As the owner/listener of 3 pcs of MK1 fitted with several modds, one dac with only the XS4400 and external psu is my favourite that I listen to every day.
I have damaged the psu board just trying to replace a capacitor because the board is doubled sided soldered.
The stock transformer carries 2 rows of 6 pins of 40 mm in length, and double-sided soldered, this is what makes it very difficult without daily experience and the correct tools; a real pro shop is required.
Each of the 12 pins are double sided soldered on the board with double-sided traces, barrels and pads.
To drop the transformer, all 12 pins must be heated simultaneously; the board is double-sided, meaning the pins are soldered on both sides.
The XS 4400 transformer upgrade is an old upgrade from several years ago. Since then mush better upgrades have been discovered.
Did you read some of the review from the web site I gave you? They have all the new and best upgrade info for the MK1 and MK2. As a matter of fact they have the MK1 sounding better than the newer upgraded MK2.
Not being negative just factual. I know first hand as I had all the upgrades from the XS4400 (back 3.5 years ago) up to the newest LE Signature Series PLUS upgrade which is incredible sounding. Even better than DAC’s costing $15K and more. The MK2 doesn’t sound that good with the stock XS4400 as I sold mine which had the nickel transformers installed, when I purchased the LE Signature Series PLUS.
BTW: I purchased my LE Signature Series PLUS directly from JK Richards apsaudiotransformers.com He is an honest and great person to deal with. He does great upgrades and replies quickly to questions. His modifications are the best out there. Done in a very professional manner and they sound amazing.
Thank you. Great reply. Inspiring even. You are talking about desoldering. Why simultaneous? Why must all twelve pins be heated simultaneously? I was thinking: 1. heat, 2 desolder each pin individually, 3 when old unit is free and clear, remove.
I’m busy reading those “reviews” you indicated. But some deciphering is required because they seem like ads. Moreover, I did not know that much better upgrades had been discovered, as you say. Wish I had. Lastly, I have no opinion on JK Richards. All I know is that I contacted APS and their mods appear to be the best in town. Unfortunately, it’s a bit outside my budget. I hope you will continue to monitor this thread.
Richard modified DSD MK1 and DSD MK2 for me. Both modifications were fairly priced, quick turnaround, and made both DACs better. I sold both DACs to those still using them. I believe my experiences were very common!
If you’re a novice at soldering I’d suggest getting some low melt solder and some good braided soldering wick and paste flux. You can find it all on Amazon.
The low melt solder will help you be able to heat all the transformer pins up to be able to remove it easier.
Only thing is you have to use the braided soldering wick to remove all remaining solder from the board and holes after the transformers out. You don’t want low melt solder there when you install the new transformer.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing you how to use low melt solder
I wouldn’t recommend the wick method for this job unless you want to spend half a day just removing solder. Also you risk lifting pads and traces when applying that much heat for that long. You need to get in and get out quickly before desperation and frustration set in, leading to aggressive use of heat and force.
In another thread it was suggested to buy a Hakko FR-301 Portable Desoldering Tool which I did but have not done the job yet myself. I was hoping someone could explain how to check for DC offset on the transformers “while we’re in there”. I suspect this is why people are getting varying satisfaction out of the mod.
Them reviews can be found on many forums on the internet posted by actual customers. It looks like they copied and pasted them reviews from the forums directly and are not adds from them as I have stumbled upon the reviews surfing the many forums. He has many happy customer posts on these forums. I purchased a pair of the XLR galvanic isolators from him in December when I was informed he has been struggling with cancer however it has not affected his customer response or service. He mentioned his son helps him with a lot of the work now.
If you have the knowhow and talent along with the equipment required then it could possibly save you some money by doing it yourself however I feel it was money well spent to have a DAC of this quality done by experts who has done their homework and testing over the many years. They send actual printed test results of the unit you receive. The end product is hard to beat and I have not found a better sounding DAC at prices up to and over $15K. If you ever get a chance to hear one I believe you would consider it to be a great deal even if it is over your budget.
If you have experience working on electronics and want to do it yourself then this forum is a good place to start. Warning… You will spend hours even days figuring this all out however you will learn a lot.
I agree if you can afford a good solder sucker like the Hakko, great! If not using low melt solder and wick will work as the low melt solder will lower the solder temp enough to wick it up quickly. Just have to be careful with the pads and have a hot enough iron.
All the mods for Mk1 are posted here in detail. Whoever wants (and capable) to do mods just stop asking and keep reading.
With high-grade components used and (almost) all mods reported on this forum done right, this DAC is not only better than a modded Mk2, but better than DCS Vivaldi.
Thank you. Appreciate your insight - I am not an expert soldering by any means. My understanding is that most damage done to the analog board is done by people using the simultaneous method (heat all the pins up) and yanking when the board isn’t free to be yanked. Which is why completely desoldering each pin individually with wick (theoretically at least) makes more sense to me. But the excessive heat problem, right? Someone who has actually done the job surely knows better than I, and I wish he or she would chime in.
I looked everywhere and could find nothing on the DC offset fix. With all these post I’m not surprised.
The power supply is only part of his bridge upgrade. He also uses larger heat-sinks. I’m told there is much more to it and I could not find anything more here on this forum besides the power supply mods.