[modwright]

OK, so I KNOW it has been a LONG time coming...and I am still not 100% complete with it, but I HAVE made a breakthrough and have NEWS finally!

The problem of noise that has been plaguing me, became clear to be grounding related, after I first resolved it in our KWI 200 and then in our LS 100.  I have been trying to use 5V supplies from the player itself, but this is ALSO a no-go. So, with grounding revised AND a dedicated linear 5V supply provided inside the player, for the Digital input and DAC boards, I am rid of the noise!

I still have a few things to tidy up and optimize, but this is the first Sony XA-5400ES and I can say that it WILL be a success!

I will now apply the same grounding changes and SOMEHOW shoe-horn a dedicated supply inside the Oppo 95 and hopefully then will have success all around.

It sounds FANTASTIC!  I am listening to a 24/96 feed, from an Logitech Touch, via WiFi of all things (RCA from Touch to Sony) and it sounds LIVE, NATURAL and BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you to all of you who have been SO patient.  It will be FINALIZED soon!

Sincerely,

Dan W.

[Timo]

Greetings Dan:

Great work on this!  Some questions:

1.  How much will this digital input upgrade cost?
2.  Will you be using Sony's DACs for conversion or something different?
3.  What types of digital input signals will the 5400 accept and be able to convert (e.g. PCM, DSD)?
4.  Will the digital input be S/PDIF coax/BNC, balanced XLR, USB or all of them?

Thanks,

Timo

[modwright]

Hi, the upgrade cost is $995.

It will accept RCA and XLR inputs, switchable via toggle.  Player/DAC use is also switchable via toggle on rear of player.

Digital input receiver serves as master clock, as it reclocks all data for input AND player and is EXCEPTIONALLY low in jitter.

The digital input is fed into the digital input receiver and then to a PCM1794 DAC mounted on the receiver board, powered by its own dedicated power supply, twice regulated.

The DAC on our board feeds our tube analog stage, when operating via digital inputs.  It will accept up to 24/192 data via SPDIF and AES/EBU inputs, but not DSD.

The player will function as a standard modified player with digital input is not selected.

Thanks,

Dan