# FrankenZERO - A bang for buck exploration with a DIY Heart !



## Pricklely Peete

The long awaited (for one or two people) FrankenZERO project is complete and ready for prime time 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 After long months of work, testing, listening, testing some more, listening....sigh....here it is......(it's not much to look at, but sure sounds good) 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 All right let's get on with the heart of the upgrade.......As the subject title states this is indeed a true DIY project aimed at the low cost Zero 24/192 DAC and Headphone amp, the premise of which was/is, to see just how far a small investment in parts would take the little DAC/Amp down the road to improved overall sound quality. That judgement call will be left up to the individual as everyone's mileage may vary !! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The guiding principle of the entire project is to keep costs as low as possible using good quality parts to replace those that are of lesser quality. Add in some strategic bypassing using cheap high quality Russian NOS caps and thats the whole idea. Simple, clean and best of all fairly cheap.

 The blue print for this upgrade is what I will share with the Head Fi community at large, free to use, experiment with and hopefully enjoy for some time to come.

 With that I give you the illustrated and very crude ( gets the job done it's good enough for me) guide to turning the stock Zero into something a lot better SQ wise for not a lot of money. 

 Each section is broken down into Phases....of which there are three to complete the upgrade.

*Phase 1 Power Supply Sections*





*Phase 2 Analog/ Logic Sections*










*Phase 3 Headphone Amp*









 That's the entire upgrade. Mostly swapping parts with the addition of some number of PIO caps for bypass duty.

 For additional specific details feel free to PM me. 

 End users if they follow this blue print will have a pretty darn good boost in SQ after all is said and done. 

 A small number of kits (with all the parts needed for the mod) are available from me. PM for details of those. 

 The release of the actual "how to" info was always part of the plan so others could duplicate (if they wish) the project using their own parts......the caveat being your end result may not be the same. Goes without saying I suppose.

 Best Regards to all !!!!

 Peete.


 EDIT: Please note the PIO caps in the kit are a substitute for the original .047uf 160V K42Y-2 PIO caps. They are hard to source at times as they are getting very popular among DIY circles world wide. It is OK to get either (.047uf 160V or .033uf 500V) value and voltage rating for this mod. The smaller voltage value .047uf cap is physically smaller so it's easier to place on the underside of pcb.

 Both will fit. 

 Obviously better quality caps can be susbstituted for what I've used but your costs rise substantially so keep that in mind WRT why I chose the caps I did....it had/has to be a budget mod. IMO you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the Nichicon PW once bypassed with the K42Y-2 from the far more expensive Fine Gold big brother.

*Worthwhile cost effective subs *- the 4 x 100uf 25V caps around the dac chip (logic section I like to call it) Sanyo OS-CON are the preferred cap for this spot over all other brands including Black Gate (IMO at least), bypassed of course ( Russian or Sprague Vit Q PIO for all bypass work, the K42Y-2 is a Vit Q clone except better WRT it's overall SQ).
 The stock Elna Silmic 47uf 10V output coupling caps in the analog section (16V on some Zeros) upgraded to Elna cerafine 47uf 25V (or 35V depends if you can find a 25V).


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## Doorknob

Phase 1 pic looks really ugly. I can barely see the small print and the yellow lines leading to a component is incredibly hard to see. You can do well by darkening the lines on that pic also.

 Other pics looks okay.

 Where did you buy the parts? I'm interested in doing this mod but am having quite a hard time looking for them.

 Off to snip those additional caps.


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## Penchum

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Doorknob* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Phase 1 pic looks really ugly. I can barely see the small print and the yellow lines leading to a component is incredibly hard to see. You can do well by darkening the lines on that pic also.

 Other pics looks okay.

 Where did you buy the parts? I'm interested in doing this mod (Will be my first DIY with a soldering iron. I should be able to annoy my physics teach enough to help me on this.) but am having quite a hard time looking for them.

 Off to snip those additional caps._

 

In your pic viewer, zoom in a little. Everything will be larger and clearer.


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## ccschua

Yesterday I had a chance to listen to the cap mod (lots of ELNA, Nichicon, Red German WIMA and silver MICA) of the version 1 ZERO. all I can say about the zero is very nice piece of works. 

 The transparency become very obvious and I like the way NILS LOFGREN pluck his acoustics, with conviction and weight. The vocal is more natural and overall it is very musical. Bass has more attack and more control.


 1. Diode Bypass (reduce noise)
 2. Stability and Noise killing mod for digital section (PS bypass replaced with Silver Mica)
 3. Ground loop breaker mod (better caps)
 4. More capacitance for the main analog stage, from 4400uF to 6600uF
 5. More capacitance for the digital stage with Silmic II parallel, from 2000uF to 2330uF and bypass. 
 6. Cap replacement on analog output stage
 7. Film cap replacement with german Wimas near the clock, DAC and supply lines.


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## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Doorknob* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Phase 1 pic looks really ugly. I can barely see the small print and the yellow lines leading to a component is incredibly hard to see. You can do well by darkening the lines on that pic also.

 Other pics looks okay.

 Where did you buy the parts? I'm interested in doing this mod (Will be my first DIY with a soldering iron. I should be able to annoy my physics teach enough to help me on this.) but am having quite a hard time looking for them.

 Off to snip those additional caps._

 

If you download the pic and use a regular viewer it'll be much much larger in size. I had to compromise somewhat with the pic sizes here to remain dial up friendly but also be large enough to be usable. When I uploaded to photo bucket I downsized the originals to 1024 x 768 pixels.....the normal untouched size and resolution pics I can email to you if you want (in a Zip file)

 I sourced the electrolytic caps and diodes from Digi-Key Canada and the Russian PIO's from the Ukraine (eBay store called SOVCOM).

 I have a limited number of kits assembled for those that don't wish to source their own parts. PM me if your interested and I'll give you more details via regular email.

 Peete.


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## powertoold

If I just wanted to upgrade the DAC section, which part would I do - analog/logic?


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## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *powertoold* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_If I just wanted to upgrade the DAC section, which part would I do - analog/logic?_

 

The four 100uf caps around the DAC chip upgrade to Sanyo OS Cons/Elna Silmic or cerafine/Black gate etc... of same value and bypass all 4 with a top shelf PIO/Poly box on underside of pcb.....

 The power supply really needs work in this unit although the logic section upgrade alone should yield a decent return for money and time invested.

 Peete.


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## Penchum

I just thought I should mention that I'm currently reviewing the FrankenZero, completely modded (all by myself! LOL, with guidance from PP) with one of PP's mod kits. Due to some personal delays, I might not be done with the review for a little while longer, but I promise it is coming soon.

 I can say at this point, the FrankenZero is one heck of a great sounding DAC/Amp. The DAC section is extremely neutral and dynamic, with all the hallmarks of a superior DAC. My separate headphone amps have never had such an excellent sounding source before! The improvements are very universal, and can be heard with all of my headphone amps, from the MKII to the MKIVse for tubes, and also my MKV SS Headphone amp. The built-in headphone section has been transformed into a real clean and powerful head amp, that is leaps and bounds superior to the stock head amp. I'll have more details in the review, but I thought I should mention that the improvements are very noticeable in my main speaker rig as well. I'm testing the FrankenZero with everything I have, so that everyone can picture what the mods might mean for them.

 Doing the FrankenZero mod is a blast, if you are into DIY, and for those with some soldering/electronics experience in the past (like me), doing the FrankenZero mod is extremely rewarding! This is one of those mod projects where you can actually "hear" the differences you have made, which makes each phase of the mod more fun to complete. When the FrankenZero is done, and you've used it enough to mature all the caps, you are left with a real heavy weight contender, for very little cash! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thanks to the FrankenZero, I've canceled my plans to purchase a high end DAC for headphone amp use. Looking at this mod from an audiophile point of view, the SQ gained by this FrankenZero mod, are nothing short of amazing. Every aspect one might look for in a high end DAC/Amp, is here in the FrankenZero's presentation. I did a quick side by side comparison with my second (HeadFi Deal) Zero, and even my wife could hear the improvements! I see her eyeballing my second Zero, and I know exactly what she is plotting! She wants me to make her a FrankenZero for her home office! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Figures! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Hats off and a firm salute to PP for creating one outrageously fun and rewarding mod kit, the FrankenZero!

 Stay tuned!
 Pench


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## xxbaker

this looks pretty awesome. I was just wondering... whats the best place to pick up all of these parts?


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## MASantos

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *xxbaker* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_this looks pretty awesome. I was just wondering... whats the best place to pick up all of these parts?_

 

THe OP says he has kits for all the parts!


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## Pricklely Peete

Thank you mods !!! 

 Peete.


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## ccschua

Hi PP,

 Can I know do u have the parts for phase 1 and phase 2 mod.

 I would like to buy those.

 rgds.


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## Pricklely Peete

Check your PM box CC 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I'm going out for a bit but I'll talk to you after lunch today.

 regards,

 Peete.


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## Fremen

Hi PP,

 Nice work! Seems it's time for some soldering 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I made a caps mod around the DAC some months ago (replacing the caps with WIMA ones) but that was all.
 I have now received a HDAM Earth and will take some time to go further.
 Would you have some kits left for phase 1 and 2, including the caps for the HDAM mod?

 regards.


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## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Fremen* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi PP,

 Nice work! Seems it's time for some soldering 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I made a caps mod around the DAC some months ago (replacing the caps with WIMA ones) but that was all.
 I have now received a HDAM Earth and will take some time to go further.
 Would you have some kits left for phase 1 and 2, including the caps for the HDAM mod?

 regards._

 



 The whole kit is available..the last Phase really is worth doing and it happens to be the smallest of the 3, at 4 parts.

 All caps are included ,including the 1uf for the BA HDAM cap mod.

 PM for details. I'll answer later on tonight or Monday.

 Peete.


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## ccschua

May I know the characteristics of the paper in oil 0.033uF. 

 Is it having the effect to lower the ESR ? or is it serve to add more warm ?

 Adding the cap at power section is it called decoupling ? I am so confused with the "decoupling" terminology.


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## Pricklely Peete

CC,

 The K42Y-2 PIO's are like a Sprague Vit Q but with no negatives, the Russian caps have a better over all top end, are more transparent and do tend to leave less of a footprint behind.

 The theory behind the power supply coupling caps ...that's a good question. My best guess is like you have alluded to, lower ESR, some additional filtering and maybe some other benefit to which I have yet to read about. Some advocates of bypassing may be better to able to explain those theories. One thing is for sure...the result is quite noticeable and for the better in this instance (for the Zero).


 It's still considered something of a black art. Even though some of the caps of the Zero are bypassed already (with poly box caps) the addition of the PIO caps directly to the electrolytic + - poles has a great impact on the SQ's.

 Here are quotes I found that sum it up on the power supply filter caps....

 The power supply needs to 'look' like an AC short at all frequencies. The wound construction of large electrolytic caps means rising impedence WRT frequency. Bypassing with a good quality film cap keeps the impedence of the power supply low at these high frequencies.

 next quote.....

 Filtering incoming AC is only part of the job of the power supply caps. All frequencies amplified by the equipment are pulling current from, and sinking current to, these caps. If the impedance isn't low at all frequencies then performance is hindered.

 end quotes. From AudioKarma website.....EchoWars member.

 These findings IMO are born out in the actual listening tests...treble has improved substantially in the FrankenZERO...in fact the entire presentation has improved ....

 In any event the addition of these caps is a critical piece of the FrankenZERO puzzle.

 Peete.


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## Fremen

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Adding the cap at power section is it called decoupling ? I am so confused with the "decoupling" terminology._

 

Decoupling and Bypassing could be confusing because they look the same from the outside: adding a cap...

 Decoupling (usually just after a power supply or before an integrated circuit) is adding a "big tank of electrons" to lower the variations of voltage. In fact it lowers only low frequencies variations because of the technology of big caps used. And the bigger the cap is, usually the more noises it produces in the circuit.

 Bypassing is also adding a cap (eventually to another bigger cap), but smaller and with a different technology. In theory for high frequencies, a cap is similar to a short-circuit:
 - parallel cap to prevent the high frequencies from going into the circuit (usually by redirecting them to the OV for power supplies) 
 - serial cap for allowing them to go into the circuit (for example the ELNA SILMIC caps between the DAC and the DAC filter used to stop DC and not AC).

 With an ideal cap, decoupling and bypassing would be the same... but it doesn't exist. That's why you will find decoupling caps with bypassing caps.

 The modifications PP has made in the power section are:
 - increased decoupling efficiency (bigger caps)
 - better signal filtering (better quality caps + bypassing caps)

 You will find here some explanations on decoupling and bypassing.

 I hope it will help...


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## Pricklely Peete

Thanks Fremen......I've learned another little piece of the puzzle today thanks to your info. 

 That is how I understand things so far...it's interesting to note the sheer variety and ways of tackling the same issue.

 Peete.


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## sennsay

Although not a difficult job, this rebuild can be rather fiddly and there are a number of things to watch out for, especially for noobies and these tips are mostly for them. 
 While a number of Head-Fi readers have already modded their Zeros to varying degrees, I am going to focus specifically on the FrankenZero, though these tips can apply to any circuit board mods or creations from scratch. There will be a few photos along the way to add to my meaning, something I've always appreciated when building kits. 

 Firstly, some essential tools:

 A nice fine tipped soldering iron, no more than 25W is needed here. I also used a very fine tipped battery powered iron, which came in very handy at times.

 Solder wick - preferably the fine stuff, 1.5mm is plenty, you'll use a bit of it and it's particularly useful reaching under raised parts on the top of the board.

 Solder sucker, de-soldering pump, whatever name is appropriate for your country of origin.

 An old toothbrush and some Isopropyl alcohol to clean the newly soldered areas underneath the board when you're done. 

 An old white towel. Once you've taken your main board (and amp) from the case, lay it on the towel, it stops things moving around and it's a heck of a lot easier to see any parts that you are about to put onto the board and any that you may drop. 

 Other tools you'll need are some tweezers (I've used a terrific pair of medical ones for many years) or fine long nosed pliers, small wire cutters for trimming legs after soldering. 

 I also found a small 1mm drill bit was necessary in a couple of places to clear holes that were rather tight. You may be able to get away without this, but I found it invaluable, particularly for parts with thicker legs like the diodes and the larger power caps. 
 I used a battery powered hobby drill for this job, like a Dremel or similar. 
 A brief warning here: be very careful that you don't over do it and wreck a soldering pad that is part of a copper track!! 
 The copper tracks in the Zero are rather thin! While I have a warning here, please don't use too much heat on the solder pads to remove a part, you might end up lifting the copper and worse, cracking or tearing a pad away from the track! It happens, I did it with a pad that fortunately wasn't attached to a track and there are a few like that. 
 You ought to be ok with it, just be aware though. 

 Righto, let's get into it. 

 The board itself is pretty easy to remove, don't get too boisterous prising out the two sets of power connectors though, I noticed one of mine by the 5V regs was already cracked on assembly. 

 A tip here, especially for taller folks like me, find a platform to raise the work area to near chest height, it saves greatly of the back and shoulders! The lay your old towel over the platform. Take your HDAM or op-amps out of the socket and put it away somewhere, then I tend to start with the tall components and get them off the board first, it lays flatter after that. Remove the 4 power supply caps; put the tip of your iron on the solder pad and apply heat enough to melt the solder, then using the solder sucker (I'm used to that expression) place it right over the tip of the iron and suck up the solder. Eject the solder from the pump and push the plunger down again ready for the next pad. 
 You'll get the hang of it after several goes. Once you've done, say, one capacitor (two pads) use the solder wick to suck up the remaining solder; lay the end of the wick on the pad around the part's leg and apply the side of the iron's tip on top of the wick, you'll literally see the solder disappearing from the pad once it's done correctly. Please don't hold the iron there too long! If the solder is not sucking into the wick, just change the position of the iron's tip to give it a bit more heat, it's easier to do than describe. Once you've got it, you've got it. 
 You will need to use the wick on the pad at the top of the board under the component as well, in many cases. Please be patient here, this is the most time consuming and trickiest part of the whole job, I reckon. 

 Once the caps are done, then do all of the diodes, as specified in PP's instructions. Do all at once is easiest. Do this for all the remaining parts. Use the solder wick to clean up all of the solder pads, carefully. I specify 1-1.5mm wick because it uses a lot less heat to desolder than wider wick. If you have a hole with solder in the middle of it, sometimes it can be sucked out with the wick, or, if you can stand the board on it's edge, heat the pad on one side of the board and use the vacuum of the solder sucker/pump on the other side to remove the solder. If that fails, that's where the tiny drill bit can come in handy as a last resort. I needed to a couple of times. 

 Ok, then you are ready for the next stage, once all components that need to be are removed. 

 It's good practice to always start with the lowest/smallest parts on the board and this applies to starting from a new board as well. Start with the diodes then, pre-bending them and lay them out on the towel. You can use one the old diodes that you've removed as a pattern if you like. See pic below. I wanted the pics with the associated paragraph, but it may not turn out that way. 

 Start in one area with a small group of diodes, say, the ones around the digital power supply (PS) on the corner of the board near the transformer. Be very watchful that you replace the diodes exactly as is marked on the board, the cathode end of the diode is marked with a white bar, as is also marked on the board, see pic below. If you don't, you will be sending smoke signals that you got it wrong on firing up again! The silk screening on the Zero's board is correct, follow it and you will be fine. There is an example pic below. 

 Same goes for the capacitors, the barred side of the silk screened circle under the caps is the NEGATIVE side of the polarised capacitor, which is also clearly marked on the cap body itself - the white stripe with the - - on it is NEGATIVE. 

 Something to watch for: some of the capacitors are raised above the circuit board, there's an extremely good reason for this, you have to solder those legs on the top of the board as well! It becomes obvious when you look closely at the board, but if you miss one you may have a problem later. There are a few of the caps that are soldered to tracks on the top of the board and underneath to a pad only that is not connected to a track. IF you lift one of these pads that are connected to no copper track, just don't worry about it at all, just solder the top pad and you're done. 

 A soldering tip. When soldering, you apply the iron FIRST to the pad and component leg TOGETHER. If you heat the pad and not the leg, the solder won't stick to the component leg very well and a dry joint could well be a problem later. Once the leg and pad are heated (gently) apply the solder so that it flows around the leg and pad, then remove the iron. I always let the legs cool before snipping the extra length off, usually soldering several components first then cut all the legs later, this lets the join solidify. I've had joins fracture when cutting them too soon. There's a picture here of a group of diodes I've soldered, note also that the solder is shiny and bright, unlike many of the joins that came with my unit. A dull join is a bad join, more often than not! 

 Now we're getting somewhere, if all that has gone well, then comes the addition of the Russian Beauties! This can get tricky from the point of view of placing the green caps around the board so that they all fit in without shorting other components. I find the neatest way is the best way (pics below). Straighten the legs first and heat shrink the protective tubing onto them, then bend the legs into the required shapes, the pics below and those that PP has given you with the kit instructions are a good guide. Once you've done a few, it's pretty straight (um ... bent ..) forward. You'll need to shape them so that the capacitor body lies very close to the board to fit between the board and the case when reassembling. Do your best to get this right first up, as relying on squishing the caps flatter when you put the board back can easily strain a solder join! 
 On firing my board up for the first time, I had no power to the front panel of the digital stages, yet had power to the analogue stages and amp. The problem turned out to be a cracked copper track where I had soldered a Russian Beauty to one of the power supply caps in the digital stage. This is very thin copper and it's not hard to crack a track when bending a PIO cap a little flatter! All became well when I made a new little bit of track with a leg cut-off and Frankie fired up to my great delight!

 I will reiterate that neatness assembling the line-up of PIOs makes things easier! Be careful with the four around the DAC, I have included a pic here, though I believe PP has more with the instructions in the kit. 

 The amp mods are pretty straight forward after the main board! 

 Lastly, there is the big 1uF PIO for the HDAM, if you have one (For God's sake, why NOT? ) Pic below. I found it fit quite well as shown in the photograph, I don't like adding extra leg, so to speak, if I can help it. Well, not in this context, anyway. 
 My HDAM sits quite nicely in there with the cap just resting on one of the relays. 

 CHECK ALL SOLDER JOINTS for clean and shiny solder and that there are no tiny cracks in the copper tracks around them! Better now than later. 

 Once the boards have all the parts soldered in, use the toothbrush dipped in a little Isopropyl alcohol to scrub up your joins - not too forcefully - and remove excess flux, either on your own joins, and/or the original soldering on the board if it needs it. 

 Well, that's about it for the moment, if there's anything I've forgotten, I will add it in later or someone will remind me about something. I welcome any other questions you might have and I will answer as best I can, or PP too. 

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Now for the very best part! If all has gone well and Frankie has fired up ok and you have music streaming from the DAC, you have many many hours of delights that await you. 
 My God, do you ever! The effort is worth it, persevere if you have an issue here or there, there are a number of us who can help out. 
 In fact, the joys of Frankie are so great that I feel a little emotional even starting to talk about it now. Forget how the old Zero used to sound, it's gone now. Even from cold and new, things are quite different, if a little cool and edgy for the first couple of hours. You ought to notice that everything is bigger and this will increase as time goes by. I'm not going to go too may details here, Penchum has a no doubt magnificent write up and review coming that will describe in his inimitable way pretty much what I and PP have experienced. It will stun you, knock your socks off, take you into a realm where the meaning of budget audio is completely blasted into whole new dimensions of musical expression. You may find yourself not even considering price any more, as it has become rather meaningless in light of how Frankie transforms over time into something vastly beyond such considerations. It takes time. The PIO caps take a long time to form, some 250 hours plus. My Frankie is only at the 90+ hour mark and has gone through several stages of quite gobsmacking shifts in all areas of musical expression. So have I, for that matter! 
 Ah me, sometimes I have been completely lost for words, (though when I could find them, PP's had a few!). True musical expression comes from and moves to the heart and this is where Frankie excels magnificently, stunningly, gently, stupendously, exquisitely. Beautifully. I am utterly spellbound, even at this very moment, by an effortless flow of musical art flowing into my being that transcends the very electronics themselves, a gestalt of beauty. 
 Albums I could barely listen too previously have become gems, old favourites are shifted into new realms of musical communication and expression, all instruments and human voices gain a level of reality and solidity that I have rarely heard from megabuck gear, let alone anything remotely considered quality budget kit. We're talking quantum leaps here in ways that are very difficult to describe, though I'm pretty sure Pench will take you much closer to that understanding. Best of all, experience it for yourself! 
 Here's something I didn't expect, Frankie's amp has turned into quite something else! 
 True, it is still no KHA (speaking personally, of course), but this amp is an absolute hoot of a ride with my Denon HD1000's!! Man, did I have a ball with the B52s this evening! 
 I had originally found the amp somewhat lacking in pizzazz, chutzpah and general interest, likable enough at times, but not my cuppa Joe. Well, that's out the window now, she's come to life and kicks butt, even if the highs are still not that extended or the lowest bass for that matter (the Meier 2Move cleans it up for neutrality and extension both ends of the spectrum, as I found out this evening with Frankie's DAC connected). It's a blast and good news for Denon owners who choose Frankie as a new life. 

 S-Man


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## sennsay

Although not a difficult job, this rebuild can be rather fiddly and there are a number of things to watch out for, especially for noobies and these tips are mostly for them. If it seems daunting, please get some more skilled help, as I cannot be held responsible for Zero's going phut! This is your own choice to take this task on board. 
 While a number of Head-Fi readers have already modded their Zeros to varying degrees, I am going to focus specifically on the FrankenZero, though these tips can apply to any circuit board mods or creations from scratch. There will be a few photos along the way to add to my meaning, something I've always appreciated when building kits. 

 Firstly, some essential tools:

 A nice fine tipped soldering iron, no more than 25W is needed here. I also used a very fine tipped battery powered iron, which came in very handy at times.

 Solder wick - preferably the fine stuff, 1.5mm is plenty, you'll use a bit of it and it's particularly useful reaching under raised parts on the top of the board.

 Solder sucker, de-soldering pump, whatever name is appropriate for your country of origin.

 An old toothbrush and some Isopropyl alcohol to clean the newly soldered areas underneath the board when you're done. 

 An old white towel. Once you've taken your main board (and amp) from the case, lay it on the towel, it stops things moving around and it's a heck of a lot easier to see any parts that you are about to put onto the board and any that you may drop. 

 Other tools you'll need are some tweezers (I've used a terrific pair of medical ones for many years) or fine long nosed pliers, small wire cutters for trimming legs after soldering. 

 I also found a small 1mm drill bit was necessary in a couple of places to clear holes that were rather tight. You may be able to get away without this, but I found it invaluable, particularly for parts with thicker legs like the diodes and the larger power caps. 
 I used a battery powered hobby drill for this job, like a Dremel or similar. 
*A brief warning here: be very careful that you don't over do it and wreck a soldering pad that is part of a copper track!! 
 The copper tracks in the Zero are rather thin! While I have a warning here, please don't use too much heat on the solder pads to remove a part, you might end up lifting the copper and worse, cracking or tearing a pad away from the track! It happens, I did it with a pad that fortunately wasn't attached to a track and there are a few like that. 
 You ought to be ok with it, just be aware though. *

 Righto, let's get into it. 

 The board itself is pretty easy to remove, don't get too boisterous prising out the two sets of power connectors though, I noticed one of mine by the 5V regs was already cracked on assembly. 

 A tip here, especially for taller folks like me, find a platform to raise the work area to near chest height, it saves greatly of the back and shoulders! The lay your old towel over the platform. Take your HDAM or op-amps out of the socket and put it away somewhere, then I tend to start with the tall components and get them off the board first, it lays flatter after that. Remove the 4 power supply caps; put the tip of your iron on the solder pad and apply heat enough to melt the solder, then using the solder sucker (I'm used to that expression) place it right over the tip of the iron and suck up the solder. Eject the solder from the pump and push the plunger down again ready for the next pad. 
 You'll get the hang of it after several goes. Once you've done, say, one capacitor (two pads) use the solder wick to suck up the remaining solder; lay the end of the wick on the pad around the part's leg and apply the side of the iron's tip on top of the wick, you'll literally see the solder disappearing from the pad once it's done correctly. Please don't hold the iron there too long! If the solder is not sucking into the wick, just change the position of the iron's tip to give it a bit more heat, it's easier to do than describe. Once you've got it, you've got it. 
 You will need to use the wick on the pad at the top of the board under the component as well, in many cases. Please be patient here, this is the most time consuming and trickiest part of the whole job, I reckon. 

 Once the caps are done, then do all of the diodes, as specified in PP's instructions. Do all at once is easiest. Do this for all the remaining parts. Use the solder wick to clean up all of the solder pads, carefully. I specify 1-1.5mm wick because it uses a lot less heat to desolder than wider wick. If you have a hole with solder in the middle of it, sometimes it can be sucked out with the wick, or, if you can stand the board on it's edge, heat the pad on one side of the board and use the vacuum of the solder sucker/pump on the other side to remove the solder. If that fails, that's where the tiny drill bit can come in handy as a last resort. I needed to a couple of times. 

 Ok, then you are ready for the next stage, once all components that need to be are removed. 

 It's good practice to always start with the lowest/smallest parts on the board and this applies to starting from a new board as well. Start with the diodes then, pre-bending them and lay them out on the towel. You can use one the old diodes that you've removed as a pattern if you like. Bend them gently with the long nosed plier or tweezers. See pic below. I wanted the pics with the associated paragraph, but it may not turn out that way. 

 Start in one area with a small group of diodes, say, the ones around the digital power supply (PS) on the corner of the board near the transformer. Be very watchful that you replace the diodes exactly as is marked on the board, the cathode end of the diode is marked with a white bar, as is also marked on the board, *see pic below*. If you don't, you will be sending smoke signals that you got it wrong on firing up again! The silk screening on the Zero's board is correct, follow it and you will be fine. 

 Same goes for the capacitors, the barred side of the silk screened circle under the caps is the NEGATIVE side of the polarised capacitor, which is also clearly marked on the cap body itself - the white stripe with the - - on it is NEGATIVE. 

 Something to watch for: some of the capacitors are raised above the circuit board, there's an extremely good reason for this, you have to solder those legs on the top of the board as well! It becomes obvious when you look closely at the board, but if you miss one you may have a problem later. There are a few of the caps that are soldered to tracks on the top of the board and underneath to a pad only that is not connected to a track. IF you lift one of these pads that are connected to no copper track, just don't worry about it at all, just solder the top pad and you're done. 

 A soldering tip. When soldering, you apply the iron FIRST to the pad and component leg TOGETHER. If you heat the pad and not the leg, the solder won't stick to the component leg very well and a dry joint could well be a problem later. This is especially essential when using silver solder if you choose to use it. Once the leg and pad are heated (gently) apply the solder so that it flows around the leg and pad, then remove the iron. I always let the legs cool before snipping the extra length off, usually soldering several components first then cut all the legs later, this lets the join solidify. I've had joins fracture when cutting them too soon. There's a picture here of a group of diodes I've soldered, note also that the solder is shiny and bright, unlike many of the joins that came with my unit. *A dull join is a bad join, more often than not!* 

 Now we're getting somewhere, if all that has gone well, then comes the addition of the Russian Beauties! This can get tricky from the point of view of placing the green caps around the board so that they all fit in without shorting other components. I find the neatest way is the best way (pics below). Straighten the legs first and heat shrink the protective tubing onto them, then bend the legs into the required shapes, the pics below and those that PP has given you with the kit instructions are a good guide. Once you've done a few, it's pretty straight (um ... bent ..) forward. You'll need to shape them so that the capacitor body lies very close to the board to fit between the board and the case when reassembling. Do your best to get this right first up, as relying on squishing the caps flatter when you put the board back can easily strain a solder join! 
 On firing my board up for the first time, I had no power to the front panel or the digital stages, yet had power to the analogue stages and amp. The problem turned out to be a cracked copper track where I had soldered a Russian Beauty to one of the power supply caps in the digital stage. This is very thin copper and it's not hard to crack a track when bending a PIO cap a little flatter! All became well when I made a new little bit of track with a leg cut-off and Frankie fired up to my great delight!

 I will reiterate that neatness assembling the line-up of PIOs makes things easier! Be careful with the four around the DAC, I have included a pic here, though I believe PP has more with the instructions in the kit. 

 The amp mods are pretty straight forward after the main board! 

 Lastly, there is the big 1uF PIO for the HDAM, if you have one (For God's sake, why NOT? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





) Pic below. I found it fit quite well as shown in the photograph, I don't like adding extra leg, so to speak, if I can help it. Well, not in this context, anyway. 
 My HDAM sits quite nicely in there with the cap just resting on one of the relays. 

 CHECK ALL SOLDER JOINTS for clean and shiny solder and that there are no tiny cracks in the copper tracks around them! Better now than later. Use a magnifier if you have to. Many techs do. 

 Once the boards have all the parts soldered in, use the toothbrush dipped in a little Isopropyl alcohol to scrub up your joins - not too forcefully - and remove excess flux, either on your own joins, and/or the original soldering on the board if it needs it. 

 Well, that's about it for the moment, if there's anything I've forgotten, I will add it in later or someone will remind me about something. I welcome any other questions you might have and I will answer as best I can, or PP too. 

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Now for the very best part! If all has gone well and Frankie has fired up ok and you have music streaming from the DAC, you have many many hours of delights that await you. 
 My God, do you ever! The effort is worth it, persevere if you have an issue here or there, there are a number of us who can help out. 
 In fact, the joys of Frankie are so great that I feel a little emotional even starting to talk about it now. Forget how the old Zero used to sound, it's gone now. Even from cold and new, things are quite different, if a little cool and edgy for the first couple of hours. You ought to notice that everything is bigger and this will increase as time goes by. I'm not going to go too may details here, Penchum has a no doubt magnificent write up and review coming that will describe in his inimitable way pretty much what I and PP have experienced. It will stun you, knock your socks off, take you into a realm where the meaning of budget audio is completely blasted into whole new dimensions of musical expression. You may find yourself not even considering price any more, as it has become rather meaningless in light of how Frankie transforms over time into something vastly beyond such considerations. It takes time. The PIO caps take a long time to form, some 250 hours plus. My Frankie is only at the 100 hour mark and has gone through several stages of quite gobsmacking shifts in all areas of musical expression. So have I, for that matter! 
 Ah me, sometimes I have been completely lost for words, (though when I could find them, PP's had a few!). True musical expression comes from and moves to the heart and this is where Frankie excels magnificently, stunningly, gently, stupendously, exquisitely. Beautifully. I am utterly spellbound, even at this very moment, by an effortless flow of musical art flowing into my being that transcends the very electronics themselves, a gestalt of beauty. 
 Albums I could barely listen too previously have become gems, old favourites are shifted into new realms of musical communication and expression, all instruments and human voices gain a level of reality and solidity that I have rarely heard from megabuck gear, let alone anything remotely considered quality budget kit. We're talking quantum leaps here in ways that are very difficult to describe, though I'm pretty sure Pench will take you much closer to that understanding. Best of all, experience it for yourself! 
 Here's something I didn't expect, Frankie's amp has turned into quite something else! 
 True, it is still no KHA (speaking personally, of course), but this amp is an absolute hoot of a ride with my Denon D1000's!! Man, did I have a ball with the B52s this evening! 
 I had originally found the amp somewhat lacking in pizzazz, chutzpah and general interest, likable enough at times, but not really my cuppa Joe. Well, that's out the window now, she's come to life and kicks butt, even if the highs are still not that extended or the lowest bass for that matter (the Meier 2Move cleans it up for neutrality and extension both ends of the spectrum, as I found out this evening with Frankie's DAC connected). It's a blast and good news for Denon owners who choose Frankie as a new life. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 PS Gear used by myself for these musings are, FrankenZero (Frankie) with OPA Earth HDAM in the DAC; KHA (my kit amp) as Mk I.5 with with OPA Moon onboard, amp is upgraded with Nichicon Muse FG and FA caps and Elna Silmic II caps in power supply and on the main board and Russian PIO caps in the output stages. Headphones are Senn HD 650 and Denon D1000's. 

 Adding the higher SQ cps to KHA has taken it to new heights of musical expression as well and is still burning in, with the same number of hours as Frankie. Stunning upgrade! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





 S-Man


----------



## bgt

post moved to correct thread


----------



## Currawong

bgt: Very nice. I've been thinking of doing the same thing with mine, but in a chassis that is tall enough for the HDAM to sit without extension wires. I need some tools to cut holes though.


----------



## bgt

Oops, put my mod. in the wrong thread.
 How to move it to the Zero MOD thread?
 Currawong, yes its a pitty the HDAM is in the place it is right now although I can hear no effect of it being where it is now.
 But ofcourse the best is to have it directly at the 8pin socket.
 I am still not sure though if I keep it in? I will burn it in for 300 hrs and than compare it again to the OPA627 and LM49722's.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Bert could you remove the post please. Just edit and delete contents...then leave behind "post moved to correct thread"

 Thanks 

 Peete.


----------



## dacavalcante

I make SS words, my words....
 Just finished my Franken Upgrade.... this is really a must do for all Zero owners... even fresh done like mine it's much better....
 Highs, yes highs! It seems that they are out of the closet now and softer.
 Bigger sound stage, and low bass response....
 More details like breathing and others mouth sounds....
 But highs are really the great surprise fresh like it's right now. Just excelent!


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *dacavalcante* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I make SS words, my words....
 Just finished my Franken Upgrade.... this is really a must do for all Zero owners... even fresh done like mine it's much better....
 Highs, yes highs! It seems that they are out of the closet now and softer.
 Bigger sound stage, and low bass response....
 More details like breathing and others mouth sounds....
 But highs are really the great surprise fresh like it's right now. Just excelent!_

 

Good onya, dacavalante! My Frankie has hit the 100 hour+ mark now and has gone through several ... um ... mutations in that time. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I'm excited there is someone else who is going to be grinning from ear to ear , singing their heart out and tapping the feet 'til they ache! I do! 
 Was the mod pretty straight forward for you?
 I agree, even straight out of the box, so to speak, Frankie is a big improvement on the stock unit with the Earth HDAM, as good as that was. 
 The funny and amazing thing is, that sound is now so far back in history, that I can barely even remember it, so far removed are the advances that Franking The Zero (snort 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




) brings to play - literally! 

 S-Man


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Good onya, dacavalante! My Frankie has hit the 100 hour+ mark now and has gone through several ... um ... mutations in that time. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I'm excited there is someone else who is going to be grinning from ear to ear , singing their heart out and tapping the feet 'til they ache! I do! 
 Was the mod pretty straight forward for you?
 I agree, even straight out of the box, so to speak, Frankie is a big improvement on the stock unit with the Earth HDAM, as good as that was. 
 The funny and amazing thing is, that sound is now so far back in history, that I can barely even remember it, so far removed are the advances that Franking The Zero (snort 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




) brings to play - literally! 

 S-Man 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Yeah SS, let's make 2 toasts!
 One to Penchum for introducing Zero
 And another one to PP for bringing this kit out ! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







 I also can't remeber what a stock unit sounds like... but I guess Franken must be far far ahead from it.... so much improvements were done......

 Well, upgrading Zero to Franken was tuff.... not because it's a complicated thing, but due a bad solder sucker I had and used.....
 There were pretty scaring moments when I thought I would mess with my zero or Franken kit caps..... Believe me it was a trully relief when the lights poped and sound came from my 650.... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I even soldered a diode backwards, but lucky I realized that even before moving to the next one.....
 I also desoldered a resistor thinking it was a capacitor... I got a little confused by my sight perspective..... LoL.... but no damages, I just put it back and problem solved.

 Here goes a valuable tip for those who will still upgrade zero to franken:

 - First Prepare caps with shrink wrap.

 - Take some pictures from your Zero, specially the cables grey position, mark one of them so you know which one goes where on the white sockets.

 - Start with Part 3 (headphone section upgrade), this will get you the confidence you need to go through the rest of the process and also gives you a great ideia of what is ahead.

 - Then move to diodes switch.

 - After that, you can replace caps in any order you want...

 - The Last thing is to install the bypass caps. Think careful about the position you will fit then.... Try to stick to PP model because everytime I tried to make it different, I realized that PP already had done it the best way.


 Well, I haven't done this way most of things in the process, so I know that following those steps will for sure spare you some rework, reduce risk of damaging new parts and even Zero.


----------



## Doorknob

Finished doing my first DIY audio soldering project. This is something even a complete newbie can do, just replace and bypass caps.

 I'd say it took about a total of 6 hours to complete the whole mod. 1 hour for the head amp and the HDAM cap mod, then the rest 5 hours without almost any breaks to complete the main board. Do your back a favor and take breaks every one hour or so.

 After it was done, I hooked it up and crossed my fingers, hoping the unit wouldn't explode into millions of mini firecrackers. First music I've fired up, there was more detail and lower bass was much more improved as in you can hear some notes you couldn't before with the un-soldered Zero. Soundstage might've improved. As of right now, I don't hear much differences between the un-soldered and the soldered Zero and am waiting for the burn in time to come.

 If the next 24 hours brings me double the joy, then this will surely be a killer bang for the buck unit.


----------



## DaMnEd

It would be interesting to see RMAA results for the Frankie and comparing them to the a "usual" ZERO, RMAA figures are not a be all and end all result as to SQ, but it can point out possible problems, I have never seen RMAA for any Zero let alone the Frankie!

 Anyone with a Frankie/zero and a proper soundcard for RMAA?


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *dacavalcante* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yeah SS, let's make 2 toasts!
 One to Penchum for introducing Zero
 And another one to PP for bringing this kit out ! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			








 I also can't remeber what a stock unit sounds like... but I guess Franken must be far far ahead from it.... so much improvements were done......

 Well, upgrading Zero to Franken was tuff.... not because it's a complicated thing, but due a bad solder sucker I had and used.....
 There were pretty scaring moments when I thought I would mess with my zero or Franken kit caps..... Believe me it was a trully relief when the lights poped and sound came from my 650.... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I even soldered a diode backwards, but lucky I realized that even before moving to the next one.....
 I also desoldered a resistor thinking it was a capacitor... I got a little confused by my sight perspective..... LoL.... but no damages, I just put it back and problem solved.

 Here goes a valuable tip for those who will still upgrade zero to franken:

 - First Prepare caps with shrink wrap.

 - Take some pictures from your Zero, specially the cables grey position, mark one of them so you know which one goes where on the white sockets.

 - Start with Part 3 (headphone section upgrade), this will get you the confidence you need to go through the rest of the process and also gives you a great ideia of what is ahead.

 - Then move to diodes switch.

 - After that, you can replace caps in any order you want...

 - The Last thing is to install the bypass caps. Think careful about the position you will fit then.... Try to stick to PP model because everytime I tried to make it different, I realized that PP already had done it the best way.


 Well, I haven't done this way most of things in the process, so I know that following those steps will for sure spare you some rework, reduce risk of damaging new parts and even Zero. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Actually, dacava, that's a couple of great tips you have there! I hadn't thought of doing the amp first, because that was the least important part of the upgrade for me. The fact that the amp has improved remarkably has been a huge bonus and especially with the Denon cans. The Senns are still happiest with KHA in Mk I.5 mode. 
 I've always been in complete agreement that Pench and PP have done great service to the audio community that we love here! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Doorknob* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Finished doing my first DIY audio soldering project. This is something even a complete newbie can do, just replace and bypass caps.

 I'd say it took about a total of 6 hours to complete the whole mod. 1 hour for the head amp and the HDAM cap mod, then the rest 5 hours without almost any breaks to complete the main board. Do your back a favor and take breaks every one hour or so.

 After it was done, I hooked it up and crossed my fingers, hoping the unit wouldn't explode into millions of mini firecrackers. First music I've fired up, there was more detail and lower bass was much more improved as in you can hear some notes you couldn't before with the un-soldered Zero. Soundstage might've improved. As of right now, I don't hear much differences between the un-soldered and the soldered Zero and am waiting for the burn in time to come.

 If the next 24 hours brings me double the joy, then this will surely be a killer bang for the buck unit._

 

Yes, it's really not hard, my problem was with the solder sucker......
 It was not taking all solder out properly.... so I had to heat the solder points and pull all parts out..... to place de new ones was the same problem... heat and push one "leg" at a time.....
 This was painful... in total I must have spend 10 hours doing it....

  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *DaMnEd* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_It would be interesting to see RMAA results for the Frankie and comparing them to the a "usual" ZERO, RMAA figures are not a be all and end all result as to SQ, but it can point out possible problems, I have never seen RMAA for any Zero let alone the Frankie!

 Anyone with a Frankie/zero and a proper soundcard for RMAA? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

The problem is: Why someone with enough money to buy a Lynx would buy a Zero ? Maybe some magazine would do it if only they knew zero..... I think it isn't still much popular....


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Actually, dacava, that's a couple of great tips you have there! I hadn't thought of doing the amp first, because that was the least important part of the upgrade for me. The fact that the amp has improved remarkably has been a huge bonus and especially with the Denon cans. The Senns are still happiest with KHA in Mk I.5 mode. 
 I've always been in complete agreement that Pench and PP have done great service to the audio community that we love here! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man_

 

Hey S-Man, call me DaC LoL =]]]]]] 

 I hope to get an mk3 sometime...... maybe next year... dunno...


----------



## DaMnEd

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *dacavalcante* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_The problem is: Why someone with enough money to buy a Lynx would buy a Zero ? Maybe some magazine would do it if only they knew zero..... I think it isn't still much popular...._

 

You don't need a Lynx to do RMAA, a simple Asus Xonar could to it, or a ESI Juli@, as long as the platform does not change for both tests that much the figures can be compared.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *dacavalcante* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hey S-Man, call me DaC LoL =]]]]]] 

 I hope to get an mk3 sometime...... maybe next year... dunno..._

 

HAH! DaC it is!
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Can feel for you with the solder sucker ... um .. sucking ... in a bad bad way. 
 Fortunately mine was good for that first major suck, then I found using the narrow - 1.5mm - solder wick worth it's weight in gold. More often than not, it just slurped the remaining solder right outa there! 
 My only problem was the crack in the power supply track and fortunately I knew where to look for it by the LEDS not lighting up in the appropriate places. 
 Frankie sure is singing this morning, she's going through a slightly warm stage today, but the sound is huge with it! Wicked and effortless dynamic swings and the soundstage is expanding out more now, not that it was small before! Just realised how 'analogue' it sounds today, in the best possible sense. I think this might be an 'aha' moment. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *dacavalcante* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yes, it's really not hard, my problem was with the solder sucker......
 It was not taking all solder out properly.... so I had to heat the solder points and pull all parts out..... to place de new ones was the same problem... heat and push one "leg" at a time.....
 This was painful... in total I must have spend 10 hours doing it....



 The problem is: Why someone with enough money to buy a Lynx would buy a Zero ? Maybe some magazine would do it if only they knew zero..... I think it isn't still much popular...._

 

Well, they might if they heard Frankie! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 S-Man


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *DaMnEd* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_It would be interesting to see RMAA results for the Frankie and comparing them to the a "usual" ZERO, RMAA figures are not a be all and end all result as to SQ, but it can point out possible problems, I have never seen RMAA for any Zero let alone the Frankie!

 Anyone with a Frankie/zero and a proper soundcard for RMAA? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

I have an Auzen Prelude being used as transport to my Frank and it's the original prototype although the H/Amp section is considerably improved over even the base Frankie...I could measure the DAC section if I have the right stuff to do it....any help you can lend to that end ? I really don't hold much stock in these measurements personally...but I'd be curious to see if Frank has improved freq response and a much improved SNR....which I believe is the case born out of listening tests for months on end.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Thanks for the kind words DaC and DK....I hope you have many years of enjoyment from your Frankie's 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I'm really happy you guys had some fun doing these mods even if some of it was difficult....that experience will allow you to tackle other projects in the future (of your own making perhaps).

 It's all good !!!

 Best Regards,

 Peete.


----------



## DaMnEd

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I have an Auzen Prelude being used as transport to my Frank and it's the original prototype although the H/Amp section is considerably improved over even the base Frankie...I could measure the DAC section if I have the right stuff to do it....any help you can lend to that end ? I really don't hold much stock in these measurements personally...but I'd be curious to see if Frank has improved freq response and a much improved SNR....which I believe is the case born out of listening tests for months on end.

 Peete._

 

Sure Peete,

 Im no expert at this but I can try to help with the little I understand about RMAA.

 First you install RMAA (duh) freeware version
 Then you test your Auzen for base comparison, you have instructions on how to test a X-FI here: SoundBlaster X-Fi Series Testing Methodology
 For this X-FI test all you need is a mini-mini cable to do a loopback, line-in to line-out.
 Do the "Sound card output (playback) test" 16/44 should be what most want to see, since it is what most of us use.

 Then to test the ZERO you have to introduce it to the chain, so your digital out from the Auzen connects to the ZERO (coax or optical), and the ZERO analog out (RCAs line level on the back) connects to the line-in of the Auzen, for recording/analyses.

 In this case you need a RCA(x2) to mini cable.

 The test will be the "Real-time external audio equipment test"

 I'm not sure if the ZERO output level is too low for the RMAA to work, if it is an amp would have to be introduced in the chain, lets hope not. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I am using my motherboard as a transport and my Zero is a WIP atm since I am changing the busted IEC inlet that came with it this week, it caused my ZERO to be disconnected/connect at will or with any little tiny movement, so I cant do this, but I will soon have a X-FI here for transport (I want EAX for gaming) and I will do the same to my not quite as modified ZERO. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 If anyone out their wants to add or correct something I said, please do, as I said, I Am a n00b at RMAA testing.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *DaMnEd* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Sure Peete,

 Im no expert at this but I can try to help with the little I understand about RMAA.

 First you install RMAA (duh) freeware version
 Then you test your Auzen for base comparison, you have instructions on how to test a X-FI here: SoundBlaster X-Fi Series Testing Methodology
 For this X-FI test all you need is a mini-mini cable to do a loopback, line-in to line-out.
 Do the "Sound card output (playback) test" 16/44 should be what most want to see, since it is what most of us use.

 Then to test the ZERO you have to introduce it to the chain, so your digital out from the Auzen connects to the ZERO (coax or optical), and the ZERO analog out (RCAs line level on the back) connects to the line-in of the Auzen, for recording/analyses.

 In this case you need a RCA(x2) to mini cable.

 The test will be the "Real-time external audio equipment test"

 I'm not sure if the ZERO output level is too low for the RMAA to work, if it is an amp would have to be introduced in the chain, lets hope not. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I am using my motherboard as a transport and my Zero is a WIP atm since I am changing the busted IEC inlet that came with it this week, it caused my ZERO to be disconnected/connect at will or with any little tiny movement, so I cant do this, but I will soon have a X-FI here for transport (I want EAX for gaming) and I will do the same to my not quite as modified ZERO. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 If anyone out their wants to add or correct something I said, please do, as I said, I Am a n00b at RMAA testing. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 


 Thanks D,

 I think I have the right cables to do just that. The Auzen has an RMAA mode in Audio Creation panel...I did some preliminary test runs using RMAA Pro 6.2.1 and the results are astoundingly good for the SC in 16/44.1 and 24/96.

 Basically flat freq response and vanishingly low SNR, with outstanding dynamic response and virtually perfect channel separation.

 Obviously I need to get the Frankie in that loop.

 I will give it a try this week.......stay tuned.

 Peete.


----------



## Doorknob

30 hours into it and I'm hearing remarkable changes.

 Bass has improved both in quantity and quality. Before the mod, I was seriously worried about the amount of bass Zero was giving. Could even barely hear most of the bass notes in jazz trios. Now it appears to have a proper weight to it and I have no problem being able to listen to drums in incredibly confusing rock/electronic musics. 

 Detail has also skyrocketed. A-900 cans aren't renowned for their detail but as soon as I put on some of 65daysofstatic electronics, I had no idea I was missing out a lot of detail in music.

 Soundstage seems to have gone through some changes. They might have become larger but as of right now I can't make a solid statement. However I can safely say that music actually sounds much more live.

 Before the modding of the Zero, I used to lower the 880Hz and boost the low midrange and high midrange on Foobar. There was this large hump in the 880Hz range where it sounds quite unnatural and produced a sort of honky noise. The important midranges, both low and the high part, felt very recessed and lacking. Not to mention bass didn't have the proper snap and weight to it. After modding I started using a flat EQ because all those problems I've had were gone. Now EQing is just a matter of taste, not to try to balance the sound.

 After the Franken Zero has fully burned in, I might be in for a small review. This little unit sounds absolutely terrific.


----------



## Penchum

For you guys who have done your FrankenZeros already:

 PP and I both noticed that as the PIO caps mature, the soundstage can change drastically by going from narrow to super wide and back, and the upper highs and lower lows, can come and go as well. Since we had the exact same thing happen with our FrankenZero's, we consider these traits to be normal growing (maturing) pains. They will pass, the closer you get to 250 hours, and maybe a few more hours in some cases. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thanks for the kind words guys! I can't stop listening to my FrankenZero! Once it is completely matured, testing it in different situations is a great deal of fun, because of its superior SQ. It has turned all my headphone amps into super headphone amps! Its analog output is fantastic for speaker systems too!

 All hail the FrankenZero! Just like Frankenstein, he is the sum of all his parts, ready to scare away unwanted audio properties! What a monster! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Egor, hand me the last by-pass cap! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 OMG, It's alive, It's alive! Hide the women and children! Burn the village!


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Penchum* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_For you guys who have done your FrankenZeros already:

 PP and I both noticed that as the PIO caps mature, the soundstage can change drastically by going from narrow to super wide and back, and the upper highs and lower lows, can come and go as well. Since we had the exact same thing happen with our FrankenZero's, we consider these traits to be normal growing (maturing) pains. They will pass, the closer you get to 250 hours, and maybe a few more hours in some cases. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thanks for the kind words guys! I can't stop listening to my FrankenZero! Once it is completely matured, testing it in different situations is a great deal of fun, because of its superior SQ. It has turned all my headphone amps into super headphone amps! Its analog output is fantastic for speaker systems too!

 All hail the FrankenZero! Just like Frankenstein, he is the sum of all his parts, ready to scare away unwanted audio properties! What a monster! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Egor, hand me the last by-pass cap! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 OMG, It's alive, It's alive! Hide the women and children! Burn the village! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

LoL! Sometimes you just got an imagination to write.... very funny 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







 "Egor, hand me the last by-pass cap!" this was more like what I was thinking in the END "Haaaaaaaaa haha!!! This is the last one!!"

 I just can't wait until all those hours have gone.... I guess I'll start to leave it 24/7 turned on playing. =]]


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Penchum* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_For you guys who have done your FrankenZeros already:

 PP and I both noticed that as the PIO caps mature, the soundstage can change drastically by going from narrow to super wide and back, and the upper highs and lower lows, can come and go as well. Since we had the exact same thing happen with our FrankenZero's, we consider these traits to be normal growing (maturing) pains. They will pass, the closer you get to 250 hours, and maybe a few more hours in some cases. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thanks for the kind words guys! I can't stop listening to my FrankenZero! Once it is completely matured, testing it in different situations is a great deal of fun, because of its superior SQ. It has turned all my headphone amps into super headphone amps! Its analog output is fantastic for speaker systems too!

 All hail the FrankenZero! Just like Frankenstein, he is the sum of all his parts, ready to scare away unwanted audio properties! What a monster! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Egor, hand me the last by-pass cap! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 OMG, It's alive, It's alive! Hide the women and children! Burn the village! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 












 I agree entirely! Almost entirely ..... my new tweeters haven't arrived yet from being rowed across the Pacific ..... waiting .. waiting ... so my main system is quiet at the moment.
 As for Frankie plus KHA I.5 ... WOOHOO! I reckon the sound is basically up to new tricks nearly every day at the moment, today it's cooking on gas and rock music is an absolute blast! The midrange has completely lost an edge that was there yesterday (and had me just leaving it alone for the day) and sounds open and superbly alive and tangible, bass and drums are blindingly fast yet the deep bass has gone for a short holiday. At the 137 hour mark, you can't have it all! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 This is the most excited I've ever been about audio in 35 years, what a hoot! And more to come too, with FranKHA I.5 cooking as well and KHA II in partial stages of construction. And then there's going to be both a Franked Plinius IIc pre-amp and a Franked Trevor Lees tube pre-amp, FrankenWorks southern hemisphere branch will be busy for a while to come! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Maybe the new company motto could be, "Hours to build her, months before you get to hear her properly." 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## sennsay

Ah me, later in this evening I have an all singing and all dancing Frankie and co that is just knocking my socks off! Mates, Frankie hasn't just picked up a bit, she's gone ballistic! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I've been listening to almost an hour and a half so far of the fabulous Genesis Seconds Out live concert at a volume I would normally never consider, something between 10:30 and 11 o'clock on the dial, which is DAMN loud with the 650's and KHA I.5! The sound, the drive, the machine gun drums, crashing cymbals, no matter how loud it gets there is no edge, not on the loudest vocals or the wildest cymbals, it's just wildly awesome!!!! Everything stays in it's position in the loudest climaxes - and the end of Suppers Ready is a wild climax! - stays clean and just ROCKS! The wickedly complex rhythms of the finale in Supper's Ready are crystal clear, the bass is just fabulous, weight, speed and depth. *And HUGE!* God Almighty, I have never heard this great show anything like this, massive dynamics, with detail! OOOOWWWWWWWWW! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	






















 The S-Man cometh!

 P.S. Just have to add a bit more, cos I've got Robbie Williams playing now with various guests on Swing When You're Winning. Wow has this album got .... well .... BIG! Wide, punchy, deep in height as well, the piano is so solid and weighty in the bass it seems to completely transcend the limits of the electronics and the cans and just sinks to the lowest notes with ease, like the real thing. Big horns sections? Ah, no worries mate, how loud do ya want 'em? No edge either. Treble is so superb there seems to be nothing to say about it, it's just there, clean, crisp, metallic, natural. And, it's at the back of the stage with the drum kit, which is noticeably well behind the singers, except for the occasions when it's highlighted for effect. Drums have a weight that really moves air, the tympani is stunning! So is the bass, tight and just so tuneful! BIG voices. Effortless dynamic swings with the big band, utterly engaging rhythmic swing and seriously SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE!! The duets are stunningly alive and you simply have to sing along, loudly! God knows what the neighbours think. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Must be quite a sight if they looked in through the windows, there's singing (well ... my version of it), conducting, air guitar, air drums ..... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



*Sigh ... Welcome home, Frankie!*


----------



## powertoold

Excuse my incompetence, does a bypass PIO cap simply mean a PIO cap is used in parallel with the existing cap on the board, i.e. connected to the same pins but attached somewhere else?


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *powertoold* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Excuse my incompetence, does a bypass PIO cap simply mean a PIO cap is used in parallel with the existing cap on the board, i.e. connected to the same pins but attached somewhere else?_

 

That is it, bypass caps go in parallel with the one mentioned to be. It does not replace any caps....
 I was with this doubt also.....


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *powertoold* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Excuse my incompetence, does a bypass PIO cap simply mean a PIO cap is used in parallel with the existing cap on the board, i.e. connected to the same pins but attached somewhere else?_

 

Yes mate, it does, that's exactly correct. These Russian beauties almost defy description in what they do with the signal, or maybe that ought to be 'allow' with the signal. I was entranced well into the early morning last night with stunning SQ from the system! It goes well beyond what most people know of the term HI-FI. Simply mind boggling. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## dacavalcante

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yes mate, it does, that's exactly correct. These Russian beauties almost defy description in what they do with the signal, or maybe that ought to be 'allow' with the signal. I was entranced well into the early morning last night with stunning SQ from the system! It goes well beyond what most people know of the term HI-FI. Simply mind boggling. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man_

 

Yes, I agree with you, after franken I stopped caring about quality on non Hi-Fi setups....... so much that I'm acctually duplication my songs collection on 23kbps 44khz AAC..... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Well, on my work computer with an onboard soundcard and a Sony Ericson celular headphone, I really don't think I need more than this..... Yet AAC is far far better then mp3 and it's even not as painful as 128kbps mp3....
 When I'm listening to my work setup I count hours on my fingers to get home and listen again to Franken with my senn 650....


----------



## powertoold

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yes mate, it does, that's exactly correct. These Russian beauties almost defy description in what they do with the signal, or maybe that ought to be 'allow' with the signal. I was entranced well into the early morning last night with stunning SQ from the system! It goes well beyond what most people know of the term HI-FI. Simply mind boggling. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man_

 

Have you compared the FrankenZero to any other good sources?


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *powertoold* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Have you compared the FrankenZero to any other good sources?_

 

Not recently. We're talking a town of 35,000 people here and the access to such kit means borrowing long term to make a comparison worthwhile. Yes, I do borrow gear from a hi-fi shop or two, but not the sort of level that would be required to make a meaningful comparison (ie, expensive!!). At the moment, after 35 years of hearing gear up to $65,000 and more, I am not that bothered, to be honest. Nearly all of that kit never gave me a fraction of the sheer unadulterated joy I have with the terrific synergy of Sennheiser 650's, Frankie and KHA I.5 (as she is now) and the quasi-balanced Neotech cables linking them together. I _would_ like a really good optical cable though! 
 Apart from a few exceptions, little I've heard in those years comes close to this present experience and in many ways it's pointless to look back, I've changed so much and my desires and expectations for what I want from my music has evolved considerably. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## powertoold

You're going to push me into doing this mod


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## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *powertoold* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_You're going to push me into doing this mod 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

powertoold, you just wait until you hear what Frankie does to your iBasso Viper!! Man, I have a Corda 2Move and not only does this leave the Zero's amps far behind for sheer neutrality and extension in the frequency extremes, it is just plain amazing with a set of Denon D1000's jacked in! I was gobsmacked, yet again! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 You know you want to. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## Coreyk78

Well this sounds like a fun mod, I think I'm going to go for it. 

 For the PIO caps I need a total of 12 of the .033uF caps correct? I'll need to order those from one of the eastern block guys on ebay. 

 Also I don't use the headphone amp on the Zero much since I built my Millet, but I want to do the full mod anyway to try it out, I already have some .22uF k42s on hand, would that be a suitable substitute for the .1uF caps to bypass the elnas there or would they be too large? If needed it looks like beezar sells the .1uF caps individually so I wouldn't have to get those shipped from overseas.

 edit- also wondering if anyone would know how the K40y caps compare to the K42y caps


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Well this sounds like a fun mod, I think I'm going to go for it. 

 For the PIO caps I need a total of 12 of the .033uF caps correct? I'll need to order those from one of the eastern block guys on ebay. 

 Also I don't use the headphone amp on the Zero much since I built my Millet, but I want to do the full mod anyway to try it out, I already have some .22uF k42s on hand, would that be a suitable substitute for the .1uF caps to bypass the elnas there or would they be too large? If needed it looks like beezar sells the .1uF caps individually so I wouldn't have to get those shipped from overseas.

 edit- also wondering if anyone would know how the K40y caps compare to the K42y caps_

 

Hiya buddy, why not just buy the whole kit from PP? That way you don't have to hunt for anything, it's all there and the results are simply mind blowing! My Frankie is nearing the 200 hour mark and you won't believe what this thing has gone through until you hear it for yourself. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Frankie really DOES become a blend of the best of analogue and digital in ways that have left me speechless with delight, I have heard nothing like this in over 30 years of audio! Most won't have until they have a Frankie and a good amp with it. Bold words? You and your Millet will explode with musical delight
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 My KHA I.5 amp, with it's own FrankenWorks mods, has become orders of magnitude greater than it's stock form, partly because of it's own mods and mostly from having Frankie ahead of it sending such a stunningly good signal. 
 PP (Prickely Pete) can help you with the caps question, I'm not sure at this stage. Cheers, S-Man


----------



## DaMnEd

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_... also wondering if anyone would know how the K40y caps compare to the K42y caps ..._

 


http://www.head-fi.org/forums/4278665-post536.html


----------



## tomb

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *DaMnEd* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_http://www.head-fi.org/forums/4278665-post536.html



_

 

Respectively, I disagree with the K-42 trashing review in that reference.

 A more rational review for the K42's is given in dsavitsk's excellent and long-standing Notes on Output Coupling Capacitors. That said, I am certain that the K40's are a better cap, but they are both larger and more expensive in the same size ratings.


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## Pricklely Peete

I've had extensive listen time with both types....the K40 might have a slight edge in overall SQ but it's near impossible to nail down with any budget gear let alone reference level stuff.

 YMMV ....tough to find K40's that will fit in this application so...in reality Tomb...you've made a pointless point WRT the thread.

 I agree though if a K40 would fit I would switch to them...hell if a Teflon would fit...you get the idea. My personal # 1 choice, room be damned, is K75-10 PLIO bypassed with T3 Teflon......unbeatable SQ bar none ( but absolutely massive caps ). 

 Thanks for the link to d's impressions. He's been a great help to me with my tube amps of late.

 Peete.

 EDIT: After reading d's take I'd have to say I have way more experience with these using gear that is many times more resolute and transparent...I find no grain, no harsh treble (once fully formed)....in fact they absolutely kill the venerable Vit Q cap...in two key areas...bass reproduction and highs...yeah I know...highs.
 I have to disagree with his rating....a solid 4 would be more like it. What he describes is the cap during it's lengthy burn in (300 hours at least)....no notes on burn in whatsoever in this review...makes the whole thing suspect in it's findings IMHO (on all the caps not just the K42Y-2's). 

 These caps take quite a while to settle (as do many other boutique caps)......for the first 100 hours the caps sound precisely like what d describes...give them 200 hrs more they are completely transparent, extended and dead neutral with no drawbacks unlike the Vit Q's which kill the low bass reproduction and roll off the highs...

 My experience thus far is with K75-10 250V and 500V PLIO, T1 & T3 hi/low voltage Teflon, K42Y-2,K40Y-9 hi/low volatge PIOs, K72N-Teflon 500V, all of them require at least 300 hours with the Teflons needing 700 hours +. All sizes and variety of NOS Russian cap all with the same familiar burn in pattern required...These caps if anything are predictable across the types...they all go through multiple changes before settling...to review these in the midst of that settling does not give anyone a true picture of them...goes without saying really.

 d's review although full of technical excellence fails in the critical aspect of the test....burn in is ignored....rendering the conclusions made next to useless. IMO.

 I can understand his position though...to give each type and brand the time required to form would make the review process impossibly lengthy and most likely a gargantuan effort requiring many other's contributions to complete in a sane time period....what can I say..if the caps aren't formed you can't honestly judge the SQ...it's elementary IMHO..

 I'm sorry d but that's how I see it and hear it.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Well this sounds like a fun mod, I think I'm going to go for it. 

 For the PIO caps I need a total of 12 of the .033uF caps correct? I'll need to order those from one of the eastern block guys on ebay. 

 Also I don't use the headphone amp on the Zero much since I built my Millet, but I want to do the full mod anyway to try it out, I already have some .22uF k42s on hand, would that be a suitable substitute for the .1uF caps to bypass the Elnas there or would they be too large? If needed it looks like beezar sells the .1uF caps individually so I wouldn't have to get those shipped from overseas.

 edit- also wondering if anyone would know how the K40y caps compare to the K42y caps_

 

Hi Corey,

 Yep, 12 x .033uf 500V for the main pcb, 2 x .1uf 160V on the H/Amp board and 1 x 1uf 160V for the BA HDAM cap mod. All are from the K42Y-2 family of Russian caps. Unfortunately none of the K40Y-9 types fit underneath the Zero's pcb using the stock standoffs (which have to be used unless you want to relocate all the outputs and inputs on the back panel).

 Don't forget to get either Fairchild or National Semiconductor UF4007 diodes...these are critical to the mod as well as the all the other parts.

 Use any type of electrolytic you want but make sure they are low ESR type and used in the sizes and *voltages specified...that's very important. Boutique caps such as Muse ES, Nichicon FG,FK...Elna Cerafine, Silmic II although a little bit more money than Panasonic FC/FM or Nichicon HE/PW etc...are worth the extra money (it'll be quite a bit more in fact) if money isn't an issue.

 I have all kinds of caps now but still prefer my original parts list (one upgrade to come is the OS-Cons around the logic chips). I feel no great urge to swap the PW's for FG's or MUSE. Besides it seems odd to me to use parts like that on a 130 dollar DAC.

 Anyway...if you have questions ...ask loads of them, guys here can help you out with whatever you want to try.

 Peete.

 * the ideal voltages for the 4 lytics around the DAC chip is 16V or less with 10V ideal. Tough to find OS-CONs >100uf rated at < 16V...maybe even 25V...so there are always compromises to weigh. Current FrankeZERO kit uses Elna Silmic II's 100uf at 25V. Digikey only carries certain stock with respect to "boutique caps" which I find kinda odd...but what can you do...that is why I spec'd that type and voltage rather than going on a Easter egg hunt across the globe for 50 OS CON's that nobody had in that quantity.

 It's and end user upgrade that is easy to source and to implement thus it's mention in many posts of late.


----------



## tomb

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I've had extensive listen time with both types....the K40 might have a slight edge in overall SQ but it's near impossible to nail down with any budget gear let alone reference level stuff.

 YMMV ....tough to find K40's that will fit in this application so...in reality Tomb...you've made a pointless point WRT the thread.
 </snip>_

 

Then you missed my point.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The main point is that the K42's don't deserve the senseless trashing that was contained in the link that DaMnEd referenced.

 P.S. As I also noted, there are size and cost advantages with the K42's as opposed to the K40's. They are certainly a worthy option when those considerations are important.


----------



## Coreyk78

Thanks for all the replys guys, I needed to order a few parts for another project from digikey anyway, so I ordered the other electrolytic caps and diodes for this upgrade too. My only deviation was to order panasonic FCs for the 4700 and 1200uf sizes because the nichicon PWs were out of stock. I used FCs in my gainclone and they work nice there so I'm sure they'll be fine.

 For the PIO caps I found a nice assortment deal from a seller that I had bought from before on ebay that included 

 0.047uF - 48pcs
 0.1uF - 24pcs
 0.15uF - 10pcs
 0.22uF - 10pcs
 0.47uF - 4pcs
 1.0uF - 4pcs

 Total - 100pcs all 160v so I will be swimming in k42y2s haha
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 I read that the .033uf were a replacement for .047uf in your kit PP, so I assume they will be a good match. Of course it will be a couple weeks till they get here from Lithuania. I'm too spoiled by living so close to Digikey, my orders from them always get to me within 1-2 days, the speed is worth the sales tax hehe.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks for all the replys guys, I needed to order a few parts for another project from digikey anyway, so I ordered the other electrolytic caps and diodes for this upgrade too. My only deviation was to order panasonic FCs for the 4700 and 1200uf sizes because the nichicon PWs were out of stock. I used FCs in my gainclone and they work nice there so I'm sure they'll be fine.

 For the PIO caps I found a nice assortment deal from a seller that I had bought from before on ebay that included 

 0.047uF - 48pcs
 0.1uF - 24pcs
 0.15uF - 10pcs
 0.22uF - 10pcs
 0.47uF - 4pcs
 1.0uF - 4pcs

 Total - 100pcs all 160v so I will be swimming in k42y2s haha
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I read that the .033uf were a replacement for .047uf in your kit PP, so I assume they will be a good match. Of course it will be a couple weeks till they get here from Lithuania. I'm too spoiled by living so close to Digikey, my orders from them always get to me within 1-2 days, the speed is worth the sales tax hehe._

 


 Hi Corey,

 Those .047's will allow any placement pattern you want since they are quite a bit smaller in height (?). There is no sonic difference that I can detect between the values. I'd say your well positioned to do a great job on the mod. I love digikey to...I just wish they carried the Elna and Nichicon top of the line stuff....maybe even some others that are well liked (HINT DIGIKEY, SANYO OS CON...lol ).

 The FC's are nice caps...I used those in a number of CDP rebuilds so far with great results (I always use Nichicons in the PSU section...that just personal preference ) 

 Anyway good luck with the mod.....keep us up to date on your findings 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.

 EDIT: Is that the 100 piece variety pack ? I bought one of those a while back...it's a great deal. I've almost used it all up..believe or not 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Along with lots of other Russian caps.....hard to fathom how one uses all these caps ...I manage it though. Lots of giveaways help to.


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Corey,

 Those .047's will allow any placement pattern you want since they are quite a bit smaller in height (?). There is no sonic difference that I can detect between the values. I'd say your well positioned to do a great job on the mod. I love digikey to...I just wish they carried the Elna and Nichicon top of the line stuff....maybe even some others that are well liked (HINT DIGIKEY, SANYO OS CON...lol ).

 The FC's are nice caps...I used those in a number of CDP rebuilds so far with great results (I always use Nichicons in the PSU section...that just personal preference ) 

 Anyway good luck with the mod.....keep us up to date on your findings 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.

 EDIT: Is that the 100 piece variety pack ? I bought one of those a while back...it's a great deal. I've almost used it all up..believe or not 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Along with lots of other Russian caps.....hard to fathom how one uses all these caps ...I manage it though. Lots of giveaways help to._

 

Yeah it was the 100 piece assortment from KWtubes, I like getting more than I need when they are coming from so far away, never know what else you might want to use them for! And at 18 bucks shipped for all them it seemed like a good deal. 
 After this, and more than likely upgrading to an earth hdam from my OPA627s I'll probably have more money in mods than what the Zero cost. I like it, haha


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *tomb* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Then you missed my point.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The main point is that the K42's don't deserve the senseless trashing that was contained in the link that DaMnEd referenced.

 P.S. As I also noted, there are size and cost advantages with the K42's as opposed to the K40's. They are certainly a worthy option when those considerations are important._

 



 In all fairness that was a vague point.....



 Peete.


----------



## tomb

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_In all fairness that was a vague point.....



 Peete._

 

If you say so. Another just told me it was too specific. OK. I give up with the vague points.


----------



## ccschua

Certain OSCON such as the 100 uF has stop production, just like Blackgate.

 I have tough time to find that too, but I settle for lower voltage.

 Now I completed my mod pending the green sausage and ultra fast diode.

 I have done up additional 2 silver mica underneath. I have also used 2x22pF 2% silver mica at the RCA noise killing and found to like it better.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *tomb* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_If you say so. Another just told me it was too specific. OK. I give up with the vague points.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Don't mind me Tomb, your contributions _*ARE*_ appreciated.


 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

I miss out another part of the mod to be done is to change the RCA coaxial to 75ohm BNC with gold plated contact.

 Next I will follow up with my Shigaraki clone for the Transport.

 and I hope to be done by then.


----------



## direcow

Hey Peete, not sure if you got my email, but just thought I'd post it here... do you have any more parts for a Frankie? I'd like to get my hands on some (And then probably keep coming back here for some hand holding thru the soldering)... thanks!


----------



## Syu

Thanks for your great guide, PP. Let me ask questions;
 1) Why should I cover the PIO caps with shrink wrap? 
 2) Can I use film caps instead of the PIO caps?


----------



## Penchum

Just an update on where I'm at with my FrankenZero.

 My compliments go out to PP, who dreamed this whole mod up in the first place, and made it a reality! PP, Sir, you ARE the "Steely Eyed Missile Man" of DIY. Good on ya! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I've got about 1200 hours on my FrankenZero now, and he's stable and awesome! Any possible "compatibility problems" with the FrankenZero mod kit, seem to have been proven non-existent, since so much time has passed without any type of problem. The "FrankenZero mod" is safe and durable when done properly. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I finally settled on hooking up my FrankenZero to my Yamaha Pre-amp, along with the MKIII & MKIVse headphone amps on Tape1 and 2. The Pre-amp output is going to my new AudioSource Amp-100, driving my Audio Ecstasy speakers and sub-woofer. My desktop PC is hooked to FrankenZero via coaxial cable, and my notebook is hooked up via glass optical cable. This setup will improve further, when my new sub-woofer arrives next Tuesday. I also have a Blokker power supply filter coming, so that will also give FrankenZero another "edge" on clean power. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I just have to make it fit in the case! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 So far, this FrankenZero adventure has been totally positive and extremely eye opening! I have canceled all plans to move to a balanced system, and I've also canceled my plan for a more expensive single ended DAC/Amp. Instead, I have another full "FrankenZero mod" kit ready to mod my second Zero, for use with my MKV headphone amp. I can't think of a better testimony for FrankenZero's performance! He has won me over.


----------



## sennsay

Hi Pench, couldn't have put it better about PP, his enthusiasm and adventurous spirit to explore any possible angles is utterly admirable. 
 And let me say too, that if it wasn't for your own brilliant review on the Zero in the first place, it's unlikely I would so ecstatic day after day listening to music at such an extraordinary level of communication. 
 To both of you fine souls, 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







 In gratitude, S-Man


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Syu* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks for your great guide, PP. Let me ask questions;
 1) Why should I cover the PIO caps with shrink wrap? 
 2) Can I use film caps instead of the PIO caps?_

 

You don't have to cover them...I just did for mine. What you do have to cover is the leads off the caps.

 If you go with other caps the result will be different. The PIOs are cheap and better than most caps I used over the years. They are the key part to this mod IMO.

 As always you are free to experiment with other caps just remember the parts list to get the expected result has to be followed closely....

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Wow, Thanks guys !!!......I need a tissue ..
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Hopefully things will roll along and everyone will be overjoyed with their Frankie's....it makes me most happy when others get enjoyment from the fruits of their labor, you two are prime examples of such enjoyment.

 Hats off to both of you and to those that have now completed their mods for taking the chance on my modest kit/mod.

 Humbly yours,

 Peete.


----------



## Syu

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_You don't have to cover them...I just did for mine. What you do have to cover is the leads off the caps.

 If you go with other caps the result will be different. The PIOs are cheap and better than most caps I used over the years. They are the key part to this mod IMO.

 As always you are free to experiment with other caps just remember the parts list to get the expected result has to be followed closely....

 Peete._

 

Thanks Peete!
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Let me ask another question. I want to use OS-CONs to replace 4 x 100uf 25V caps but there is no 100uf/25V OS-CON. 120uf/20V is the closest OS-CON I could find... Does this work fine there?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Syu* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks Peete!
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Let me ask another question. I want to use OS-CONs to replace 4 x 100uf 25V caps but there is no 100uf/25V OS-CON. 120uf/20V is the closest OS-CON I could find... Does this work fine there?_

 

Those should work great Syu !!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thank you Syu and good luck with your upgrade !!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## xxbaker

hey i just got my kit today! i started working on it and it's been fun except for the part where i slipped with my iron and sizzled my finger. smelled like a steak!

 anyway i can't wait to listen to it. everything is detailed and well laid-out/organized. i'll let you know how i like it once i get a chance to hear it


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *xxbaker* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_hey i just got my kit today! i started working on it and it's been fun except for the part where i slipped with my iron and sizzled my finger. smelled like a steak!

 anyway i can't wait to listen to it. everything is detailed and well laid-out/organized. i'll let you know how i like it once i get a chance to hear it_

 

Wow that was fast (shipping + your installation, you must be been ready to go the moment it showed up)......the sizzled finger thing happens...even to the experienced guys. On my second last solder joint today (KHA II amp) I fried my pinky a little...still don't know I managed it....smelled like dead camel ass to me...

 Hope you like the Frankie XXB 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## Syu

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Those should work great Syu !!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thank you Syu and good luck with your upgrade !!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete._

 

Thanks again!

 Btw do you know actual voltage on those 100uF caps?


----------



## isao2k8

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Syu* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Btw do you know actual voltage on those 100uF caps?_

 

On my pure DAC mode ZERO, 3 caps of the 4 are with 4.9V and the other 1 is with 3.2V.

 *edit
 I'm a little concerned that these 4 caps aren't with all the same voltage. Is that normal?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *isao2k8* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_On my pure DAC mode ZERO, 3 caps of the 4 are with 4.9V and the other 1 is with 3.2V.

 *edit
 I'm a little concerned that these 4 caps aren't with all the same voltage. Is that normal?_

 

That's normal operation voltages isao,...the receiver chip operates at a different voltage than the DAC. If you look closely at the digital section's voltage regulators close by, you'll notice one is +5 VDC and the other +3.3 V DC. The 4 caps are split into pairs, one pair for the DAC chip the other pair (i"m assuming) for the Cirrus Logic receiver chip. Without a schematic to study the conclusions I've made are rough guesses but I believe they are correct. I'm sure someone else can clarify this further if need be.

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Regarding the PITA remaining solder in the PCB (that block the hole to insert the cap), is it better to use a bigger desoldering gun, such as 205 mm, thinner suction hole, etc.

 I was told the kill is very important, and it can easily suck all the solder.


----------



## isao2k8

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_That's normal operation voltages isao,...the receiver chip operates at a different voltage than the DAC. If you look closely at the digital section's voltage regulators close by, you'll notice one is +5 VDC and the other +3.3 V DC. The 4 caps are split into pairs, one pair for the DAC chip the other pair (i"m assuming) for the Cirrus Logic receiver chip. Without a schematic to study the conclusions I've made are rough guesses but I believe they are correct. I'm sure someone else can clarify this further if need be.

 Peete._

 

Thanks Peete. It seems to be strange for me that not two but only one cap out of 4 has 3.2(3.3)V. Though, yes, 3.3 is reasonable value as you mentioned 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Regarding the PITA remaining solder in the PCB (that block the hole to insert the cap), is it better to use a bigger desoldering gun, such as 205 mm, thinner suction hole, etc.

 I was told the kill is very important, and it can easily suck all the solder._

 

I used a toothpick and a solder wick to remove solder in through-holes and they worked very well. A Japanese guide here: ƒvƒŠƒ“ƒgŠî”Â‚ÌƒŠƒyƒA


----------



## isao2k8

Btw what are the roles of 4 x 47uf 25V caps in Analong Section? Some sort of decoupling caps? (I can't read patterns on PCB, sorry)


----------



## ccschua

DC blocking. allow AC signal to pass thru.

 dont really understand what u mean by toothpick and solder wick? how ?


----------



## isao2k8

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_DC blocking. allow AC signal to pass thru.

 dont really understand what u mean by toothpick and solder wick? how ?_

 

All right, thanks. I'll try in total 8 x Silmic II 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 To clean solder in through-holes with a toothpick and a solder wick, heat the solder from back-side of PCB, put a toothpick in the hole from front-side of PCB, pull the toothpick out and use a solder wick from back-side of PCB.


----------



## ccschua

OK get it now. U mean push the toothpick till it solidify at the underside, then use wick to clear ?

 Anyway some boards are too big to reach both side. I have got myself better desoldering gun (duratool) hope to test. 

 I found some board (green) which is so easy to handle as compared to Zero board.


----------



## DaMnEd

I wouldn't use toothpicks, hood particles may involuntarily be left and contaminate the future joint.


----------



## ccschua

Oh my god. Here comes the Franken ZERO ....





















 also my diy shigaraki transport.


----------



## Coreyk78

I have some standard Cardas CTFA rca jacks I was going to use to upgrade the crappy ouput jacks. However, I see that people in this thread are using CMC jacks which look like a nice idea since the nut is on the outside of the case which means they could be removed from the chassis with the wires still connected to the board. What source are people getting the CMC jacks from? Or I suppose I could use some Cardas GRFA instead and that would be pretty much the same thing.


----------



## DaMnEd

Audio-GD made a promo that included the CMC jacks if you purchased a set number of HDAMs.

 Other sources would be: 
RCA, phono socket homepage
Audio Catalog

 I purchased a pair on hificollective but the solid copper versions to use in my MiniMax build.


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *DaMnEd* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Audio-GD made a promo that included the CMC jacks if you purchased a set number of HDAMs.

 Other sources would be: 
RCA, phono socket homepage
Audio Catalog

 I purchased a pair on hificollective but the solid copper versions to use in my MiniMax build._

 

Ah ok, I think I'll probably go with the Cardas, since I can get them cheaper.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Nice job CC. 

 Did you swap out the diodes for UF4007 (all 12) ? How many bypass caps did you use ?

 Nice transport 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 What assembly is that, a Phillips CDM 12.1 ?

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Nice job CC. 

 Did you swap out the diodes for UF4007 (all 12) ? How many bypass caps did you use ?

 Nice transport 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 What assembly is that, a Phillips CDM 12.1 ?

 Peete._

 

Hi,

 I have not swapped out the UF4007 as I want to know the sound of the green sausage. total bypass cap is 11. I notice the 2 x 1200uF cap is parallel. SO i use 1 cap first. Space constraint cause me to install the bypass cap for the silmic 2 outside.

 the transport is a shigaraki clone. 
diyAudio Forums - Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story - Page 1


----------



## ccschua

My initial impression about the green sausage is the accuracy and resolution of music instrument. very happy to have this dac upgraded 1 step further. I wonder if anyone can share what would be the sound character of the ultra fast diodes.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_My initial impression about the green sausage is the accuracy and resolution of music instrument. very happy to have this dac upgraded 1 step further. I wonder if anyone can share what would be the sound character of the ultra fast diodes._

 

Very difficult and time consuming to isolate something like that on it's own, cc, 
 burn in times are different for different components. The diodes are a part of a bigger picture and I chose to go the whole 'hog' STS, and the end result, after a 500+ hour joyride so far, is absolutely astonishing! 
 Add a Frankied and Black Gate bypass capped KHA IIA and the number of times I have laughed out loud, been left bereft of adequate language skills, utterly astonished, delighted, awed, and just plain sang at the top of my voice is uncountable! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 S-Man


----------



## powertoold

Does anyone have any spare hardware for this mod they want to sell? I would like to pay by PayPal!


----------



## ccschua

Check with PP. pm him for the components. He is very helpful.


----------



## powertoold

I have done so, but I want to see if anyone would accept PayPal


----------



## Doorknob

I was enjoying my FrankenZero as usual with my new HA-RX900 cans until suddenly it just sort of, died. There were no snap crackle pops in the case or the cans. Just suddenly went silent. The lights inside the case and the front (with buttons and all) still works but no sound comes out. Definitely not my headphones; there's several other sources such as my soundcard for that.

 This happened during when I was listening. The first thing I did was just give it some small whacks and apparently when that didn't fix it, I went on to do some surgery on my Zero for any bad joints (I'll admit I used a terrible 25W soldering iron. It literally had no tip, just a 1cm diameter cylinder thing.). I've also checked to see if any there were any possible wirings that could touch other wires. Finding none, I just closed it up and ran Zero.

 I still got the same outcome, no sound. At this stage, I have no idea what can be wrong with my Zero. I'll be posting pics later when I can find the time. My guess right now is that the Zero's optical port (not the cable) is broken.

 Edit: Is it normal if the power supply (huge circle thing I believe) feels about the same as room temperature? All my other components seems to run hotter then the power supply. Also, I can hear some hum coming from the FrankenZero when volume is way up with headphones but when music is played, no sound comes out.

 Edit: Eh, I think this post would fit better in the huge Zero thread. Too late now. I'll just copy what I have here to there. In the meantime, feel free to delete this mods.


----------



## ccschua

something wrong with your power supply, perhaps some lose solder joint, or some jumper drop off. check how many led light is on at the pcb. there must be 2 red led light on.


----------



## Doorknob

There's two light on the PCB and the headphone amp with the amp having much brighter lights. Also tried pressing those two things called mute and reset. Nothing.

 Here's the pics of my finished FrankenZero.
Pictures.rar

 At Zero's full volume, without the phone amp turned on, there's little to no hiss. With the phone amp turned on there's a moderate amount of hiss. Not much but just felt worth noting.

 And for the power supply, I can't even get that off. The nut just keeps on circling around. I might as well as be talking about the wrong PS though.


----------



## Penchum

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Doorknob* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_There's two light on the PCB and the headphone amp with the amp having much brighter lights. Also tried pressing those two things called mute and reset. Nothing.

 Here's the pics of my finished FrankenZero.
Pictures.rar

 At Zero's full volume, without the phone amp turned on, there's little to no hiss. With the phone amp turned on there's a moderate amount of hiss. Not much but just felt worth noting.

 And for the power supply, I can't even get that off. The nut just keeps on circling around. I might as well as be talking about the wrong PS though._

 

Look at the underside of your Zero. You'll see the bolt "head" there. Hold it still with a pair of pliers (or whatever you have) and try turning the nut again.

 Also, have you turned off the Zero, unplugged it, and let it sit for a while, to drain the caps, then plug her back in and then power her back on? The reason I mention this is because I have made my Zero go into "protected" mode (on but no sound) by accidentally inducing static from my hands into my headphone cable. Once I cycled the Zero, everything was back to normal again.


----------



## Doorknob

Yes I did let it sit there for a while but either 8 hours of not plugging in is not enough or something else is wrong.

 Just figured out the huge 4700 uf caps touches the top of my case if I cover it. Didn't notice this until now and I've always left the top case on. Might as well as try replacing the huge caps with the normal stock ones for now.

 Edit: Tried it, didn't work at all. I'm starting to think that now I'm operating on a dead unit. What could possibly just suddenly stop the music as I was enjoying them?

 Might as well as considering selling my A900 for another Zero. Such a shame that a great unit just died without even living 4 months.


----------



## ccschua

Oh well. I have finished the works for Franken ZERO. The green sausages then follow by the UF4007.

 No wonder Penchuum go gaga over it. Now I get weak over it. Oh gosh, I guess this is the Third Jesus coming.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Oh well. I have finished the works for Franken ZERO. The green sausages then follow by the UF4007.

 No wonder Penchuum go gaga over it. Now I get weak over it. Oh gosh, I guess this is the Third Jesus coming._

 

The really cool thing is CC, the journey has just begun...there is further improvements in store as the greenie's and all the new parts mature....hang on to your hat...

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_The really cool thing is CC, the journey has just begun...there is further improvements in store as the greenie's and all the new parts mature....hang on to your hat...

 Peete._

 

From my past experience, the new cap takes time to mature and it seems I almost always found the bass to be loose. Perhaps after mature it will tighten up.

 I wonder what is your initial impresion on franken.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Everything comes and goes with the PIO caps...alternating from tight to loose to missing altogether...that's the normal progression for these caps...when they have finished forming they have the best bass I've yet heard from a NOS PIO.....they simply allow the signal on the CD to pass with little effect on it other than a slight mid band warmth. 

 My initial impression of Frank ...well that's kinda difficult since I did the modifications in stages in order to evaluate each step in detail. Phase 1 made a huge difference IIRC to three areas over stock, first off SNR improved considerably, frequency extension in both directions was/is noticeably improved and finally dynamics / channel separation improved radically. The second Phase just improved upon these attributes even further....in short the FrankenZERO is so completely different from the stock unit it's hard to believe they are related.

 I'm sure others that have now Frankie'd their Zero's will chime in with additional notes that refer to the stock vs Frankie changes ( mine has been in Frankie trim for over 4 months now so it's tough to recall all the details).

 The bottom line is the collective job all the parts add to the whole. The PIO's are as important as the Nichicon,Elna,Panasonic and other caps are, as is the the Fairchild UF4007 diodes. It's tough to separate and evaluate just what the greenies bring to the table accurately. I do believe however that in every mod I've done thus far (on amps, preamps, CDP's other DAC's etc) the SQ improvements these Russian caps bring far outstrips there price tag.

 The sum of the parts in this case have managed to transform the Zero into something highly musical,accurate and tuneful in the extreme. The best attribute of all, I think, is it's never fatiguing in nature and does not wear off with time. I still have trouble taking the cans off my ears every time I listen even though I know I should have gone to bed hours earlier.

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Instead of need for sound, now is need of sleep.

 Me too, is having a piece of high musicalicaty instrument singing non stop.

 I am really deep into this mod, just exploring what other emerging trend that this Franken can give.

 I have added a BNC plug in parallel to the Coaxial input, as I found the coaxial is way better than optical. I am using Canare 75 ohm cable with Canare 75 ohm plugs, both coaxial and BNC.

 Here comes the photo. sorry for the camera photo such cant shoot clearly on short range.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Hi CC,

 You certainly have a unique parts selection happening on your Zero. I've done a pile of reading on BNC vs SPDIF jacks....it's not as easy as simply adding a BNC jack...have a look at DIY forum for exhaustive talks about pulse transformers, impedance mismatches etc etc.....after wading through pages of this stuff I decided BNC wasn't worth the effort for the tiny gain in SQ over a well made coax and a close to 75 ohm RCA jack.

 That's my findings at least. I think with a hi quality well made glass TOSlink optical has the better SQ since impedance isn't a factor.

 IMO at least. I do prefer COAX for the main rig...go figure. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 300 hours from now CC...that lack of sleep you are experiencing now only gets worse ...sorry buddy 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Well those Zobel networks and the ripple wavefront are technical jargons that scare away alot of people. Some of the CD mod I saw remove those transmission networks. I kept it simple, in that the transport resistor matching is network with 91 ohm and 390 ohm.


----------



## ccschua

I hope someone can help me out here. What is the voltage u measure at the 4 nos of 100uF supplying the AD1852. Are they all 5 V ?

 tks.


----------



## Coreyk78

Well I did the caps and diodes on the main board last night, and damn those traces are thin. I had a few of the solder pads lift up while desoldering but got them to lay down pretty well, except for one that got a bit mangled at one of the big 4700uf caps, I thought I had it bridged with some extra solder pretty well.

 However when I fired it up to test it I was only getting a weak output from the rca, and the headamp section led was slow to come on and shut off a few times. I could wiggle the cap with the iffy solder joint a little and get it to come on. It was late last night so I left it that way so I could get after it today and start fresh.

 I'm hoping to be able to either redo the joint and try to get better contact with the trace, or maybe use a jumper wire from the cap leg to a leg of the closest component on the same trace. Otherwise I guess its new DAC time, hehe, oh well always a risk.


----------



## ccschua

Just use a multimeter and check the continuity between the neighbouring joints.


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Just use a multimeter and check the continuity between the neighbouring joints._

 

I've mostly fixed the flickering power issue, it was a bad connection at one of the 4700uf caps. I'm still getting very weak and staticky output though. Lots of static when I turn the pot on the headamp, and the headamp shuts itself off near full volume. I guess I have to keep on checking continuity everywhere and hopefully I find it.


----------



## les_garten

sub'd


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I hope someone can help me out here. What is the voltage u measure at the 4 nos of 100uF supplying the AD1852. Are they all 5 V ?

 tks._

 

Hi CC,

 As far as I know those four caps are all 5V and under. If you look at the 2 voltage regulators nearby, the silk screening on the pcb is as follows +3.3V and +5 V. I have no idea what caps of those 4 are on the 3.3V circuit. I would need to pull the board and measure it to find out.

 I think someone else made those measurements a couple of weeks ago but I can't recall who it was or what the results where.

 Peete.


----------



## Coreyk78

Anyone know the value of those little yellow box caps by chance? I think I may have cooked one when the screw that holds the tip on my iron laid up against it.

 edit- nvm, I was posting from work and couldn't look at the caps, I see they are all different values, but I don't think thats the problem, I think I might have gotten one of the 4700uf caps too hot when I was messing around with it, so I'm going to order some replacements and hope for the best. I had to replace the 47uf cap next to the big caps because the voltage regulator marked lm117t 5 got blazing hot really fast after I had tried to resolder the joints on the cap, and the leds on the DAC board didn't even come on. Replacing that cap returned the regulator to a normal temp and the leds came on again, so thats why my suspicion is at the large caps. Would a burnt cap cause weak volume and static? I'm hoping I found my flub.


----------



## les_garten

Hi,
 Basically just getting into this hobby. I have a question about the bypass caps. If I had a 100 uF cap in place and bypassed it with a 100 uF cap, could I accomplish the same thing by pulling the original cap and replacing it with a 200 uF?

 The 2 Caps are just soldered side by side on the same pads, correct? I'm trying to grasp what is going on here.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 Basically just getting into this hobby. I have a question about the bypass caps. If I had a 100 uF cap in place and bypassed it with a 100 uF cap, could I accomplish the same thing by pulling the original cap and replacing it with a 200 uF?

 The 2 Caps are just soldered side by side on the same pads, correct? I'm trying to grasp what is going on here._

 

Hi Les,

 Well not exactly....what you are talking about is adding additional filtering capacity for that particular spot. The electrolytic (aluminum can radial type) cap is bypassed with a high quality PIO or film and foil, poly foil...Teflon and foil...that is anywhere from 10 to 100 times smaller in capacitance to the electrolytic cap you plan on bypassing.

 The advantages with bypassing are multileveled, unrestricted high frequency handling (a known drawback of any electrolytic type) or passing, lowered ESR through parallel connection, and additional filtering of unwanted noise components in the signal or power supply lines. The film and foil cap can also voice that part of the circuit to a small degree. Some find this desirable while others do not. I prefer the caps behave as neutral as they can on the original signal, of course that's almost impossible but it can be aspired to.

 You can tune your unit (
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




) with careful selection, sizing and placement of your electrolytic/film cap networks in virtually anything that makes music reproduction possible, DAC's, H/Amps, Preamps, Amps, IPOD (LOL), etc etc...the real trick is knowing what to use and where to use it.

 All of this is IMO of course 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Les,

 Well not exactly....what you are talking about is adding additional filtering capacity for that particular spot. The electrolytic (aluminum can radial type) cap is bypassed with a high quality PIO or film and foil, poly foil...Teflon and foil...that is anywhere from 10 to 100 times smaller in capacitance to the electrolytic cap you plan on bypassing.

 <<<<SNIP>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 Peete._

 

Hi,
 Let me make sure I understand the physical connection first.

 1) You solder the Bypass Cap to the same two Pad points of the cap being bypassed?

 2) And you are achieving something BETTER than just replacing the cap you want to bypass with a bigger and better cap?? 

 I'm having a problem getting a handle on this, if my first question is true.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 Let me make sure I understand the physical connection first.

 1) You solder the Bypass Cap to the same two Pad points of the cap being bypassed?

 2) And you are achieving something BETTER than just replacing the cap you want to bypass with a bigger and better cap?? 

 I'm having a problem getting a handle on this, if my first question is true._

 

No worries....let's try this ..take the stock filter caps in the Zero. The 2 large 2200uf 25V TKE..or whatever they are. Ideally speaking you replace those low cost budget caps with far higher quality Nichicon or Rubycon, your favorite audio cap of choice. I like to double the uf filtering capacity/current storage for the main PSU cap bank. So now you've installed a pair of 4700uf 25V Nichicon PW's (the Frankie uses these)in place of those stock caps. Then you add a pair of .033uf 500V PIO K42Y-2, or .1uf 160V, .047uf 160V, (whatever you can get that fits underneath the board and chassis) film and foil caps to those 2 Nichicons you just installed. You solder one PIO cap in parallel per electrolytic cap as specified in the mod instructions. The two different types compliment each other allowing for a far better electrical/sonic result.

 It might help to wiki or google bypassing electrolytic caps with film and foil types for an in depth explanation of the practice. It's still not used like I have done in main stream manufacturing due to added parts and labor cost. The few manufacturers that do take the time to do this well...you'll be paying through the nose for that gear anyways....even then they may not use anything special in the way of a foil cap (like Solen...which are terrible in anything but speaker crossovers).

 I hope that cleared things up a little. Right ...clear as mud eh ? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_No worries....let's try this ..take the stock filter caps in the Zero. The 2 large 2200uf 25V TKE..or whatever they are. Ideally speaking you replace those low cost budget caps with far higher quality Nichicon or Rubycon, your favorite audio cap of choice. I like to double the uf filtering capacity/current storage for the main PSU cap bank. 

 <<<<<<<SNIP>>>>>>>
_

 

Found this describing what you are doing here. I understand it a little better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/41...ctrolytic-caps


----------



## ccschua

Just put in more juice to the ZERO DAC and replace the 4 caps to the DAC with NOVER 63V 100uF. The nover caps are specially made for audio-gd, known for neutral sounding. Also increase the digital power supply from 1200uF to 3300uF. First impression is more energetic and more neutral sound. More burn in is require before final listening. Yes burn in is required.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Hi CC,

 Did you buy the Nover caps from Kingwa ?

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Those caps are from kingwa as free gift. They are big, cant sit in side by side straight.

 I am wondering, if the volume pot does change the sound of preamp output ?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Better quality pots have a substantial effect on SQ. 

 The Novers take ages to form CC maybe 400 hours or more. That circuit is only seeing 5V or less so the use of these 63V caps may or may not be optimum in that spot. I would sooner use 20V or less OS CON/PIO, Black Gate or OS CON bypassed with 4 NX HiQ .1uf 16V Black Gates.

 But you never know what these (Nover/PIO combo) might bring to the table...you might be onto another excellent alternative...time will tell. Please do post your impressions on them once they form. I like them in the audio-gd BEAST PSU unit. I also have Kingwa's CD/DVD Coax mod output module waiting to go into my main rig transport (need parts that are in transit) although lord knows where I will find the room for 2 more largish pcbs and another (number 3) transformer in there 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I'll shoehorn it all in somehow 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Kingwa is a generous fellow for sure. Best customer support I've ever run across bar none.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Peete,
 What Volume pot are you using in yours, with a model number if you don't mind. It looks nicer than the one LC is providing is his boxes


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Hi Les,

 It's one that LC sold me a while back. It's only markings are 100KAX2 that I can see clearly.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Les,

 It's one that LC sold me a while back. It's only markings are 100KAX2 that I can see clearly.

 Peete._

 

Here's what mine looks like, I thought yours looked different than the is one.

http://www.turbonet.biz/misc/Zero/Alps.jpg


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Yup that's different alright (than mine). LC sold me a stepped attenuator quite some time ago (last July)...remember these are NOS parts and as such the numbers available are finite in nature. LC has sold out of these pots at least 4 times now that I can recall....he's having to take what he can find I would imagine. I bet that pot of yours is a real Alps...the Japan marking is typical of NOS Alps pots.

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

The Franken mod brought to great height and was surprise at it. 

 For another moment, I was surprise to hear the Franken couple to another tube buffer before going to the int amp. The sound quality is another step up. I think Curra has reported some gain using a buffer.

 My setup is like this.

 transport -> Franken Zero -> tube buffer (2x12AU7) -> Tube integrated amp -> speaker.

 Without the buffer, the sound is not as full and warm. I guess this has something to do with the AD1852. Explaination given by kingwa is 

 Multibit DAC high and low frequency weak response is overcome by intrdocuing a buffer to be more responsive (dynamic) and extended.

 To try that out, 2 buffer BU2 (From audio-gd, which he uses in DAC 100) is on the way.


----------



## Currawong

Peete, Someone pointed out you can get those pots LC has from here. They are likely the same ones.

 ccschua: Even better, you can buy the buffer units from Kingwa to put in your own projects. I think all of his headamps have them built in.

 I'm considering the FrankenZero as a project for my 3 week teaching break here. Since I suspect my Lavry wont sell until Jan, I'll probably be able to compare it.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Currawong* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Peete, Someone pointed out you can get those pots LC has from here. They are likely the same ones.
_

 

That was me. I was curious if those were the same Pots, they sure look like the one I have.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_The Franken mod brought to great height and was surprise at it. 

 For another moment, I was surprise to hear the Franken couple to another tube buffer before going to the int amp. The sound quality is another step up. I think Curra has reported some gain using a buffer.

 My setup is like this.

 transport -> Franken Zero -> tube buffer (2x12AU7) -> Tube integrated amp -> speaker.

 Without the buffer, the sound is not as full and warm. I guess this has something to do with the AD1852. Explaination given by kingwa is 

 Multibit DAC high and low frequency weak response is overcome by intrdocuing a buffer to be more responsive (dynamic) and extended.

 To try that out, 2 buffer BU2 (From audio-gd, which he uses in DAC 100) is on the way._

 


 CC,

 Don't forget that no where near the amount of burn in time needed for all those caps has passed on your Frank CC....remember, until you pass 350 hours you should reserve judgment on negatives (and some positives) since these will surely change drastically as you approach the end of the forming process. Another must is the addition of the 1uf PIO for the HDAM module outlined by Burson Audio. I mean no disrespect to Kingwa but the BA cap mod is far superior in SQ to the poly box caps tied to each supply rail and ground. The difference is quite noticeable IMHO. I gave my Moon module well over 250 hours before making the *swap to a well burned in (1000 + hours on it) 1uf PIO. The benefit was quite noticeable and immediate. 


 Peete.

 *complete removal of the HDAM poly box caps.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Currawong* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Peete, Someone pointed out you can get those pots LC has from here. They are likely the same ones.

 ccschua: Even better, you can buy the buffer units from Kingwa to put in your own projects. I think all of his headamps have them built in.

 I'm considering the FrankenZero as a project for my 3 week teaching break here. Since I suspect my Lavry wont sell until Jan, I'll probably be able to compare it._

 

The RK27 100K AX2's they sell are not the same as the NOS pots. Those cheap ones aren't much better than the stock one IMO. I see no equivalent that will fit in the Zero from this site CW....The VR-16-100K is definitely NOT an Alps pot. That site is outstanding though for really nice chassis's and good DIY stuff. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Peete.

 PS PM me if you want to reserve a kit for that break CW. I only have 2 kits left from the second lot of 10.


----------



## Coreyk78

Well I've given up trying to rescue my DAC board for now, without a schematic or a working one for reference its very difficult to try and find my problem. I don't know if I have something open where it should be closed, or if I ended up with a short somewhere. 

 I have a new DAC board on the way to me from china, so I may check my old one against the new one, and then debate if I want to try the full mod again, or try just adding the bypass caps to the stock electrolytics. The risk of damage would be low there.


----------



## ccschua

Anyway, I got 1 Alps pot from Kingwa dun know whether can be used or not or is it good.

 Looks like I have to wait another 250 hours, before fully run in.

 It looks the high and low is a little compressed, though the tube amp buffer uncompress it.

 I will try to get 1uF green sausage to test.

 My Mullard 12AX7 reissue and 4xtungsol 6v6GT is also on the way. hope to do away the buffer and see how it goes.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Well I've given up trying to rescue my DAC board for now, without a schematic or a working one for reference its very difficult to try and find my problem. I don't know if I have something open where it should be closed, or if I ended up with a short somewhere. 

 I have a new DAC board on the way to me from china, so I may check my old one against the new one, and then debate if I want to try the full mod again, or try just adding the bypass caps to the stock electrolytics. The risk of damage would be low there._

 

Man that stinks Coreyk,

 What areas did you have trouible with when removing the stock parts...as Sennsay said a while back you may need to check the traces on the top side of the board (where the 2 sets of PSU filter caps are swapped). Do you have a DMM to check for continuity on all the spots you worked on ? Another possibility is a diode reversed and or cap installed with the polarity wrong.

 Double check these for me and maybe you will have tracked down the culprit. The drawback to any electronics mod is, it only takes one mistake to ruin a board. Which is why I go slowly and methodically, triple checking all pertinent installation parameters before moving on to the next section. I'm not suggesting you made an obvious mistake Corey...there are too many variables to cover online to accurately access a possible fault without seeing the board for myself. 

 I would use the good board as a reference for the continuity checks...which will be time consuming buy may lead you to the fault and consequently a possible fix.



 Peete.


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Man that stinks Coreyk,

 What areas did you have trouible with when removing the stock parts...as Sennsay said a while back you may need to check the traces on the top side of the board (where the 2 sets of PSU filter caps are swapped). Do you have a DMM to check for continuity on all the spots you worked on ? Another possibility is a diode reversed and or cap installed with the polarity wrong.

 Double check these for me and maybe you will have tracked down the culprit. The drawback to any electronics mod is, it only takes one mistake to ruin a board. Which is why I go slowly and methodically, triple checking all pertinent installation parameters before moving on to the next section. I'm not suggesting you made an obvious mistake Corey...there are too many variables to cover online to accurately access a possible fault without seeing the board for myself. 

 I would use the good board as a reference for the continuity checks...which will be time consuming buy may lead you to the fault and consequently a possible fix.



 Peete._

 

I had some problems with the diode replacement, but they all have continuity to the board and I double-checked their orientation. I still think the main problem was at the big power supply caps. I had installed the new ones with the polarity reversed, but caught my mistake before any power had been applied. When I removed and reinstalled them in the correct orientation I damaged the solder pads, one broke off completely on the bottom side of the board, Probably because I was being impatient, and I'm used to working with pcbs that have the holes thru-plated with heavy copper. A couple of the holes got to looking pretty ugly after repeated attempts to resolder after it didn't work the first time, I would be embarrased for anyone to see the carnage 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I scratched off some of the solder mask at the damaged solder pad and filled the gap between the cap leg and the trace with solder, and I noticed that leg had a trace on the top side that lead to one of the yellow film caps so I added a jumper wire there since I wasn't getting any continuity between them w/o the jumper.

 I was pretty confident I could do this mod no problem, I've built several speaker amps and my Millet SS, so I was actually surprised and very disappointed when it didn't work. The Zero still puts out some sound, albeit very weak, and the headphone section cuts in and out depending on where the volume pot is, which confused me also.

 I have a Fluke 87 DMM left over from when I worked as an auto mechanic, I know I have continuity from all the components I replaced on the bottom side of the board, at least from what I could see by just trying to follow the traces, but I could be missing something on the top layer, IDK for sure. Hopefully having a good board to compare to will help me find the problem.

 One other thing I thought of is that while I was removing the board one of the times I accidentally let the side of my iron melt one of the relays a tiny bit that I'm guessing are for the headamp, don't know if that would cause any of my symptoms. I had already replaced the stock RCAs with the cardas ones I had so I needed to desolder the wires going to the new jacks when I did that. Another mistake on my personal wall of shame with this project, haha


----------



## les_garten

Hi Peete,
 Received the Mod kit today! What size shrink wrap do I need to order?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Peete,
 Received the Mod kit today! What size shrink wrap do I need to order?_

 

Hi Les,

 That's good (and bloody fast shipping ).....wow. 

 Look for 1/16th inch shrink wrap. It's perfect. The black stuff seems to snug over the cap "nipples" easier than the other colors for whatever reason. 

 Good luck Les,

 Peete.


----------



## bundee1

Did 2 parts of the mod but left the heavy stuff for my next day off. I did the HDAM cap mod and the Headamp section. Headamp section was easier than the HDAM because whoever built the HDAM put globs of solder on the little white cap leads so I had to be very carefull not to bridge it to the point next to it. I finished it in 2 hours and so far so good. I powered it up and no shorts, no static (knock on wood). Im still a noob so a little nervous with all this. 

 Its a pain to fit it back in the case with the cap hanging off of the back and raised a little but I got it to fit. 

 Thanks again for all the help guys. Ill report back when the next section is complete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *bundee1* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Did 2 parts of the mod but left the heavy stuff for my next day off. I did the HDAM cap mod and the Headamp section. Headamp section was easier than the HDAM because whoever built the HDAM put globs of solder on the little white cap leads so I had to be very carefull not to bridge it to the point next to it. I finished it in 2 hours and so far so good. I powered it up and no shorts, no static (knock on wood). Im still a noob so a little nervous with all this. 

 Its a pain to fit it back in the case with the cap hanging off of the back and raised a little but I got it to fit. 

 Thanks again for all the help guys. Ill report back when the next section is complete._

 

Are you leaving the box caps on the HDAM ? I just solder to the pads on the underside (of course that means using lead extensions for the 1uf cap but what the hell). I snipped my 2 box caps off...maybe I should try the combination of box and PIO on the SUN V2 as an experiment ? I can do that when and if my WAAAYYYYY late PIO shipment finally gets here...

 Speaking of.....anyone ordering these caps get them from Ukraine or other Countries outside the Russian Federation.....the shipping times from Russia are ridiculously long with no reason for the weeks and weeks of additional delays. I have an order that sat for 17 days in Russian customs before being released to continue on it's way....needless to say I wasn't happy about this and was told by the vendor that I could lump it or leave it......fair warning posted about any Russian orders folks...stick with Ukraine based suppliers, they actually give a damn if you get something in a timely fashion (as in less than 3 weeks).

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Hi,
 I had some problems doing the little resister swap out today for the LED Brightness. Because the thru holes are not "ringed" like I'm used to working with it seems difficult to desolder and then with no ring surface difficult to resolder. However, it's real easy to pull up a trace! Any technique suggestions and where most of the difficulty will be?

 Thanx!


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 I had some problems doing the little resister swap out today for the LED Brightness. Because the thru holes are not "ringed" like I'm used to working with it seems difficult to desolder and then with no ring surface difficult to resolder. However, it's real easy to pull up a trace! Any technique suggestions and where most of the difficulty will be?

 Thanx!_

 

I share your pain, hehe. I don't really have good technique myself with these boards, they are more fragile than I am used to working with too. Best bet is to take your time and be careful, hopefully I will do better on attempt number 2 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Edit- Also PP I know what you are talking about with the ship times from eastern block countries. I am still waiting on a shipment of .22uf k42 caps that I bought on October 24th...
 I contacted the seller (KWTubes, seems like a nice guy) and he figured they must have been lost in shipment somewhere, so he sent me another pack over a week ago that I am hoping shows up, he even said if the first package does ever arrive to just keep them both. I've gotten other caps from him in a reasonable amount of time, he's in Lithuania.


----------



## bundee1

Thats why I needed pics to verify the correct position. Nowhere in the threads or pictures does it show the box caps removed. Also in the pics posted the Cap leads are soldered to the box cap spots but underneath. 

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/attach...s-cap-hdam.jpg

 By leaving the box caps on am I affecting the sound in any way? Does this nullify some of the benefits of the PIO caps and Frankenmod?


----------



## ccschua

deleted


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Thanks CC !!!

 Peete.


----------



## bundee1

does anyone know of a seller who sells the zero dac board seperatley? I might have fried mine. also can you replace a lifted pad with a ring made of clipped leads? in other words will the solder and ring continue the circuit?


----------



## ccschua

Oops. Item removed.


----------



## okifaro

Dear All, I can not find on ebay .047uf 160V or .033uf 500V PIO's, what do you think, can it be replace with 0,047uF 250V PIO K42Y2?


----------



## Coreyk78

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *bundee1* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_does anyone know of a seller who sells the zero dac board seperatley? I might have fried mine. also can you replace a lifted pad with a ring made of clipped leads? in other words will the solder and ring continue the circuit?_

 

I did the same thing.
 I found a source for the mainboard, and I know he isn't everyone's favorite lately, but I've been talking to LC and he is going to sell me one. I haven't heard from him in a week, so I'll be sending him another email tomorrow to check on status, I think he was waiting to get some in stock.


----------



## bundee1

Update: 

 I get no sound when the headamp board is plugged in. Everything lights up but no sound. Even when the preamp is switched off the DAC wont work, but when I unplug the headamp board, the DAC works alone. Any ideas on fixes?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *okifaro* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Dear All, I can not find on ebay .047uf 160V or .033uf 500V PIO's, what do you think, can it be replace with 0,047uF 250V PIO K42Y2?_

 

Nope...they (.047uf 250V) are too big in diameter (anything over 8mm will not fit). I wasn't kidding when I said it's getting harder to source the PIOs. I have some more kits in stock so anyone wanting one drop me a PM.


 Parts changes to the next lot of 10 kits.

 All PIO's are now .1uf 250V , this IS an upgrade(same diameter as previous .033uf 500V). Power supply section uses all Nichicon PW (1200uf 16V uprated to 1500uf 16V) Panasonic 330uf 25V FC/FM caps subbed for better Nichicon PW 330uf 16V

 Phase 2 changes: Panasonic FM's upgraded to 330uf 16V FC

 Phase 3 : Panasonic FM to FC

 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

I thought FM is better than FC since FM has a lower ESR ?


----------



## isao2k8

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Nope...they (.047uf 250V) are too big in diameter (anything over 8mm will not fit)._

 

According to ussr-tubes.com, .047uf 250V K42Y-2's diameter is 7mm. So I think it can work.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Nope...they (.047uf 250V) are too big in diameter (anything over 8mm will not fit). I wasn't kidding when I said it's getting harder to source the PIOs. I have some more kits in stock so anyone wanting one drop me a PM.


 Parts changes to the next lot of 10 kits.

 All PIO's are now .1uf 250V , this IS an upgrade(same diameter as previous .033uf 500V). Power supply section uses all Nichicon PW (1200uf 16V uprated to 1500uf 16V) Panasonic 330uf 25V FC/FM caps subbed for better Nichicon PW 330uf 16V

 Phase 2 changes: Panasonic FM's upgraded to 330uf 16V FC

 Phase 3 : Panasonic FM to FC

 Peete._

 

RATS! And I just got mine!


----------



## isao2k8

Btw did anyone feel that original 47uF *10V* SilmicII x 4 caps as coupling capacitors are better than 47uF *25V* SilmicII x 4 in terms of SQ? I felt so...um...


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *isao2k8* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Btw did anyone feel that original 47uF *10V* SilmicII x 4 caps as coupling capacitors are better than 47uF *25V* SilmicII x 4 in terms of SQ? I felt so...um..._

 

I dunno....I didn't swap those out ...they are bypassed with PIO caps though as per the mod.

 I doubt they have any sonic variation isao...they are the exact same build recipe.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *isao2k8* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_According to ussr-tubes.com, .047uf 250V K42Y-2's diameter is 7mm. So I think it can work._

 

Those should be fine.....my mistake...the .047uf 200V K40Y-9's are too darn big and that is what I was thinking of with the previous reply.

 Les...not to worry, the difference in sound quality between the latest kits and the previous 12 will be minute if at all noticeable. 

 It really doesn't matter what size the bypass cap is as long as it's a high quality cap and it fits on the underside of the pcb. There is little to separate between Panasonic FC/FM and Nichicon PW....now if you went with the far more expensive Nichicon KG/FG or Elna Cerafine/Silmic/Silmic II then the differences *might* be easily picked out.

 That's a huge jump in price though....for example 2 x Nichicon 4700uf 25V KG/FG might be 16-20 US for a pair. Add to that another set of 1500uf 16V and your at 30 US. That's nearly 2/3's of the cost of the mod wrapped up in only 4 caps. 

 The main reason the parts line will change is the fact that the original preferred value caps were not in stock and wouldn't be for another 5 weeks ( Nichicon 1200uf 16V PW's) so I had to go with the next best option, the 1500uf 16V PW. I don't want to make anyone wait that long if another suitable part will do the job

 Anyway....I hope I can stick with .1uf 250V PIO for some time to come since that value is also the value used in the H/Amp ...makes life for me easier that way. I haven't been able to find .047uf 160V K42y-2's for quite sometime now. I guess they are all gone ? I couldn't source enough .033uf 500V K42Y-2's either....(back on Nov 12 when I placed the large order for 150 caps).

 Peete.


----------



## okifaro

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Those should be fine.....my mistake...the .047uf 200V K40Y-9's are too darn big and that is what I was thinking of with the previous reply.

 Les...not to worry, the difference in sound quality between the latest kits and the previous 12 will be minute if at all noticeable. 

 Peete._

 

Thanks folks.
 I've already ordered all first FrankenZero's specyfication caps with follow modyfication (problem with available some parts), do you think is that ok:
 CAP 4700UF 25V ELECT PW RADIAL NICHICON
 CAP 330UF 25V ELECT FM RADIAL PANASONIC - ECG
 DIODE ULT FAST 1A 1000V DO-41 MICRO COMMERCIAL CO (VA) V
 CAP ELECT 47UF 25V FM RADIAL PANASONIC - ECG
 CAP 100UF 25V ELECT AUDIO RAD ELNA AMERICA INC
 CAP 1500UF 16V ELECT PW RADIAL NICHICON
 0,1uF 160V PIO Capacitors K42Y2


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *okifaro* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks folks.
 I've already ordered all first FrankenZero's specyfication caps with follow modyfication (problem with available some parts), do you think is that ok:
 CAP 4700UF 25V ELECT PW RADIAL NICHICON
 CAP 330UF 25V ELECT FM RADIAL PANASONIC - ECG
 DIODE ULT FAST 1A 1000V DO-41 MICRO COMMERCIAL CO (VA) V
 CAP ELECT 47UF 25V FM RADIAL PANASONIC - ECG
 CAP 100UF 25V ELECT AUDIO RAD ELNA AMERICA INC
 CAP 1500UF 16V ELECT PW RADIAL NICHICON
 0,1uF 160V PIO Capacitors K42Y2_

 

Looks good to me...keep us up to date how things pan out for you okifaro 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Your in for a pleasant surprise when all is said and done !!!

 Make sure you use 1/16 th inch or the metric equivalent shrink tubing for the PIO cap leads. No need to use it on the cap bodies themselves. PM me with your email address and I will send you the full instructions with all the hi rez photos showing the bypass cap orientation you'll need to follow among other things.

 Good luck !!!

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Any updates from those with kits...etc...? Come on guys fess up 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Hi Peete,
 Haven't installed my Kit yet, but I do have a question. I posted a link here with a Vol POT that looked just like my Alps from LC. It was Poo Poo'd as not the same. Any idea where you can get a good Pot to fit the Zero? 

 Les


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Peete,
 Haven't installed my Kit yet, but I do have a question. I posted a link here with a Vol POT that looked just like my Alps from LC. It was Poo Poo'd as not the same. Any idea where you can get a good Pot to fit the Zero? 

 Les_

 

I'll see what I can dig up for you...in the meantime use the pot LC sent you....I bet it's the real deal.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I'll see what I can dig up for you...in the meantime use the pot LC sent you....I bet it's the real deal.

 Peete._

 

Hi,
 The LC pot was installed when I got mine. He doesn't cut the shaft though. So, when nibbling mine off, I was a little overzealous and the shaft is short. I may be able to fix it but I don't think so. So I'm looking for a replacement while I do the Cap Mods.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 The LC pot was installed when I got mine. He doesn't cut the shaft though. So, when nibbling mine off, I was a little overzealous and the shaft is short. I may be able to fix it but I don't think so. So I'm looking for a replacement while I do the Cap Mods._

 

So far I've come up with SFA where that NOS pot is concerned....although I haven't given up the search. I'll post a link to it if I manage to find it ( I ran across the exact same NOS part sometime ago....you think I can remember where though, nope ? ) D'oh.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_So far I've come up with SFA where that NOS pot is concerned....although I haven't given up the search. I'll post a link to it if I manage to find it ( I ran across the exact same NOS part sometime ago....you think I can remember where though, nope ? ) D'oh.

 Peete._

 


 Hi,
 Thanx Peete, there's got to be some of these out there.

 Les


----------



## bundee1

I think you spotted that pot on that chinese website that manufactures audio chassis and sells jacks and connectors. I dont remember what its called but you posted a link to it before.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *bundee1* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I think you spotted that pot on that chinese website that manufactures audio chassis and sells jacks and connectors. I dont remember what its called but you posted a link to it before._

 

Peete said it wasn't the same POT. I tried to find out about a week ago how to get in touch with the guys on that site, and it ain't easy.


----------



## Coreyk78

Well after killing my original DAC board, I got a new one from LC. I decided that I would try the mod again. And I am very happy because I was successful this time! I got all the caps and diodes replaced and added the .047uf k42y-2s I have and started burning it in. The sound is very nice now, the bass feels fuller, I like the changes so far, can't wait to hear what it will sound like once the PIO caps fully mature. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 edit- wanted to note where I used some different part choices from PPs kit. I used Panasonic FC for the power supply caps, and Elna Cerafine in the cool red and gold for the caps around the chip. The other caps are Panasonic FM as PP spec'd out originally.


----------



## rouk44

Hi !

 I got a frankenmod upgrade kit from Pricklely Peete (Thx one more time for your share)
 It was my first tweaking experience, so it took me many hours, desoldering stock components was the more difficult.
 thanks to Sennsay : its post on page 3 was very useful !

 After many hours, irritation and swearwords, SURPRISE ! it works 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	










 After only a few hours, improve was obvious, however there was at first a little harshness in high treble which disappear quickly during burn in.
 "Airing", 3D effect and weight on bass were clearly improved.

 But I had a problem, from time to time sound became lower and sizzling; by moving a little the RCA cables, it returned normal.

 So I thought, there was a bad solder on the RCA jack, then I desoldered and resoldered many times these damn jacks and the problem was always here.
 I broke several tracks, so I made jumpers with components legs.(poor work, looked like a battlefield...).

 This story finished by a probable shortcut, a little smoke and the melting of 
 the 2 resistances underneath the PCB. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I am VERY disgusted, especially as Franken mod was very very promising !

 During my attempts to fix it, I have killed some OPA (hope my earth is unharmed), and I'm not 100% sure about the origin of the problem was the RCA !

 I am not competent in electronic,
* does anyone think I may have damaged components from the franken kit *(caps and diodes) ? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I have no tool to check them (just a very low end multimeter).

 Perhaps I think about buying just a new PCB (but resoldering frankenkit components with their shortenend legs will be an ordeal)

 But if it doesn't work again, I won't identify the failure and run the risk of becoming mad !

 Thanks in advance for your opinion.


----------



## bundee1

I fried something on my FrankenMod by installing a cap backwards. If you want to get plenty of help, take close up pictures of the top and bottom of the dac board, specifically the places where you did work. People here can try to diagnose the problem from those pics. Joyeux Noel!


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *rouk44* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi !

 I got a frankenmod upgrade kit from Pricklely Peete (Thx one more time for your share)
 It was my first tweaking experience, so it took me many hours, desoldering stock components was the more difficult.
 thanks to Sennsay : its post on page 3 was very useful !

 After many hours, irritation and swearwords, SURPRISE ! it works 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	










 After only a few hours, improve was obvious, however there was at first a little harshness in high treble which disappear quickly during burn in.
 "Airing", 3D effect and weight on bass were clearly improved.

 But I had a problem, from time to time sound became lower and sizzling; by moving a little the RCA cables, it returned normal.

 So I thought, there was a bad solder on the RCA jack, then I desoldered and resoldered many times these damn jacks and the problem was always here.
 I broke several tracks, so I made jumpers with components legs.(poor work, looked like a battlefield...).

 This story finished by a probable shortcut, a little smoke and the melting of 
 the 2 resistances underneath the PCB. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I am VERY disgusted, especially as Franken mod was very very promising !

 During my attempts to fix it, I have killed some OPA (hope my earth is unharmed), and I'm not 100% sure about the origin of the problem was the RCA !

 I am not competent in electronic,
* does anyone think I may have damaged components from the franken kit *(caps and diodes) ? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I have no tool to check them (just a very low end multimeter).

 Perhaps I think about buying just a new PCB (but resoldering frankenkit components with their shortenend legs will be an ordeal)

 But if it doesn't work again, I won't identify the failure and run the risk of becoming mad !

 Thanks in advance for your opinion.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 


 OUCH! A sad way to have such promise destroyed. Tell you what, rouk44, why don't you PM me and I'll see what I can do from here, though it is difficult without having the job in hand. Are you able to take any _sharp_ close-up pics of the underneath of the board at all? 

 I am beginning to think that if one is not experienced with at least some form of kit work, it may be better to hand the kit to someone who knows what they're doing.
 I did make it quite clear in the rebuild guide posting on P3 that the tracks are VERY DELICATE. In saying that, I also appreciate that you did find it useful, rouk44, so thank you. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The results from this rebuild are stunning from a musical perspective and fully deserve attention to detail and a good clean job well done and I admit that it isn't really an easy task, even for those of us with more experience. 
 If you know a tech or an experienced kit builder, then it really is worth asking for help and joyfully handing over a few ales or some cash in exchange! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-Man


----------



## ccschua

I think a very important fact for beginners is : --

 Dont do all the Franken mod all at once.

 Split the mod phase by phase lol.

 After u satisfy with the sound then u go. no joke.

 my sequence is

 1. Power cap at +- 15V
 2. Power cap at DAC
 3. Power cap at signal level
 4. Diodes
 5. power cap to the DAC.
 6. sausage.

 As for the franken mod, I have removed the green sausage to the silmic 2. I like the sound better, more dynamics.


----------



## ccschua

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *rouk44* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi !
 This story finished by a probable shortcut, a little smoke and the melting of 
 the 2 resistances underneath the PCB. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I am VERY disgusted, especially as Franken mod was very very promising !

 During my attempts to fix it, I have killed some OPA (hope my earth is unharmed), and I'm not 100% sure about the origin of the problem was the RCA !

 I am not competent in electronic,
* does anyone think I may have damaged components from the franken kit *(caps and diodes) ? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I have no tool to check them (just a very low end multimeter).

 Perhaps I think about buying just a new PCB (but resoldering frankenkit components with their shortenend legs will be an ordeal)

 But if it doesn't work again, I won't identify the failure and run the risk of becoming mad !

 Thanks in advance for your opinion.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Mine is also a battlefield. However before power up, I make I check the circuit 1 by 1. I took the pain, use the multimeter, check continuity of each joint that I have done. If u are excited at power up before checking, that is the story of frying up some components.

 I use a bright light as backlight and check the PCB for all the continuity.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *ccschua* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Mine is also a battlefield. However before power up, I make I check the circuit 1 by 1. I took the pain, use the multimeter, check continuity of each joint that I have done. If u are excited at power up before checking, that is the story of frying up some components.

 I use a bright light as backlight and check the PCB for all the continuity._

 


 Good tips, thanx!


----------



## sennsay

The bright light as a backlight is a good old handy hint, one I've used regularly for years and that's a great reminder cc! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 It's also very important for noobies to remember that if you have a problem, don't just plough on regardless! There are several more experienced Head Fiers in this thread to run something buy. 

 My Frankie is well over the 800 hour mark now and sounds just sensational and in combination with the highly upgraded KHA amp, now designated KHA II, is still reaching small new levels of refinement. KHA II is also a sensation in it's own right, the Black Gate caps and various Nichicon Muse caps, plus the Dales resistors and a couple of PIOs have taken a long time to run in, the BGs in particular took 150+ hours before even beginning to sound really any different from new! At 300 they started to settle in a bit and it's been more than worth the wait, the transparency is fabulous! I mention this, because as a combo with Frankie, they make a dynamite pair of extraordinary value for money! Using Frankie as a DAC/pre, this is as simple as hifi can get and the sound quality is unlike anything I have come across before, so much so that even the word/s hi-fi are meaningless, the music singing and dancing in and around the head with no barriers and all-of-a-piece. By that I mean that separating out bass and treble etc is basically impossible, the whole sound just taking on a wholeness that belies the fact that there are electronics recreating the musical experience. And THAT, my friends, is really really special and a rarity even in the high end. Maybe especially in the "high end"!
 My experience has found that such a lovely thing is far more common in the lower echelons of our wonderful .. um .. hobby. 
 To add to this experience, I've FrankenModded my Plinius IIC pre-amp with PIOs and Black Gate and Nichicon power supply caps and this too has transformed into something way beyond it's stock form, though also taking well over 300 hours to even begin to take on it's new sound signature. The wait has again been worth it, adding even more grip to the bass, image focus and a sense of limitless power while remaining extremely transparent. There are obviously some benefits to having the IIC as a buffer, though for that ultimate sheer freedom-from-electronics feeling, just Frankie and KHA together are nigh on unbeatable, being just a tad softer in it's imaging. Both are as addictive as all-get-out!! 
 PP and I will be sharing more about this combo (Frankie and our respective KHAs) in a posting together in a while, when we can get our s ... elves together.


----------



## sennsay

Removed post, posted it twice by accident. Heh heh.


----------



## ccschua

There is this power cap 47uF 25V just right beside the power supply socket. That cap gives the supply to the 3 units of DAC power supply cap (which is +5V). 

 For me, I bypass that 47uF25V cap with green sausage.

 Remember the DAC power supply cap is very critical in the signal supply path. 

 I used Nover for the DAC power supply cap.


----------



## prinz

did someone measured the voltage on the 2200/4700uf CAPS ?
 I have 4700uf supported only 10v and i'm not sure if i can put them on my zero.


----------



## ccschua

Please dont put that in.

 The voltage across that cap is about 25~27 volt.


----------



## prinz

thank You for the answer, i'm surelly not gonna put these caps in this case 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





, so i will look around for a 25v/35v caps.


----------



## ccschua

U cant use 25V either. 

 In HIFI, there is no point trying to save a penny which later can lead to problems.


----------



## prinz

so why on first picture in this topic ( phase1 power supply section ) is written: "replace with 4700uf Nichicon *25v*, than bypass..."
 ?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

I measured 21V across the bank of diodes on mine and my line V is rather high at 127V 60 hz AC. 25V cap in that spot is perfectly OK. All Zeros use 25V (2200uf) rated mains filter caps... If it makes anyone feel better than 35V is also fine but once you get above that they get too large in size. A general rule of thumb is to not exceed 50% of nominal V rating for a targeted location for upgrade...either match the V rating of the cap you replace or go a little higher...not go crazy at 100-200% more.........other issues arise when you go down that road...one mentioned previously the other you can look up online.

 Happy New Year everyone !!!!!!

 I have to go get ready for this evenings events....


 Peete.


----------



## ccschua

Hi PP 

 Happy new year to you. Have u remove the bypass cap to the silmic II ? Please try and see.


----------



## sadhill

Hi PP,

 I'm new to this forum, but owning a Zero since feb 2008, left aside as not completely satisfactory...

 I would be interested with your upgrade kit if still available ...

 Has someone found a simple and satisfactory way to hook the Zero to a USB PC outlet ? (presently using an EMU 0404 USB DAC box, very satisfactory, but I need a second system...)

 Thank you !


----------



## Pricklely Peete

sadhill PM me about the kits.

 Peete.

 PS CC...nope I haven't pulled the bypass caps from the Silmic II's. You are talking about the 4 coupling caps right ? I haven't touched my Frankie for quite sometime now...(LOL...sounds kinda funny).


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_PS CC...nope I haven't pulled the bypass caps from the Silmic II's. You are talking about the 4 coupling caps right ? I haven't touched my Frankie for quite sometime now...(LOL...sounds kinda funny)._

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! 

 Ohhh, forgot what thread I was in !!

 Nevermind!


----------



## ccschua

The 4 coupling cap (two of them actually ) serves to block DC and so the connection is in series. Oops. I need to confirm the green sausage in series mode. I was thinking mundorf 0.1uF .


----------



## prinz

does the direction of PIO's legs matters?
 None of them is signed as + or -.
 Im asking because on underside PCB i saw different soldering between Peet's and someone else photo.

 i've marked differences in blue circle


----------



## Coreyk78

It doesn't matter, film caps and PIO caps like the k42y-2 are non polar.


----------



## prinz

God bless You ;]


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_God bless You ;]_

 

I guess we are still being inundated with this nonsense!


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Les....LOL....you certainly are a character...

 Ok folks...something I ran across this morning while trying to squeeze in a unrelated set of pcbs and psu parts into my heavily modified HK HD720 CDP.....I had added PIO bypass caps to the 2 47uf 16V MUSE output coupling caps ( a few months back) and noticed the other day when I tried the analog outs (for kicks) on it the R channel was not functional....of course while I had the chassis lid off this morning I decided to try and figure out what the issue was....low and behold one of the traces on the right channel coupling cap had cracked breaking the circuit and dropping the right channel in the process....OK no problem I'll fashion a jumper and fix it....the real question though is why did it break to begin with (other than the really cheap one sided PCB being part of the problem) ? I discovered that the legs of the PIO bypass cap were under "tension" as in they had not been completely bent into the proper shape to mate up with the MUSE cap pads and therefor leave the completed joint stress free......Obviously with the delicate traces on the Zero board the PIO cap leads need to be bent into a shape (following the Instruction manual photos ) that will not stress the + and - pads of the cap being bypassed. Even a 1/10 of 1 mm crack will cause the board to fail with the resulting troubleshooting of that fault difficult to detect.

 Hopefully this additional info will drive home the importance of being precise ....it really will effect longevity and although it happened to another unit of mine, the lesson is universal and translates to any application where PIO bypass caps may be used.

 Peete.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_does the direction of PIO's legs matters?
 None of them is signed as + or -.
 Im asking because on underside PCB i saw different soldering between Peet's and someone else photo.

 i've marked differences in blue circle









_

 

Hi prinz, no, the direction matters not a jot. The picture you refer to is one of mine and I just happen to like my boards to look neat, clean and tidy, with the legs pre-formed to fit into the space available so that strain on the board does not occur, as PP has intimated elsewhere. 
 All of my boards look like this and after a challenge once where I had a track break from a PIO leg not quite right, I have had absolutely no problems with tracks cracking and creating frustrating problems later on my other projects. It's really worth taking the time to get this right, as there is far less chance of possible problems with RFI pick up (radio frequency) or other magnetic interference. Great care is needed when working around the DAC.
 Well done on doing a pretty fair job there, it's neater than many I've seen. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 You might consider finding an old toothbrush and some Isopropyl alcohol and giving the solder joins a gentle scrubbing to remove the solder flux.
 It not only leaves a much cleaner and neater looking board, it makes finding potential solder bridges much easier to see. 

 The main board from the top should really show little signs of much modification in my book, but then I am a bit persnickety about this. Here's what I mean in the pics below, one of which, BTW, has not been cleaned yet. Regards, S-man.


----------



## prinz

thanks sennsay for answer. Today i'll get my zero back from electronics service.Yesterday they told me, that they dont know what's wrong with my zero, i dont believe that situation has changed today. (i broke it while i was doing mod).
 Im really upset, it was my first mod, first soldering.. and mission failed.
 I would be very grateful if someone could post a picture with selected caps which should be soldered from the upper side of the PCB. ( i've soldered everything from downside, and i hope thats the reson why my zero's dead). Im electronic noob, cant see any tracks by myself really. I need help from You guys..

 ---
 EDIT
 ---

 I've resoldered the suspicious caps, searched carefully for caps which should be soldered from upper side of PCB and soldered them ofcourse from the proper side. And **** is not working... :/ when i push the "reset" i hear sound for about 5ms. 

 :~~-(


 EDIT!...


 IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
 one of the tracks leading to the cap which should powerup the reciever was lifted.
 Now it works! !!!
 Ill be back in few days 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




(


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Aha......good job prinz........!!!!

 That tech should be fired IMO. He should have caught that fault during his visual inspection (that's the first step for any troubleshooting job).

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_thanks sennsay for answer. Today i'll get my zero back from electronics service.Yesterday they told me, that they dont know what's wrong with my zero, i dont believe that situation has changed today. (i broke it while i was doing mod).
 Im really upset, it was my first mod, first soldering.. and mission failed.
 I would be very grateful if someone could post a picture with selected caps which should be soldered from the upper side of the PCB. ( i've soldered everything from downside, and i hope thats the reson why my zero's dead). Im electronic noob, cant see any tracks by myself really. I need help from You guys..

 ---
 EDIT
 ---

 I've resoldered the suspicious caps, searched carefully for caps which should be soldered from upper side of PCB and soldered them ofcourse from the proper side. And **** is not working... :/ when i push the "reset" i hear sound for about 5ms. 

 :~~-(


 EDIT!...


 IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
 one of the tracks leading to the cap which should powerup the reciever was lifted.
 Now it works! !!!
 Ill be back in few days 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




(_

 

Good Deal, Makes you feel great finding it huh!


----------



## prinz

yeah, it certainly does 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I'm really courious how sq will change after burn in.
 Im also thinking about changing two 330uf caps near the DAC's OPA. Atm there are panasonics FC, but i also have 470uf BC COMPONENTS (actually VISHAY, couse BC/philips was bought by vishay some time ago) from the best series.
 I've heard that those BC Components caps sounds really, really good, and they quite cheap btw.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Can't hurt to try it...give the Frankie it's required hours first is my advice before changing anything else. The BC caps are good ones indeed. I used some of them (220uf 100V Axials) in my Adcom GFP-750 rebuild/mod....at 6 dollars ( CAD from Digikey) a cap they are quite a bit more $$ than the NOS Russian PIO's....and loads more than the Panay FC's...I'm not sure you'll gain much with the swap. Might be worthwhile though....I say why not (but after burn in). The Adcom sounds really good...but it is still many many more hours before it's done cooking. I changed out 76 parts...rather large mod.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Can't hurt to try it...give the Frankie it's required hours first is my advice before changing anything else. The BC caps are good ones indeed. I used some of them (220uf 100V Axials) in my Adcom GFP-750 rebuild/mod....at 6 dollars ( CAD from Digikey) a cap they are quite a bit more $$ than the NOS Russian PIO's....and loads more than the Panay FC's...I'm not sure you'll gain much with the swap. Might be worthwhile though....I say why not (but after burn in). The Adcom sounds really good...but it is still many many more hours before it's done cooking. I changed out 76 parts...rather large mod.

 Peete._

 

I don't suppose you've modded any Adcom 555's?


----------



## mengbet

Can someone tell me where can i find those parts for this mod?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I don't suppose you've modded any Adcom 555's?_

 

Not yet 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The 555 hmmm....need to look that one up and get familiar with it again. The model does ring a bell (a very dusty one) Les.

 Here's an interesting thread on the 555....Nelson Pass designed this amp as well....diyAudio Forums - Adcom 555II - Nelson Pass ? - Page 1 and he makes personal comments on it in the thread itself. Can't get better info than that I'd imagine. Straight from the horse's mouth 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Not yet 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The 555 hmmm....need to look that one up and get familiar with it again. The model does ring a bell (a very dusty one) Les.

 Here's an interesting thread on the 555....Nelson Pass designed this amp as well....diyAudio Forums - Adcom 555II - Nelson Pass ? - Page 1 and he makes personal comments on it in the thread itself. Can't get better info than that I'd imagine. Straight from the horse's mouth 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete._

 

Hi,
 Thanx, I DL'd the Schematics. I saw your Adcom ref. and thought you may have bastardized a 555 in the past!


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 Thanx, I DL'd the Schematics. I saw your Adcom ref. and thought you may have bastardized a 555 in the past!_

 

Who me ?....Never 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Interesting to note the few options in that thread that do improve performance though. There is always room for improvement IMO unless the object is already perfect in every way...(rarely if ever seen in this price category) hence the threads suggestions for upgrade. I followed similar instructions for the 750 (from diyaudio.com of course) but then veered off that path using some ideas of my own. A hybrid mod you might say.

 Peete.


----------



## juswyq

Is it ok if I use PANASONIC FM/FC caps for all the electrolytic caps? Would I compromise on sound quality if I use the panasonic caps instead of the nichicon PW, Elna Silmic or Sanyo OS-CON capacitors?

 The only supplier I have access to (Farnell) doesn't have Nichicon PW, Elna Silmic and Sanyo Os-Con capacitors.


----------



## prinz

Panasonic are quite goodsounded caps, but too much of them will increase trembles to extremely not welcome level.
 They sound very precise, punchy, but not musical. You wont enjoy Your music anymore :]
 Better find some other caps.


----------



## juswyq

This is what i'm contemplating to buy:

 4700uF 16V Rubycon ZL (In place of 4700uF 25V Nichi PW, would the lower voltage rating matter?)
 1500uF 16V Rubycon ZL (In place of 1200uF 16V Nichi PW)
 330uF 25V Panasonic FM
 47uF 25V Panasonic FM
 100uF 20V Sanyo Oscon SA (These are expensive!)
 330uF 16V Panasonic FM

 Would this be adequate? I'm mainly concerned about the rubycon selection, haven't seen anyone using these caps in place of the nichicon pw. I could also change them to panasonic FM/FCs; which would be better?


----------



## majkel

Rubycon ZL are OK, Panasonic FM - I don't know, I prefer FA to FC, FG to FA and PX above all of them but they are strictly for audio. For digital - Sanyo WG are IMHO the best, Nippon Chemicon KZJ second. If OScon - the SP series only, with OFC wires.


----------



## juswyq

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *majkel* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Rubycon ZL are OK, Panasonic FM - I don't know, I prefer FA to FC, FG to FA and PX above all of them but they are strictly for audio. For digital - Sanyo WG are IMHO the best, Nippon Chemicon KZJ second. If OScon - the SP series only, with OFC wires._

 

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately Farnell has a really limited supply of caps. The most readily available ones are the panasonic FM/FCs. I'll try source for the caps you've mentioned. My budget is pretty tight though.

 However, I'll be bypassing most of these caps with mil-spec PIO caps, as recommended by PP. He says that once the electrolytic caps are bypassed, the difference in quality between the panasonic and higher quality caps are almost negligible?


----------



## juswyq

Panasonic FA seems to be discontinued.. Farnell doesn't have FG and PX either.

 Sanyo WG isn't available either. Sanyo SP doesn't have the 100uF 20/25V value that can replace the 100uF 25V cap..
 But there's rubycon ZL, ZA, YXF, Nichicon HD, PM, TVX... Vishay sprague, multicomp, cornell dibilier, NTE, and lots of Vishay BC caps.

 Are Vishay BC caps any good? They seem to be the most readily available at farnell.

 and Farnell doesn't stock Nippon Chemicon.

 Didn't think sourcing for caps for the frankenzero was going to be such a tough job.


----------



## prinz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *juswyq* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_This is what i'm contemplating to buy:

 4700uF 16V Rubycon ZL (In place of 4700uF 25V Nichi PW, would the lower voltage rating matter?)
 1500uF 16V Rubycon ZL (In place of 1200uF 16V Nichi PW)
 330uF 25V Panasonic FM
 47uF 25V Panasonic FM
 100uF 20V Sanyo Oscon SA (These are expensive!)
 330uF 16V Panasonic FM

 Would this be adequate? I'm mainly concerned about the rubycon selection, haven't seen anyone using these caps in place of the nichicon pw. I could also change them to panasonic FM/FCs; which would be better?_

 


 4700uf and 1500uf must be at least 25v. Someone measured voltage around those caps, it was c.a 23-25v.


----------



## juswyq

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_4700uf and 1500uf must be at least 25v. Someone measured voltage around those caps, it was c.a 23-25v._

 

Oh. In that case I'll have to use panasonic FC instead of rubycon ZL for the 4700uF cap, rubycon doesn't have it in that value. Unless I go multicomp/vishay BC/United chemicon, but there doesn't seem to be much info on these capacitors.

 Thanks for your help.


----------



## prinz

i use vishay BC Components in my zero as a 4700uf 25v cap.
 Its warmer, more analog like. In my opinion BC mixed with Panas FC are really good pair. You should Try


----------



## glitch39

I had my zero Franken'ed a while back. however, due to unforseen circumstances, I had to stop the burn-in

*Propos *to P.Peete who was there to assist me at every turn. His responses were thorough and educational.

 I took at few additional modifications, namely:

 * on the PSU section, I upgraded the 2 x 1000uf with 2 x 2200uf, doubling the capacitance offered to the PSU.

 * I isolated chassis ground from audio (PCB) ground. The eath HDAM was grounded to audio ground.

 * on the V+ and V- to the HDAM, I soldered a 1000uf cap to each voltage leg (total 2 caps) using audio ground for common ground. Idea is to stabilize further the voltage to the HDAM.

 with that, I powered on the Zero - 

 Wow. bigger soundstage but not by much. Then I noticed the bass is less. Much less. I had to take it apart again to see if I grounded wrong some of the caps. Nope, everything checks out. I listened to it throughout to monitor the changes. At around 70 hours, when things were not changing, I PM'ed Peete. True enough, he predicted that I was at about 75 hours. What can I say - he's done this many times that he knows the behavior of the Franken already. Then he also gave me the other behavior to expect as I go through the burn-in process. 

 I was so excited about this that I told myself: Heck, let it burn in without further monitoring. So I did. Let it sit there for another 40+ hours. Now at 125 hours, the separation is even wider - I mean bigger soundstage. I'm liking this. Bass is back is where I started before the mods. But the details in the music - amazing. GREAT mids. Timbre is much better. I used hi-res CD from Santana's Oye Como va. Instrument layering is amazing. I've had the Keces 151, MD-10, Yulong - they all sound very digital compared to the Franken. The Franken is that good.

 I have another 120 hours to go through before it finally stabilizes. Can't wait to complete it. Peete has told me what to expect further - more bass (Yes!), even bigger soundstage (Yes!) and sparkling highs (Yes!)

 If everything works out, then this raised the bar significantly for my next source. I'm excited.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

First of all thanks for the kind words Glitch 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I appreciate the positive response !!!

 Your in for a treat at the 150-160 hour range...that's the first really huge leap forward in SQ....if you think it's good now....
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The Russian caps are what takes most of the cooking time in this mod. They do all kinds of odd things before settling down. 

 I'm curious about the 2 x 1000uf caps you used for the HDAM (audio-gd wiring scheme). What type and brand are they ? Maybe a pair of 47uf 50V Black Gate NX caps would do wonders here ? 1000uf seems awfully high without a HQ small value film and foil bypass cap in there. Or you could add a pair of PIO bypass caps ...just a thought anyway.

 When you have 350 hours on yours could you make a comment on Frank vs the Oritek you had...I'm highly curious to hear your thoughts on how that respected DAC stacks up against Frankie ?

 Enjoy your FrankenZERO glitch and thanks for sharing your own slight twists of the mod !!! Thanks for taking the leap of faith !

 Peete.


----------



## prinz

my zero has over 200h of burn in. Sound's changing all the time. I'm waiting for settling down those PIOs 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




.
 My edition of Fraknen mod is quite different than from FAQ on 1st page. Today probably i'll recieve few Black Gates STD ( N are too expensive), Silmics II and Nichicon FG. I'll post pictures and write few words about SQ and my observations on Sunday.





 Stay tuned


----------



## glitch39

PP - I'm been wondering about that for quite sometime now. if the cap is added on the v2 to help on the voltage delivery, how could 1uf do it? my 1000uf were just spares, so no cost was considered for it. worst case, how can it degrade sound? those pins are supply rails for the HDAM. see my wiring below (note they are the same thing, just trying to visualize for everyone)


 pin 4 (V+) ----- GND ----- pin 8 (V-) 

 +15 volts ------- 0v ----- -15 volts 

 + 1000uf ---- audio gnd ---- -1000uf 


 what do you think?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Beats me g39. The difference between no cap and the BA 1uf PIO mod is audible and beneficial. Penchum and I and Sennsay spent a lot of time trying to figure why that works.....we gave up after a few months of digging and just accepted it as one of those things that can't be readily explained.

 If the 1000uf caps are low ESR types then it's possible they don't cause any harm. I think the addition of a small value bypass cap to the electrolytic caps should yield a small increase in performance but damned if I can explain it.

 How far away is the gnd connection for the 1000uf caps ? I'd duplicate the small box cap's wiring arrangement. Get the caps as close to the module +- and ground pins as possible. I'm almost positive that is the optimum way to do it. Ask Kingwa why, he'll know for sure why you want that gnd close the +- rails and located on the module itself.

 I'm going to try a different approach to the audio-gd method using a pair of PIO caps for each rail (wired in like Kingwa's V2 modules are) a .22uf and a .47uf 160V PIOs. The box caps on there now are either .68uf or .63uf...I forget which value at the moment.

 I'm going to try this arrangement on my 2 Earth modules to see if they differ from the BA method. Maybe I should take a page from your book and add a small value super low ESR electrolytic. Can't hurt to try I suppose. A 100uf 50V Panasonic FM or a 47uf 35V Elna Silmic II...what would you choose g39 ?

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Another 150 hours prinz, your almost there 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 If you use the Black Gates that will add some considerable time to the total (another 500 hours or so, maybe more) needed for full burn in. That's the general consensus on BG caps. The other HQ caps need about 100-150 hours.

 I look forward to your impressions 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## glitch39

PP - 100uf Pana FM

 solder one cap directly to V+ and hdam ground

 then the other cap to V- and hdam ground

 then connect hdam ground to audio ground (output RCA leg), which is isolated from chassis ground.

 hope it works for you, too, like it did for me.


----------



## shampoosuicide

Has anyone done a comparison of the FrankenZERO to more expensive DACs like the Zapfiltered Zhaolu, Oritek OMZ, Musical Fidelity V-DAC, Cambridge DacMagic, Apogee Duet, DIYEDEN Great March 2, Stello DA100, Lavry DA10, Benchmark DAC1, etc.?

 Or even a direct comparison to the Zero with HDAM upgrade?


----------



## Chrisdroogies

Hello Everybody,

 I've just completed my frankenZero project yesterday. Everyting went smooth exept for one PIO... I was a little nervous to proceed since my zero was a few weeks old only.

 So I started with the power supply section than I've put the board back in place to test it. It was working fine! Than I decided to go further. I'm an electronic tech and I'm not at my first project but I founded hard to solder some PIO caps maybe due to the big legs. I recommand to twist and route the PIO caps legs by following the pictures included in the project and THEN solder them. I did the mistake of moovin one PIO once it was soldered and "BANG!!" i broked one "donnut". I needed to splice and repair... Everything was done and I was anxious to test...

 I then put back the frankenzero in the chain. WoW!! Very nice sound was coming thru my headphones !! I was using GLite to comment the DAC section. Everthing was more extended, relax and clear with more separation. I don't have HDAM upgrade wet! I know I'll have to wait a couple hundred of hours before the whole thing grows up but the sounds is considerably better. It worths it no doubt. 

 Tank you very much P.P. for your time and accomplishment. I will comment on the sound once it's completely burned. I also wonder wich HDAM to get (earth, sun...). Input would be greatly appreciate. Sorry for my English!

 Cheers!

 Christian


----------



## juswyq

Uh oh.. I just attempted to mod my zero.. I thought I completed it but now there's no sound coming from my zero.. and i'm freaked. how do i troubleshoot this? When i completed phase 1 without adding the PIO bypass it worked, then i proceeded to phase 2 and now it doesnt work.. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Someone help please!

 The coaxial light sometimes lights up, sometimes doesnt. I have totally no idea what's wrong.


----------



## juswyq

Ok, now the coaxial LED lights up but there's no sound from the RCA jacks..

 EDIT: Make that no sound except pops and crackles..


----------



## juswyq

Ok, removed all the PIO bypass caps, replaced a few of the lytic caps but there's still no sound. Probably a high chance I fried my DAC chip or something? Though i didnt hear any spark or see any smoke.. Is there a way to troubleshoot this?


----------



## prinz

imho, on 99% youve soldered something wrong.
 Check carefully ALL traces which are leading to capacitors. REmbeber that many of these caps MUST be soldered from upper side of the PCB (not only from the bottom side).

 i had many, many, many problems with my zero. mostly lifted tracks(traces) which were not connectd to caps). 

 i bet you didnt fried anything. I had similalr problems, many times. Take your DAC board to the good source of light and look on traces if they are connected properly. here's image, im sure youve done something wrong in one of these caps 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 good luck


----------



## les_garten

Also make sure your polarized caps are oriented properly, any Diodes also.


----------



## juswyq

Double checked and triple checked all the capacitors and resistors.. everything seems to be in order. Looked very closely at the traces, only spotted one trace that'd been lifted but i corrected it with hookup wire. The coaxial light now doesn't light up, and there's still no sound


----------



## juswyq

I removed and resoldered most of the capacitors behind the board to make sure that the solder joints are solid. Still, no luck. Here are some pictures for you helpful gurus to analyse. Be warned, the board is a battlefield.. the 4700uF capacitors I ordered were too large to fit onto the board so i had to use hookup wire. But the multimeter reads 20V across the caps so it shouldnt be the source of the problem..















 Holy hell, those pics turned out huge. Sorry for the crappy quality, handphone camera.


----------



## les_garten

I haven't done mine yet, but for some reason it looks like a lot of caps are missing??


----------



## juswyq

I soldered the caps behind cos i had a hard time desoldering the stock caps


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *juswyq* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I soldered the caps behind cos i had a hard time desoldering the stock caps_

 

All tose connections are "point to point" have you used a DMM to check resistance and continuity?

 \.


----------



## juswyq

I've checked the continuity of all the solder joints i've done, and they're all fine. I then desoldered on the caps and resoldered on the stock caps to make sure the caps i bought werent faulty. the problem still persists; the coaxial LED on the red board sporadically turns on and off, and produces pops and crackles in the headphones. I can't fathom why. I've been meticulously tracing all the traces but found no trace of any broken traces. I can't think of any other explanation besides accidentally frying a component. Hmm..


----------



## juswyq

K, this is very weird. I've just about given up hope on my dead zero. something odd happens, when i turn on the power, the two black heatsinks on the right of the largest power capacitors actually have a potential difference of 36V. you read that right, thirty six volts over two HEAT SINKS. I think one of the chips attached to the heat sink is fried. I made the startling discovery when my DMM probe skimmed over the heatsinks and sparks flew. very weird.

 EDIT : ok, upon further inspection, i realise that the heatsinks on the amp of the zero also has a potential difference of 30V. so it might not be weird after all. still cant find any flaws with my work. Sad.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

OMG bro....I'm speechless.......I really am.

 Why didn't you follow the instructions ?? 

 Peete.


----------



## glitch39

got some spare parts from my Franken. PM me if anyone is interested


----------



## 10hz

It might be tricky to troubleshoot the fault.
 IMHO, its always good to keep a log of what you've done and do it in steps so that in case of a fault during the mod, it might be easier to back track.


 I've just gotten the OPA_SUN ,OPA_MOON and some better caps. I guess it will be best to try modding these first and taking things step-by-step. I'll just have to proceed with the mod despite the PIO are still stucked in the Russian.

 Update!
 After doing up a "partial Franken" mod( wo the Russian POI) I'm quite impressed with the sound. The soundstage is wider, sufficient bass and sharp treble. Hear that there will be dramatic improvement after the 150-160hr burn in mark. keeping my fingers crossed for more surprises.

 I've to admit that although most parts are thru-hole type, it'll be tricky not to burn other components while soldering on the top pad, and chances of breaking track or pad is very high!

 I've left the 4x 47uf silmic row untouched, wonder if it might be better to upsize or change to a better cap? 
 Also, I have not changed out to UF diodes, would there be any distinct improvement over the SQ?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

The swap to the UF4007's is part and parcel of the whole thing...but yes...definitely worth the trouble...funny I only lifted one pad when I did my board....with the right tools this should be fairly easy and straight forward..IMO at least.

 Peete.


----------



## sennsay

juswyk, I'm stunned mate! It's getting sadder and sadder at seeing some of these FrankenMods, PP has created a perfectly fine and clear set of instructions and I personally took a lot of time to write up a post of guidelines for beginners at the start of this thread somewhere. There is no shame in handing it over to someone more experienced if modders are having a challenging time. 
 Please people, this is a fabulous upgrade - especially in it's entirety! - and is worth the time and effort in taking the utmost care, one step at a time. If you don't have the correct tools, don't do it, IMO, or find someone who can. 
 The end result should look neat and tidy and any changes barely even noticeable from the top of the board in it's case.
 S-Man


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## 10hz

Ｔｈｅ　ｉｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｓ　ａｒｅ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｗell written and clear, kudos.
 But due to the availbility of space and the requirement components, 
 I didn't follow them religiously, my bad!
 I see no reason why someone with the whole set of proper tools and parts, no to follow the instruction faithfully! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 PP, thks for ur advice! I'll definitely try to replace the UF　ｄｉｏｄｅｓ．
 Ｗｏｎｄｅｒ　Ｉｆ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ　use UF4004 (50ns recovery) insteady of UF4007(75ns)


 I'm still waiting for the Russian PIO to replace the existing film bypass.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Ｔｈｅ　ｉｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｓ　ａｒｅ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｗell written and clear, kudos.
 But due to the availbility of space and the requirement components, 
 I didn't follow them religiously, my bad!
 I see no reason why someone with the whole set of proper tools and parts, no to follow the instruction faithfully! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 PP, thks for ur advice! I'll definitely try to replace the UF　ｄｉｏｄｅｓ．
 Ｗｏｎｄｅｒ　Ｉｆ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ　use UF4004 (50ns recovery) insteady of UF4007(75ns)


 I'm still waiting for the Russian PIO to replace the existing film bypass._

 

Thanks a bunch, 10hz, I appreciate the feedback. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The PIOs will take things a step further. Take great care in shaping the PIO legs to an exact fit, won't you, it's worth the time and effort. Nothing comes in more handy at that stage than a good set of needle nose pliers, or some medical tweezers like I usually use. 
 Don't really see why the UF4004s couldn't be used in this case, unless PP has a good reason for going the higher voltage diodes. They're both better than the standards one, AFAIC. Be interesting to hear how you get on with your progress. S-man

 Ooo, here's a tip: after you have put the insulation tubing on the PIO legs, use the edge of a craft knife to scrape away the outer surface of the leg that's left you will be soldering to the board. It not only makes for a much better join, but you might be surprised at how much surface 'corrosion' and muck is on the legs. I've had to do that with all of the latest lot of PIOs from Russia.


----------



## glitch39

When I did my Franken, half of the time I spent was for planning - laying out the parts, bending them properly, checking for what they touch, etc.

 Only after that did I plug in the soldering iron.

 And YES, I totally concur - it is all worth it. It raised the bar considerably for me that I don't know which DAC to get should upgraditis kick in.

 I am so spoiled by its sound that I do not just want incremental improvement on my next DAC. I want it to blow away the Franken, which won't be a small feat!


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Ooo, here's a tip: after you have put the insulation tubing on the PIO legs, use the edge of a craft knife to scrape away the outer surface of the leg that's left you will be soldering to the board. It not only makes for a much better join, but you might be surprised at how much surface 'corrosion' and muck is on the legs. I've had to do that with all of the latest lot of PIOs from Russia._

 

Thks for the advice, S-man!
 It's not too much of a problem of 'what-goes-where' , most of the time, it's the orientation of the bypass caps that pose a problem. 

 Thanks for the tips of using a needle plier or tweezer, in fact, a good quality pointer cutter is impt as well.

 I make the habit of sanding the leads of every components, before soldering, so that should be ok, i suppose! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Hope that my russian PIO can be here soon. Even without, already the SQ is very impressive. Perhaps with the fully burnt-in zero, the music can move me to tears.... :....)


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thks for the advice, S-man!
 It's not too much of a problem of 'what-goes-where' , most of the time, it's the orientation of the bypass caps that pose a problem. 

 Thanks for the tips of using a needle plier or tweezer, in fact, a good quality pointer cutter is impt as well.

 I make the habit of sanding the leads of every components, before soldering, so that should be ok, i suppose! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Hope that my russian PIO can be here soon. Even without, already the SQ is very impressive. Perhaps with the fully burnt-in zero, the music can move me to tears.... :....)_

 

Yes, a gentle sanding is just as good, 10hz. I too have been deeply moved many times by my gear, especially with Frankie in the mix. That's what our fabulous hobbie is all about, feeling the music, in my book. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I find that the orientation of the caps is critical to the finish of the final job, there's great satisfaction in not only having a project work at first switch on, but also having it look good too, not something that scares little children! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I have a couple of pics here that may give a good idea on PIO orientation, if they're any help to you. If you need any more, I'll see what I can find.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Cheers, S-man.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *glitch39* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_When I did my Franken, half of the time I spent was for planning - laying out the parts, bending them properly, checking for what they touch, etc.

 Only after that did I plug in the soldering iron.

 And YES, I totally concur - it is all worth it. It raised the bar considerably for me that I don't know which DAC to get should upgraditis kick in.

 I am so spoiled by its sound that I do not just want incremental improvement on my next DAC. I want it to blow away the Franken, which won't be a small feat!_

 

 Man, I'm with you there! Beating Frankie as an overall thing will take some doing and a lot of cash! I like the way you planned the mod, that's exactly the way to do things, AFAIC. It'll be very interesting to see what the Compass brings to the table as time goes by. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-man


----------



## shampoosuicide

I have zero (ha ha) experience in soldering and electronics. Could I possibly go ahead with this project? Is there anything I should know in advance before starting?


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *shampoosuicide* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I have zero (ha ha) experience in soldering and electronics. Could I possibly go ahead with this project? Is there anything I should know in advance before starting?_

 

Yes ... it's no easy job for most beginners and has it's challenges even for those of us with much more experience! Mostly in the form of taking care with thin copper tracks, which can easily lift off the board from prolonged heat from a soldering iron and/or too much pressure from adjusting PIO capacitor legs once mounted. Also the through-soldering creates it's own challenges and is more difficult without practice and the right tools for the job. Not that it can't be done, it's just that many noobies are having difficulties and some of the results leave a lot to be desired in the long term reliability stakes. Simply having the PIOs not snugged up neatly against the board can create problems with pressure breaks in tracks as the capacitor is compressed between the board and the bottom of the case. 
 My personal advice? Buy a kit by all means and then give the lot to someone with some experience to built the project for you. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-man.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Anyone who want the pics and instructions for reference just speak up...either S-Man or I will be glad to furnish the needed pics advice tips etc....anyone who has contemplated/completed or is just plain curious about this project is free to post/ask about it...so please do by all means 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.

 PS I love looking at S-Man pics...the installation and finish work is first class ! Cheers bro !!!


----------



## shampoosuicide

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yes ... it's no easy job for most beginners and has it's challenges even for those of us with much more experience! Mostly in the form of taking care with thin copper tracks, which can easily lift off the board from prolonged heat from a soldering iron and/or too much pressure from adjusting PIO capacitor legs once mounted. Also the through-soldering creates it's own challenges and is more difficult without practice and the right tools for the job. Not that it can't be done, it's just that many noobies are having difficulties and some of the results leave a lot to be desired in the long term reliability stakes. Simply having the PIOs not snugged up neatly against the board can create problems with pressure breaks in tracks as the capacitor is compressed between the board and the bottom of the case. 
 My personal advice? Buy a kit by all means and then give the lot to someone with some experience to built the project for you. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 S-man._

 

Awright, thanks for the heads up S-man 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I shall look for someone who can mod my Zero for me.


----------



## prinz

hmm.. strange..

 I have problem with my volume knob in ZERO.
 When i put it into chassis, where it should be, i hear "huuumm, bruummm etc" in headphones. When I take headamp out of the chassis everything's ok. I've noticed that when volume knob and chassis( this hole where volume knob goes through) are sticking i hear that "huuum". And when volume knob and chassis hole, are NOT sticking, everything's ok.

 Also i've noticed that from 0 to 1/3 (volume) everythings ok, from 1/3 to 2/3 i hear silent bruumm, from 2/3 to the end noise is quite high, but there's no brum 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




.

 Peete.. any ideas ?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Check to see if your pot casing has a ground wire or if the solder joint to that casing has come loose needing to be reset (reheated ). The actual 6 solder points of the pot itself may need to be reheated or reflowed...one or two tabs may have been shoddy joints...or broke loose over time. Worth checking it all while you have things apart.

 Here's a pic of the Alps pot with the tiny gnd wire from the pcb to the pot casing.








 Peete.


----------



## sennsay

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_hmm.. strange..

 I have problem with my volume knob in ZERO.
 When i put it into chassis, where it should be, i hear "huuumm, bruummm etc" in headphones. When I take headamp out of the chassis everything's ok. I've noticed that when volume knob and chassis( this hole where volume knob goes through) are sticking i hear that "huuum". And when volume knob and chassis hole, are NOT sticking, everything's ok.

 Also i've noticed that from 0 to 1/3 (volume) everythings ok, from 1/3 to 2/3 i hear silent bruumm, from 2/3 to the end noise is quite high, but there's no brum 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





.

 Peete.. any ideas ? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

prinz, while Peete is busy, I will see what I can do for you. If you look at the vol pot on the left hand side, is there a piece of wire soldered from the side of the pot going down to the board? If not, that is your problem, it seems to have been a recurring fault in manufacture to not put that little earth strap in there. 
 Try this little experiment, take a small pice of bare wire and hold it to the side of the pot, then touch the other end to the front of the case. Board ground is better, but for the moment just connect the pot to ground and see what happens. S-man


----------



## sennsay

HAH! While I was writing, you beat me to it, PP!
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 And with a pic too. S-man


----------



## prinz

PP, what I would do without You 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




..
 it Helped! I didnt had any wire between pot and pcb.

 thanks 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




.

 edit. thanks sennsay 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




,
 You know guys, if there were some KARMA, you know +1 for good advice or smth, i would click on Yours all the time


----------



## juswyq

Sennsay: I agree, PP has created a very clear, succint set of instructions. He has been very helpful, I can't express in words how great his assistance has been. I understood the instructions well, yet i still managed to do something wrong.

 I don't think it's related to the capacitors I've changed though, because the polarities are all correct (I've left the thing on for over 10 hours trying to troubleshoot. If polarity had been wrong, a capacitor would definitely have popped)

 I've been scrutinising the board for a lifted or cracked trace, but can't find any. It's saddening to know I've killed the DAC, and more saddening to not be able to find out where I went wrong.

 I've been checking the potential differences across all the capacitors I replaced. This is what I got. Is there any anomaly or discrepancy, anyone? And the voltage across the four 10V47uF Elna caps keeps fluctuating. Is this normal?


----------



## sennsay

juswyq, most of those figures look fairly good as far as I can tell, though my own Frankie reads only 2.5V across the four 10V 47uF caps and is steady at that voltage. I take it you've gone through the reset buttons etc? S-man


----------



## 10hz

Just a quick update: 
 The Russian greenies are here, fresh from the mailman =>
 I'm in the progress of changing modding the PSU ( Caps, UF, PIO bypass), the analogue( 47uF caps, PIO bypass). I've made some changes to the BOM due to parts availability, thus chosen:- UF4004, 47uF cerafine, 330uF red ELNA.

 I find the biggest challenge is in desoldering process- Heating the old solder, getting rid of the old solder goob, ensuring the hole is clear, taking care that I don't accidentally melt the neighboring components, at the same time taking care not to overheat or use too much force as it might be easy to 'uproot' a pad. 

 Any tips from you gurus?


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *juswyq* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Sennsay: I agree, PP has created a very clear, succint set of instructions. He has been very helpful, I can't express in words how great his assistance has been. I understood the instructions well, yet i still managed to do something wrong.

 I don't think it's related to the capacitors I've changed though, because the polarities are all correct (I've left the thing on for over 10 hours trying to troubleshoot. If polarity had been wrong, a capacitor would definitely have popped)

 I've been scrutinising the board for a lifted or cracked trace, but can't find any. It's saddening to know I've killed the DAC, and more saddening to not be able to find out where I went wrong.

 I've been checking the potential differences across all the capacitors I replaced. This is what I got. Is there any anomaly or discrepancy, anyone? And the voltage across the four 10V47uF Elna caps keeps fluctuating. Is this normal?
_

 

Maybe it's possible one or more of your caps were bad??


 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Just a quick update: 
 The Russian greenies are here, fresh from the mailman =>
 I'm in the progress of changing modding the PSU ( Caps, UF, PIO bypass), the analogue( 47uF caps, PIO bypass). I've made some changes to the BOM due to parts availability, thus chosen:- UF4004, 47uF cerafine, 330uF red ELNA.

 I find the biggest challenge is in desoldering process- Heating the old solder, getting rid of the old solder goob, ensuring the hole is clear, taking care that I don't accidentally melt the neighboring components, at the same time taking care not to overheat or use too much force as it might be easy to 'uproot' a pad. 

 Any tips from you gurus?_

 

A stainless steel dental pic is good for the stubborn solder. Heat the solder up that is left over while carefully pushing the pic through the hole. The stubborn solder will be pushed out of the hole and won't stick to the stainless steel pic. You need to be careful when heating the board to do this and must not use excessive force to clean out the hole or overheat it enough to burn the pad/board. It's a fine line between enough heat and too much, enough force and too much.

 A good method for removing the old diodes is to cut the legs as close to the top holes as you can get them. That way when you remove the solder from the underside the likely hood of not getting the hole clean in one go is lessened considerably. You can also lightly grip the one side with some tweezers and heat up the solder to remove the cut leg that way without causing any damage to the pcb.

 Another good method for stubborn solder is to reflow some fresh solder into that hole and try again with the tool you use to vacuum the solder out with (manual pump, wicking material, or desoldering iron ).

 Have a look at You Tube for videos showing the various methods you can employ for tricky parts and stubborn solder removal.

 Good luck.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_PP, what I would do without You 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




..
 it Helped! I didnt had any wire between pot and pcb.

 thanks 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




.

 edit. thanks sennsay 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




,
 You know guys, if there were some KARMA, you know +1 for good advice or smth, i would click on Yours all the time 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Only too glad to help. 

 S-Man was right on the money as well. Good man !!!

 Peete.


----------



## hobbang819

Hi all. I've ordered most all the parts I need for the mod, except for the PIO. Am I correct in thinking that I can still run it with everything except the PIOs?

 I'd like to have everything in and running before the weeks it may take for me to get the PIO.


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_A stainless steel dental pic is good for the stubborn solder. Heat the solder up that is left over while carefully pushing the pic through the hole. The stubborn solder will be pushed out of the hole and won't stick to the stainless steel pic. You need to be careful when heating the board to do this and must not use excessive force to clean out the hole or overheat it enough to burn the pad/board. It's a fine line between enough heat and too much, enough force and too much.

 A good method for removing the old diodes is to cut the legs as close to the top holes as you can get them. That way when you remove the solder from the underside the likely hood of not getting the hole clean in one go is lessened considerably. You can also lightly grip the one side with some tweezers and heat up the solder to remove the cut leg that way without causing any damage to the pcb.

 Another good method for stubborn solder is to reflow some fresh solder into that hole and try again with the tool you use to vacuum the solder out with (manual pump, wicking material, or desoldering iron ).

 Have a look at You Tube for videos showing the various methods you can employ for tricky parts and stubborn solder removal.

 Good luck.

 Peete._

 

Good luck.

 Peete.
 _______

 Thks for your detail advice, Peete!

 Have to admit that it's really challenge for me to desolder on lead-free PCB.
 Most of my experience has been limited to tin/lead solder of work. 

 The challenge mostly lies with the correct temp control. Been running the iron at 350- 410degC range (662degF-770degF) The lead-free solder cured in a much faster time, thus require prolong heating in some cases, thus increase the risk of heat damage and delamination.

 A dental pic is a good idea, I've used a pointed compass tip to 'force out' the stubborn solder but it's still hard to prevent 'autosealing' of the hole from spent solder. Most of the time, the board will be standing on it edge, with iron on one hand, sucker on the other, i find that it speeds up things.

 Diode removal is quite straightforward, using the pencil tip iron to heat-and-pry the whole row of legs on one side, and use a plier n iron on the next sets of legs, no cutting necessary.

 Incidentally, I have checked out videos on desoldering techinique, but cant find any useful info.

 I've no luck using the wick, despite 'pre-treating ' it by sanding, cleaning with IPA blah x3 , the darn wick just refuse to 'siphon-all-up'.

 Update:
 After spending near close to 10 hours of intense struggling with the mod, finally, i've manage to complete the mod- but scoring literally 'zero' in finesse and esthetic department. Most of the caps are standing way too high and in a messy manner to facitate soldering on the top pad.

 After clearing up the messy flux and solder dust covered board with lots a toothbrush and IPA, i carefully position and fix everything in place, making a final inspection before power on, and when i whisper a silent prayer.....and press the 'ON' button.......in eager anticipation of the 'Moment'.... voila... The ultra bright blue and Red LED brighten up the whole room ! It works.... electrically, no magic sparks, no holy smoke!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 On hearing check,
 can= senn Px200
 DAC= fraken'ed Zero( with original OPA), optical-USB to my beaten-up PC.
 track= FIM Audiophile Reference IV -'Alexander Warenburg - Deer Hunter' ,FIM Audiophile Reference IV 

 - Esther Ofarim - La Vezina Catina (vocal)

 No humming or any noise.The entire performance is very musical and fluid.It's a brand new way of listening to the same track but in a very different way- very emotional, lyrical flow of musical expression. Very detail... I can distinctly hear some friction sound from strokes of the bow against the violin strings, which i can't hear previously.Vocals sound very clear, sharp and real. The Dynamics is very good as well, with very good bass response with good seperation. I'm very 
 satisfied with all these- even before any burn-in !!!

 Some minor changes i've made- UF diode replaced with UF4004 ( 50ns), 4x 47uF coupling caps changed to cerafine( am i right to say that the orginal silmic is supposed to be better than cerafine? hmmm)

 . In addition to the russian greenies, i have another box caps installed before hand( cap-box-pio). wanted to post some pic, but might put some people off with the messiness.


----------



## prinz

Cerafine are not better than Silmic, they are just different. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 btw. What are You guys thinking about zeros HEadamp?
 When I turn volume pot to half way, there is quite annoying noise on my JVC headphones. I dont hear any noise only from 0 to 1/3 of available volume scale.

 what do You think ?
 ------------------------
 BTW, i also finished my FRANKEN_PRINZ_ZERO MOD 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. Its ready, after 350h of burn in. 

















 And finally. I DONT know how it sounds 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




, because headphones which i bought from someone from this forum, didnt arrived yet.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Cerafine are not better than Silmic, they are just different. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 btw. What are You guys thinking about zeros HEadamp?
 When I turn volume pot to half way, there is quite annoying noise on my JVC headphones. I dont hear any noise only from 0 to 1/3 of available volume scale.

 what do You think ?
 ------------------------
 BTW, i also finished my FRANKEN_PRINZ_ZERO MOD 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. Its ready, after 350h of burn in. 

















 And finally. I DONT know how it sounds 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




, because headphones which i bought from someone from this forum, didnt arrived yet. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Very Kewl "Stealth" paint Job!!


 .


----------



## richardh123

Hey guys I just got my HDAM and was wondering if this is an acceptable installation. The extension is really hard to control in that it bend how I would like so i have to route it around as you can see. If this is not a good idea or if you would like to see it from a different angle please let know, thanks!


----------



## prinz

yes, it's good.

 I've put HDAM almost in the same place.


----------



## richardh123

Wow this thing is amazing just initial impressions are the soundstage opening up quite a bit. Wonder how it will sound with more time


----------



## juswyq

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_juswyq, most of those figures look fairly good as far as I can tell, though my own Frankie reads only 2.5V across the four 10V 47uF caps and is steady at that voltage. I take it you've gone through the reset buttons etc? S-man_

 

That's odd.. Mine keeps fluctuating. I'll continue looking for the source of the problem.. Maybe it's the DAC chip that's faulty?

 also, what do you mean by 'gone through the reset buttons"?


----------



## prinz

which direction should i use to solder the Silver mica caps, to headphone amp? They are substitution for the snipped one near the opamps.


----------



## 10hz

richard, your HDAM position seems ok! I had mine in similar position. But you might want to secure the HDAM properly with cable tie,in case it slide off the board and short on the chasis. Try not to use flammable material, it kill all the bass..... just kidding, it's just simply safety concern.

 Since I'm in Taiwan now,today, I've got many fanciful caps from almost the entire common caps range( except Blackgate) to try out to mix-n-match to get the sound i like. ANy recommendation for thick, warmer mid vocal, current treble is too sharp and plenty of peak.


----------



## goorackerelite

Does anyone know where I can get the proper sized shrink wrap for the green russian caps? I'm located in CT USA. 
 What size shrink wrap is it?


----------



## Rick

Would it be worth while replacing all those capacitors labelled 100n100v (0.1uF 100V) (the little yellow ones) in the headamp section around the opamps, and around the DAC, with the equivilent of Wima MKS02?


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Does anyone know where I can get the proper sized shrink wrap for the green russian caps? I'm located in CT USA. 
 What size shrink wrap is it?_

 

I'm using dia1.5mm( not sure what the inch equiv) sleeve for the russian greenies.


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *fsma* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Would it be worth while replacing all those capacitors labelled 100n100v (0.1uF 100V) (the little yellow ones) in the headamp section around the opamps, and around the DAC, with the equivilent of Wima MKS02?_

 

Well, it should be ok to replaced with the red wimas.
 imho, i think the main thing is to do up the franken mod first, any other fanciful stuff can come later.


----------



## goorackerelite

Do I need to solder the caps from the top and the bottom of the board? If so then why does the original caps only have solder from the bottom of the board? 

 Thanks


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Wow good work guys...the SQ's just get better and better past 150 hours. It's really a whole new ball game after the mod with the stock unit sounding rather bad by comparison. No BS, honest 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.

 PS Love the Stealth Paint Job. Is that just flat black enamel (spray can) ? Did you have to rough up the front plate a little to get a good stick with the paint ?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *prinz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_which direction should i use to solder the Silver mica caps, to headphone amp? They are substitution for the snipped one near the opamps._

 

prinz they are non polarized like the PIO and yellow box caps. Doesn't matter which way to install them.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Well, it should be ok to replaced with the red wimas.
 imho, i think the main thing is to do up the franken mod first, any other fanciful stuff can come later._

 

I wouldn't bother...those yellow EROS caps sound better than the WIMA's IMO. 

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_richard, your HDAM position seems ok! I had mine in similar position. But you might want to secure the HDAM properly with cable tie,in case it slide off the board and short on the chasis. Try not to use flammable material, it kill all the bass..... just kidding, it's just simply safety concern.

 Since I'm in Taiwan now,today, I've got many fanciful caps from almost the entire common caps range( except Blackgate) to try out to mix-n-match to get the sound i like. ANy recommendation for thick, warmer mid vocal, current treble is too sharp and plenty of peak._

 

Elna Cerafine or Silmic are the ticket. BG are very detailed and Neutral.

 Peete.


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Elna Cerafine or Silmic are the ticket. BG are very detailed and Neutral.
 Peete._

 

the price of BG is scary! looks like cerafine n silmic is the way to go.

 btw Peete, have you review the Compass yet?


----------



## hobbang819

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Do I need to solder the caps from the top and the bottom of the board? If so then why does the original caps only have solder from the bottom of the board? 

 Thanks_

 

I only soldered on the bottoms and its working swimmingly.


----------



## prinz

thanks PP 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




 I just used black spray paint, and i didnt do any job on front panel.
 I made few layers of black paint, but if I have to be honest, its really scratching very easily.


----------



## glitch39

So long my fellow Franken-Z owners. I sold mine and changed out my gear. But I wanted to share my last few days with my F-Z before it got shipped.

 First off - here is my initial post on my F-Z at 0 and 150 hours:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/5362726-post218.html

 at well over 200 hours, things became stable. Good bass, great highs, really good all around. but the soundstage and the mids.... *WOW!* - great dynamics - you won't think it started life as a $150 amp/DAC combo. the unit is soooo quiet. I'd max the volume and still think it's off. the noise floor is that low. 

 I had the opportunity to use the Benchmark's headamp out to a pair of stock D5000's and compared to a stock D5000 plugged in to the zero's head-amp. Maybe it's my expectations due to the price difference, but the Benchmark did not excite me like the F-Z did.

 To all those who are doing the mods, check with PP if he's around. His advise is *always spot-on* with regards to the F-Z.

 one more thing - on some occasions (specific volume level and recording), it equalled my LD IV with 6N30P-DR's and M8161's. so that speaks a lot about the zero's headamp and DAC resolution.

 happy listening.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_the price of BG is scary! looks like cerafine n silmic is the way to go.

 btw Peete, have you review the Compass yet?_

 

Yup have a look in the Compass thread started by Currawong...there is a link to parts I and II with III being written right now.

 The Cerafine and Silmic's are warmer with better mids but the addition of the Russian PIOs (in bypass mode) makes the combo as good as it gets IMO, black gates or no.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I only soldered on the bottoms and its working swimmingly._

 

Some General Tips :

 The trick is solder from one side but use just enough solder so it flows to the other side. It takes a little practice and about an extra second of time (max time on small joints should be around 3 seconds or less) 

 Do not forget to prep the iron before soldering...give it sufficient time to reheat between joints (10 - 15 seconds if it's low powered iron less time for higher wattage) Have a damp sponge nearby to clean the tip each and every time it's used for a joint. Re tin the tip as necessary. These procedures will make your lives and DIY work much easier and cleaner. 

 Always use just enough solder and not a drop more. Many times that's about 5 to 7 mm's worth or less. It doesn't take much ...practice to find the right amount for the job. There is no way to study this...you have to do it to understand what is not enough or too much. Look at the other joints and compare your work to good examples. Clean your joints after....do not leave dull or messy joints...those are likely to be trouble spots when it comes time to power up. Go over the entire board and clean up any splash...possible shorts from excess solder where it shouldn't be etc...the flux residue has to be cleaned off. It eats away at the board and the joint leading to failure at some point. Rubbing Alcohol and a clean old toothbrush works great. Make sure you never rub the dry brush over static sensitive parts (IC chips etc). A dental pic can also be used to gently scrape any tough flux from the nooks and crannies but do not use force to do so. Be gentle but firm...
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## glitch39

another tip: the solder *tip* (literally)

 when I solder with blunt tips, it's a lot more difficult to control solder flow. keeping extra tips handy is wise!


----------



## 10hz

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yup have a look in the Compass thread started by Currawong...there is a link to parts I and II with III being written right now.

 The Cerafine and Silmic's are warmer with better mids but the addition of the Russian PIOs (in bypass mode) makes the combo as good as it gets IMO, black gates or no.

 Peete._

 

Thks Peete for your confirmation and advise. I had cerafine and Russian PIO on, seems go .

 I think its very important to try to do a proper soldering job, especially when there are so many parts involved. I make it an effort to solder top and bottom, with or without pad, I aint going to take any chances, after deciding to ‘go all way out’.

 The most challenging part, I think, is the de-soldering process. It’s really a PITA to ensure the spent gob of solder is properly extracted from the hole, and making sure the holes are not covered up, in the process taking extreme care to be gentle but firm as not to uproot the pads n tracks.

 Cleaning up is important with IPA and brush, to remove the residual flux and solder dust to prevent shorting out the SMDs eg. the DAC chip.

 With the Compass going to be the next BIG thing, I might belong to the last group of those who attempted this mod, however I have no regret and feeling very impressed with the sound, looking forward to more surprises at the 150hr mark, which I suppose will take another month , based on 4hr of listening per day.

 Have Fun!


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *10hz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thks Peete for your confirmation and advise. I had cerafine and Russian PIO on, seems go .

 I think its very important to try to do a proper soldering job, especially when there are so many parts involved. I make it an effort to solder top and bottom, with or without pad, I aint going to take any chances, after deciding to ‘go all way out’.

 The most challenging part, I think, is the de-soldering process. It’s really a PITA to ensure the spent gob of solder is properly extracted from the hole, and making sure the holes are not covered up, in the process taking extreme care to be gentle but firm as not to uproot the pads n tracks.

 Cleaning up is important with IPA and brush, to remove the residual flux and solder dust to prevent shorting out the SMDs eg. the DAC chip.

 With the Compass going to be the next BIG thing, I might belong to the last group of those who attempted this mod, however I have no regret and feeling very impressed with the sound, looking forward to more surprises at the 150hr mark, which I suppose will take another month , based on 4hr of listening per day.

 Have Fun!_

 


 Agreed,

 The hardest part of all with this project is getting the old parts out without damaging the board (that's pretty much true of most boards these days so that is nothing new). The trick to that is the right tools for the job and more than one strategy for dealing with stubborn but highly delicate spots. 

 Manual pump + electric de-solder tool are both good to have.
 Adding solder to a tough spot after the part has been extracted (very carefully) is another good tip.
 A third hand tool is a great device to have (although not mandatory)
 Some good quality wicking material and paste flux, SS pic....all good to have.

 Most of all though...patience is required. Keep your cool and resist the use of force if things get frustrating. Do not skip steps or do the whole thing at once unless you are highly skilled and highly experienced. Better to take small steps and master those before taking the larger steps you are unprepared for.

 The last and one of the most important steps I find...do all your prep work before you pull the pcb and fire up the irons. Have it organized, map out your steps. Take your time. Don't settle for half assed that's a recipe for failure. Follow the DIY instruction/orientation pics for the parts/bypass PIOs to the letter, no exceptions.

 This is the formula for success more often than not.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *glitch39* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_another tip: the solder *tip* (literally)

 when I solder with blunt tips, it's a lot more difficult to control solder flow. keeping extra tips handy is wise!_

 

I can't believe I forgot to mention this one....thanks G !!! Yes the tip condition is critical especially for small through hole boards. If it's blunt or pitted go get a brand new one right away. A fine tip works better than the standard issue but the standard tip will do the job.

 Peete.


----------



## indianbraker

man i would love to perform this mod but lack the skills, materials, and time...how much would someone perform this mod for if i sent them my zero plus the cost of parts too..

 thanks to anyone willing to help out


----------



## goorackerelite

man this project is both a pain and a joy, getting some of the old parts out is like pulling teeth, it helps to have a buddy of yours to gently pull on a part while you de solder a component from the bottom, then suck out the residual solder afterwards. After the first components came out the rest of the job became very easy and might I say, pleasurable to do. Takes a steady hand and lots of planning and thinking, but what a learning experience though.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *indianbraker* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_man i would love to perform this mod but lack the skills, materials, and time...how much would someone perform this mod for if i sent them my zero plus the cost of parts too..

 thanks to anyone willing to help out_

 

I'll do it for you if you want and charge a flat but fair rate. 

 The kit is 45 parts in all. 

 PM me for quote details.

 Peete.


----------



## goorackerelite

wow Pete that's is a generous offer. The mod took me about 8 hours of nerves and anxiously awaiting the life or the death of my Zero unit upon power up. But in the end....... muah haha I'm one happy frankie owner!!!


----------



## L4T3NCY

I've decided to upgrade my zero with this mod but I have one question. When the instructions state to replace a capacitor and bypass it with an additional capacitor does that basically mean to place the two in parallel?


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *L4T3NCY* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I've decided to upgrade my zero with this mod but I have one question. When the instructions state to replace a capacitor and bypass it with an additional capacitor does that basically mean to place the two in parallel?_

 

Excellent Question.

 .


----------



## goorackerelite

I'm about 50 hours into the frankie experience with the moon Hdam, and I'm just astonished at the level of refinement that this modification is bringing to my listening experience. Supposedly, the sound is going to fully mature at 350 hours but right now the enjoyment I'm getting from the mod is absolutely mind blowing!!! I often find my self holding my breath because the depth and the nuance of the sound just seems to be infinite that demands all of your attention. I'm sure the compass is getting just as good sound out of a factory box, but the frankie is personal, I've spent time fostering, and raising an average DAC into a monster of a performer. Thanks again goes out to Peete, I'm so grateful to his dedication to this project.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I'm about 50 hours into the frankie experience with the moon Hdam, and I'm just astonished at the level of refinement that this modification is bringing to my listening experience. Supposedly, the sound is going to fully mature at 350 hours but right now the enjoyment I'm getting from the mod is absolutely mind blowing!!! I often find my self holding my breath because the depth and the nuance of the sound just seems to be infinite that demands all of your attention. I'm sure the compass is getting just as good sound out of a factory box, but the frankie is personal, I've spent time fostering, and raising an average DAC into a monster of a performer. Thanks again goes out to Peete, I'm so grateful to his dedication to this project._

 

I really need to get off my Azz and do mine.

 .


----------



## goorackerelite

yeah man, dollar for dollar and hour for hour the best money and time I've ever spent on audio. Now it's paying back in spades.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_yeah man, dollar for dollar and hour for hour the best money and time I've ever spent on audio. Now it's paying back in spades._

 

Yeah that's what everybody says!!

 .


----------



## goorackerelite

Okay in the 70-80 hour range of burn in. The bass has disappeared, and the sound-stage has become comically wide. man what a ride!!!! expecting more changes with in the next few hundred hours.


----------



## sennsay

Hi all, has anyone got a stock Zero they want to sell? It must be in fine working order! Please PM me if anyone has one, cheers, S-Man


----------



## goorackerelite

nearing the 120 hour mark. The bass came back!!! whoo hooo!!! mids are becoming more prominent and more grippy and textured. The highs are becoming more and more delicate, almost disappearing..... sound stage is becoming smaller but deeper. Hmmm need more burn in time, I hope the highs come back. Just to comment, I remember the Stock Zero unit with the Hdam installed used to grate on my ear drums like a cheese grater, now with the frankenzero, my eardrums feel like they're getting caressed by a gentle breeze, any signs of listening fatigue has disappeared!!!! The best part is that the sound is more engaging than ever. Brilliant!!


----------



## goorackerelite

Sennsay I think currawong is selling his zero with the Earth installed


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sennsay* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi all, has anyone got a stock Zero they want to sell? It must be in fine working order! Please PM me if anyone has one, cheers, S-Man_

 

Is the one in the FS forums too expensive?

 .


----------



## goorackerelite

yeah, the zero should go for no more than $120.00 used, in stock config


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Thanks goo and yes Les...you should get around to doing the mod. You've had a kit now for over a month or more......get that soldering iron fired up 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




 You'll be amazed by the changes Les, I guarantee you'll enjoy the results. 

 Frankie burn in note (generalized):

 The machinations Frankie goes through during burn in is a combination of Russian PIO + HDAM burn in with a little bit of forming happening with the better grade Nichicon caps/Fairchild diodes. Trust me goo the mids,bass and treble all come back during the last 50 hours...the sound staging and 3 dimensionality are mind blowing considering what the stock unit sounds like. You are absolutely correct about listening fatigue...it simply disappears as a consideration, many a night I've listened till the sun came up and still didn't want to go to bed 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. You simply forget about digital vs analog and totally get lost in the music. Frankie is fairly forgiving of recording quality which is rather unusual but Frank also rewards top notch recordings in such a manner it's tough to stop listening at times......(see the note about many all night listening sessions 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I should have parts again for another 10 kits by mid March so anyone interested PM me (if you don't want to source your own parts). 






 Cheers for the support and kind words !!!!


 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *L4T3NCY* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I've decided to upgrade my zero with this mod but I have one question. When the instructions state to replace a capacitor and bypass it with an additional capacitor does that basically mean to place the two in parallel?_

 

Basically speaking yes. If the cap in question has to be swapped for one in the kit the procedure is straight forward. Remove the old part, observe polarity indicated on the pcb (shaded area is negative pole) make sure the electrolytic cap is installed with it's negative lead going to the shaded area hole/pad and get it as close to the pcb as possible. The "bypass" NOS PIO caps are high quality non polarized (no neg or pos leads to worry about) film and foil caps that are soldered into place onto the leads of the cap you just installed. One of the PIO leads goes to the positive pole and the other lead goes to the negative pole, in electrical terms that is parallel connection. In Phase 2 there are 4 caps that are not swapped but kept (47uf 10V Silmic II's or 16V it depends) but simply have PIO bypass caps soldered onto the leads of each in parallel (underneath and shown in the pics as the 4 PIO's in a neat row on the lower right side with the pcb flipped over).


 I hope this helps a little.

 Peete.


----------



## goorackerelite

Peete, 

 I found great pleasure in doing the mod. Good to hear that the frequency will balance out in a few more hundred hours haha. Right now it's a little cloudy and distant sounding, but I'm sure it's a passing phase. The hardest part for anyone considering the install is getting the old parts out, what a pain in my butt that was, but the rest of the job was a pure joy, all the way through.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks goo and yes Les...you should get around to doing the mod. You've had a kit now for over a month or more......get that soldering iron fired up 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 You'll be amazed by the changes Les, I guarantee you'll enjoy the results. 

 Frankie burn in note (generalized):

 The machinations Frankie goes through during burn in is a combination of Russian PIO + HDAM burn in with a little bit of forming happening with the better grade Nichicon caps/Fairchild diodes. Trust me goo the mids,bass and treble all come back during the last 50 hours...the sound staging and 3 dimensionality are mind blowing considering what the stock unit sounds like. You are absolutely correct about listening fatigue...it simply disappears as a consideration, many a night I've listened till the sun came up and still didn't want to go to bed 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. You simply forget about digital vs analog and totally get lost in the music. Frankie is fairly forgiving of recording quality which is rather unusual but Frank also rewards top notch recordings in such a manner it's tough to stop listening at times......(see the note about many all night listening sessions 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I should have parts again for another 10 kits by mid March so anyone interested PM me (if you don't want to source your own parts). 






 Cheers for the support and kind words !!!!


 Peete._

 

I got the iron all Laid out, my tips laid out. Flux Pen, wick, solderpulit, the whole nine Yardz. I'm Skeered!!

 .


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Peete, 

 I found great pleasure in doing the mod. Good to hear that the frequency will balance out in a few more hundred hours haha. Right now it's a little cloudy and distant sounding, but I'm sure it's a passing phase. The hardest part for anyone considering the install is getting the old parts out, what a pain in my butt that was, but the rest of the job was a pure joy, all the way through._

 

Yeah, that's the part that Skeers me! Getting em desoldered without lifting the traces. I got a trace kinda goofed doing the LED Mod.

 .


----------



## goldfinger1111

Hi,

 I've just finished my FrankenZERO. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Got the parts today and put them in directly.

 Getting out the old parts is a PITA sometimes, especially with those small electrolytic caps. Hat to solder a piece of cap-lead in and out to get rid of the solder from that tiny holes.
 Lost 2-3 soldering lugs/eyes(dunno) on the pcb, that had no connection to a trace on the bottom side. Those came off pretty quickly, the others were fine, though.
 Soldered on the top of the board underneath the caps sometimes, just to be sure the trace on top is connected properly.

 Learned that small desolder braid works better than a pump on the small holes.
 Been working with an 25W soldering iron with pointed tip, which did a good job.


*Thanks to Peete for putting all this together!*
 It's a great mod and I really enjoyed it.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,

 I've just finished my FrankenZERO. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




 Got the parts today and put them in directly.

 Getting out the old parts is a PITA sometimes, especially with those small electrolytic caps. Hat to solder a piece of cap-lead in and out to get rid of the solder from that tiny holes.
 Lost 2-3 soldering lugs/eyes(dunno) on the pcb, that had no connection to a trace on the bottom side. Those came off pretty quickly, the others were fine, though.
 Soldered on the top of the board underneath the caps sometimes, just to be sure the trace on top is connected properly.

 Learned that small desolder braid works better than a pump on the small holes.
 Been working with an 25W soldering iron with pointed tip, which did a good job.


*Thanks to Peete for putting all this together!*
 It's a great mod and I really enjoyed it._

 

Hi,
 Thanx for the tips. I've got braid and thats usually what i use. I also have a VERY nice iron with a wide assortment of precision tips. I had a hell of a time getting the LED mod done, and getting the holes clear. I also didn't fully understand about soldering top and bottom.

 Les


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Tried the headphone jack with 6 headphones and the lineout to some speakers. Same result. The pot is grounded, everything's been fine for the past 2 days as is._

 

Hmmm, maybe cold solder joint on the POT?

 Does the POT movement affect the noise?

 Maybe wiggle the pot itelf

 Maybe Bad pot?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

Seems my Frankenzero has developed a problem. There is now a rattle/static noise that came about suddenly and randomly. Tried both coax and optical, headphone and line out, swapping opamps. I did replace the pot 2 days ago with no problems up until now. Any suggestions?


----------



## hobbang819

Wouldn't a cold solder joint cause a problem right away?

 Wiggling and pot movement cause no change.

 Hope its not a bad pot.....


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Seems my Frankenzero has developed a problem. There is now a rattle/static noise that came about suddenly and randomly. Tried both coax and optical, headphone and line out, swapping opamps. I did replace the pot 2 days ago with no problems up until now. Any suggestions?_

 

How about headphone Jack

 Wiggle it around

 Check your phones

 Vol Pot noise. Turn off Zero and wipe the Volume Control full sacle back and forth maybe 30 times and see if it changes.

 Did you reground the new POT?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

Tried the headphone jack with 6 headphones and the lineout to some speakers. Same result. The pot is grounded, everything's been fine for the past 2 days as is.


----------



## hobbang819

Tried resoldering the connections and no luck...

 Also running it without the headphone amp section still results in the noise.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Wouldn't a cold solder joint cause a problem right away?

 Wiggling and pot movement cause no change.

 Hope its not a bad pot....._

 

Heh, depends on how cold!

 Basically, concentrate on the last thing touched and go from there.

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Tough to say what it is. Try to isolate the noise. Unplug the H/Amp section to see if the main DAC section is fine ...if it is you know the issue is with the H/Amp section.

 Another possibility is a trace coming loose on the underside (make sure the leads of the bypass caps are not applying tension to the pads).

 Go over all your work with a magnifying glass to look for cracks and cold solder joints. A cold solder joint may not fail completely as I've experienced all kinds of odd behavior over the years.

 The pot may be noisy...try a little contact cleaner in it. Is the noise in one channel or both ?
 Double check the pot ground wire connection...you may need to redo it.

 Reply back with your findings please and good luck, hopefully it's something minor.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Tried resoldering the connections and no luck...

 Also running it without the headphone amp section still results in the noise._

 

Hmmm, good info there.

 Maybe a little Chinese Humor to lighten things up.

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 Yes Sir, Zero Have Lifetime Warranty

 Unfortunately, Your Zero, Lifetime Over!

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>






 Sorry, I'm amused easily..

 Maybe one of the Guru's here will chime in.

 .


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Tried resoldering the connections and no luck...

 Also running it without the headphone amp section still results in the noise._

 

What vendor did you buy it from?

 When did you get it/

 I think there is a 1 year Warranty.

 Did you do the Franken Mod?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

Thanks for the help, I pinned it down to a lifted pad that I guess got worst over time. So I just connected it with a little bit of wire. 

 I bought it from the forum and have done most all of the frankenmod, minus the PIO which came in today but I wasn't home, so I'll have to wait till monday.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks for the help, I pinned it down to a lifted pad that I guess got worst over time. So I just connected it with a little bit of wire. 

 I bought it from the forum and have done most all of the frankenmod, minus the PIO which came in today but I wasn't home, so I'll have to wait till monday._

 


 Heh, that's where I was going with my questions above! Good deal, glad you found it.

 >>>>>>
 Yes Sir, Zero Have Lifetime Warranty
 Your Zero, Reincarnated!!
 >>>>>>>

 .


----------



## hobbang819

I've personally never believed in warranties, mainly because I tend to break them as soon as I can. Like when I got my SR325i not 20 minutes after I took them out of the box I was opening them up.

 I just can't help it. I love to fiddle with things.


----------



## goorackerelite

The getting parts out is a easy two man job!! get the board vertical and secure, desolder a leg at a time while your friend takes a pair of needle nosed pliers gently pull when the solder gets liquid. then reapply the heat on the pad for 4 - 6 seconds while your buddy lines up the solder sucker, when the solder becomes liquid, make a funny noise and tell your buddy to suck the solder out of the hole. THat's what I did and it worked like a charm.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Thanks for the help, I pinned it down to a lifted pad that I guess got worst over time. So I just connected it with a little bit of wire. 

 I bought it from the forum and have done most all of the frankenmod, minus the PIO which came in today but I wasn't home, so I'll have to wait till monday._

 

Man am I glad you found the issue. I misread the part about you saying the H/Amp wasn't the culprit...sorry about that.

 Once you have the PIO caps added your in for a sonic ride.

 PM me with your email address so I can send you some pics to orient the PIO caps properly or use the pics Sennsay posted in this thread. Follow that pattern to the letter and you'll have no installation troubles. Please make sure you use shrink wrap on the leads and trim the leads if need be (once shrink wrapped and pre bent into the proper shapes according to the pics) before soldering onto the pads/caps indicated.

 You have to be sure that you don't pretension the pads with the PIO leads once they are soldered on. It's easy to add these caps and sounds far more difficult talking about it.

 What caps did you get ? I hope no more than a 8mm diameter.

 Peete.


----------



## goldfinger1111

Hi guys,

 I need some help here. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




 Yesterday the zero worked just fine.
 When I turned it on today, there was no sound and it suddenly began to send smoke signals.

 I opened it up and found some black stains around 2 diodes.
 I turned it on again to watch what happens.
 First everything seemed to be ok.
 When I switched to coaxial input, there was smoke again, coming from those 2 diodes. They became so hot that the solder started boiling.

 It's the diodes in the green circle:





 I'll take the board out today and have a look at the bottom side.
 On top there are some black stains at those diodes soldering eyes from the cooking.

 Anyone with an idea what may be the fault?


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi guys,

 I need some help here. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Yesterday the zero worked just fine.
 When I turned it on today, there was no sound and it suddenly began to send smoke signals.

 I opened it up and found some black stains around 2 diodes.
 I turned it on again to watch what happens.
 First everything seemed to be ok.
 When I switched to coaxial input, there was smoke again, coming from those 2 diodes. They became so hot that the solder started boiling.

 It's the diodes in the green circle:





 I'll take the board out today and have a look at the bottom side.
 On top there are some black stains at those diodes soldering eyes from the cooking.

 Anyone with an idea what may be the fault?_

 

Only thing I can say is Holy crap!!






 Maybe short to case on the underside? Or solder bridge?

 .


----------



## goldfinger1111

It hasn't been moved since I turned it off.
 I turn it on, switch to coaxial input and the thing startes to smoke.
 Couldn't have been a short then?


 I've just opened it up and took some pictures first.













 As you can see there are sprinkles of solder and some black stains everywhere around those 2 diodes.
 By luck it dind't cook the PIO in between.

 Gonna desolder the PIO, clean the board and look for bad connections, come off traces, etc. now.


----------



## goldfinger1111

So, here we go.
 2 traces and all 4 soldering eyes came off on the top side.





 That dent on the yellow cap was caused by the soldering iron when I put the diodes in.
 That couldn't have possibly something to do with the failure?

 I've found no other signs of burn or bad solder joints or whatever on the board.

 How can I repair the 2 traces?
 Can I replace just those 2 diodes with HER108's?

 Where or what would I have to check with my DMM to find the failure?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

It looks like the diodes were bridged somehow (by the burn pattern on the pcb). Was there any stray solder between the two before you powered it up ?

 Check to make sure all the diodes and the mains filter caps are correctly oriented (especially the 2 large caps). I just compared my board with yours and you have the diodes in that section oriented correctly. Double check the bypass caps leads and installation points again to see if any short was caused.

 Hopefully this can be narrowed down but you may have cooked your main board with the repeated power ups. You see smoke don't fire it up again until the fault can found and corrected. I know, hindsight is 20/20 and that doesn't help you now. There are so many possibilities for why it's hard to know where to start. Take your DMM and see if the 2 sections are permanently bridged with a continuity check. You don't need to power up the Zero again to do that. If they are bridged the mainboard is toast.

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Could you post pics of the entire board (top and bottom) in that section please. Maybe I can spot something for you.

 Peete.


----------



## les_garten

This should be interesting.

 PP, thanx for the Sub suggestions on X-over, worked nice!

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_





 This should be interesting.

 PP, thanx for the Sub suggestions on X-over, worked nice!

 ._

 

Your welcome Les....email me with some pics and details 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Something is wrong somewhere with his board that's for sure.

 Peete.


----------



## hobbang819

Damn damn damn!! Seems like my electronic gremlin has reared its ugly head. I turned it off thinking I was going to go out and turned it back on 2 minutes later and voila its back....

 Damn!


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Damn damn damn!! Seems like my electronic gremlin has reared its ugly head. I turned it off thinking I was going to go out and turned it back on 2 minutes later and voila its back....

 Damn!_

 

I must have missed something here.

 .


----------



## goorackerelite

okay, just got past the 200 + hour burn in, listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows, it feels like my brain was just abducted and injected with a dose of sonic bliss. All the frequencies are settled and the sound is just starting to get BIGGER and more visually tangible. Speechless!!!!


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_okay, just got past the 200 + hour burn in, listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows, it feels like my brain was just abducted and injected with a dose of sonic bliss. All the frequencies are settled and the sound is just starting to get BIGGER and more visually tangible. Speechless!!!!_

 

Another smiling Customer, ya gotta love that...


 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

goo the next order of magnitude leap happens at 325- 350 hours....hold onto to your hat....there's more to come 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Damn damn damn!! Seems like my electronic gremlin has reared its ugly head. I turned it off thinking I was going to go out and turned it back on 2 minutes later and voila its back....

 Damn!_

 

Maybe the fix came loose ? Check that repair to the pad you performed a couple of days ago.

 Peete.


----------



## goorackerelite

Peete, you'd be happy or horrified to know that I've not slept since my last post. I've been suckling on Frankies lactating sonic mamaries ever since, taking quick 30 minutes here and there to freshen up, but, now I finally must get some rest or I will become looney. As evidenced by my previous and soon to be censored comment. It's been like errr 24 hour listening marathon, my ears and brain are mush.... thank god I listen at low volumes (~65 DB) or else I'd be deaf by now. 

 I hope I don't get any of electronic gremlins in the future, all I gotta worry about is the residual resin eating away at my board. I made the mistake of removing the only 4 caps in stage 2 that did not need to be removed. I realized that they (the red caps) only needed to be PIO'd. I then put the caps back in and lifted a pad while bending a PIO leg back to the board, (Hommer Simpson moment) now that one solder joint is brittle, and I don't want to compromise the joint by tooling with a tooth brush around that delicate area. Oh well....... cheers to great audio while it lasts, transience is beautiful!!

 Viva la Frankie!!!!


----------



## goldfinger1111

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_It looks like the diodes were bridged somehow (by the burn pattern on the pcb). Was there any stray solder between the two before you powered it up ?

 Check to make sure all the diodes and the mains filter caps are correctly oriented (especially the 2 large caps). I just compared my board with yours and you have the diodes in that section oriented correctly. Double check the bypass caps leads and installation points again to see if any short was caused.

 Hopefully this can be narrowed down but you may have cooked your main board with the repeated power ups. You see smoke don't fire it up again until the fault can found and corrected. I know, hindsight is 20/20 and that doesn't help you now. There are so many possibilities for why it's hard to know where to start. Take your DMM and see if the 2 sections are permanently bridged with a continuity check. You don't need to power up the Zero again to do that. If they are bridged the mainboard is toast.

 Peete._

 


 Hi Peete,

 everything is orientated correctly.
 There is no short at the bypass caps leads.
 The 2 sections aren't bridged. All the leads around that area seem to be ok.
 No shorts or disconnections where they shouldn't be.









 If you need more pictures, tell me.
 I made a bunch, but they're just to big to upload them all.
 Have to take new ones as well, because I resoldered some spots that looked funny.

 The resistance between the connections of the coaxial input measures 75Ohms. That should be ok, right?
 Coaxial ground is connected to chassis ground because of the bnc connector.
 Is that a problem?

 The thing that puzzles me...
 Saturday evening: everything works fine.
 Sunday morning: smoke, but only after switching from optical to coaxial
 And I didn't do anything to it in the meantime.

 Last powerup on monday: nothing irregular, but smoke after switching from optical to coaxial


 I'm going to change the pot now.
 Hope, I'm going to need it soon.


----------



## goldfinger1111

Hi,

 should the points in those blue circles be connected?
 Upper and mid circle are, but right now there is no connection to the burnt pad in the bottom circle.
 Since the board is pretty much burnt, I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a connection. It would connect the 3rd and 4th pin on the CCON5...







 Can I replace the UF4997 with HER108?
Datasheet
 Can I replace just the 2 diodes or would I have to change those 4 or even all of them?


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,

 should the points in those blue circles be connected?
 Upper and mid circle are, but right now there is no connection to the burnt pad in the bottom circle.
 Since the board is pretty much burnt, I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a connection. It would connect the 3rd and 4th pin on the CCON5...







 Can I replace the UF4997 with HER108?
Datasheet
 Can I replace just the 2 diodes or would I have to change those 4 or even all of them?_

 

Looking at those PIX kinda makes me sick to my Stomach!

 I empathize with the OP of the problem.

 .


----------



## hobbang819

After having gone through troubles of my own (now working fine) I wish you luck in getting yours fixed.

 Just finished putting in the PIO and I am done! Other than waiting for a new knob to come in.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_After having gone through troubles of my own (now working fine) I wish you luck in getting yours fixed.

 Just finished putting in the PIO and I am done! Other than waiting for a new knob to come in._

 


 Which knob did you get?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

I just bought a simple one from ebay. Hoping that I won't have to cut down the pot for it to fit.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I just bought a simple one from ebay. Hoping that I won't have to cut down the pot for it to fit.



_

 


 I had to cut mine down, but I had the Alps pot and the shaft was real long. Knob looks nice.

 My advice, measure 3 times, cut once.

 Don't ask me how I know!

 .


----------



## hobbang819

I've got the alps pot as well so it's looking grim on the not cutting.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I've got the alps pot as well so it's looking grim on the not cutting._

 

Hi,
 Is it the one from LC?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *les_garten* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,
 Is it the one from LC?

 ._

 

That it is. I can't wait for the knob to come in so that I can finally stop opening the case.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_That it is. I can't wait for the knob to come in so that I can finally stop opening the case._

 

Does the stock Zero knob mount way off the case on that POT?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

There's about a 7mm gap between the locking nut and the base of the knob.


----------



## les_garten

Hi,
 Real familiar with that view. I believe you're going to be cutting the shaft. Take your time and don't get it too hot. I cut just a little too much off mine and had to buy another pot. That I now get to cut!!

 Good luck!

 .


----------



## hobbang819

What did you use to cut it? I was going to use a hand saw with a metal cutting blade.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_What did you use to cut it? I was going to use a hand saw with a metal cutting blade._

 

That's how I did it. Problem is, I can't cut straight with a Hack saw, even if you had a freakin' gun to my head. Then I had to try and get it straight with a Dremel. I'm still workin on my Plan for POT # 2.

 So I guess what I'm really saying is, "DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO HOW I DID IT, SINCE I BORKED MINE!!

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,

 should the points in those blue circles be connected?
 Upper and mid circle are, but right now there is no connection to the burnt pad in the bottom circle.
 Since the board is pretty much burnt, I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a connection. It would connect the 3rd and 4th pin on the CCON5...




 Can I replace the UF4997 with HER108?
Datasheet
 Can I replace just the 2 diodes or would I have to change those 4 or even all of them?_

 

I'm not 100% sure but the lack of a second filter cap in the mains section may be the reason why the diodes cooked. I'm almost positive the circuit requires both caps...one being the +V reserve of the supply while the other is the -V (or 22V +-) of the circuit. 

 The diode you selected as long as it matches the UF4007 specs closely should be fine as a replacement. Add that second filter cap along with the fresh diodes and cross your fingers. You'll note the polarity of each large filter cap is flipped in the install. I think that may have been your mistake (leaving that cap out of the circuit). Do you have another of the same brand value and rating to use ?

 Peete.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goorackerelite* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Peete, you'd be happy or horrified to know that I've not slept since my last post. I've been suckling on Frankies lactating sonic mamaries ever since, taking quick 30 minutes here and there to freshen up, but, now I finally must get some rest or I will become looney. As evidenced by my previous and soon to be censored comment. It's been like errr 24 hour listening marathon, my ears and brain are mush.... thank god I listen at low volumes (~65 DB) or else I'd be deaf by now. 

 I hope I don't get any of electronic gremlins in the future, all I gotta worry about is the residual resin eating away at my board. I made the mistake of removing the only 4 caps in stage 2 that did not need to be removed. I realized that they (the red caps) only needed to be PIO'd. I then put the caps back in and lifted a pad while bending a PIO leg back to the board, (Hommer Simpson moment) now that one solder joint is brittle, and I don't want to compromise the joint by tooling with a tooth brush around that delicate area. Oh well....... cheers to great audio while it lasts, transience is beautiful!!

 Viva la Frankie!!!!_

 


 LOL....cool...
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Have fun with it ! I certainly know the feeling your currently experiencing.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


----------



## goldfinger1111

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I'm not 100% sure but the lack of a second filter cap in the mains section may be the reason why the diodes cooked. I'm almost positive the circuit requires both caps...one being the +V reserve of the supply while the other is the -V (or 22V +-) of the circuit. 

 The diode you selected as long as it matches the UF4007 specs closely should be fine as a replacement. Add that second filter cap along with the fresh diodes and cross your fingers. You'll note the polarity of each large filter cap is flipped in the install. I think that may have been your mistake (leaving that cap out of the circuit). Do you have another of the same brand value and rating to use ?

 Peete._

 


 Sorry, should have said that the second large cap was on the board, when it happened.
 I took it out later to have more space to clean the board and check the lead underneath.

 So I'm gonna give it another try, maybe this evening.
 Open chassis, one hand on the plug to unplug if the smoke returns.


 Just to be sure:

 -coaxial ground connected to chassis ground is ok?
 - the upper burnt diode(with the blue circle in my last post) is only connected to one of the yellow caps and the middle pin coming from the transformator on the upper side of the board?


 Does anybody know if the coaxial terminal is soldered at 2 or 3 points to the board? I removed it and have now only 2 wires. One for signal, one for ground.
 No extra wire from board to chassis ground.
 I'm pretty sure, there were only 2, just want to double check here.


----------



## goldfinger1111

Hi,

 just wanted to let you guys know that everyting is back in place and WORKING!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Put 2 new diodes,the removed cap and PIOs in, added 2 jumpers for the come-off leads, checked everything for shorts with my DMM and now it's as good as new. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Thanks for the help!

 I won't post pictures of it's current state, because it looks rather frightening with those burnt pads and additional jumpers.


 I still don't know what caused the failure. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 One fault I've found though. 
 One of the cables from power to headamp section came lose.







 The new Alps pot seems to provide lower output than the stock pot.
 Where I had 60% with the stock pot I have to adjust it to almost all the way up to get he same output.
 Doesn't bother me, because I listen through a PA2V2 and not the ZEROs headamp. Just noticed it.

 For now I'm off, listening to some fine and wonderful sounding music.


----------



## hobbang819

Finally put the finishing touches on and am now finished!





 With the new knob.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Finally put the finishing touches on and am now finished!





 With the new knob._

 

That knob looks good. Did you have to cut the shaft? What did you use?

 Where did you buy the knob?

 .


----------



## hobbang819

Yea, the shaft had to be cut down and the knob had to bored out with a 1/4inch bit as well.

 Bought it on ebay from hongkongsuperseller. A search for "30x22 Aluminum STEREO Hi-Fi VOLUME CONTROL KNOB" will bring it up.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hobbang819* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Yea, the shaft had to be cut down and the knob had to bored out with a 1/4inch bit as well.

 Bought it on ebay from hongkongsuperseller. A search for "30x22 Aluminum STEREO Hi-Fi VOLUME CONTROL KNOB" will bring it up._

 

I think I bought those in Campaign for my DV 337SE.

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi,

 just wanted to let you guys know that everyting is back in place and WORKING!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Put 2 new diodes,the removed cap and PIOs in, added 2 jumpers for the come-off leads, checked everything for shorts with my DMM and now it's as good as new. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Thanks for the help!

 I won't post pictures of it's current state, because it looks rather frightening with those burnt pads and additional jumpers.


 I still don't know what caused the failure. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 One fault I've found though. 
 One of the cables from power to headamp section came lose.







 The new Alps pot seems to provide lower output than the stock pot.
 Where I had 60% with the stock pot I have to adjust it to almost all the way up to get he same output.
 Doesn't bother me, because I listen through a PA2V2 and not the ZEROs headamp. Just noticed it.

 For now I'm off, listening to some fine and wonderful sounding music. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 


 First of all Congrats on the fix...that's great news !!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I think it's possible one of the diodes was bad (of the 12 UF4007's sent in the kit but that's a really rare occurrence to have a bad one) or both but the most likely logical cause was some stray solder missed during clean up causing a short or the printing on that part was incorrect WRT anode/cathode identification. I'm not saying it's human error at all just trying to think of all the possibilities. Static damage (the diodes come in anti static bags when they are delivered in large quantity, 144 diodes for 10 kits for example) is another loooooooong shot...

 It's really tough to say what the cause might have been. Anyway I'm glad you were able to get your Frankie up and running. Let me know what you think of it's sound quality vs stock in a couple of days (and the members here of course).

 I had assumed you didn't install the second filter cap...sorry about that. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Once again good job with the repair now it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




!!! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Could someone maybe write a small review for the Frankie ? 

 That really would be appreciated big time. 

 Peete.


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## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Sorry, should have said that the second large cap was on the board, when it happened.
 I took it out later to have more space to clean the board and check the lead underneath.

 So I'm gonna give it another try, maybe this evening.
 Open chassis, one hand on the plug to unplug if the smoke returns.


 Just to be sure:

 -coaxial ground connected to chassis ground is ok?
 - the upper burnt diode(with the blue circle in my last post) is only connected to one of the yellow caps and the middle pin coming from the transformator on the upper side of the board?


 Does anybody know if the coaxial terminal is soldered at 2 or 3 points to the board? I removed it and have now only 2 wires. One for signal, one for ground.
 No extra wire from board to chassis ground.
 I'm pretty sure, there were only 2, just want to double check here._

 

Just the two spots....look at the jack removed to determine which spot is what. You only need to connect the + signal to the plus pad and the - (gnd) to it's spot where the previous assembly was soldered in. You don't want to use any other gnd connection for this digital input. The closer you can get the gnd connection to the + signal the better. I like to call any gnd on the main pcb as audio ground vs the chassis ground which is the green wire attached to the chassis from the IEC terminal. Do not ground the COAX input to the IEC chassis ground point.

 As for the diodes you have to remember that this pcb has two separate circuit topologies, one for each side. What you see on the top is only half the electrical picture.

 Peete.


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## edguetzow

Hi, Fellow Frankies!

 I am in the process of performing this mod after a week's delay. So far, I have performed the Phase 3 Headphone amp operation and am currently working on desoldering during the Phase 1 PSU operation. Then on to Phase 2!

 Man, those holes are small but I think I have got the hang of the desoldering now. Slow and sure as the turtle goes will get this done tonight or tomorrow.

 So far I have only burned my fingers 3 times. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 And not one of our cats has been burned yet either!

 Now, taking a break for dinner and then back to the operating table!


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## Pricklely Peete

Excellent ED !!!

 Good luck with the mod and it's outcome 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


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## goorackerelite

Hey Peete, can you possibly give a quick and dirty comparison of the Franken Zero's Dac section with that of the compass? I'm thinking of getting one, but it would certainly have to far surpass the Franken's Dac capabilities.


----------



## edguetzow

Ok, surgery has been completed but my Frankie will not respond.

 I thought I covered everything pretty well but may have fried something somewhere on the board. I did all 3 phases and the mod to my earth HDAM as well as grounding the HDAM and grounding the volume control.

 When I first "finished", only the 2 lights on the mainboard would light up - the lights on the HP board would not. I fixed that when I tightened the screws down for the mainboard. All 4 lights were lit but no sound through coax or tos. I tried with both the onboard HP jack and out to my my Gilmore. I did hear static when adjusting the knob 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 So, I made things worse. I removed the board and proceeded to reflow my solder work. I had noticed what might be lack of solder contact on the upper side (component side) of various added parts. While trying to solder from the top at one of the diodes near the 25v Nichicon, I got a spark from the Nichicon to the diode. One of them evidently had a charge from when I tested it. My bad. Diode or more fried?

 Then, I found that a Panasonic 47uf replaced at the top center left of the main board was giving me trouble resoldering from the bottom of the board. As I heated and tried to get it to flow the solder refused to flow. I tried to clean the connectors and was able to resolder. In the process, I cratered a small part of the board around those connections so I may have fried the component or trace.

 Now it will turn on but still no sound and now the HP board lights refuse to light up.

 During the initial process, I went slow. All my solder points appeared clean and shiny - much better than the original board work. I didn't lose any of the little round solder pads or lift any traces. I cannot see any dull or cracked solders nor any stray solder splash.

 I also noted that the DAC chip used (1364) did not ever get warm to the touch much less get hot. I used this in place of the HDAM in case everything blew up when tested. Does taht mean that it is not getting a signal to convert? No signal converted = no sound? I figure the problem is on the main board.

 Application of the PIOs went extremely well and seem to be ok.

 Can any of you more skilled surgeons out there give some advice (help!). I can try to post photos later this afternoon or evening.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

I bet dollars to donuts Ed you have a cracked or lifted trace somewhere...it may be one or number of them. Take you time going over every single spot you worked on with using magnifying reading glasses or something else that will give you a close up view of things. 

 You may have been lucky with the first power up and the following spark show and not damaged anything.

 First things first check all connections and solder points you worked on with a digital multi meter (check for continuity and shorts). Then check for cold solder joints and any possible cracked or lifted traces. Then check to make sure all the components were properly oriented (polarity for electrolytic caps swapped and anode/cathode stripe for diodes). Once you have all that checked and verified then assemble for testing under power, not before. Pics would be very helpful indeed. Both sides of the pcb please and as close up and detailed as possible.

 I'm sure you've missed something somewhere...hopefully it'll be a small issue easily fixed.

 Peete.


----------



## edguetzow

Thanks, Peete!

 This evening I have been going over the solder joints from the bottom of the board. I am using a Radio Shack analog multimeter to check continuity. I have it set beep whenever continuity id ok. I also replaced the Panasonic 47uf (25 v) that I had installed at the top left middle of the board. I replaced it with the original 47uf component that was on the board. The Panny didn't seem right as it gave a very low reading for continuity.

 Question: when I check the continuity of the 4700uf Nichicons, the meter beeps for a second or two then fades off. I switch polarity with the meter and it repeats this same way. It never sustains a steady perpetual beep. Is this how this should be for these components?

 Same for the 47uf Panasonic.

 Just about everything else (diodes/PIOs) give a steady beep.

 I tried to power up earlier and it was the same - no change.

 I am taking the board back out to inspect for cracks, lifted traces, etc.

 I have taken photos but need to figure out how to upload them. Here is a try:





 I think this where the problem might be as it is where I cratered the board and possible a trace. Hard to tell though. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			











































 Thanks for you support!


----------



## les_garten

This is getting good!

 Ehhh, except for you though...

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Ed,

 There are a lot of exposed leads on the bypass caps that could be a possible problem when you install the board into the chassis. Does it sit freely on the chassis stand offs when you insert the pcb or does it need to be forced down ?

 If you have force it down the positioning of the bypass caps is in need of adjustment. With the exposed leads near possible short circuits once the board is installed you can see why positioning and insulation of the entire lead is important. 

 The other major issue from the pics is some of the soldering pads look completely uh....burnt for lack of a better term. If anything looking for one single issue is problematic when you have multiple possible causes for concern.

 That being said it's likely you'll need to redo the bypass cap leads with full insulation coverage and arrange them like the photos in the instructions (which means duplicating the insulation/shrink wrap coverage of the leads).

 The one 47uf cap needs to be cleaned up considerably and it's connections traced and checked for continuity.

 The work needs to be as good or better than the original board. In other words it has to look like no one has touched it if you were to look at it closely. What I mean by that is the quality level of the soldering and bypass work has to be up to snuff. The possibility of burned,lifted and destroyed pads is a real issue with any board, not just this one. 

 A rookie mistake with soldering is using the iron improperly, as in, if I push harder it will heat up faster...nope, all that does is ensure the pad will lift or the trace will crack after one or two attempts. Use a very light touch and let the iron's heat do the work. It's the key to keeping pads in place and the tracks covered that the board was ever worked on other than new solder being used (left behind). Practice with a junk board uninstalling various parts and keep at it until you are able to take something out and solder it back in without it looking like it was removed and replaced to begin with. Then you are skilled enough to tackle a real board.

 I'm not singling you out Ed, this advice I have given out right from the very start of this project. The actual mod is a beginner project but the skills required to remove parts and solder in the news ones takes a level of skill that if it is not polished beforehand leads to problems when it comes time to power up the unit being worked on. I always take my time with any difficult parts and if I need more tools or don't have what I need (flux or braid etc) then I stop what I'm doing and go get it. Another rookie mistake is haste, it leads to cut corners and mistakes. Remember, it only takes one mistake to ruin the project (sometimes irreversible damage) so take your time and test the work with a meter (shorts and continuity). If it looks bad, it likely is bad is my motto. Redo the section or the joint (etc...keeping in mind to cause as little damage as possible to the pcb and the part in question).


 Anyway this mod although very easy to understand and implement requires one to have skill with the iron in order not to damage a pcb that isn't the best quality to begin with (nothing new in the 1K and under bracket).

 Hopefully with some reworking of your board the issues will be solved and the unit power up as it should.

 I'm pulling for you Ed, you can do it (Tony Little style 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ).

 Peete.


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## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Pricklely Peete* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Ed,

 <<SNIP>>

 I'm pulling for you Ed, you can do it (Tony Little style 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ).

 Peete._

 

The Tony Little thing really gets my blood pumping!

 I'm playing "Eye of the Tiger" as I'm writing this!

 Got my New Gadget coming in Next Week to start this deal, I don't need much of an excuse to buy a new tool!

 .


----------



## edguetzow

I have worked on it as suggested and am basically taking my time to disassemble and reassemble once I know traces, no shorts, etc. are visible.

 I won't have more time until early next week but I have found a couple of traces that were broken very close to the pad or hole and not really a lot lifted - just enough to break the continuity.

 The cratered area I noted did have an obliterated pad/trace - again part of the trace enough to break the circuit.

 Thanks again for the help!


----------



## Coreyk78

I have a piece of advice that I would give to anyone who is going to attempt this upgrade. I bricked my original board because of some lifted or broken traces or something that I never could track down. I ordered a replacement board from China and did the mod all over again, but the second time I was very slow and meticulous. What I did was just to replace a couple components at a time, then I would hook up the board to make sure it was still working, then once I knew it was fine I would replace a few more components and rinse and repeat. That way if you mess something up you'll know exactly where to look since you've only changed a couple of components, rather than a couple dozen 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. My second board has been working perfectly for months now and I love it.

 On a side note I finally broke down and ordered an OPA-Earth and OPA-Sun v.2 from Audio-GD this week. It will be interesting to see if I like them more than my OPA627BPs that I've been using for quite a while. One of them will find a home in my zero and the other will be tested in my VSPS phono stage. 

 My VSPS has +/- 12v rails for the opamp with 47uf caps directly soldered to the socket pins so I know that will handle the Sun, anyone know off hand what the Zero's voltages are at the opamp? I could open it up and check it, but I'm feeling lazy hehe


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I have a piece of advice that I would give to anyone who is going to attempt this upgrade. I bricked my original board because of some lifted or broken traces or something that I never could track down. I ordered a replacement board from China and did the mod all over again, but the second time I was very slow and meticulous. What I did was just to replace a couple components at a time, then I would hook up the board to make sure it was still working, then once I knew it was fine I would replace a few more components and rinse and repeat. That way if you mess something up you'll know exactly where to look since you've only changed a couple of components, rather than a couple dozen 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. My second board has been working perfectly for months now and I love it.

 On a side note I finally broke down and ordered an OPA-Earth and OPA-Sun v.2 from Audio-GD this week. It will be interesting to see if I like them more than my OPA627BPs that I've been using for quite a while. One of them will find a home in my zero and the other will be tested in my VSPS phono stage. 

 My VSPS has +/- 12v rails for the opamp with 47uf caps directly soldered to the socket pins so I know that will handle the Sun, anyone know off hand what the Zero's voltages are at the opamp? I could open it up and check it, but I'm feeling lazy hehe 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Bet Peete knows this off the top of his head. Putting one in your Phono stage, how about that one! Kewl!

 .


----------



## Pricklely Peete

V at the + and - pins of the DAC opa socket are +15V and -15V DC. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 You are right Corey......that is exactly how I did it but I did not test each time just took the meter and checked with that. I did have one pad lift for me but other than that I had no issues that I would call really maddening. I have terrific patience though. It did take me the better part of 2 whole months to complete the original mod. I did do it in stages, to test it out to see what changes each step brought to the table that way I'd know what the cumulative mods would do for the overall result. Each step brought refinement with the first Phase being the most important followed closely by the second. Phase 3 does add quite a bit to the H/Amp section. Of course the Alps pot addition is the final touch to a fully Frankie'd Zero (including HDAM)

 The addition of the HDAM is critical to the mod...your not going to believe the differences over the 627's....the HDAM is simply in another league and works exceedingly well with the Frankie. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 It does take quite sometime to settle though...be prepared to spend at least 300 hours burning that HDAM in (if you decide to use the large green PIO on it it'll take even longer). No need to as Rifa caps the OPA's now come with are just as good I feel.

 Ed:

 Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh, I didn't mean to at all. I hope you get your Frankie up and running soon. It seems you may have caught all the issues already. I hope so and can hardly wait for your next post to update things (in a positive manner I hope).

 Peete.


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## Pricklely Peete

The 12 V +- rails on the VSPS are fine for running either OPA. My DIY DAC project runs an Earth and Moon module at those Voltages just fine (for 7 months now without a single hiccup).

 Peete.


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## Coreyk78

I got my HDAMs today, I'm burning in the Earth right now in my Zero. First impressions are that the soundstage is much bigger than the 627's. Its the first time I've heard depth and serperation in music like this, I can hear that backup singers are actually farther away from me, really neat.


----------



## les_garten

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Coreyk78* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I got my HDAMs today, I'm burning in the Earth right now in my Zero. First impressions are that the soundstage is much bigger than the 627's. Its the first time I've heard depth and serperation in music like this, I can hear that backup singers are actually farther away from me, really neat._

 

Thats how it starts...

 Your soul is lost...

 .


----------



## Syu

Can I replace 4 silmic caps to jumper lines? According to the datasheet of AD1852, there are no considerable DC offset from AD1852's analog output...


----------



## goldfinger1111

Heya,

 I lost track how many hours my Frankie is on right now, but at this very moment it's sound is pretty awful. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 It's like "put a blanket over everything and turn the bass all the way up".
 Soundstage is so narrow, just like the whole band stuck in a phone booth.

 Can't wait for the sound to change for the better.


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Heya,

 I lost track how many hours my Frankie is on right now, but at this very moment it's sound is pretty awful. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 It's like "put a blanket over everything and turn the bass all the way up".
 Soundstage is so narrow, just like the whole band stuck in a phone booth.

 Can't wait for the sound to change for the better. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Sounds like you've hit one of the last and largest troughs......no highs sounds like your right around the 275-300 hour mark....it'll all change for the better in the next 75 hours....hang in there.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


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## goldfinger1111

Hi Peete,

 according to foobar, which I installed shortly after finishing the mod and used as only source, I'm somewhat around 120 hours +/- 20.
 Most of the time I had pink noise running.
 Either the pink noise sped the burning up or I'm in for some more surprises.


 Right now I'm a bit disappointed.
 Everything sounds so...*wow* through it, except one of my most favourite songs.
 Two Princes by the Spin Doctors is just plain flat. Nothing special to it anymore, almost boring. 
 Sooo sad...


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hi Peete,

 according to foobar, which I installed shortly after finishing the mod and used as only source, I'm somewhat around 120 hours +/- 20.
 Most of the time I had pink noise running.
 Either the pink noise sped the burning up or I'm in for some more surprises.


 Right now I'm a bit disappointed.
 Everything sounds so...*wow* through it, except one of my most favourite songs.
 Two Princes by the Spin Doctors is just plain flat. Nothing special to it anymore, almost boring. 
 Sooo sad... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 


 120...well good news is your in the first trough where things sound rather bad (there are 2 with the other being the 275 hour mark). The good news is your getting close to the first really major leap forward in SQ at 150 hours or so. Just remember the unit takes the better part of 350 hours to settle completely so it's best to take what your hearing now with a major grain of salt as things will really improve exponentially at the end of burn in.

 Just hang in there and keep putting the hours on it. You'll be grinning again in no time to that favorite track of yours except this time it will be even better than before.

 Peete.


----------



## nsx_23

Are there still any kits available?


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Yep.....nsx 23. PM and we'll talk 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Peete.


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## goldfinger1111

Just realised that Frankie does a good job on it's own, but benefits from a seperate amp.
 I've put my PA2V2 back in the system and it brought "Two Princes" back to life. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 Can't wait to hear the fully matured Frankie paired with a decent desktop amp.


----------



## nsx_23

How well does the Zero work with a Pimeta?


----------



## isao2k8

Yesterday I replaced 4 caps near the DAC opamp (2 x 560pF and 2 x 1nF) to better caps then noticed that hum noise from OPA-Sun V2 had disappeared. So good


----------



## goldfinger1111

Hit the 350... love it!
 So much more details, new things, that I couldn't hear before.
 I'll have to listen to my whole music collection again... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The position of some instruments in the mix has definitely changed.
 The separation of instruments is amazing.
 There's a panning synth at the beginning of Briskebys Propaganda.
 It used to wander in an arc-shape over my head, now it wanders right through.


 I've just started this whole audiophile thing and can't put all those positive experiences into words, but the mod was definitely worth all the effort.
 Wouldn't want to miss it.


----------



## Coreyk78

Well after giving the OPA-Earth and OPA-Sun v.2 both plenty of time to burn in I have settled on the Sun as being my favorite between the two. I found the Earth to be more laid back than the Sun, and the Sun's more aggressive sound just fits my taste better, both are very good though.

 Now to see how the Earth will stack up against the LME49860 I'm currently using in my phono stage...


----------



## Pricklely Peete

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *goldfinger1111* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hit the 350... love it!
 So much more details, new things, that I couldn't hear before.
 I'll have to listen to my whole music collection again... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 The position of some instruments in the mix has definitely changed.
 The separation of instruments is amazing.
 There's a panning synth at the beginning of Briskebys Propaganda.
 It used to wander in an arc-shape over my head, now it wanders right through.


 I've just started this whole audiophile thing and can't put all those positive experiences into words, but the mod was definitely worth all the effort.
 Wouldn't want to miss it. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

That's good to hear 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I was going to mention that the real benefits of the Frankie mod come into perspective when using it as a pure DAC to feed a higher quality separate amp. In that instance you'll get a surprising and much greater look or appreciation for what the mod brings to the table.

 Peete.


----------



## Iter

Hi Peete,

 Do you still have kits available?

 Thanx,
 Jeroen


----------



## brown5629

I'm looking for a kit as well. Let me know if you have anything left.
 Thanks


----------



## oatmeal769

So, while I wait for the funds to come up for me to buy a high end DAC, I'd like to tinker a bit with my ZERO. I'm sure folks have seen the 'Lampizator' mod to the output amplification stage. (He's the guy who also suggested clipping the output filters on the RCA's - a nice little improvement BTW)
ZERODAC
 Essentially he suggests bypassing the OpAmps all together and going straight to the RCA's. He suggests doing the "Lampizator" which is just substituting a tube in the output stage, or the lazy man's solution. - Which is the "Bypass Job" detailed about halfway down the page. 
 This is what I'm wondering about, and has it been tried in conjunction with the Frankenmod?

 I'd like to get my hands on one of Peete's kits, or a parts list to order, and see if anyone here has any suggestions about this output bypass. It makes a lot of sense to me.


----------



## diditmyself

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *oatmeal769* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_So, while I wait for the funds to come up for me to buy a high end DAC, I'd like to tinker a bit with my ZERO. I'm sure folks have seen the 'Lampizator' mod to the output amplification stage. (He's the guy who also suggested clipping the output filters on the RCA's - a nice little improvement BTW)
ZERODAC
 Essentially he suggests bypassing the OpAmps all together and going straight to the RCA's. He suggests doing the "Lampizator" which is just substituting a tube in the output stage, or the lazy man's solution. - Which is the "Bypass Job" detailed about halfway down the page. 
 This is what I'm wondering about, and has it been tried in conjunction with the Frankenmod?_

 

I'm not a DAC-wiz, but I think there's a reason why the manufacturers recommend a filter after sigma-delta DACs.

 I was hoping they were wrong because I like as few parts as possible in the audio path, but they aren't: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/new...2/#post5835803

 I think the Zero sounds better without the output opamp, just using a passive filter, but there's some hissing, humming and buzzing. I think the use of differential input eliminates such common mode garbage. I know there were a lot of criticism on the board layout of the Zhalou, and since this is supposed to be a copy of it I guess it shares the same faults.


----------



## randomasdf

Hey, does anyone happen to know where I can buy "330uf 16v panasonic fm" caps or something similar for the amp section of the zero? (I somehow managed to pop one of the original caps, and I want to repair it before I sell it)


----------



## mplee79

Peete will you sell me a kit please =)


----------



## hedmaster

I am very interested in this, but have read through all the posts, and am obviously concerned about quality control. 

 Am I right in understanding that the Compass is the new improved version? What about the quality control on that? Aren't they made at the same place? If I recall correctly, the pcb was supposed to be thicker, with stronger traces as well, is that right? 

 I am new to the DIY. I bought a pcb for the Millet Hybrid Maxed, but am still unwilling to take that on as a first project. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 I do have all the necessary equipment including: new soldering/de-soldering station, esd safe tweezers, eutectic solder, rosin, good wire strippers, magnified lamp, etc., etc. 

 I was thinking that this may be a better project for me to get my feet wet. Although I am looking for advice, as it seems that many have had a great deal of trouble with the thin traces lifting off, and getting the old solder off the board. With regards to that, I do have good soldering wick, and a de-soldering station (may or may not be useful) on my Aoyue (969) station. 

 I do understand that I will obviously have to practice my soldering/de-soldering skills before tackling this job. I was looking for suggestions as to what people have done for practice. I have seen kits online, but I don't know if that is the way to go? 

 Thanks for your help guys. I have been a lurker for months now, a little intimidated by the vast amount of information, yet drawn in by how kind and patient you are in helping others. I haven't seen any flaming, or swearing, which is more than I can say for most any other site that I have visited, for any topic, really.

 As far as the direction I am headed, I just received my new HiFiMan EF2 tube amp, woohoo! I also have the new Shure SHR 840s, the senn. px200, px100, and pc350 for gaming. 

 A modest start, I know, but am thrilled with this hobby so far. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I use my diy computer as a source. My thought was, I will probably be interested in upgrading the dac on the EF2 before anything else. Well, obviously, this fits the bill price/performance wise. However, I am the type that would be willing to save up to get something that I know will work. Maybe the best of both worlds would be to buy a used one from a member here? That way, I know it works, and still get the price/performance benefit.

 Any and all thoughts are welcome,
 Thanks guys,
 Matt


----------



## Currawong

The Compass is made by a different company. The only similarity is the D/A chip, which means it has a similar "sound" but is higher quality.

 The EF2 looks like great value.

 I'd watch some Youtube videos on soldering. I find watching and copying to be easiest. The main thing, other than making sure the iron doesn't touch and melt stuff it shouldn't, is getting the hang of the heat transfer and not doing things too slowly or too quickly. Bigger tips transfer more heat faster. With circuit boards, things heat up fast. With sockets, they heat up slower, because there's more metal. Those are my tips anyway.


----------



## hedmaster

Konnichi wa, hajimema****e, doozo yoroshiku (Spelling is hard in English) 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Thanks Currawong. Yeah, I am just breaking it in. I have it hooked up to my rig via the usb, so that the DAC also gets broken in. I am leaving it on pink noise w/ my new Shures, so I am killing a few birds with one stone! 

 The amp sure does sound better after about 20 hrs than it did right out of the box! It is coming along nicely. I look forward to posting my impressions as I get to the magical 100 hr mark.

 Good advice on soldering. I have been watching Tangent's soldering/de-soldering tips, and have learned a lot already. All I really need to do at this point is get some pcb and start the hands on practice.

 Thanks for the heads up on the Compass being made at a different manufacturer.


----------



## crapback

I just ordered a bunch of petp caps from lithuania. 0.047uF 160V 5% PETP CAPACITORS. K73-16. 144 pcs - eBay (item 200374783117 end time Aug-25-09 08:39:12 PDT) I've been looking for the pio caps but kept running into places that are out of stock. There are a number of folks over at the diyaudio forums that say they are great and cheap. 

 I don't know if you got my PM Peete cause I sent you one asking if you still had any kits available. Oh well, I just went and ordered a bunch of fancy (holding pinky finger high) caps from mouser to turn my 2 day old zero into a beast. I'm gonna have to find a couple of bolts at work to cut off and stick to the sides of the case.

 With my luck it'll die before the backordered parts show up.


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## crapback

I have another question for someone out there who either knows or has better luck with google. What are the 2 box capacitor looking things next to the dac dip socket? They are whitish and are marked 561j.


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## espressogeek

If you are talking about the DIP socket that holds the opamp used in the dac output section, those 561j labeled components would be caps. 

 I have included a pic that I cribbed from another forum that shows the older version of the DAC. In this picture those parts are the more traditional silver mica (I think) capacitors.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	









  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *crapback* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I have another question for someone out there who either knows or has better luck with google. What are the 2 box capacitor looking things next to the dac dip socket? They are whitish and are marked 561j._


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## crapback

I'm going to have to take a picture of mine and see if anyone can tell what cap it is. The ebay pics have a different cap there as well. I may never swap those caps out but I would like to know what they are and if it'd be worth the effort.


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## crapback

Here's a pic of those 561j caps I can't identify. If anyone can tell me anything about them it would be appreciated. I had no luck googling those things.


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## bada bing

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *crapback* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Here's a pic of those 561j caps I can't identify. If anyone can tell me anything about them it would be appreciated. I had no luck googling those things._

 

The opamp in that dip socket is a filter buffer. One purpose is to knock off high frequency (above audible) artifacts in the signal left over from the DtoA conversion.

 Here are a couple schematics of that area around the opamp. The first is straight from the Analog Devices data sheet of a recommended configuration for a typical audio application. The second drawing is how the almost identical circuit is implemented in the Zero. I believe the cap you are asking about is C9 on the left channel. You can trace it out on the PCB to verify, I don't have Zero anymore to double check.

 One interesting thing is the addition of the 2 47uF DC blocking caps for the balanced output of the DAC chip on the Zero implementation of the circuit. They aren't in the AD recommended circuit. Those are electrolytics directly in the signal path. I wonder why they were included in the Zero if AD didn't find them necessary ? One thing that holds the Zero sound quality back is the excessive number of DC blocking capacitors. It seems every time you go thru an active device the Zero engineer found a need to block DC (again). If I recall correctly, there are at least 4 stages of DC blocking between the DAC chip output and the output jack to headphones.


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## crapback

Thanks bada bing. Would you have any recommendations as to what to do with those electrolytics in the signal path? I'm still learning as I go here so any advice is appreciated.
 Would they be worth replacing? Or is bypassing them all the best to do like in the frankenzero mod? I will be adding all the bypass caps from the mod when they show up in the mail.

 Thanks, Joel


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## crapback

My petp caps arrived from lithuania today. I got to prepping them with some heatshrink and started adding some bypasses. I did the amp section first figuring and that went fine. A couple extra caps on there to bypass that weren't in the mod but they fit with a little creative lead bending. I decided to test it out just to make sure everything was ok so far. 

 Plugged it in and all seemed well, then a smoke genie made a run for it. I managed to get one little strand of copper wire from my earlier dt990 recabling project on the pcb and I think it caused a short. Luckily the resistor that smoked a bit didn't kill it. 

 I managed to get all the rest of the bypass caps on without incident and it's playing nicely right now as I write this. Before the caps were added there was quite a bit of noise when I turned the volume up to max. Now with winamp paused it makes no noise whatsoever that I can hear. The only other part of the mod I did was clip the ceramic caps next to the amp opamps. The sound improvements are immediately noticeable. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I can't wait until my hdams arrive. 

 Time to enjoy this sweet sounding cheap little combo and save up some cash to move up to some mid-fi gear.


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## BlingBlingDr

This thread MUST NOT DIE!!! I am in the process of getting parts to upgrade my Zero DAC after 1 year of listening to it without any mods. Screw the Compass!!!!


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## Pricklely Peete

It's alive and well with a whole new generation of eager dudes applying my latest kit offering (works for the 2009 Zero since not much if anything has changed in the layout).

 I'm offering better parts in the form of Nichicon KZ (MUSE), FG (Fine Gold), FW series and Elna Cerafine/Silmic II with Vishay/Telefunken SF4007 diodes and upgraded K40 series NOS PIO film caps (for bypass duties). So far 5 kits in the last 3 weeks have been sold so some new posts/FrankenZERO results should revive the thread 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





 Peete.


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## dhchow

Just completed the mod, the instruction is clear and simple, main thing is taking the time,
 preparing the parts ahead, and follow the step one at the time.

 The sound is great after couple hours of burn in, can't wait until it's fully burn in.

 Thanks Peete for the mod kit and efforts, great response and supports on the forum.

 I am a one happy guy.....

 Dave


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## Pricklely Peete

Thanks Dave ! I appreciate the kind words and support !

 I hope you enjoy your Frankie 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Peete.


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## aqua35

Tweaking a version 09 with the latest kit Peete.
 Everything works perfectly and I start running.
 Peete thank you for the help and active monitoring of Zero.

 Greetings from France.

 Excuse my bad English.


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## dilanj

I purchased the Zero dac (09 with OPA627) a few months ago. While I've been happy with overall SQ, the noise level when listening to with my Shure se530s is way high, plus I hear a lot of interference at times (cellphone).
   
  I'm going to try the FrankenZero mod and see if it help. Will post back the results!


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## dilanj

Hi Peete, I PM'd you, but didn't get a reply yet. Do you still have FrankenZero kits? Thanks!


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## Pricklely Peete

Quote: 





dilanj said:


> Hi Peete, I PM'd you, but didn't get a reply yet. Do you still have FrankenZero kits? Thanks!


 

 Sorry about the delay in responding...I've been very busy this week and have not checked the forum in the last couple of days. Yes I have 2 kits left if you are interested in one.
   
  Peete.


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## reiserFS

Bump, are there still kits available?


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## AmarokCZ

[size=medium]Hello,
   I recently bought ZERO version 09 with OPA627 and USB and I'm quite dissapointed, because stereo crosstalk is only around 55dB (!!!) and noise level around 85dB (at 1/4 of max volume, at full volume noise level is 65dB). I wanna ask if this is normal or if it will be better after "burn-in" (my Zero is only about 50hours "old").
  Second question is about FrankenZERO MOD: Can I use this mod for ZERO 09 version? And is the whole MOD just about replacing CAPS? (or did I miss something?)
  Thanks for answers.​[/size]


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## BucketInABucket

Wonder if it'll be possible to replace the opamp buffer section with a discrete or tube buffer...


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