Replacing cheap quartz resonators in decoder/preamp

[Audiofriik]

Hi, I recently bought a Chinese 5.1 decoder/preamp It's okay as far as it goes and uses mostly fair quality discrete components so that modding shouldn't be too difficult, although unfortunately the unit comes without schematics. Apart from upgrading and bypassing electrolytics, properly decoupling (and possibly upgrading) op amps and making sure the power supply lines are properly filtered, a clear area that might benefit from improvement is the oscillators used in the DAC.At present these are discrete, cheap quartz resonators of this type, or this. Can anyone point to a howto for upgrading the oscillator circuitry to use mores table components (maybe something like this Cheers! Marius

 

[Crom]

Hi Marius and welcome to the Wam!

I'm also interested in this sort of thing as I've been tinkering with my power supply to my motherboard (in a PC-based streamer solution) and trying an upgrade on the oscillators is on my hit list. I've also found the usual stuff on eBay but I'm not sure I can trust it.

This is worth a read: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/186311-another-cheap-clock-ebay.html

I've found things like the micro clock 2 which provides 2 frequencies and a decent dc-dc power supply http://www.fidelityaudio.co.uk/parts/clocks/ It all looks a bit expensive though!

Also this...lovely kit but still expensive: http://www.diyhifisupply.com/node/583

Returning to eBay, I found this PCB: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pc-Amplifier-DIY-clock-kit-PCB-Board-gold-plated-FR4-board-60-60mm-/321004768739?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4abd600de3

I like the shock absorber idea!

This is the same thing on another (never ordered from here but they have some good stuff) site: http://shop2.hifidiy.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=76

However, I've seen these boards in action: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIFI-active-clock-plate-16-9344M-or-12M-YS-/190811513497?pt=US_Amplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item2c6d40a299

I can't find them right not but I've seen the bare boards or you can get them ready builts as you see here. The beauty here (for my use) is that I can power them externally to the rest of the motherboard and avoid all the noise that the MB generates. At the moment I'm not sure whether that will make a difference but that's one of the reasons to do the test. I've seen the last board used in a souped up USB card and a Compact flash card used as a hard drive. The designer seemed to be using 5v in with some changes to some of the component qualities.

I will probably find some bare boards to experiment with, but I will start with a couple of complete boards so that I can work out what I'm doing...and they're only a tenner!!

If you're going to order some of these PM me and we can see if we can save some postage or get some discount between us.

Cheers,

Crom

PS this guy does loads of stuff on DACs and re-clocking...might be worth asking there (also a good read): http://hifiduino.wordpress.com/category/diy-hifi/

 

[Audiofriik]

Hi Crom, Sorry to have missed your reply up to now. It sounds very interesting that you have found so many alternatives. How is your project going? As I'm very busy with other things at the moment I doubt that I'll be working on the decoder before well into next year. but it would be great to make use of your experience when I do so.I'd love to help with sourcing components together, but as I live in Norway the logistics might be difficult.Cheers!Marius