deep), but solving that might be as simple as using a better HDMI cable, or feeding this board with a good linear power supply. Or it could be that the HDMI-induced jitter cannot be overcome… Only time will tell if others feel motivated enough to take the next steps involved in perfecting this solution, because I don’t plan on spending any more time on this now since I am perfectly happy with my Vanity Card.
[Edit - Further experimenting this afternoon and evening changed my opinion about this board. I’m now a genuine fan of it. Read my posts below for the details.]
Thanks for the insights provided by others who identified Pin 15 as the culprit.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed all this great info on this card. I’ve been using one on my Oppo 105 for a couple months now and have been satisfied with its DSD output but have not been using it for PCM at all. For my red book CDs and occasional 24/96 dvd-audio discs I’ve been using the optical out via the Oppo with great results. I use a Lifatec glass cable and have no problem with getting up to 24/96. I will have to try the R47 mod and see how that compares.
The only outstanding issue with this card for me has been the reversal of channels with DSD. I wonder if there may be away to jump the pins on the I2s output chip or perhaps even change it out to one compatible with the PS Audio I2s pinout?
When DSD is playing the left and right channels are each on a separate lines (the clock is the third line.) But if you swap the lines for DSD then PCM won’t play.
Thanks Ted, I had not considered that it would fix DSD but break PCM. I’ve tried to read what driver chip is in this card, but I cannot make out the model. Would something like a TI DS90LV047A chip resolve this issue or is the problem most likely upstream of the I2s driver chip?
The DS90LV047A is a fine chip to drive the I2S lines on the HDMI cable, but I’m not sure how it, in and of itself, would help. It just translates 4 channels from CMOS levels (roughly 0V and 3.3V) to LVDS (a differential pair with about a range of about 0.4V) Something like it is needed to drive the I2S/HDMI cable.
If PCM I2S is working and DSD I2S is working except for the channel swap then, yes, it’s too late when you get to the driver chip.
Ok, as I promised earlier, here are some screenshots of My Oppo 103’s configuration. What I can tell you is that with this configuration on my Oppo, combined with the 5.1 input on the card, and the pre-emphasis fix which I described above, every single format comes through perfectly now. The singular exception of SACD (which gets its channels reversed), but which otherwise works beautifully now.
In previous posts I has stated that this board sounded worse than my Vanity card. However in experimenting further this evening I stumbled upon another minor breakthrough: If You run your Oppo in “Pure Audio” mode (there is a button on the remote which enables this mode), this card goes from sounding noticeably worse than my vanity card to having a wider soundstage that the Vanity.
I only purchased this board out of curiosity because I was cheap, and I was intrigued by it. But I never expected it to sound better than my Vanity card. But it does now, provided that you run your Oppo in “Pure Audio” Mode.
One very big warning when using this card: It can have some FULL VOLUME noise bursts at times when it switching modes between some formats. So be VERY careful about switching at high volumes, or you might damage either your amp or speakers with a brief noise burst!
TarnishedEars,
Thanks again for the R47 find. I hated relying on tape to stop the pin 15 signal from coming in…
I don’t have a vanity card but for me it sounds a better than the OPPO going straight to the DS DAC via coax now when I do an A/B comparison switching inputs on the DS. I hear more details and a wider soundstage than with the coax.
The vanity HD card sounds slightly better than do the Oppo’s stock digital outputs. But it’s blowing my mind that this cheapie card now seems to be sounding even better than my Vanity does when the Oppo is run in pure audio mode. My soundstage has never been so wide on my DS as it is now. However, when I drop out of “pure audio” mode, the Vanity spanks it. So this mode appears to be very important when it comes to getting the best sound out of HDMI.
And for the proof that (almost) everything is finally working as expected now, here are some screenshots.
1st: Rebook via the HDMI to I2S card running 16/44.1kHz PCM with no de-emphasis anymore.
And for those of you who are wondering why wires are hanging out of the front of my DS, its because I’ve spent several months experimenting with various mod ideas I have had inside of my DS. But I just haven’t bothered to button it up yet. And sorry, but no, I’m not providing any details about the theory behind my mods nor what I have done here. Just suffice it to say that I personally think that what I have come up with makes my DS sound noticeably better than it does stock. And should anybody be curious to hear what I have come up with here, I’m willing to demonstrate it to other DS owners who are in the area.
tarnishedears, Just catching up with the new location. Thanks for your posts. Since my soldering iron is only 27W, gracious Veneet is helping out. My main concern on getting it back is the functional relationship in Oppo 203 settings between listening to DSD files (USB), non DSD files or CDs, and using the TV. Haviing to go into settings each time the music file type or function being used changes (audio/video) is a PITA. I’m not clear if any of that changes once the de-emphasis is gone.
I got one of the first run of the new Vanity card last October and ended up returning it for a refund. As good as the changes in “sound effects” were, and they were really good, tonally it was way off, like it had a digital sheen; e.g., a piano didn’t sound at all like a piano, more player piano like. I ended up trying a mod service somewhat blind (Stereo Dave’s) for much less and it turned out well. Then adding AC-12 power cords and, most recently, the new Audio Magic SHD Ultimate Beeswax fuse to the DS took things to another level. I’ve got another coming for the P10, although I can say that a SR Blue in there sounds very good (I didn’t like the Blue in the DS).
I provided a bunch of screen shots of my 103’s settings. Obviously the 203 won’t be exactly the same, but it should be pretty similar.
I am able to run a an HDMI monitor out of my secondary HDMI output and have the sound work perfectly just so long as I have it set to the split audio-video modes. The Video-only output goes to the TV, and the Audio-only goes to the card.
That mode should work fine for your monitor, unless you are trying to get sound out of your monitor as well video. If you are tying to use you 203 to both drive a video setup AND your DS, then you are going to be messing with the settings a lot, and I am not going to be able to help you.
FWIW: I have a 105 on my HT setup, and a 103 on my Audio setup. I make no attempt to combine my audio and my HT systems.
The set up with the box in 2.0 mode before was…
Cable box to Oppo HDMI in
Oppo HDMI audio out thru I2S card to DS I2S port (to ATC powered speakers)
Oppo HDMI video to TV
The problem that caused me to have to switch Oppo settings was between playing DSD music files and other format music file types from a USB flash drive, and also using the cable TV. For some reason that I’m forgetting now, I thought the sound was better in 2.0 mode than 5.1, given a 2.0 system. I’ll have to check again when the cardcomes back.
Follow up: Got the de-soldered R47 card back today, thanks to Veneet. There remains no TV sound with Oppo’s SACD Output set to DSD (sound through the system, not the TV). As for sound quality, with the Oppo SACD output set to DSD and remote on I2S, there’s a substantial sound difference vs. the very good Snake River Boomslang s/pdif with the remote on coax. I’m not sure yet if it’s an improvement overall. OTOH, with SACD output set to PCM, I2S and coax via remote are indistinguishable. Caveat: all of this is with the current PSA I2S cables, not the older ones.
