Modding chinese DAC for op-amp upgrade

spaace

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Hi,

I'm ordering a chinese dac (xiangsheng 05b) & i was wondering whether i can make a mod to use the Burson or sparkos op-amp instead of the one it has


I have zero electrical experience / technical know-how and was wondering if someone can help me along on this ?

For starters
  1. Can the DAC's power supply manage the new op-amp?
  2. Does the DAC's schematics make this change feasible
  3. Steps for making this change if 1 & 2 are affirmative
If anyone has experience comparing with a similar mod and is interested in some A/B do let me know.


Thanks
Arun

ps : The original op-amp, this DAC comes with is OP2604AP (9 of them )

ps : Similarly I would like to hear from folks who has done mods for op-amps and an opinion of whether its worth doing this change - aka is the difference audible for the better?
 
I had a look at the dac It uses 1xBB2604 and 2xBB2134 opamps and some sort of tube buffer. Yes, you can roll the BB opamps and they will make a difference but I wouldnt try and use burson or sparko on this dac. Burson had a chart where they told you which opamps could be drop in substitutes.

So the BB2604 is a cheap opamp but is infact my favourtie opamp. It is extremely well balanced top to bottom. The 2134 is infact used in MANY high end CD players so they have chosen well. If you want to tinker with the sound play with the tube as it will give you a bigger difference in sound. But you may end up spending more on tubes than the cost of the dac!

If you want to roll opamps try the AD797 or so on. They are little brighter in the top end and have more tizz up there. Mark Levinson used them heavily in their preamps (with a matching design of course). You have to make sure you insert it in the correct direction. Or you'll fry the opamp.
 
AD797 is single. It won't work in place of OPA2604 and OPA 2134 is too laid back and dull. I would suggest you to try LME49720 or LM4562, both are good.

Regards
Sachin
 
the Industry standard NE5532 or NJM5532 is better than all of the above. and there are many more from JRC
 
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