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My (very) mini review of the Singxer SU-1 DDC


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What's the consensus on the most effective mod for an SU-1? Is it an external LPS, a better oscillator, or perhaps a cleaner USB power or signal? I like what this box does in my system, but I can see that there is more potential in there, just not sure how to realize it :) 

 

I'm using I2S output to a 0.3m HDMI cable to the DAC, and a Macbook Pro as the source with HQPlayer as the renderer. Most content is converted to DSD256 over DoP.

 

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Just now, pkane2001 said:

What's the consensus on the most effective mod for an SU-1? Is it an external LPS, a better oscillator, or perhaps a cleaner USB power or signal?

I just got an Uptone LPS-1 power supply and the change was *NOT* subtle!  
I highly recommend it, if you don't mind the $400 price tag.

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1 minute ago, pkane2001 said:

What's the consensus on the most effective mod for an SU-1?

I've only done two things thus far...adding the LPS-1 power supply and a Wireworld Ultraviolet HDMI cable.  Both had discernible positive impact on my system.  More mods to come courtesy of a member way smarter than me!

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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8 minutes ago, T-Bone said:

cheatin' b*stard!  :D

 

7 minutes ago, pkane2001 said:

 

It's nice to have smart friends! :)

I would be living in a gutter somewhere if it were not for having smart friends and family.  Wish I could give back in some way but I have no real skillzz other than being able to make pretty awesome spreadsheets. :(

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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I have a question for those who have modified their Singxer SU-1. Which is the most relevant and audible change?

 

Changing the internal power supply?

Changing the 5 capacitors?

Changing the 3,3V regulator?

 

In case you have changed all theses things at the same time, how can you say what is the most important?

 

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13 hours ago, tboooe said:

I've only done two things thus far...adding the LPS-1 power supply and a Wireworld Ultraviolet HDMI cable.  Both had discernible positive impact on my system.  More mods to come courtesy of a member way smarter than me!

Great stuff @tboooe

 

Tim at Kitsune has agreed to send the conversion kit to me (I'm in the UK). 

 

I can buy the LPS-1 locally. 

 

And I ordered my Wireworld starlight 7 last weekend! 

 

My SU-1 is already sounding great in my system so I can't wait to hear what it sounds like after this makeover. 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

Synergistic Research Powercell UEF SE > Sonore OpticalModule (LPS-1.2 & DXP-1A5DSC) > EtherRegen (SR4T & DXP-1A5DSC) > (Sablon 2020 LAN) Innuos PhoenixNet > Muon Streaming System > Grimm Audio MU1 server > (Sablon AES) Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC > PS Audio M1200 monoblocks > Salk Sound Supercharged Songtowers

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nice work @BigAlMc  I dont think you will be disappointed.  I need to try out the Starlight HDMI but my wallet is afraid to!  Maybe ignorance is bliss???  

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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6 hours ago, roberto2 said:

I have a question for those who have modified their Singxer SU-1. Which is the most relevant and audible change?

 

Changing the internal power supply?

Changing the 5 capacitors?

Changing the 3,3V regulator?

 

In case you have changed all theses things at the same time, how can you say what is the most important?

 

I did the power supply change from stock to LPS-1 first and noticed a good degree of improvement.  Few days later, replaced the 3.3V regulator along with the 5 caps together, and noticed more improvement but not as much as the LPS-1 change.  Not sure which is more important since I didn't do the mod sequence the other way around, but based on the effort involved, changing power supplier from stock to LPS-1 would be an easy choice.

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17 hours ago, elan120 said:

I did the power supply change from stock to LPS-1 first and noticed a good degree of improvement.  Few days later, replaced the 3.3V regulator along with the 5 caps together, and noticed more improvement but not as much as the LPS-1 change.  Not sure which is more important since I didn't do the mod sequence the other way around, but based on the effort involved, changing power supplier from stock to LPS-1 would be an easy choice.

Thank you very much. Of course I believe that LPS-1 is a very good choice but it is 400$, the price of the Singxer SU-1. 

Changing the regulator is far cheaper...

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7 hours ago, roberto2 said:

Thank you very much. Of course I believe that LPS-1 is a very good choice but it is 400$, the price of the Singxer SU-1. 

Changing the regulator is far cheaper...

 

The best way to approach this is simply concluding that an upgrade to the stock DC 5v input source is the first thing to do.  You can cheaply accomplish this by modding the stock LPS as many has as well..

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On 10/21/2016 at 10:58 AM, tboooe said:

Let me first say I am not good at reviewing audio products. I dont focus on minute details nor do I have "golden ears". All I care about is if the music is enjoyable and pleasant to me. So hopefully I have properly lowered everyone's expectations here we go....

 

So I've had the SU-1 for exactly a week now. It replaced a MUTEC MC3+USB. I reason why I got rid of the MUTEC was because it does not support DSD (well it does but it converts up to DSD256 to PCM). My plan is to upgrade my DAC to one that can accept native DSD via I2S(not DoP) so getting the SU-1 was the first step towards this upgrade. I am using the SPDIF BNC output.

 

I would characterize the SU-1 as clear, crisp and dynamic. Strings, drum, etc sound very well defined and have just enough of an edge without sounding bright or too sharp. High and lows are presented with a lot of energy and detail I did not hear previously with the MUTEC. The overall sound is very very clear, open, airy. Notes just rise in the air and lingers in a pleasant way. In no way is the SU-1 bright though.

 

The midrange is where I am bit more conflicted. I will admit I am a bit of a closet/wannabe tube guy, though due to laziness I dont own any tube gear. I listen to mainly female vocals and acoustic music so I like a warm, intimate, organic environment. The MUTEC presented the midrange with more weight and texture (aside...maybe the texture I am hearing is graininess which the SU-1 definitely does not at all). There is more of a 3d effect with the MUTEC. Vocals seem to have shape and size. With the SU-1, vocals are definitely more flat and not as "warm". I wont go so far as to say mids are bleached out but compared to the MUTEC, the SU-1 presents mids in a different way. In my system, which already leans towards the warm and lush side, the SU-1 provides a good balance.

 

Overall, I am very pleased with the SU-1. The dynamics and energy of the SU-1 is very addictive. I was worried that perhaps I was falling in love with the BOSE effect but after a week, I havent experienced any listener fatigue. I am still trying to get my head wrapped around the presentation of the midrange though. However, i would say this comment is purely based on preference and not some shortcoming of the SU-1.

 

The build quality of the SU-1 is fantastic. Installing the driver was a breeze. Note that the included driver does not have settings for latency and buffer size which I am used to having.

 

Hope this proves useful to someone.

Excellent review. As asked already, "How many hours were on the unit? "

 

I read somewhere (was it you?) that once at 130-hours (from 100-110?) the mid-band opened-up ---"more fleshed out/harmonically complete" ?

 

In which case, it seems a very nice unit (Singxer SU-1) !

 

peter

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3 hours ago, mikicasellas said:

I hope this is a right thread to ask this:

 

What choice do you consider to give better results:

 

1).- SU-1 with the LPS-1

or

2).- KTE modified SU-1

My vote is 1).  UpTone LPS-1 offers isolation (against leakage loops) that 2) does not have.  A few people have heard the 1) mod for their SU-1 and I don't think any of them would go back to stock SU-1.

 

Also, while 2) is a nice upgrade to the SU-1 internal LPS, most of the logic on the SU-1 board aren't directly powered by this LPS, but rather by the on-board LD1086 linear regulator chip.  That's why a few people (myself included) have replaced that LD1086 with a much lower noise discrete regulator, which yields an incremental improvement over both 1) and 2).

 

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This is a great answer!

 

Just another question. I had a LPS-1 at home and I could test it with my Singxer SU-1 (5V), with my Recovery (7V) and with my Sotto SMS-200 (7V). (Recovery and Sotm are with HDPLex LPS actually, 9V and 12V))

I found the best result sonically with LPS-1 feeding the Recovery! In second place I would say on Singxer SU-1 and at last position with the Sotto SMS-200/

 

If we assume that the Recovery send the 5V to the USB input of the Singxer, may we think that the 5V feeding the USB input is very important too?

I see that every LPS tweak is about the internal 5V but what about the relevance of the 5V coming from the USB cable?

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1 hour ago, roberto2 said:

... but what about the relevance of the 5V coming from the USB cable?

 

I've also been wondering the same thing.

 

I did try to inject a separate 5v supply into the USB cable, but this didn't work with SU-1: the PC didn't connect to it, although my DAC (and some other USB-powered devices) worked perfectly with such a modded cable. So, I know that SU-1 is expecting the 5v to be supplied by USB, and that it is in some way dependent on this supply being sourced from the same device as the data signal (perhaps requiring a common ground?)

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Not having access to an LPS-1 (and not willing to spend as much on a power supply as on the SU-1 itself) I wired up a 5v iFi power supply, instead. This is an inexpensive switcher that claims active filtering and 1uV noise at the output, and I happen to have one on-hand.

 

The result is an audible improvement. It's not huge, but the effect is especially obvious on large orchestral pieces where the sound now comes out completely uncongested. With the stock power supply there was just a bit of congestion or straining when many instruments were playing simultaneously. With the iFi supply the sound remains clear, with clean separation of many of the instruments.

 

Now, where is the 3.3v LD1086 regulator located on the PCB? I'm thinking about replacing this, now that I can see what better power can do to this unit.

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The stock LD1086 is a SMD.  To remove the device, job will be easier if you have or access to a hot tweezers, if not, one way is to first snip off the stock regulator's two two front legs, heat up the output leg (center pad) to remove the entire regulator.  After the regulator is removed, heat up the front two pads to remove leftover old regulator legs to clean up these two input and GND pads.  Either case, careful with the amount of heat applied.

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On 5/7/2017 at 4:48 AM, Energy said:

SU-1 Main Board:

- (3) Nichicon FPCAP (R7) 220μF 6.3V 7mΩ

- (2) Panasonic FR EEU-FR1E331 330μF 25V - 56mΩ (to replace capacitors nearby LD1086 regulator)

- (1) Sparkos Labs SS1117XX Discrete Voltage Regulator 3.3V (to replace LD1086 regulator)


 The next upgrade after that would be changing out the LD1086 (100µV) voltage regulator to the discrete SS1117XX (3µV).

 

I guess I'm feeling adventuresome -  just ordered the Sparkos regulator for my SU-1.

I'm preparing an order from Digikey for another project right now, so I'll throw those caps into my shopping cart too.

 

If I "brick" my SU-1 I'm going to ship the carcass to @Energy for making it look so easy that a knucklehead like me could perform this mod too.  lol!  :D  

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