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Endler Mods

Posted by MaggiesAndCats (A) on July 6, 2015 at 11:04:57

In Reply to: RE: DCX2496 Upgrade posted by MaggiesAndCats on July 3, 2015 at 20:17:06:

This description is on his archived web page. I will note that I got a drop in gain that was somewhat recovered by switching to the balanced connections on my preamp and power amps.

Regards,

Steve
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2496 direct out mod and AK4395 swap pricing installed.

DEQ2496 single ended with 4uf stacks of foil coupling caps $245.00

(Pin 3 left open. For use with an XLR to RCA adapter)

DEQ2496 balanced $285.00

DCX2496 single ended with 4uf, 3uf and 1uf $345.00

DCX2496 balanced $395.00





The direct out mod eliminates all of the circuitry after the dac chip, taking the analog output straight out of the chip through a stack of foil coupling caps to the xlr pins. The ribbon wires between the digital and output boards are cut to get the audio signal before being polluted by any cheap coupling caps,balanced to single ended conversions, active filters and single ended back to balanced conversions with servo shifting output. This eliminates a series of 4 opamps and countless capacitors and resistors which yields unbelievable sonics with a slight loss of gain. If you want to try it yourself, the wires that you need starting from the red are 7,8,10,11,L+,L-,R+,R- for the DEQ. 3-14 6- to 1+ for the DCX. The Dayton foil caps were chosen in listening tests over several other popular film type caps. In general I can safely say that a foil cap will sound much better than any film cap in a critical application such as this. The AudioCap Theta or ridiculously over priced boutique types such as the MIT should also give good sonics but the Daytons maintain a price performance advantage of 500% over the next reasonably priced contender, the Thetas. There is limited empty space under the hood of the 2496 Behringers so the maximum amount of capacitance is limited to what will fit which is 4uf, 3uf, 1uf for low, mid, high in the DCX and 4uf in the DEQ. The output pins are cut where they come up from the board. in order to accept the signal wires from the caps. Only bend the cut pins on the board side to create the open space. If you bend the pin side it will snap off way up into the plastic. I like the paired strands of the 1701a for hook up wire. I run these in a 6 foot length for my interconnects. They sound great and have replaced my Nordost Interconnects so the 1701a should make a nice hook up wire. The pairs are perfect for a balanced output or can be used with one carrying signal and the other floating ground to shield a single ended implementation where pin 3 will be left open for use only with an RCA adapter or adapting cables. The 4395 dac chip is installed along with a dedicated voltage regulator using an LT1085 in a heatsink and bypassed on all pins.




AK4395 Dac swap is now included in the pricing for the direct out mods. I finally took the time to develop the circuit mod that the AK4395
needs in order to supply it's 5v ( the 4393 uses 3.3v). It turned out
to be a very straight forward matter of adding another voltage
regulator. The new chip is unbelievable! It adds another quantum leap
in sonics to the one that the direct out accomplishes. The sound stage
is wider, deeper and taller, with a blacker background. Dynamics and
bass slam are an incredible improvement. Air and acoustic decay are
increased in fine detail giving the instruments a more realistic and
musical presentation. I have always liked AK4395 but had put it on the
back burner for years because it seemed that it would need an all new
board to make it more reliable as it was finniky when running on 3.3v.
Now I find that all that was need was to lift pin 2 and supply a
dedicated 5v. The sound is so much better! I am Psyched! Whereas the
4393 benefited from a slight amount of ultrasonic filtering, The AK4395
sounds incredible running straight out to the coupling cap, eliminating
the last few components in the way of the most pure sound I have ever
heard at any price.

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