Najmods you bring a new user here successfully...

focus on your question....

you can try Creative Xmod...2 channel but can upgrade to 8 channel by using external I/O..

EDIT: what is your main purpose for sound card?

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 13 2008, 09:20 PM

Hey coolkwc,

thanks thanks... will check it out. Main usage is more for music. Using headphones now but at the volume that i'm listening, I'll be deaf soon )) so thought of getting a proper speaker and probably the external soundcard. Btw, any recommendation for a good pair of speaker for music? I was looking at this gigaworks T-20

thx...

for speaker you can ask HERE...

oh I see, well I'm to lazy to do RMAA. Never bother much about it. But if I do so people will drool with the result I think

lol, don't be lazy, without RMAA, you also won't know got high spikes on your left channel...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 13 2008, 10:05 PM

I just use my ears, as long as I can't hear it I'm fine with it

According to Head-fi, those component you bypassed were muting transistor...

Alright, here's the new RMAA test, the graph on top is the one modded but BEFORE it have left channel distortion, even so it still uneven. The bottom one is the bypass to RCA, as you can see even though it's about 1-2dB behind the stock 3.5mm, but its much smoother overall. Very happy with the result

You are happy with the test, i'm struggle with it...



RMAA test for not-muting transistor bypass


RMAA test for output directed from pin1 & pin7 of opamp


from the results, i concluded that the distortion i mentioned before was totally cause by the left channel SMD resistor, after i bypassed it, it shows very good results, i should be happy with it, but i'm not....i noticed the hissing sound after bypass it, and after tested repeatedly, i concluded that the output SMD resistor after the opamp(as red circle) actually put there to reduce the hissing sound


i did 2 bypass method just now...
1. bypass the whole thing after opamp, hissing sound noticed, minimized distortion in RMAA test.
2. only bypass those muting transistor, minimum hissing sound, but the distortion in RMAA same as before.

so i can confirm that the distortion was actually caused by the left channel SMD resistor...

now i don't know whether to bypass or not...bypass i will reduce the distortion that i can't actually heard but increase the hissing sound level which can detected by my ears....

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 14 2008, 06:27 PM

Hmm, that's weird. I just redone the mod, now I removed the transistro and bypass them (means I use 3.5mm for RMAA) and it returned slightly better result than totally bypass them, but still I tap from 3.5mm to RCA since I don't like to use adapter to connect to my amp

Its up to you, really. Bypass or not, your ear mostly can't hear much difference, trust me But the last resort, you should clean your mod area thoroughly, I messed up my mod when I bypass the muting transistor just now, I just noticed that there is a stupid solder stuck on those small SMD resistor shorting them and mess up the sound

My left channel distortion is even worse than yours but I don't save the result to compare, but all I remember is the THD and IMD is around the same as yours

Well, i guess it's something you mod to satisfy your ears, not your eyes, right ?

After 2 hours of listening, sorry to tell that i removed the bypass cable finally because i can't withstand the hissing sound(i'm using earphone currently, so can hear it)...

i saw from your RMAA results, the reason of better results because you reduced the hissing sound when you only bypass the transistor, thats why your noise level and dynamic range should be better...

EDIT: actually you no need to remove the transistor to bypass it, since you are using RCA, just solder at the socket besides that AUX IN...


This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 14 2008, 09:08 PM

So its pin 2 for right and pin 4 for left?

Sorry bro, my bad , PIN 2 is LEFT, PIN 4 is RIGHT.... i tested today...this pin just after the opamp SMD resistor and before muting transistor..

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 14 2008, 09:05 PM

Oh I forgot, I removed some capacitor render those pins unusable. Anyway I don't think I needed those to use that pins anyway, I just fine with what I done now

nope, remove those cap won't affect that pin, the signal path just from SMD resistor to that pin, no cap along that path... but is up to you whether want to use it...

That's weird, when I used it there is no sound at all

if you are interested enough, you can use multimeter to test the connectivity of pin1 opamp-->pin4 socket and pin7 opamp-->pin2 socket...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 12:40 AM

Yo guys, just wanna ask if u all using modded drivers or official Creative?
And is there anyway to get the fanciful Audio Console (the one to switch between Entertainment Mode, Game Mode, and Audio Creation Mode) with Vista? I heard Vista only got plain drivers, no fanciful control panel applications...

i'm using Official Creative driver in XP and Vista, Creative just released the beta driver which gave back the Dolby Digital and DTS in Vista, you can go and download from Creative site here

about the 'fanciful Audio Console' is call Creative Console Launcher, included at that site as well...

EDIT: which card you using now?

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 12:57 AM