Paradisea DAC Mod

F-100 · « **on:** 22 Apr 2007, 05:17 pm »

Disclaimer of Liability:
The following information is provided for educational purposes only. I accept no responsibility should any damages or injury occurred as a result of these modifications. Do it at your own risk.

I've had few people asking me about my DAC upgrade so I thought I post some pictures of the modification.

1) Adding a Scientific Conversion SC947-02 shielded digital transformer to the digital input.

SC947-02 wiring diagram:
Yellow wire (Pin #8) goto 75 Ohm resistor that resides between the BNC and RCA output jack.
Red wire (Pin #1) goto the BNC + and Black wire (Pin #4) goto the BNC -
White wire (Pin #5, 6 and 7) go to the ground connection of the EIC .

Top view of the circuit board.(I used 3M double side tape to mount the transformer to the back panel of the DAC.)

Close-up of the bottom of the circuit board.

Bottom view of the circuit board.

2) Replacing output caps
(will post picture later)

Anyone have any pictures of other mods that they would like to share, feel free to post them there.

tanchiro58 · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Apr 2007, 06:53 pm »

F100,

Excellent and very clear pictures. I did the same modifiyng with SC947-02 pulse transformer as F100 and will post some pictures of the Renaissance II in case someone owns the same as mine. Good job F100. I like your pics very much.

Tan

tanchiro58 · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Apr 2007, 08:58 pm »

Quote

White wire (Pin #5, 6 and 7) go to the ground connection of the IEC .

There is another different way to solder pin #5 to ground and let pin #6 and 7 float if you like more natural sound with little more details but less dynamic than other way. It is up to your taste. Good luck.

viperrabbit · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 01:26 am »

Hi F100

Great job and pictures. Exactly the kind of explanations that I am looking for.

Regards
Edmund

tanchiro58 · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 03:12 am »

F100 and Gary,

I found out another ways of mod which is mixmatched between Mauimods and Floating Shields. This mean using Mauimods (pins 5,6 and 7 to ground) on SB3 and Floating Shields (pins 6 and 7 which are shielded float and pin 5 to ground) on your DAC. With this you have an extended soundstage but not weakening defined mid and high like I mentioned before. Bass is still defined and dynamic.

GBB · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 01:36 pm »

Quote from: tanchiro58 on 23 Apr 2007, 03:12 am

F100 and Gary,

I found out another ways of mod which is mixmatched between Mauimods and Floating Shields. This mean using Mauimods (pins 5,6 and 7 to ground) on SB3 and Floating Shields (pins 6 and 7 which are shielded float and pin 5 to ground) on your DAC. With this you have an extended soundstage but not weakening defined mid and high like I mentioned before. Bass is still defined and dynamic.

F100 - these are great pictures. Thanks for taking the time to document your work so well.

Tan - your experiments are also great and really are helping us move closer to better sound. The issue of noise in digital systems is hard to get right.

I think there is another version that might be worth trying out if you aren't tired of playing with these different combinations. I think we want to ground both pin 5 and shield (6,7) but to different places. Pin 5 should be grounded very close to the output (near R66 in the SB3) or near to the input jack in the DAC. Looking at the pictures that F100 posted, that would mean grounding pin 5 very close to the solder pad where F100 wired the yellow wire. There is a ground solder pad right there that could be used.
Then the shield should go to a very quiet ground. This would be the place where F100 wired all the grounds in the Paradisea DAC.
In the SB3 this is probably the input ground connection that you're already using.

In my SB3, I wire the equivalent of pin 5 to ground very close to R66 so that might explain why we get slightly different results.

---Gary

95bcwh · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 02:03 pm »

F-100, when are you going to start offering mod to benefit the un-skilled mass like me??

F-100 · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 02:18 pm »

Quote from: 95bcwh on 23 Apr 2007, 02:03 pm

F-100, when are you going to start offering mod to benefit the un-skilled mass like me??

For you, it will be my pleasure. Send me the DAC or your SB3 and I'll be gladly perform the mod for you.

95bcwh · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 02:41 pm »

Wow aa aa, ...you're going to drive the modders out of business if you continue to offer deals like this..

Quote from: F-100 on 23 Apr 2007, 02:18 pm

Quote from: 95bcwh on 23 Apr 2007, 02:03 pm
F-100, when are you going to start offering mod to benefit the un-skilled mass like me??

For you, it will be my pleasure. Send me the DAC or your SB3 and I'll be gladly perform the mod for you.

F-100 · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 03:44 pm »

Quote from: 95bcwh on 23 Apr 2007, 02:41 pm

Wow aa aa, ...you're going to drive the modders out of business if you continue to offer deals like this..

I'm only an amateur so there is no competition here... and the offer is good for you only.

F-100 · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 03:56 pm »

Quote from: GBB on 23 Apr 2007, 01:36 pm

I think there is another version that might be worth trying out if you aren't tired of playing with these different combinations. I think we want to ground both pin 5 and shield (6,7) but to different places. Pin 5 should be grounded very close to the output (near R66 in the SB3) or near to the input jack in the DAC. Looking at the pictures that F100 posted, that would mean grounding pin 5 very close to the solder pad where F100 wired the yellow wire. There is a ground solder pad right there that could be used.
Then the shield should go to a very quiet ground. This would be the place where F100 wired all the grounds in the Paradisea DAC.
In the SB3 this is probably the input ground connection that you're already using.

Thanks for the valuable info, Gary.

I'll implement your suggestion later tonight.

jhm731 · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 05:28 pm »

Quote from: F-100 on 22 Apr 2007, 05:17 pm

I've had few people asking me about my DAC upgrade so I thought I post some pictures of the modification.

1) Adding a Scientific Conversion SC947-02 shielded digital transformer to the digital output.

SC947-02 wiring diagram:
Yellow wire (Pin #8) goto 75 Ohm resistor that resides between the BNC and RCA output jack.
Red wire (Pin #1) goto the BNC + and Black wire (Pin #4) goto the BNC -
White wire (Pin #5, 6 and 7) go to the ground connection of the EIC .

Isn't this SC947-02 installation on your DAC's digital input?

I'm looking at a digram of the SC947-02, just to be clear, pins 1 & 4 are on the primary/input side of the SC947-02, and pins 5,6,7 & 8 are on the secondary/output side.

jhm731 · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 Apr 2007, 06:42 pm »

Quote from: F-100 on 22 Apr 2007, 05:17 pm

Close-up of the bottom of the circuit board.

PS- you also need to cut the traces from the BNC jack connection, otherwise, you've installed the SC947-02 in parallel to the existing digital input connection. It needs to be in series with the BNC jack and the input receiver.

PPS- why not mount the SC947-02 on the bottom of DAC circuit board, then you could eliminate all that extra wiring.

F-100 · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Apr 2007, 03:03 am »

Quote from: jhm731 on 23 Apr 2007, 05:28 pm

Isn't this SC947-02 installation on your DAC's digital input?

I'm looking at a digram of the SC947-02, just to be clear, pins 1 & 4 are on the primary/input side of the SC947-02, and pins 5,6,7 & 8 are on the secondary/output side.

Correct me if I'm wrong... SC947-02 is a 1:1 transformer so I can use either side as primary and either side as secondary.

GBB · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Apr 2007, 02:18 pm »

Quote from: F-100 on 24 Apr 2007, 03:03 am

Correct me if I'm wrong... SC947-02 is a 1:1 transformer so I can use either side as primary and either side as secondary.

You are correct. The SC947-02 is a 1:1 transformer and it shouldn't matter which side you use as primary. The magnetic coupling in a pulse transformer isn't directional.

---Gary

jhm731 · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Apr 2007, 03:39 pm »

Quote from: F-100 on 24 Apr 2007, 03:03 am

Quote from: jhm731 on 23 Apr 2007, 05:28 pm

Isn't this SC947-02 installation on your DAC's digital input?

I'm looking at a digram of the SC947-02, just to be clear, pins 1 & 4 are on the primary/input side of the SC947-02, and pins 5,6,7 & 8 are on the secondary/output side.

Correct me if I'm wrong... SC947-02 is a 1:1 transformer so I can use either side as primary and either side as secondary.

F100- First, the SC947-02 is on your DAC's input, not output as you posted.

If the sides of the SC947-02 aren't important, why don't you guys contact John Paul and ask him why he goes to all the trouble of marking the primary side.

Once again, it looks like there's plenty of clearance under the circuit board to mount the SC947-02 and eliminate all
that extra wiring.

Finally, until you cut the traces on the bottom of your DAC's circuit board the SC947-02 isn't installed correctly.

PS- Gary also thought connecting the SC pulse transformer's shields to the SB3's noisy ground wouldn't make any different.

F-100 · « **Reply #16 on:** 24 Apr 2007, 03:52 pm »

Thanks for all your help, Jhm731.

I'll look into all of your recommendations and will revise my mod.
So for now, please read the disclaimer on my first post...

drmike · « **Reply #17 on:** 29 Apr 2007, 01:01 pm »

are these pictures still available?
thanks,
drmike

crooner · « **Reply #18 on:** 29 Apr 2007, 07:23 pm »

I'm about to add the transformer to my EAD DSP-7000 MKIII. Would love to see the pics!

F-100 · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Apr 2007, 12:33 am »

I made some mistakes in my original wiring diagram so I removed the pictures. I'm not sure if I want to add the SC947-02 modification into my DAC since my system sounds so good right now.

FYI, Tanchiro58 implemented the SC947-02 into his DAC and he is very happy with the result. You guys might want to shoot him a PM.