Wow... look at all those green caps...

Chua, those are bypass caps? They're too large to fit under board that's why you extended the leads?

those cap are thick ......

this my zero ...... latest mod no green hotdog

Can see the DAC power supply is nichicon Muse. Known for power supply clean and fast.

when u want to slot in Blackgate std.

Green sausage is impresive. it is another step of improvement even on first impression.

i wont put Black Gate STD for my Zero is abit waste eheheeh i will put for my CD63 overall i still prefer CD63 sound ....
Zero detail is nice and dynamic but vocal slightly fake wut i call digital.When i wanna listen fast music n pop song i will connect my CD63 to Zero

what i mod :-
Putting Panasonic FC for Power section , Elna RJH for opamp supply , Nichicon Muse for DAC , Elna Silmic II and Silmic for regulator, puting 6N silver wire for RCA output with Neutrik RCA female plug
Close up picture

Blackgate is abit too over for ZERO, few pieces can buy a brand new ZERO dac already! Nichi and Elna are more suitable partner

Anyway, I thought 4th bulk user should received their DAC already, how come no impression words posted here?

Too busy listening to it ^^
Will post back in a few days

anyone know if zero dac+ modded by jaben is good enough? or still need to swap the opamp?

well..when hear stock vs modded version (madman)..the difference is quite obvious. my dac just played..about 12 hours only..there is a little bit of improvement..n still hope for more.

Give more time for the discrete opamp, still more to come



IMHO ZERO+ is quite good, but abit too digital sounding due to the OPA627 opamp, lowyat.net's ZERO EARTH is more musical, u can ask bro sep90 for opinion, since he heard both ZERO+ and ZERO EARTH before



Bro, u still need the discrete opamp to reach higher step

now im looking forward on discrete opamp

but it's gonna sound good with aego m right? really no idea where to buy the opamp earth and swap it. anyone provides this service?

Ask GodLuvSxS, he can help u.

Hi rav,

those cap can fit inside no problem. Just that the bypass cap are too many, about 12 of them and to put all at the same place is difficult, so I install outside. Still can put the headphone amp and it is no problem on that.

However I suggest to do the Franken mod, u need to go through the phase 1 first.

would like to know, is it necessary to get special tools to swap opamp? and is it difficult to swap the opa earth and sun?

Hi there, it's kinda easy to swap opamp, it's kinda like plug and play USB stuff

what about the opa earth and sun? i'm kind of confuse since i'm still newbie, would the stock opamp be swapped with opa earth and sun? or opa earth and sun does act as additional opamp?

Stock opamp can be swapped with OPA earth and sun ... these doesnt act as additional opamp

from the pics, the opa earth and sun seems to be bigger than normal. is this kind of swapping as well? need any soldering?

just plug n play
just connect follow the marking if not will fried ur opamp

anyone doing a bulk for this opa now?

my most crazy mod

Tube output stage?

yeah .... that is tube buffer
at first i tap the power from zero transformer not enuf power for my tube alot of humming sound
than i put separate power supply

zero output signal .... to this tube than go to amp

WOW. The sound of the Fraken sound is scary.

The green sausage live to its name, adding the spooky signature to the ZERO DAC sound.

Now the ZERO DAC has jump league, to the top league actually.

how much is the cost for the Fraken mod??

those green cap u can buy from ebay or http://tubes.siberian-shop.com/capacitors-c-80.html very cheap just about usd0.30 +++ depends value

soo far i tested i prefer SUN over EARTH at Zero

EARTH = abit slow ... like deadman singing hehehe one words neutral , natural
SUN = fast , dynamic n punch

Here come the ultimate Franken ZERO. The CCS Franken ZERO. The level of sound quality is beyond expectation. The earth has shaken and the arrival of CCS Franken. It will break such believe 'good things doesnt come cheap'

MOre to come......

wah lau Abel, ur modding skill become so 'genng chau' alrdy!!

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 is a quote from the guy who bring about the Franken.

"

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.
"


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

---

Added on November 23, 2008, 11:51 amFor anyone who is interested in the Franken zero pre run in sound, here is the chance. u are welcome to come over for a listen and hear it out. Hope Madmen can come in with his empy mod. Abel hopeful to be in. Hi eddy, wanno come ?

Hi Guys,

Woh... really a crazy mod....

Go a head guys i can't make it today, attending friend wedding dinner in subang. maybe some other time.

Thanks for inviting me.

Thanks

Eddy Lim

Two gear that was run really have me thinking on the mod.

The first surprise is the ZERO couple with tube buffer by Abel is surprising smooth and clean, though going 2 stages of output.

The next on the mod is the Marantz 63, (heavily modded loh). For those who like warm and thick mid range, this is the unit to go for.

The Franken, being smooth and revealing, leans more towards neutral sounding and dynamics.

ccschua thanks for ur review ....
my CD63 where got heavy mod just put system clock n sun

My Zero glow in the dark

It's like transformer transforming ... of course the sound does transform to higher level compare to stock

Wow... that is one "Keng" mod! 2 Scud missiles!

But Abel, I think that should be the best way to add a Valve Buffer, instead of putting it as a separate device. Wah... so many mods... donno what to do now...

Hijack thread abit
Selling off my opa627s (plug n play on zero), anyone interested do let me know.

^price?

he has a thread about it..
Link

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 very dynamic and more neutral sound. More burn in is require before final listening. Yes burn in is required.

That's impressive, dunno my coming soon DAC100 can perform till the level or not

Hope to arrange an audition once my DAC arrive If it's on weekdays night, is it convenient for u guys?

I am buying some OPA Sun + BU2. Please me know if u are interested, so that we can share the shipping costs.

Someone is selling a pair HERE, I gotta pass it this time

wow.. u guys has take the zero to the next N level..
guys like me with non/lil knowledge bout electronic based certainly not knowing wat u guys has added in..
only know that u guys are adding NOS to ur turbo charge mustang..
kudos to u guys for bring us to the stage that we nvr had a chance to explored by ourself..

guys... Sorry for asking very silly question.. I just bought a zero dac. How to connect it to laptop using the usb to optical converter? Is the converter using some kind of infrared connected with the zero? And do i need to change the setting in vista?

u got the converter rite? use the usb to yur laptop and for volume setting change to usb dac
wat software player u r using with it?
foobar? or winamp?

Yes.. Sorry the comp that i'm using is XP. Coz borrow the laptop from hotel. And it does only have w.media player? Possible to test the zero dac? I forgot to test the dac in jaben yesterday. Coz it was too crowded..

u need to connect the zero and the usb to optical converter via TOSLINK or Optical Cable that comes with the Zero, not some sort of infrared thingy..

What do u mean by toslink? So basically, usb cable -> usb to optical converter -> next? Coz there is nothing at the end of the usb to optical converter. And the zero comes with coaxial cable only.

usb cable -> usb to optical converter -> Optical cable [a.k.a. TOSLINK] -> zero..

how to connect the optical cable?

take out the optical cap [the square thingy that's at the optical digital in there] of ur zero and ur "usb-to-optical converter"


then connect bothe end with optical [toslink] cable: