So I am going to add some larger uF capacitors to the stereo channels of my Sonar DG sound card after reading an article on it. Problem is that it won't be here til wednesday. I need to know what the specs are for the two caps on the stereo caps closest to the output channel. Anyone out there have this card and can you tell me what the uF and Voltage are on them. The Voltage is especially important to me. Thanks in advance.
Should it not say the voltage and uF on the capacitors themselves, failing that; they should at least still be branded with the ID codes/Part numbers, so a bit of googling should find you the answer anyway.
I don't have the card yet, thats why I need someone to look at theirs. I want to get the parts all at once. Anybody out there have this card?
My card is coming tomorrow most likely in the evening. I will take pics of the whole process as well as listening tests. Now I will have to order the caps after I get it, but thats okay, then I just get to anticipate another package coming! Its been like Christmas once a week around here for a month, I love it. "One more flap to awesome!"
Got the card! Now I am ready to order caps, I don't know whether they are dc or ac. Anyone know anything about this?The caps say 16v 22uf,100uf 25v 47uf ans 3.3uf 50v I have no experience doing this kind of thing but you have to learn some how!
Would love to see before and after: measured outputs (oscilloscope) for a set of standard signals (sine, square, and steady at key outputs [50hz, 1Kh, 5Khz, 20Khz, or even a full band sweep if you can manage it]) and its power output at some common loads (15ohm, 33ohm, 150ohm) a bit of objective to go with the subjective.
I don't have a scope. Or even a voltimeter....gotta get one today. This is my first delve into modifying boards, minus soldering on Macs for overclocking.
Bought a volt meter but I cannot get a good ground on the pc. Not much room to reach the caps either. Caps are on there way but I don't know which side is positive and which is negative, lol. Learning process but it will get done.
Conventionally -ve is the shorter lead (of course this doesn't help with the existing caps), or it may have a small - on one side. Only reason I ask is a lot of people upgrade caps/op-amps/etcetera to ones that aren't suitable to the purpose, or which cause problems by way of ripples(noise), power(volume), longevity, or a plethora of other problems. As... damn, forgotten what I was going to say...Ah yes! As you're (I guess from what you've said) replacing them with caps of the same capacitance and voltage, I presume the new ones will have a lower ESR?
Ok... looking at a good picture of your card courtesy of our very own Bit-Tech I'd say there are some caps that you could go quite a way with (too far makes no difference at first, then get's worse), others should be left exactly as is... Caps 3-8 should keep their values more or less the same, if you insist in putting larger caps in, then I'd recommend going no higher than 10μF, preferably less - my reason for saying this is simple : looking at the traces they're connected straight to the cirrus logic CS4245 Caps 10, 13, 14 should stay with exactly the same value capacitors; two of these are for filtering it's internal reference voltage, the other is for the microphone bias. You could go slightly higher (like 50μF but since the manufacturer Cirrus dictates 47μF [p29] you're best sticking with it) on the VQ1&VQ2 caps, but I wouldn't make any change to the MICBIAS cap. At a guess cap 10 is the MICBIAS, but I'd play follow the traces on your card to be sure if I were you. Caps 9, 11, 12, 15 look like they're filtering the output signal, you could probably take them up to 100/150μF I wouldn't go further than 500μF Caps 16-18 I guess are input voltage filtering... at a guess that makes V10 a liner voltage regulator (which can be a good way of cleaning up noise from switching regulators)I can't make out a part number for sure, but it's worth checking before making any changes to the cap which is connected to the output (you'll need to google the part number and check it out) However, the other two you could probably lift as high as 1000μF. These are my thoughts only - my degree's in architecture not electronics - though I'm looking into a bit of diy audio at the moment.
Okay here is the card with the four caps you speak of. I am replacing the 22uf with 470uf. That should give the card a bit of a bump in the bass department. We shall see next week when I get the parts. Anyone else know a anything about electronic parts? Feel free to chime in!
I don't think that swapping caps will bump the power to your bass, it'll reduce noise making things sound cleaner and sharper, less "muddy" to coin a phrase. Swapping out the complementary pair (I guess, though it could be a straight darlington pair can't tell from the pictures) should increase the output power. But be very, very careful not go to far, not cool to blow up your headphones/speakers. It's possible you'd get more expert responses than my stab's in the dusk in the modding section...
I am replacing the rest of the caps with higher quality "audio" capacitors. I just ordered them from parts express. I also order the same value uf for the first set of caps I bought. Picked up a phono to rca cable at 9 feet too as my Monster Cable extension cord has a hum to it. That alone should help the sound. Sure I could have bought a nicer sound card but where is the fun in that!
Made a insulator/shield for the card. Its two pieces of foam core with aluminum (I know copper would probably be better or lead, but I have neither) sandwiched in it with some real carbon fiber on top. Its not going on it til the cap mods are done but here is a pic. Could an Admin move this thread to modding please....
Good and bad news. The bad first. The cover is too thick, ditching it. I attached two new 470 uf caps on the power supply end of the card. Success. Do I hear a difference? Nah, but it still works, lol. The rest of the caps should be here Thursday. Hopefully those won't take as long as these two did. Learning, learning and not so good with solder gun.
