What ever happened to NwAvGuy and his blog?

[XacTactX]

Guys, NwAvGuy hasn't updated his blog in over 5 months. Before this, he was regularly releasing new articles at least once every month. I sent him a message maybe two or three weeks ago asking for a short response so I could see if he's still alive, and unfortunately, no response.

So what in the world happened to NwAvGuy? I was really looking forward to reading about his objective take on audio equipment (and buying the ODA one day).

Here is the NwAvGuy blog, he has dozens of articles with a lifetime worth of knowledge and insights. http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/

 

[Porter_]

wondering the same thing. looking for an update on the ODA.

 

[fss69]

He is still posting comments on his blog, just no new articles I guess.

 

[Impulse]

At some point the ODA production is out of his hands since he's technically just the designer and not directly involved with selling it. Might have better luck emailing JDS Labs. Guy could just be busy with that little thing called life.

 

[XacTactX]

He is still posting comments on his blog, just no new articles I guess.

I'd like to see an article where NwAvGuy has left comments recently. It would be good to know that he hasn't given up on the blog and the projects he was doing.

At some point the ODA production is out of his hands since he's technically just the designer and not directly involved with selling it. Might have better luck emailing JDS Labs. Guy could just be busy with that little thing called life.

If only he would release it, I'm confident that people will start selling it just like the O2 and the ODAC.

 

[Zoide]

Another month has gone by. Any news about NwAvGuy? Is he OK?

 

[Porter_]

i've seen no news, seems like nobody on head-fi knows either. odd that he just up and stopped blogging.

 

[spaceman]

Maybe headfi put a hit out on him?

I kid!

 

[MrGuvernment]

got a g/f maybe?

 

[Vegita]

got a g/f maybe?

Kids or a new job will also do it as well. I figure we will hear from the JDS Blog http://blog.jdslabs.com/ if not from his blog first. I think they were going ot be in on the production of the ODA.

 

[kaiser]

I wouldn't be surprised if some manufacturer has hired him to work on their products--perhaps NuForce.

 

[XacTactX]

I wouldn't be surprised if some manufacturer has hired him to work on their products--perhaps NuForce.

If they hired him wouldn't they ask him to announce that fact so that all the audiophiles flock to that manufacturer? I wouldn't mind it if he did because it means he's still active but it doesn't seem likely.

 

[wizang]

Seriously, I'm drooling over putting together an O2+odac and I would feel silly if the oda was released soon after

 

[Uberbob102000]

I wish I could remember who said it, but I do remember someone saying on Head-Fi that JDS Labs was up to something, in one of the Magni or Magni/O2 comparison threads.

As for NuForce hiring him, I doubt it. They seem perfectly content to build things by ear because true audiophiles know it's better

 

[Porter_]

but I do remember someone saying on Head-Fi that JDS Labs was up to something, in one of the Magni or Magni/O2 comparison threads.

it was nothing more than speculation by a head-fi member

 

[Eman D. Rahym]

It's too bad NWAvGuy quit posting. His blog was a little island of sanity in the increasingly insane world of high end audio.

 

[Matthew Kane]

Still no word about him?

 

[johnnydoe]

In all honesty, the guy wasn't all THAT knowledable. Yeah, he DID know A LOT, but on some specific subjects, he was flat out clueless and made shit up.

I once read from him that changing a SINGLE, $300 audio cap (no single audio cap costs ANYWHERE near $300) didn't make a difference compared to a $1 audio cap.

Now replacing a single cap of course wouldn't, but what about replacing ALL caps?

Not to sound pompous but I know more than the guy when it comes to sound cards. He knows a shitton more than I do on every other sound-related subject, though.

 

[Matthew Kane]

Not to break it for you man, but improvement with sound by changing cap's is as bogus as snake oil myths out there with dropping $1k on speaker cables.

As for audio cap's that cost $300, there are, NOS level high rated BG's can cost that much or more depending on the farad rating your after and it's rarity as they are out of production and your not the only one after them.

But yet again I like to use "audiophile" cap's in my amp builds because I have something to brag about to my DIY buddies.

 

[johnnydoe]

Not to break it for you man, but improvement with sound by changing cap's is as bogus as snake oil myths out there with dropping $1k on speaker cables.

No, it isn't. Caps FILTER the sound. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again.

While a better cap does NOT make it sound "better", a worse cap makes it sound worse. How much it effects depends on the formula of the cap.

The Jamicon's used on Creative boards are absolutely shitty and AGE pretty fast and lose their first day performance or just flat out leak and kill the card.

Replacing them with ELNA's or Blackgate's not only increases the reliability and reliability over time, but also filters sound cleaner. Jamicons add high RIPPLE AND NOISE to sound. Quality Jap caps don't.

 

[Matthew Kane]

No, it isn't. Caps FILTER the sound. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again.

While a better cap does NOT make it sound "better", a worse cap makes it sound worse. How much it effects depends on the formula of the cap.

The Jamicon's used on Creative boards are absolutely shitty and AGE pretty fast and lose their first day performance or just flat out leak and kill the card.

Replacing them with ELNA's or Blackgate's not only increases the reliability and reliability over time, but also filters sound cleaner. Jamicons add high RIPPLE AND NOISE to sound. Quality Jap caps don't.

Sorry but I'm not a notoriously cap believer given that I have used hundreds of Silmics, Cerafines, Panny FM/NHG, BG's and shit-ton other god knows what brand caps out there.

Yeah I agree a branded cap will be more reliable over generic or cheap caps but sound changes are so negligible subtle your not going to really hear anything (at least to me).

But seriously how many people do you hear reporting the cap's being blown on their sound card from general usage? A very little number mind you they don't always fiddle with the cards itself.

Replacing caps with better known caps does not necessarily carry out a better improvement, sometimes even worse, as you need to know your application, Silmics, Cerafines and certain BG's are good for signal path filtering but perform worse for power filtering/coupling compared to cheaper NCC or the like type of caps (this is where the cheap Panny's come to save the day).

At the end of the day for any application directly involved with sound - the best cap is no cap.

EDIT: Might I add I find it ridiculous that you're actually (if post is serious) replacing stock caps on the Creative boards with caps that in total can cost almost as much as the card itself - really BG's on Creative boards? Might as well get a proper DAC if you want some serious sound.

 

[johnnydoe]

Yeah I agree a branded cap will be more reliable over generic or cheap caps but sound changes are so negligible subtle your not going to really hear anything (at least to me).

http://www.overclock.net/t/185072/incredible-x-fi-mod-will-void-your-warranty-56k-warning

But seriously how many people do you hear reporting the cap's being blown on their sound card from general usage? A very little number mind you they don't always fiddle with the cards itself.).

Because most are clueless. All those Creative sound cards have died and STILL keep on dying because of Creative's poor choice of shitty caps.

My X-Fi Elite Pro leaked and died in 2011. It's had it's 5-year run since 2006. Can you believe Creative uses shit caps on a $350 card?

Replacing caps with better known caps does not necessarily carry out a better improvement, sometimes even worse, as you need to know your application, Silmics, Cerafines and certain BG's are good for signal path filtering but perform worse for power filtering/coupling compared to cheaper NCC or the like type of caps (this is where the cheap Panny's come to save the day).

Obviously if you don't know what you're doing, then you'd prolly just polarize them wrong and fuck up the board.

Re-capping requires knowledge period. If you're to do it with just a hot enough iron and NO cap knowledge, then YOU would be the one responsible for your actions. Not the re-cap.

As for Cerafines and BG, no shit. Of course they aren't good for power filtering because they're NOT power filtering caps. Period. Full stop. They're "audio" caps.

And of course NCC's will get better results to filter power since they're SMPS caps...

likewise, if you went ahead and put NCC to filter your Analog/Digital DAC/ADC outputs, then it obviously wouldn't sound as good as a bi-polarized Nichicon because it's NOT a sound cap...

At the end of the day for any application directly involved with sound - the best cap is no cap.

Yeah, sure. If you're going to use a 10 year old card then you can do cap-less...

however, take ANY modern card and you will "need" caps to provide sufficient power to the card. Auzen and ASUS use Film caps that're superior to lytics or polymers, for example. That's about the best that can be done.

 

[Matthew Kane]

http://www.overclock.net/t/185072/incredible-x-fi-mod-will-void-your-warranty-56k-warning

I've followed this thread before.


My X-Fi Elite Pro leaked and died in 2011. It's had it's 5-year run since 2006. Can you believe Creative uses shit caps on a $350 card?

I still got a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 been in use since 03, nothing wrong with it, as it is kept in a clean and well ventilated case.

Obviously if you don't know what you're doing, then you'd prolly just polarize them wrong and fuck up the board.

Re-capping requires knowledge period. If you're to do it with just a hot enough iron and NO cap knowledge, then YOU would be the one responsible for your actions. Not the re-cap.

Not necessarily, it is just really matching a piece of the puzzle, but I'm sure their are number of people out there that have done the opposite.

As for Cerafines and BG, no shit. Of course they aren't good for power filtering because they're NOT power filtering caps. Period. Full stop. They're "audio" caps.

And of course NCC's will get better results to filter power since they're SMPS caps...

It's not just that they are "audio caps", it's no sin to use them in power/coupling situations but they are outperformed by lower rated ESR caps.

likewise, if you went ahead and put NCC to filter your Analog/Digital DAC/ADC outputs, then it obviously wouldn't sound as good as a bi-polarized Nichicon because it's NOT a sound cap...

Again I'm not going into an argument with whether or not cap A provides a substantial improvement with sound (or my placebo affect kicking in) over cap B.


Yeah, sure. If you're going to use a 10 year old card then you can do cap-less...

Excluding some discrete circuits which must require a cap and resistors running in parralel, with a lot of DIY kits, you can eliminate the use of caps for filtering most of the time, ask any EE who has played with any audio related hardware with use of circuits and shit, best cap is no cap. There are ton's of threads on diyaudio and hydrogenaudio that you can read up for your own pleasure. So yeah.

My 2c

 

[RandemTox]

Not sure where he went … but it’s not necessarily a bad thing he became a less vocal.

For what it costs, parts-wise (~$35, assuming you assemble it yourself; I did), the O2 is a very nice design … but … if you’re not building your own it doesn’t make much sense unless you need to use it on the go.

The O2 is sonically indistinguishable from a Schiit Magni which costs 2/3rds as much (compared to a pre-built O2), has far more robust inputs and outputs in sensible places, and doesn’t outwardly look like it was cobbled together in a shed during WW2 … in the dark.

That NwAvGuy goes on about people preferring more expensive gear just because of the price/badge, rather than any measurable benefit, is rather laughable when you see him using test gear that is double the price of the rebadged gear it really is.

Hypocrisy is such a bitch that way …

Edit: Clarifying price comparison as pre-built.

 

[Matthew Kane]

Not sure where he went … but it’s not necessarily a bad thing he became a less vocal.

For what it costs, parts-wise (~$35, assuming you assemble it yourself; I did), the O2 is a very nice design … but … if you’re not building your own it doesn’t make much sense unless you need to use it on the go.

The O2 is sonically indistinguishable from a Schiit Magni which costs 2/3rds as much (compared to a pre-built O2), has far more robust inputs and outputs in sensible places, and doesn’t outwardly look like it was cobbled together in a shed during WW2 … in the dark.

That NwAvGuy goes on about people preferring more expensive gear just because of the price/badge, rather than any measurable benefit, is rather laughable when you see him using test gear that is double the price of the rebadged gear it really is.

Hypocrisy is such a bitch that way …

Edit: Clarifying price comparison as pre-built.

The Magni is in some way's actually a better sounding amp than the O2 but the Magni has shown up with some imbalance problems with the volume pot and static noise etc. After all, all he wanted to do is achieve the most transparent sounding amp (line with a gain) with the best snr and THD figures to boot.

I wouldn't say his a hyprocrite about people owning expensive gear etc but instead he just really hates the amount audiophools out there, snake-oil cables and bs myths that boutique caps provide a big improvement, rolling opamp's offers night and day difference etc, mind you he even stated that it's all his 'imo'. Which in some cases I actually agree with.

 

[RandemTox]

Maybe “hypocrite” is too strong an assertion; “disingenuous” definitely fits though.

You can’t preach objectivity one minute and then expect not to be looked at askance when you fail to apply the same rigor in your selection of test gear, particularly when it results in one paying double for the same item (not just something with the same specs) that they need to.

But maybe he just wasn’t paying attention/doing suitable research when buying said gear. I’m certainly not suggesting he was entirely off base … just that he could have done with toning things down a bit – that wasn’t doing him any favors. And, of course, none of this detracts from how good the O2 really is for ~$35 in parts and 30 minutes with a soldering iron.

In regards to the Magni vs. O2 …

Some friends and I did a little DBT with the two and there was no bias towards one or the other. That’s definitely not to say no difference exists, but none of us were able to detect it if there is one (and the headphones and sources were more than capable of revealing any such differences).

Happy to share what we tested with (omitting for the sake of relative brevity), but also interested to know where you found the differences.

I’ll agree that, provided you specify the proper values and construction/type for your components, caps or otherwise, and their roles (I’m not going to try filter PSU with tantalums) in your circuits then “boutique” versions aren’t really worth worrying about. Same with op-amps; yes there are differences, but in the audio-band they’re generally so small as to be dwarfed by the fly buzzing behind you.

I have no issue with anyone buying and enjoying whatever they like. I do tune out when the justification becomes all mystical woo-woo (or hypocritical) … it’s unnecessary, “I like it better” is all the justification any individual should ever need when spending their own money.

 

[Matthew Kane]

http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,711.60.html and the massive thread in Head-fi.

My impression is a stock JDSlabs O2 vs a Magni I just found the Magni (for it's value, size and robust build), provide a slightly wider sound-stage, pairs well with warm or laid back headphones, really opens the treble up as the Magni is fairly bright sounding. Has more drive power than the O2 as well. The O2 is awfully flat sounding, sometimes bit too dry and boring for certain genres but certain people like this monitoring sessions, it's also cheap as well, quite fun getting your hands involved with a bit of DIY and is portable.

"I’ll agree that, provided you specify the proper values and construction/type for your components, caps or otherwise, and their roles (I’m not going to try filter PSU with tantalums) in your circuits then “boutique” versions aren’t really worth worrying about. Same with op-amps; yes there are differences, but in the audio-band they’re generally so small as to be dwarfed by the fly buzzing behind you."

Yep exactly and this point is also what nwavguy expressed as well. It's funny too say some user's think that dropping in a better and more expensive opamp will guarantee better sound, it's like they know more than the engineers who designed the amp themselves and the differences are really that subtle.

 

[johnnydoe]

I still got a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 been in use since 03, nothing wrong with it, as it is kept in a clean and well ventilated case.

The SB Live doesn't use Jamicons, and is nowhere as intensive of a card as X-Fi boards. I'm talking about X-Fi cards sandwiched under multi-GPU setups.

And of course, just because you or someone else didn't have an issue with their card doesn't mean I or the other guy did not. That kind of arguement has zero backing.

Not necessarily, it is just really matching a piece of the puzzle, but I'm sure their are number of people out there that have done the opposite.

I don't know what you are talking about. Yes, recapping the sound card is as easy as following a few traces and having cap knowledge. However, you don't seem to understand that just having a iron and a brain won't let you re-cap without any issues.

And blaming Creative's use of shit caps on people unable to re-cap doesn't make you "right".

And if you wonder why, some re-capping attemps to bad, even done very well, that's because the caps have a specific ESR which go in line with where they're used on.

It's not just that they are "audio caps", it's no sin to use them in power/coupling situations but they are outperformed by lower rated ESR caps.

BlackGate's ARE "audio caps". They're Rubycon's audio caps. And again, no shit that there's no sin to use audio caps on power conditioners. You sound like you know what you're talking about but you don't.

Again I'm not going into an argument with whether or not cap A provides a substantial improvement with sound (or my placebo affect kicking in) over cap B.

The problem isn't offering an improvement, but, KEEPING the performance at first day level.

If you understand from SMPS designs, you'd know that even the shittiest cap can perform very well in it's first day, but not after 5 years.

And that's the issue. Creative cards use Jamicons. And Jamicon doesn't make caps themselves, they're a Chinese OEM. They pull a grabbag of SHITTY Chinese caps, and Creative puts them right on their boards.

So why should I put my money on those when Asus or Auzen offers me high quality Nichicon bi-polarized Muse-ES (which contribute to deep sound/bass) or Fine-Gold's? See where I'm heading?

Excluding some discrete circuits which must require a cap and resistors running in parralel, with a lot of DIY kits, you can eliminate the use of caps for filtering most of the time, ask any EE who has played with any audio related hardware with use of circuits and shit, best cap is no cap. There are ton's of threads on diyaudio and hydrogenaudio.

Show me where a modern sound card was ran without capacitors on it. You're talking out of your ass.

While what you said is correct, there haven't been a case where a modern card was ran with NO caps on it. Period.

You NEED caps for a modern sound card to regulate. The caps keep the charge to the cards VRM, so what you said can't be done unless you build your own sound card.

Oh and, there's a "multi-quote" button right on the left bottom of where you click to quote my post. Saves time from me not having to go through all that colored horse shit.

 

[Porter_]

you are very passionate about capacitors.

 

[Farkle]

Anything beyond EIA and JIS testing is left up to the manufacturer and that is the rub you're faced with when selecting the right cap for the job. Temperature variances make a big difference with aluminum electrolytic (and can cause 10 to 40% capacitance loss if they're operating too cold if memory serves) but Arrhenius law barely comes into effect in a computer case, even right next to a video card due to average 85c rating of these caps, unless there is also some high frequency stuff going on the circuit at the same time (poor design.) I've had 5000 hour rated cheap Taiwanese low ESR caps last 4+ years in fan-less SMPS, which is a miracle in itself (and also a boggle since they didn't use tantalums in that environment for reliability in their initial design.) A lot of the stuff you see floating around these DIY forums about capacitors actually only applies to class-D pulse width modulation functioning on open loop (which is rare, since most manufacturers implement negative feedback), and has nothing to do with their power supply ripple/regulation like they're intending to correct. You get a bunch of idiots together that don't even know the difference between ESR and ESL posting on an audio forum, and you're bound to start shaking your head when the next best mod for an already perfectly functioning device starts making waves as being the best thing since sliced bread. I saw a lot of people replacing op-amps and caps on E-MU 1212m a few years ago, but no one ever provided detailed measurements. Gee, I wonder why.

Looking at my old Sound Blaster Live! (CT4620) it looks like Creative used Nichicon coupling capacitors, and Malaysian Wincap everywhere else, if it matters to either of you arguing.

Anyhow, more related to NwAvGuy, I want to hear more about this Schiit Magni measuring the same as an Objective2. I've recommended the amp on this forum because I thought it sounded alright (compared to say, a Presonus HP-4, which is another sound design.) FFT? CFP-BW? Crosstalk levels? What's this DC servo nonsense about eliminating capacitors in their marketing? Sure you can use an opamp, but it doesn't eliminate it, it shifts the capacitor to another place and adds distortion/noise (though usually it's infrasonic, you still can't get something for nothing here.) Input bias current compensation is often a better idea in audio, but I still like my minimum amount of capacitors used in a circuit without a boatload of transistors or the speed of the carriers involved causing all sorts of phase problems in the audio signal. Don't even get me started about null drift on some of these "audiophile" amplifiers with complex designs, troubleshooting a problem is a MESS and often times I've just found myself desoldering everything for peace of mind. Any additional elements to your circuit adds noise and distortion, period. I -like- simple, minimal coupling capacitors from a design perspective for this very reason.

 

[johnnydoe]

Temperature variances make a big difference with aluminum electrolytic (and can cause 10 to 40% capacitance loss if they're operating too cold if memory serves).

Every 10 degree increase halves the life of a capacitor.

but Arrhenius law barely comes into effect in a computer case, even right next to a video card due to average 85c rating of these caps, unless there is also some high frequency stuff going on the circuit at the same time (poor design.)).

Jamicon's are a big fat no-go when sandwidched between a multi-GPU setup. It's begging for failure, it's bound to failure. Jamicon's are piece of shit Chinese caps that no-one knows the real quality of since they don't make caps themselves, but rather, pull them from a grabbag of no-name Chinese caps. Way to go Creative.

I've had 5000 hour rated cheap Taiwanese low ESR caps last 4+ years in fan-less SMPS, which is a miracle in itself (and also a boggle since they didn't use tantalums in that environment for reliability in their initial design.

That barely has anything to do with what I wrote above.

And Tantalum's? You're kidding, right? You know there's not a single PSU that regulates entirely on Tantalum's along, right? Only a few top notch SeaSonic's and very, very few top end units use them, on the back of the PCB, stickied to the casing.

And that PSU was, from what it sounds like, nowhere high quality of a PSU to have EVEN used any Tantalum's. At all.

A lot of the stuff you see floating around these DIY forums about capacitors actually only applies to class-D pulse width modulation functioning on open loop (which is rare, since most manufacturers implement negative feedback), and has nothing to do with their power supply ripple/regulation like they're intending to correct. You get a bunch of idiots together that don't even know the difference between ESR and ESL posting on an audio forum, and you're bound to start shaking your head when the next best mod for an already perfectly functioning device starts making waves as being the best thing since sliced bread. I saw a lot of people replacing op-amps and caps on E-MU 1212m a few years ago, but no one ever provided detailed measurements. Gee, I wonder why.

Gotta love how you mentioned that the PSU's have nothing to do with sound cards, when you just, yourself, mentioned about your PSU above that paragraph... oh the irony.

Looking at my old Sound Blaster Live! (CT4620) it looks like Creative used Nichicon coupling capacitors, and Malaysian Wincap everywhere else, if it matters to either of you arguing.

Yeah, Nichicon's are top notch, Creative used to care MUCH more about their sound cards back in those these. The AWE64 Gold was full of top notch caps, so was it's PCB which was excellently built.

Ever since that time, Creative has sunk down year after year and came to a point where they were just selling their name (Recon or whatever the shit 3D anyone? LOL.)

Wincaps are much worse, though, still way better than Jamicon. And considering how light of a card the SB Live is, and that it was used near old ass Athlon/P4 machines and not the multi-GPU modern beast setups, it was bound to be a much more reliable card.

And it was. The SB Live was a pretty good card with great MIDI support back in the day. It offered pretty well MIDI support without the external MIDI board A3D boards had to get better performance out. Though, it got shit over by the Aureal Vortex 2, so Creative had to buy them out and A3D died that day.

 

[Farkle]

Every 10 degree increase halves the life of a capacitor.

That depends on the capacitor type, but general rule of thumb this is true for most electrolytic aluminum. But seriously, it's really not that simple. Go check your text books in regards to Arrhenius equations, the recip of T is proportional to the log of lifetime based on range, not absolute. This is why testing methodology is so important when throwing performance and lifetime statistics around.

Jamicon's are a big fat no-go when sandwidched between a multi-GPU setup. It's begging for failure, it's bound to failure. Jamicon's are piece of shit Chinese caps that no-one knows the real quality of since they don't make caps themselves, but rather, pull them from a grabbag of no-name Chinese caps. Way to go Creative.

Let's talk real world. Thermal load of two GTX480 at the heatsink is 67.7c, and the surface temperature between the cards is 63.8c in a Antec 902 case after 10 minutes of furry and tessy test with MSI Kombustor. GPU temperature is 92c on the first card, 91c on the second. These are EVGA cards with reference coolers. Even using a static value acceleration factor, the capacitor is still rated at 85c. Where is the problem here exactly with pre-mature failure even with cheap bulk ICD products? Radiative equilibrium comes into play here. And as I stated, from a physics stand-point, extreme lower temperatures are worse than higher (within operating range for projected lifetime) for the efficiency of the capacitors we're discussing.

And Tantalum's? You're kidding, right? You know there's not a single PSU that regulates entirely on Tantalum's along, right? Only a few top notch SeaSonic's and very, very few top end units use them, on the back of the PCB, stickied to the casing.

And that PSU was, from what it sounds like, nowhere high quality of a PSU to have EVEN used any Tantalum's. At all.

Gotta love how you mentioned that the PSU's have nothing to do with sound cards, when you just, yourself, mentioned about your PSU above that paragraph... oh the irony.

I'm not talking about strictly computer power supplies. I'm talking about electrical engineering, which should have been implied mentioning a class-D PWM. No irony involved. I'm going to just assume that you read my reply in the wrong context. But I'll bite... The motherboard regulation has more to do with your sound card than the PSU itself, if you want to get into that. Most well built computer power supplies are already supplying sufficient regulation effect to bypass the waveform abnormalities. Active circuitry is barely influenced by power regulation and ripple in most cases; look again to your text books: power supply rejection ratio. Active components in reference to their input are usually down 80-100dB in the audio signal in even poorly designed circuits. If for some reason your circuit has poor PSRR, you can either change the power supply, or improve on your circuit for better rejection (most go with option two, since PSU can vary between customers in the computer world) The brand of capacitor doesn't matter as long as the high frequency performance matches your needs. Let's get back to more general electronics in audio... DC power supplies do not have a voltage swing, any voltage coefficient is useless to everyone but the designer of the circuit and how he or she wanted to implement it. It's just a matter of supplying how much you need to manage your actual circuit load requirement. Phase plays a much greater role than any of the capacitors in your signal path ever will, even if they're charge discharge operation isn't as good as it was new due to chemical reactions on the oxide layer and cathode foil, up until the internal pressure in said cap causes it to bloat and cause failure.

 

[Matthew Kane]

1. I don't know what you are talking about. Yes, recapping the sound card is as easy as following a few traces and having cap knowledge. However, you don't seem to understand that just having a iron and a brain won't let you re-cap without any issues.

And blaming Creative's use of shit caps on people unable to re-cap doesn't make you "right".

2. And if you wonder why, some re-capping attemps to bad, even done very well, that's because the caps have a specific ESR which go in line with where they're used on.



3. BlackGate's ARE "audio caps". They're Rubycon's audio caps. And again, no shit that there's no sin to use audio caps on power conditioners. You sound like you know what you're talking about but you don't.

So why should I put my money on those when Asus or Auzen offers me high quality Nichicon bi-polarized Muse-ES (which contribute to deep sound/bass) or Fine-Gold's? See where I'm heading?

4. Show me where a modern sound card was ran without capacitors on it. You're talking out of your ass.

5. While what you said is correct, there haven't been a case where a modern card was ran with NO caps on it. Period.

You NEED caps for a modern sound card to regulate. The caps keep the charge to the cards VRM, so what you said can't be done unless you build your own sound card.

Wow am I talking to a brickwall or what? To make it easier for myself I will answer it in point formation.

1. Re-capping isn't exactly rocket science, people have a wide load of resources available, the internet, DIY forums, blogs etc. Using a soldering iron isn't applying rocket science either, most of the time's people get it just right, yeah you do get the one of the occasion bad caps, mis-matching valued cap's (both rating and size) for the application, a mistake some user's run into so.

2. What do you mean re-cap's attempt go bad? Even if you buy some shitty generic cap's but at the same farad and voltage ratings, the sound card is still going to work, it's still going to produce sound, your average non-audiophool Joe ain't going to hear a difference, assuming the cap isn't faulty or a fake or has a fake re-branded label on it.

3. No fucking shit BG's are audio-caps when did I say it wasn't?, what I was saying in regards to your original post is the difference of using the right cap for the right application, "audio caps" that have the magic touch properties of sound really well in the signal path (i.e. Silmics and shit) and then you have cheaper low ESR caps such as the Panny NHG's that outperform expensive Silmics if you used it for power filtering, power supply and power decoupling paths, yeah you can still use Silmics i.e. "audio cap's" for the power supply/filtering/decoupling section, it isn't a sin to do so. It doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about either, let alone your failure to read the meaning of my responses to your post.

4. I never said once that a sound card run's without cap's of course it will need to, as reference to my original post if you bothered reading and coming from someone who re-builds and refurbishes tube/ss amp's, if and when you can, the best cap is no cap, as there won't be anything in the signal path that can add coloration to the sound etc.

5. No shit, I was using it as a general saying for circuits that can do it and no sound card's can't do it without them.

Seriously you don't need to get all serious about cap talk, save that diyaudio or something, I'm sure Creative chose to use that "crappy" Jamicon cap's (graphics cards vendors use it as well) to save money but they do the job, sure they don't last long or the quality will suffer, but really if you think dropping in a "better" audiophool grade cap is going to improve sound, you may need to think again, where's the measurements of such said differences and improvements? Are you going along the boundaries of you knowing more about it than their engineers? Seriously.

 

[Matthew Kane]

What's this DC servo nonsense about eliminating capacitors in their marketing?

Last time I read it it was used for either better power supply to improve SNR or used to prevent killing headphones. May need to read it again. Might be a different amp though.

EDIT: Eliminate output DC offset?

 

[Farkle]

EDIT: Eliminate output DC offset?

Yes, but a DC servo is no better than a direct coupling for handling offset. Trying to eliminate a capacitor using servo means moving the capacitor to another place and adding more DC and low end feedback gain. Using a servo to compensate errors in calculations or tolerance width of resistors is another story though (think thick film IC implementations) and makes sense in other applications.

DC trimmed direct coupled output staging in a headphone amp for the range of headphones you need to power, wouldn't be that hard to implement even if you had to make a switch. But this also has the same current flow topology flaws as a servo when the connected output has low DC Z, and has the chance for drift (eventually, but that happens in either case.)

These two methodologies are basically Coke vs Pepsi.

 

[Matthew Kane]

I figured although they could've made gone with just coupling cap's and attempted to have the shortest path possible, I'm guessing they only used a DC servo to eliminate output DC offset due to cost or a smaller footprint of the circuit board?








Schiits new way of marketing their Magni's I guess..

 

[bAMtan2]

I miss nwavguy is nwavguy dead?

 

[Matthew Kane]

Word is he got recruited by Schiit.

 

[Porter_]

we need an update on the ODA. i'm so damn enamored with the O2, just want to read something new from NwAvGuy.

 

[Matthew Kane]

MIA status.