Schiit Wyrd mod...

What is this supposed to be?? If you modify things you should have some sort of idea of what you are doing.
Do you know the schematics of the Wyrd?

I don't want to sound mean but just soldering some capacitors on to something without a concept, does not improve anything. Knowing the basic electrical diagram of the Wyrd would help - so you could make informed choices.
Knowledge is king!

YMMV… lol

There are actually people here on this forum with some detailed knowledge of electronics who could help.

 

It's a well-known fact that replacing stock caps in a device wither better ones makes things better.

The wyrd shouldn't do anything anyway, so mucking around with the internals shouldn't make any more of a difference.

 

I am all for "mucking around" - but with a concept and a goal. Even if it doesn't make any difference anyway.

 

Generally speaking the Wyrd does 4 things…
#1 it isolates the source of the digital stream from the load
#2 it re-clocks the digital stream
#3 it isolates the power supplied by the digital source from the load
#4 it supplies 'clean(er)' power to the load

These experiments to further reduce the noise level of the power supply (by adding more, better caps) is aimed at improving all 4 of these functions.
How successful this approach will be remains to be demonstrated (by measurements) but some of the reports of audible improvements suggest there is something to be gained.
This approach, as has been noted, is usually beneficial in that as the power supply is further cleaned up, the active circuitry can perform 'better'.
So really this approach is following tried and true methods which have been used in lots of audio DIY projects.

Besides, sometimes solder irons can get lonely and they need to move some metal around, just so they can help maintain a sense of personal satisfaction…

JJ

 

Mainly johnjen's last point. While the mod may or may not do something, sometimes modding for modding sake is the payoff.

I will look much cooler at the next meet with a modded wyrd than a stock.

 

Especially, if you drill large holes in the top to accommodate some crazy large capacitors and have them stick out like tubes.

 

To me it makes sense to increase the speed of delivery or response of the power supply and to reduce any ripple,
Because we are dealing with high clock frequencies and small digital signals..

So the paralleled caps makes a lot of sense, and I also never thought of it before...
I could slap myself!
We need to mod that dam WYRD!

Edit:
I rather prefer the approach of multiple small cap values in parallel, to deal with speed of delivery. .
I do not think large caps will benifit as much, as the circuit demands are more of speed and ripple rejection, over power requirments. .
Edit2:
In which case we also need caps as close to board as possible, for least resistance.
Edit 3:
Film caps would be my preference.
Edit4:
Remember to let the solder smoke hit your face...
Immense satisfaction.

 

Yes - the capacitors filter out the ripple [Short-Curcuits high frequencies] but why don't you remove the Stock ones and replace them with something better + add capacity by doubling up? And perhaps improve on the low-pass filter design. [Capacitors in series aren't doing anything here…].
Perhaps adding a choke would help ...

 

To me the circuit does not draw much of a load so I am not thinking in terms of power supply reserves..

I am thinking mainly of the PSU responsiveness and speed of delivery..

improvement in ripple rejection,
and caps of faster "Max pulse rise time" (V/µs)..

 

The wall wart is not a normal PSU, correct?

Also, when I was in colaboration on modding my amp, we looked into how musical we can make the PSU, and delved into the topic of decoupling caps..

BILL_P, look at what this article my good friend sent me.
What it says about putting the right values of caps together, chapter 2.

Edit:
Woops , forgot link

(chapter 2)

http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/ug393.pdf

 

Excellent!
Thanks for that resource. :thumb

JJ

 

I should really invest into one of these

Though I will say, when I swapped my Dacs USB from the Mobo USB 2.0 to a PCIe 2.0 card I got an immediately cleaner sound, more weight an better overall sound stage... gawd knows that Mobo Based usb was noiser than hell, even worse I used the one on the Front Plate so it was all kinda of funky

 

I'm assuming that all of the caps in question are on the power planes.
In which case, having the appropriate caps for the frequencies, magnitude, and slew rate of the noise we're trying to dampen is what we're after.

So cap value, placement, material (linearity), inductance and response time are all relevant.

Adding more caps will change the response of the "filter". More caps will always mean a slower (or no) response to input change. When the goal is clean power, it can be a good thing or bad thing depending on the input and current draw of the IC's.

Adding caps can cause noise as well. You can end up with resonance. There is added resistance as well.

If you have the Wyrd open and have access to a nice scope you can look at your output noise and find the frequency components of the noise. With that, you can see about choosing the right values to eliminate it.

Note that for any device that cleans up the power or data, having the output as close to the destination as possible (I.e. shortest output cable), the better.

Undoubtably schiit chose values that work well with the included power supply, the IC's they chose, and fit properly in their BOM budget.


Note 2: if the caps aren't on the power plane, then I have no idea what is going on

 

Nice. That Xilinx PDF has a lot of great information in it. Great post @Maxx134. Go read it. Food for the brain!

They look at the problem from the perspective of their device. What power it uses at the voltages it sees. Good stuff.

 

Gotta keep our priorities straight, after all.

 

The "Regen" uses similar approach as this WYRD,
Except that it has ability to use independent power source.
If we knew the board to make an input of external power source,
I believe we could take similar approach. ...

If you read the last few pages of the:

Gustard U12 USB Interface 8 Core XMOS chip

Thread in the big commercial site,
You will see valuable information on details/clues of the sonic impact being mainly due to low level noise that is added onto ;
"data packets" ,
"ground plane",
and jitter,

Also, that thread shows a recommended list which then quickly was closed!

My guess is there was just too much useful information being posted..

 

Adding more film caps is not a bad idea, in my opinion, but adding in the middle of the board without knowing what's going on seems like a bad idea. It's safer to add them only to the USB sockets and DC input, I think. I went with a WIMA MKS4 100V 100nF cap across the power/ground pins of each socket, then a 400V 150nF cap on the DC input. Tested it out before and after the mod with my Roland recording unit, AKG P220 + clarinet. The resulting sonic difference is small but noticeably more "analogue-like" and natural sound. Well worth the couple of dollars of caps, haha!
Clean power is paramount to audio quality, in my experience.

Due to procrastination, I hadn't gotten around to trying out a Soviet PIO cap on the DC input. I have some on hand, just haven't done it.

In any event, I love the improvement that the Wyrd brings, even before modification, to recordings and USB-powered DACs' sound.

 

Another, albeit more expensive option, is to add a 2nd Wyrd in series, with a short cable between them.

Yes it seems like overkill, or sumpt'n, but the reports I've seen thus far are all encouraging, and it is no where near the cost of a DDC of suitable quality.

JJ

 

Happy to be the one of the few after @Bill-P to try modding my Wyrd, took a little bit of a different(more sensible maybe) route to modding. Added more capacitance, not sure if that did anything but used better organic polymer caps instead. The film caps used are of the PPS kind, higher linearity gets closer to paper oil. The Wyrd did not do much for my EMU unit previously but now I feel that the notes are better defined with the mods in. Will be hitting up @HitmanFluffy to verify the mods and compare with stock Wyrds.

edit: not the second

 

The point is to replace the current Caps with something better ….