Modding the DirectStream DAC MKI

It does. I have a Gaia. Love the DS DAC with I2S from a DDC.

Todd

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Did you settle on a fuse for this LPS yet? I have been using this on the my Netgear nighthawk router/modem/switch. I took out the stock one experimenting with the gold ended white powder ones PS Audio uses in its DS and P20. The PSA sourced fuses totally killed the highs and the mids. It was a full sound with the PSA sourced fuse but suck the life and realism from the music as well as spatial cues from the recording venues. I put the stock fuse that came with the LPS back in and life came back. I am using a power cord that was stock on my monoblocks on the LPS though.

It is totally perplexing how a fuse to a digital modem router switch totally sounds like a component level upgrade returning back to the stock one. I am tempted to take its spare fuse in the holder and see if it makes the Toroidal zero zone LPS sound like the R core zero zone linear power supply or try it in my HDPlex300.

I have a new SR purple fuse in route I planned to trial versus an Audio Magic Beeswax Ultimate Premier in my P20. The loser fuse I was going to trial in LPS HDPLEX300.

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The fuse thing is really unbelievable. I’d be interested in your purple experience against the orange. I guess you don’t know the Audio Horizons I use…this comparison to the purple would be even more interesting. So far I experienced some better 3D with the AH than the orange, otherwise quite similar. The AM Beeswax SHD was weaker, but the better AM should be quite on level again. So the purple would be interesting to compare, as it still has a tolerable price compared to other extremes.

As all my network stuff is on another power circuit, I didn’t start there so far (and really don’t want to :wink: )

I use an electronic fuse for it. The best fuse is no fuse :slight_smile:

I’m also interested if this is really true. My impression is, the good audiophile fuses address things far beyond the improvement towards “no fuse” or a pure wire.

That’s encouraging. Did you get your I2s pin configuring working on your Gaia?

So one of the current activated thermistor resistors. My speaker designer used those to protect the drivers. They seem to be transparent for sound but reset automatically after they cool down.

I have activated mids and highs before but never the woofers but the current is pretty high as is the wattage.

I too would think the audiophile fuses may add some noise filtering. I did notice the R core transformers fuse is one of those jagged bent wires and the Torroidal supply stock fuse seems to be a straight wire. Thus the LPS might have changed or specified fuses differently in their design.

I am with @jazznut that the audiophile fuses claim to add EMI and RF noise reduction. The Synergistic purple graphene fuse attracts me since they say breakthroughs in their power cords allowed them to advance fuses. @waymanchen11 success using the higher end SR power cords on his equipment made me think a $200 SR fuse might be a way to leverage some of the SR power cords ability feeding the whole system off a P20 fuse sharing some of the technology.

@ Ted
This topic may have been posted before and may be in the wrong location.

If I put both the DS and my network player in standby and later take them out of standby, I have no sound over USB.
On the display of the DS I see a green dot for USB connection.
I have to turn off both devices and reboot to play over a USB connection.
Why is this happening?

USB on the DS doesn’t know about the standby mode in the DS. Power glitches can cause unexpected muting on the DS. If my PC goes in and out of standby it often mutes the USB output.

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If something ever happens to me my wife will find a a couple drawers in my salamander stand one full of tubes and the other full of fuses and the first thing out of her mouth will be “WTF?”

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…and I thought it would be, Now where did he put that contact enhancer? …

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There’s so many things my Wife will “find”. First off she’ll be wondering if we have Furutech stock. There’s a trove of audio and power connectors, and cables from Furutech. Tubes and fuses of course. And then there’s my tools. Every flavor of Allen you can think of… Socket, bits, ball, spline, square, hex, security, and all in different lengths. I could go on about screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, planes, chisels, hand saws, levels, measuring and marking tools, etc…, but I am certain you get it.

As much as I have an audio habit and love my PSA gear, I also have a a Bridge City addiction:

I may need an intervention.

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I noticed something last night using the remote for the DS. Before I did the external power supply mod I could hear noise in my speakers every time I pressed a button on the remote. It is now gone with this mod. It seems the internal power supply is passing digital noise to the analog power supply.

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“As much as I have an audio habit and love my PSA gear, I also have a Bridge City addiction” :crazy_face:

Oh man, it’s bad enough to feed my audio equipment addiction through these forums, but now you go and mix stuff in to feed my tool addiction in the same forum!

You’re welcome :innocent:

Hoping this thread can help shed some light. A few months back I had the Edcor XS4400 mod professionally installed and things seemed fine. But this week I swapped out my Sophia Electric 845 mono’s for Stellar M700’s and the right channel started fading in and out. I swapped the M700’s right amp to the left channel and the right channel still fades. My setup is Directsream to amp and I’ve tried XLR’s and RCA’s with the same experience. I also went back to Windom and same issue.
Did the right Edcor XS4400 start failing? Help!

If one set of mono’s worked and the other one doesn’t even after the swap of the M700’s I would look for a cable or connector problem. Since you’ve tried swapping the amps try swapping the cables or even another set of cables from DS to amps.

Thanks dawkinsj - I have tried different cables, both RCA and XLR with the same experience.
How it manifests is a slight db drop for 1/4 to 1/2 second and recovers repeatedly over the course of 30 seconds or so and then it drops significantly more. On the Directstream if I have the volume set at 60 on both sides I need to shift balance to 45-60 to equalize when the fade happens.

If you tested all the possibilities with the M700’s and tried again with the Sophia’s then the only other possibility seems to be the right output from the DS. I’ve only had the transformer upgrade for a couple of months and haven’t noticed any abnormalities testing it in three different settings. I guess it is possible that you got a bad XS4400. Like you I had mine done by someone else so unless one of the guys that did it themselves have another trouble shooting idea you may need to reach out to Edcor.

I haven’t gone back to the Sophia’s yet but will try that over the weekend. Thanks for the input.