Posted by thylantyr [ 71.139.28.253 ] on May 12, 2007 at 12:28:31:
In Reply to: Re: DEX2496 or DCX2496 posted by Jp on May 12, 2007 at 06:45:04:
I've read just about every thread on the DCX, the DIYA forum, Yahoo groups, people are going 'mod crazy' on this thing as if it has
the black plague. Later, I bought one and did extensive audible tests
with the analog pathways and pure digital pathways up to the amps,
I can't find any real audible flaws with the sound no matter how hard I try to cannibalize the signal path. I've been into electronics
and audio game for many moons, this is really a good piece of gear for $250.
I think the mod people like to mod it because they can and it's cool,
electronics folks are like that, they need to do a mod to be happy.
The DCX is XLR input, to get the best low noise performance, feed a
preamp signal that is higher than most home audio gear supplies, ie,
home gear is typically 1v preouts. XLR is around 8v preouts. You can optimize the 'gain structure' by feeding it a nice preamp signal from an XLR source, ie Parasound Halo, certain B&K receivers, etc.
It's not mandatory, you can drive it with a 1v source just to get
started and play around, who knows you might like it alot like this.
But there is room to upgrade if you wish.
If you drive a home amp with DCX XLR outputs and your home amp is
RCA input, there is a simple cable mod to lower DCX output gain
so it won't drive your amp too high as it induces more hiss.
Special XLR to RCA cable -6dB output gain;
XLR Pin 1 = Shield ground => one RCA gnd.
XLR Pin 2 = Positive balanced signal => RCA hot
XLR Pin 3 = Negative balanced signal = don't connect
I made my XLR to RCA connectors with a switch that connects pin 3 to pin 1 to allow selection of output gain, normal or -6dB.
This simple cable mod worked nice when I connected the DCX to my
Adcom 555 amp. I got less 'hiss' as gain is reduced.
But now I drive DCX directly into the pro audio amps, XLR to XLR,
no cable mod.
I also use a Roland M1000 mixer [now discontinued], it's the
volume control when using the audio system in digital pathway mode.
This unit allowed to to easily test analog and digital pathways
instantly for quick comparison. This is a nice piece of gear
for $250, I have no idea why Roland discontinued it.
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