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I have an MSB Link II and was contemplating the upsampling upgrade. Then in looking at all the Link II upgrade options in MSB's website, I wonder whether the Nelson Upgrade (upgraded components throughout the signal path etc) with upsampling would be a good idea; this is the option which gives you most back for your Link II as they swap it out for a new Link III, then do the upgrade. However, this now costs $684, or $984 with the recommended upgraded power supply.........at which point I start thinking of alternatives being the Bel Canto DAC1 for $1295, or EVS Millenium for $650 (+ expected $200 extra for upsampling later). What to do??? At the moment I'm inclined to just wait and listen for more opinions on the relative merits of these options. Another consideration though is whether I'd be "over-DACing" my transport, which is currently a Cambridge CD6 run through a Monarchy DIP Mk II. Sorry for the long ramble, but any thoughts?Thanks,
Nigel C
I also have a LinkDAC II, and am contemplating a similar upgrade, particularily with the upsampling board. With my DIYer perspective, and based on the description of the mods given on MSB's site, I feel that the Full Nelson Upgrade may be a bit overpriced, given that parts cost is probably under $100. I know this is unfair, and I do not mean to denigrate MSB at all, since they are a business and have their overhead costs, and it is nice to have the factory offer mods, since one of the major modder (EVS) is no longer doing them. However, there are getting to be several affordable 24/96 DACs on the market, "pre-tweaked", so to speak, and it may be good to look at these prior to commiting to a MSB upgrade.As for myself, I think I will go the DIY route and mod the unit myself, installing MSB's upsampling board, and building an external power supply. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of articles on POOGEing this unit, so I may end up putting together an web article on this.
David,I also feel that this "Full Nelson Upgrade is not cost effective with all the new DACS out there at reasonable prices. That has prompted me to do my own research into upgrading the Link II and building a new upgraded power supply. I started this project on Monday and I am "Googly EYED" already searching the Net for info.
In short, PS will consist of three Telema Toroidal Transformers for the "Future +12, -12 Analog stage and One for the +5 volt stage. After all my research I have decided to use ELNA caps for the PS. Of couse it will have High Speed Soft recovery Diodes, Wima for Bypass caps and low impedance Linear Technology regulators.
This just touches the surface on my journey to the MSB DAC upgrade. I have many more for the DAC itself. Keep posting, as I will when things start coming together.
Jose
For the external power supply, I would keep this a raw power supply with heavy filtration, using high speed diodes for the rectifiers. The LinkDAC already has 3-pin regulators for the +/-8V analog supplies that I would upgrade to Linear Technologies LT1085 +/-12 volt regulators. You may also want to upgrade the +5 volt DAC analog regulator to an equivalent LT1085 5volt reg. Leave the +5 volt digital regulator alone. If you do want to have a regulated external supply, I would regulate at +/-18 volts for the analog and +12 volts for the DAC analog/digital. That way you have enough spare voltage for the drop across the Link's regulators.As far as other mods, I would look at replacing the Link's power supply filter caps with a better quality cap, and bypass this cap with a good quality film, such as the WIMA's you suggest. I would also trackdown and replace all bypass caps downstream from the regulator with high quality films and electrolytics (for larger values). There are alot of 0.01uF ceramics used as bypasses in the circuit, and I think these should get pulled and replaced with something like the small Panasonic 50V Polypropylene caps at a minimum. Of course, upgrade all the analog system parts with Vishay or Caddock resistors, WIMA caps, and replace the opamp with a high slewrate opamp (easy, since it is socketed).
This is just a thinking piece for me right now, after taking a quick look inside the LinkDAC. I hope to start working on this mod after I finish a tube phono stage
It really doesn't look too bad to work with inside the Link, but the traces are fine, so use a fine tip iron and work quickly to avoid lifting traces.
Thanks for your comments; I think I'm going to continue a "watch and wait" policy. I'm definitely not a DIYer, so wouldn't consider any upgrades myself. By the way, what does POOGE mean?
Walt Jung did a number of articles for Audio Amateur back in the 1980's that took stock equipment and progressively modified them. POOGE. Progressive optimization of generic equipment. It is something like that.
I hope you do post your pooge results. It amazes me how many Links are out there, yet little on improving its performance. I did add a 2200 uf cap and film bypasses to the three filter caps and noted an improvement with the standard wall wort.
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