NFC S4 #74
- Thread starter vluft
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Have u heard about the Objective 2 Amp?
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html?m=1
Is a phantastic amp and he also designed de Objective DAC.
You can find it assembled or in kits. It is so good that very often it is used as a reference in headphone amp reviews.
NwAvGuy did a wonderful job and proved his point with his design. It might work well for your project.
I use the o2 amp+odac with Senheisser HD600 and its absolutely amazing.
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html?m=1
Is a phantastic amp and he also designed de Objective DAC.
You can find it assembled or in kits. It is so good that very often it is used as a reference in headphone amp reviews.
NwAvGuy did a wonderful job and proved his point with his design. It might work well for your project.
I use the o2 amp+odac with Senheisser HD600 and its absolutely amazing.
Not a huge fan of the O2 particularly, though it's a fine amp, but wouldn't really work for this - it's (relatively) quite large, would still need a separate dac (or use onboard dac + front panel header on mobo, I guess) and would need to get 15V AC to it, which would be pretty awkward.
You can get the ODAC PCB and put it in the location of the batteries. You don't need them anyway. With this layout it will fit much better. But yes, the 15V AC is annoying.
Just curious, why don't you like it? I didn't find anything with better flat response than the oamp+odac without the need of spending lots of $$$.
Well, still much larger than the Fulla 2 board or the other thing I was looking at possibly for this, the AMB ɣ1.5, and space is tight enough as it is, and both of those are USB powered which is much, much easier to power from inside. Would also have gone, potentially, for something where I could pull 5 or 12V DC off of the power supply inside, but AC powered is right out.
Nothing against it, particularly, it's a great design – I just don't care particularly about flat response, just what sounds good to me (I mean, within parameters). I mean, heck, I've listened to stuff on tube amps! I even have some vinyl! And I certainly wouldn't argue for either of those vs. solid state/digital, objectively. Also, all other things being equal, NwAvGuy always struck me as kinda an asshole, so.
NwAvGuy was clearly in my mind an engineering savant of some sort as he most definitely reminded me of an Asperger/autistic family member... he was never outright hostile, mean-spirited, or really even intentionally disrespectful but he definitely lacked many social graces and manners as he never caught onto social cues what so ever nor did he strategically back off to let the dust settle when he probably should have... so he came across arrogant, purposefully stubborn and even antagonistic troublemaker which simply further fuelled the hatred/dislike for him by many of the forum's posters and moderators.
Even those that detested him had/have to admit that he was spot on with many of his ideas and criticisms. Sad to see him go (disappear) because he was an excellent ground for the high-flying audio world... he kept us honest!
Even those that detested him had/have to admit that he was spot on with many of his ideas and criticisms. Sad to see him go (disappear) because he was an excellent ground for the high-flying audio world... he kept us honest!
Concur, I just love the warm, and I know very warped, sound of tubes for some ungodly reason! ;-)
Tried it out inside the case, approximately where I'd be installing it, and it sounds great. No more noise (that I can perceive, at a variety of volume levels) with the bare PCB in there than externally, and in a case. With the upcoming 250W HDPLEX AC/DC unit (which'll go against the case wall below the half height, single width PCIE card), this'll probably end up in other PCI card slot space, towards the front of the case. Just need to figure out volume knob + jack. Jack can panel mount on bezel and just run a tiny length of cable to the existing jack, I think. Volume knob... dunno there. Probably will try getting equivalent pot (or just this one) desolder this one, mount it on bezel as well and run jumper cables to the PCB holes? Something like, anyway.
About here, though on the other side of the GFX card:
Depending, will be a bit more to the rear of case (left in above picture) if I need a bit more room for for cable to front panel jack. ... Actually, looking at that, will probably do it upside down (from what it is in the picture) so that existing jack will be on the side I want it to relevant to the pot. (Jack on exterior will be at bottom, with volume knob above it.)
Speaking of pots, there's a good few options... could get an ALPS RK27 in the right max resistance (I'm pretty sure 10kΩ), or for extra fun get a stepped attenuator (sure, it's silly in a $100 dac/amp but hey what's the point of life without a little silliness? There's some decent-looking $25 taiwanese ones on ebay...)
As far as actually mounting it, I figured I can find some standoffs in the size that fits the existing screw holes on the board that I can epoxy to case – can definitely fit it so that at least two of those holes line up with the non-vented bits of the case, so just do that and then screw it to those.
Depending, will be a bit more to the rear of case (left in above picture) if I need a bit more room for for cable to front panel jack. ... Actually, looking at that, will probably do it upside down (from what it is in the picture) so that existing jack will be on the side I want it to relevant to the pot. (Jack on exterior will be at bottom, with volume knob above it.)
Speaking of pots, there's a good few options... could get an ALPS RK27 in the right max resistance (I'm pretty sure 10kΩ), or for extra fun get a stepped attenuator (sure, it's silly in a $100 dac/amp but hey what's the point of life without a little silliness? There's some decent-looking $25 taiwanese ones on ebay...)
As far as actually mounting it, I figured I can find some standoffs in the size that fits the existing screw holes on the board that I can epoxy to case – can definitely fit it so that at least two of those holes line up with the non-vented bits of the case, so just do that and then screw it to those.
Well, the original Fulla is – that's a dongle thingy. This is the Fulla 2, which was just released and is $99. I haven't taken apart an original Fulla to see what the innards look like but it's much smaller and I wouldn't be surprised if it was much more difficult to do anything mod-like with for that reason.
Edit:
Partially disassembled Fulla 1 on top of partially disassembled Fulla 2, for scale:
So yeah, the Fulla 1 is tiny comparatively but also looks like more Fun™ than I'd want to subject myself to if you wanna screw with it.
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Yeah it's not anywhere near as powerful as the Fulla 2, but it's also dirt cheap at 59 bucks and fills the same sort of niche. It's also much smaller than the Fulla 2 for SFF space constraints. From what I am reading the new Fulla 2 is close to being on par with the Schiit Magni 2 and Modi 2 stack, at half the price and a fraction of the size. Of course this was released while my Schiit stack was being shipped to me.
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Your being an audiophile I say go for the stepped attenuator especially if you have a nice set of cans. I would highly recommend a 'ladder' over a 'shunt' or 'series' type stepped attenuator. I would also highly recommend that you spend the extra USD 5-25 for a 'ladder' stepped attenuator using Dale resistors.
For mounting how about using nicely cut and fitted 3M Double Lock Velcro...
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Adhesives/Tapes/Brands/Dual-Lock-Reclosable-Fasteners/
it is extremely stable, strong as heck while offering many more fitting options
Good catch, that is most definitely a steal for such a nice sounding headphone dac/amp!
I had briefly contemplated gutting out a Fulla as you had suggested... attaching the board directly to the side fan grill, left side of the case (Silverstone ML06B-E), with the volume knob sticking through the fan grill and the audio jack coming out the second expansion slot in the back however, my Asus Xonar DX is still in perfect working order, I actually like the drivers and GUI, and I have been very happy with the sound so decided to stick with it.
You guys are really making me want to pick up a Fulla 2! I like the concept so far, looking forward to the end result.
Off topic for a second....
What kind of temps are you getting with the Dynatron cooler?
Off topic for a second....
What kind of temps are you getting with the Dynatron cooler?
Thankfully I'm not enough of an audiophile to go completely crazy – I was just thinking of going with something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/Valab-23-St...165269?hash=item4659f872d5:g:wJYAAOxycmBS-5Fk for kicks basically. I've heard good things.
Yup, if I'm mounting it rightside up to the side of the case that looks like it'd be a good option.
Did a Prime95 torture test for 24 hours, mean core temp was 57°C, max was 69°C, which I'm fairly happy with, considering. The only caveat with this cooling setup is you get a tiny bit of whine from turbulence against the side of the case – not terribly unpleasant and I don't even notice if I've been next to it for a couple minutes, but it is there.
