[Vinnie R.]

All,

I was very pleased with the results in replacing the SB2's internal Burr Brown PCM1748E dac with the 1748KE, which has 6dB improved Dynamic Range and SNR, as well as improved THD and channel separation.  

While the improvement was not as extreme as going from the stock SB2 to the Red Wine battery modded SB2, but there was still a noticeable improvement that makes using this dac worthwhile going forward.  In fact, two modded SB2s shipped out today with the 1748KE installed.  

I noticed even better retreval of low level detail, better transient attack, and slightly better imaging.  This mod is tricky due to the 16-SSOP package of the dac (small outline package...surface mount), but well worth the extra labor to make an already fantastic sounding modded SB2 a notch better -- giving it that extra edge in performance.  

As I mentioned before, I am including this mod at no extra charge . For those of you who already had your SB2s modded by Red Wine Audio, I will be happy to do this upgrade at no cost if you ship your SB2 (no need to ship the heavy battery enclosure back) to me and back.

Of course, the Red Wine SB2 that I'll be bringing to RMAF will have the 1748KE upgrade (which will later be reviewed by 6moons with a Lotus + Omega Aperiodic 8 combo: http://www.redwineaudio.com/News.html !)

A special thanks to jonwb for pointing out the upgraded 1748KE to us in The Lab Forum!  

[dwk]

Interesting, and a very generous step to include it at the same price.

This should be a big benefit to those using the SB2 internal volume control. In a well-implemented digital volume control (which I assume the SB is) the DAC distortion performance really determines when degradation occurs to the signal. An improvement of 6dB isn't trivial at these levels, and with the battery supply and ps upgrades Vinnie does, you might actually even see most of that

[beatdownvictim]

errrrrr how much would it cost if i sent you a stock SB2? and would it even be worth the hassle? thanks vinnie,

Regards,
Carson

[Vinnie R.]

errrrrr how much would it cost if i sent you a stock SB2? and would it even be worth the hassle? thanks vinnie,

Regards,
Carson

Hi Carson,

Without modding the analog output stage, it is probably not worth upgrading the dac because the weakest link will be the cheap opamp output and coupling caps.

For $199, I perform mods 1 through 5 on my website (which includes replacing the dac):

http://www.redwineaudio.com/SB2_Mods.html

Regards,