No worry. It is totally safe. the surgeon is a specialist from the shool of HIFI.

Well,

more and more people confirm tying the Earth ground wire to RCA earth gives some difference in sound. When u upgrade the RCA, bring out 1 wire from the RCA ground by solder.

Snipping the cap does not cause your system to sound bright. It just sound more open with higher frequency. Putting in a silver cable will cause bright sound.

Hi,

Good to see that. Are u not running Sun as well. I spend quite sometime switching between earth and sun and it is fun.

At first I cant get used to the vocal of OPA Sun. After a while, I sort of get used to it.

The more I listen, the clearer is the difference between sun and Earth.

also try to connect one wire to the RCA Earth by solder. use this ground wire to earth the OPA Earth ground.

After I completed the RCA jack, i bring 1 copper wire and directly solder it to the earth pin. no need to remove the board.

for ZERO starters, here is the beginner thread which is informative

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/blogs/curraw...-amplifier.html

Yes. Mod is fun. After Mod, the ZERO DAC can surprise. it is very interesting about ZERO mod. even small mod can bring quite some improvement.

Dont think solder is difficult. It is simple. google the net for some basics of soldering.

On ZERO board, it is sensitive. Dont touch the board for too long.

wah this one 'noh meng'. u need to have deep pocket.

Lucky I dindt kill my board. they are many ways to mod. I am using the proton saga way first. (of course proton saga dont have air bag like mercedez)

That is a different mod than what we had been doing. it deals with output stage, bypassing the opamp and directly couple to the tube.

What we had been doing is to change different OPA such as Earth, Sun and Moon (coming) to give different sound quality. By putting in Earth and snipping the output decoupling cap, ZERO DAC give a big jump in the transparency and detailing and accuracy, rivalled the sound of expensive cdp.

To all the ZERO users, pls refer this page for some information regarding ZERO and the mods. It is simple.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/blogs/curraw...-amplifier.html

Sometimes expression of opinion is totally a freedom but to express it with strong words is really uncalled for.

Please learn to appreciate the infor already provided in this thread.

are u using headphone, if so, extra 2 cap need to be snipped around the headphone opamp.

On my system, I dont really feel if it sounds harsh but it avoid the high frequency being roll off and hence more details. The sound harsh is coming from the vocals, and vocals lies in the frequency range of 2000 Hz.

Perhaps yr gear in the chain has something to be improved or the recording is like that.

If u are using PC player, u can switch to stereo out to DAC. If u output 5.1 PCM code to ZERO, it cant lock the signal.

This post has been edited by ccschua: Oct 6 2008, 07:36 PM

Well. to compare whether earth cable make a difference, u are invited on this Friday night.

I would have a modded zero and unmodded zero for test.

pls come.

It will be around 9.00pm. Pls bring your ZERO DAC. Madmen is coming with his modded ZERO for comparisons.

Abel can contribute the RCA cable.

some cd. headphone. i have the power cord, so its ok.

yesterday sleep with lots of noise. It was like 2.00 am in the morning. The modded ZERO has kick ass bass, and plays sentimental music like Jazz a breeze.

Look forward to mod. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/frankenze...85/#post4843415

If it is a long way to go, I guess it is for other DAC.


hi steve,

how is the mass for signal cable. if interested, there is a single crystal from hong kong which is much cheap.er.

This post has been edited by ccschua: Oct 12 2008, 02:51 PM

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, meaty 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

I have a OPA earth. Can someone exchange OPA Sun with my Earth.