Happy Thanksgiving!
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Can anyone aside of JK (with whom I wrote over PM) maybe make a close sharp picture of a tantal over R6 from the side so that the soldering and the whole pack can be seen?
Ok, my modder now did everything except the tantal (or Nichcon) over R6, as in his opinion the risk of damage is too big compared to the benefit, which I have to accept without again looking for another modder Iād trust, taking the risk.
My question to @tedsmith , @jkrichards or others now just is:
Is the cap over R6 mandatory in combination with the other mods (Lundahl, C704 and R5,R6 exchange), is it just important in a major way or what did you experience or do you expect as its main benefit in relation to the other mods?
Thanks!
Nothing is mandatory however I feel the VOCM (cap on R6) makes the biggest improvement in sound quality over the other mods.
Bigger than the Lundahl? Or just bigger than the resistor and C704 changesā¦
After getting the Lundauls and doing the R6 and C704 I can attest it sounds great. I do also have one usb plug. Getting my new plugs for Jeff today. Also have the external power supply. Did not do shielding as I was not sure where to place. I will say the sound is fantastic. It did take over 100 hours for the mods to settle in and with out the R6 and c704 they transformers were shrilly. But now all settled in loving it.
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Thanks much, very interesting!
When you mention VOCM you always mean the resistor replacements and the cap over R6 together, correct?
You canāt tell the effect of the R5/R6 resistor change and the R6 cap separately, right?
Thanks again JK, so I might have to look out for an add. modder to trust.
Hi @jkrichards, please describe what pins you shorted for the spdif plugs, did you use resistors? Thanks
XLR short is interesting - best way to describe is - all the improvements from USB,I2S,Coax, but a massive tidying up of image and focus is better. All my inputs shorted except Toslink. Overall way to go.
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@jkrichards please this is how you did XLR shorting plug - e.g. Shield not connected (shorted)?
@tedsmith please is it safe to short DS DAC Spdif and AES outputs without the need for resistor?
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Yes, itās safe. Shorting is better than a resistor on the digital inputs. For that matter you can short the outputs too, but then you canāt hear much 
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Ideal for lowering the noise floor.
A little hash with your eggs so to speak?
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For some time, I have tried using shorting plugs on all inputs (RCA and XLR) on BHK Pre and DS. The system sounded lifeless. When I removed all plugs, the sound was more musical for sure.
I obviously used too many. So far with the USB plug on DS, it is beneficial. I may try to use one RCA shorting plug to try on DS input to see if I like it better.
I am also not 100% decided if the XLR+SPDIF shortening plugs are actually better than AQ connector covers. Somehow the sound is now more busy and less dynamic, or letās say more forward sounding and flat) .
I had not time to revert back and try again , but will surely try it in next few days.
My āproblemā is that the shorting plugs should in theory just decrease noise level, so itās hard to grasp how too less of noise can be detrimental to SQ I do not like to play with idea that noise is needed for good SQ
Maybe there might be something more going on when shorting SPDIF/AES outputs?
With AQ connector plugs (non-shorting), there is only improvement (quite small), but definitely no downsides.
The effect can also be dependent on the vagaries of the specific isolation caps and the comparatorās hysteresis. If the default voltage levels of the input signals are far enough apart then the comparator wonāt oscillate or chaotically shift back and forth. If that voltage is smaller, then there might be some chatter out of the comparator. The shorting plugs may cause less chatter or more chatter depending on the environment.
Just as a point of reference: I have the Vanity HD card for my Oppo, it delivers multichannel digital audio over 3 RCA/coax S/PDIF cables. The boardās outputs replace the six analog outputs, so the top RCAās on each pair are floating and the bottom are the digital output signals.
When I accidentally plugged my digital interconnects to the top of each pair the left/right output still worked well with no bit errors. Conversely the center/sub output was just hash. The S/PDIF input of the DAC was sensitive enough in one case to receive the bits reliably over an air gap of about 3/8".
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I installed the RCA and XLR shorting plugs on the inputs of DS. I removed them after 5 min. because the dynamic is not as good as without. I have your USB plug in only, and that gives the best balance in my system.
Both of I2S inputs are in use so the HDMI plug is placed on one of the inputs of my OLED big screen. I can report I did not experience any improvement in video nor audio 