Will there be a 'WOW' difference with this PC audio upgrade?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
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29 Jul 2011
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In acme's chair.
If i were to upgrade from:

Xonar DS > Sony TA-D505* > Koss Pro DJ100

* A 1992 Hi-Fi Amplifier. I use it to bump up the low end, as my sound card can't quite chuck out enough power. The only problem is that the sound is also much more murky, and it requires cables going accross the room to the Hi-Fi.

to:

Xonar DS > Fiio E7 > Koss Pro DJ100

Will this little Fiio be enough to bump up the power for the low end? And without making the high ends sound a little 'murky' if it does so?

At a later date I would be getting an additional pair of headphones as well. Though i like these ones... They are half way between some lower end Grado's and some Sony xb500's.
 
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I would hazard a semi-educated guess as no :P

Not to say there won't be a difference but I doubt you'll be blown away by it.
 
From what i can tell from the service manual, the headphone output is taken straight off the speaker outputs and is switched via a relay. THe resistances on the output are 560ohm 1/2W 5% carbon film which could be replaced with a superior metal film part. (although i don't think resistors make that much difference, it'd be subtle) The biggest difference (especially in an amp approaching that age) would be to replace the electrolytic capacitors. Doing that in several bits of vintage kit has produced that WOW difference you speak of.

The limiting factors on your amp are that it uses a regulated power supply and that rather than using discrete output transistors, they are IC's. (Sanyo STK4152II) THD from these performing at their best is 0.3% which compared to a lot of other amps is quite high. Also the voltage gain vs frequency graph shows that there is a falloff from 200Hz down. (OK it's less that 1V but 200Hz is quite an early start) These are problems that you cannot fix as they are inherent to the design of the amp.
 
Kei said:
From what i can tell from the service manual, the headphone output is taken straight off the speaker outputs and is switched via a relay. THe resistances on the output are 560ohm 1/2W 5% carbon film which could be replaced with a superior metal film part. (although i don't think resistors make that much difference, it'd be subtle) The biggest difference (especially in an amp approaching that age) would be to replace the electrolytic capacitors. Doing that in several bits of vintage kit has produced that WOW difference you speak of.

The limiting factors on your amp are that it uses a regulated power supply and that rather than using discrete output transistors, they are IC's. (Sanyo STK4152II) THD from these performing at their best is 0.3% which compared to a lot of other amps is quite high. Also the voltage gain vs frequency graph shows that there is a falloff from 200Hz down. (OK it's less that 1V but 200Hz is quite an early start) These are problems that you cannot fix as they are inherent to the design of the amp.
Click to expand...

And here we have unearthed an audiophile :) Nice to meet you :p I wouldn't bother upgrading/refreshing the parts inside this old amp though. I would much rather buy a new one at some point in the not so distant future, I picked up a Sony LBT-D505 Hi-Fi for cheap just so I actually had something to power my Wharfedales. :)

I ask about the Fiio E7 as my Cowon i9 has recently broken, so i figured i would use my phone > Fiio E7 > earphones when i'm on the go. So it would be serving two purposes.

Thanks for giving me a tonne of useful information about it though :)
 
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