Behringer Ultramatch PRO SRC2496 Information 电路图.pdf

Behringer Ultramatch PRO SRC2496 60687 Upsampling - is it good or bad ? Have I found the best DAC in the World ? I can assure you - I am DAMN CLOSE ! february 2009 I must admit, that I dont know digital technology well enough to dive deep into explanations about upsampling. So it must be for the time being enough to say, that the SPDIF signal is converted from 44,1 kHz to higher frequencies (96 kHz) and higher bitrate (24) so it looks like DVD or SACD signal. So DACs which are capable of converting such high resolution signals - are working in different conditions - at the upper limits of their capabilities. I was offered to test the funny machine - the famous Behringer Ultramatch Pro- a box made for the pro audio industry , which can convert and manipulate any digital signal to any other. Among 100 other functions - Behringer can simply upsample the straight S/PDIF into 96kHz/24 Bit. The box is simply placed in series with the S/PDIF cable - between the transport and the DAC. I connected it in my system between my Philips Fikus Transport and two DACS which I had at hand - the lampized Buffalo Sabre32 and Wolfson WM8742. Normally - I hate devices which add complexity and add manipulation to the sound. I believe in less is better. BUT This device is different, Unlike oversampling - which we already know is VERY bad for music - upsampling may be sometimes VERY GOOD. It is not the panacea, universal Hi-Fi cure, but in my system, very revealing and transparent - I tell you as it was. YMMV. I can tell you - after hitting the UPSAMPLE button on the Behringer - I was taken to heaven. The DAC strarted to behave like a magic box. The normal signal, the normal sound - was taken to another level. Something extraordinary happened. I have big problems putting it in words, especially English. Music becomes smooth, liquid, magical. The same music which sounded just great without Behringer - with the process of upsampling sends the chill up my spine. Whhhooooa! Now this is another experience - this is high end. I CANT POSSIBLY GO BACK TO NAKED DAC. The whole thing is about the PLEASURE of listening. It increases much. Now - the price context - we are not talking 100 000 Euro like for Goldmund heavy CD table. We are talking maximum 150 Euro, or even less. I bought mine for 80 incl vat, brand new with warranty etc,. Yes, for a mere 100 Eu extra - our transport - DAC combo can be improved by a whole level. I can not guarantee that this will apply to all DACS - your mileage may vary. But if the DAC is a 96 kHz/24Bit compatible - the Behringer will be your best spent 100Eu ever. I am keeping my unit. Or maybe - I2S - withoutr Behringer will sound even better ? I must check it. Generally, the studio pro industry seems to have completely different price point calculations than High End. Their product costs the cost of parts and labour plus a margin. Not cost plus 10 000 Euro. The built quality is very good, parts are good, sound is great. Such a honest product that my hats off. Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496 Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 1 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM RadioFans.CN 收音机爱 好者资料库 What I dont like is the amount of LEDs and options on the front - but hey, it is a PRO equipment not home lifestyle. And if it plays well, who gives a shit. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 2 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM RadioFans.CN 收音机爱 好者资料库 Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 3 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM The red circles indicate the caps that can be replaced. Tantalum 10uF/10V are good for the small ones, but not for the big blue one . Blackgates are good too. Generally - dont use caps bigger than 100uF - and the big blue can be a few thousand uF by minimum 16V. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 4 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 5 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM What else dos behringer Ultramatch Pro does ? Well, I am really impressed. Not only Ultramatch upsamples, not only it accepts AES/EBU signals, Toslink, S/PDIF and outputs all and any of the above. It also has a very good ADC converter for recording analog to digital. It also has a built in DAC - a superb Japanese chip called AK 4393. You can simply add lampizator to this DAC and you have a high end DAC with upsampling built in . You could also upgrade the cheap electrolytic caps to the oscon , blackgate or even SEPC Oscon level. So the sky is the limit on Behringer. I will investigate it further and you make sure you buy one to experiment. The only downside is the looks - it has visual design not from my preferred style to put it mildly. A month later. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 6 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM I was sitting at home on one sunday afternoon and suddenly an itch occurred, a fire in my fingers - to SOLDER SOMETHING. I did not feel like a long project - so just for the hell of it I grabbed the soldering iron and I put 2 wires from test box Lampizator to the Behringer Ultramatch Pro DAC chip - abovementioned AKM AK4393. (I swear this SMD print is so f*g fine and thin and small that you better ask your friendly eye surgeon to help you with soldering. Anyway - one - two - three - the behringer is lampized. I have floated the DAC outputs and soldered them directly to SRPP using Tesla Goldpin E88CC and 200 Ohm resistors in cathodes. I admit - I was expecting good sound. And it is good. It is damn good. I have direct comparison with the second Behringer working as upsampler only and driving a hot rodded Lampucera with the mighty DAC CS4397 and I am telling ya - The AKM DAC is a little bit better. Even BEFORE cap tuning of Behringer. AKM DAC (NOT EVEN THEIR TOP MODEL) is equally good as ESS Sabre32 Reference DAC, equally good as Wolfson WM8742 , but the fact that it is DIRECTLY BUILT IN - makes it a winner. The upsampling process applied directly from Behringer on the dac has a clear edge over two unnecessary S/PDIF processes - out of Behringer and into the Lampucera receiver chip. The AKM omits all that and it sits right on the music. To my ears, the Lampized AKM is a DREAM COME TRUE: the quality is mind-blowing, thats how good it is. We get (okay - an ugly) case with power cable, switch, all power supplies, transformer. display LED, we get all we need except lampizator. This device with lampizator installed - becomes my new reference DAC - but of course only with the upsampling function active. Above - one VERY good variant of Behringer without tubes. It uses two sowter 9545E transformers instead. They are running from balanced DAC direct outputs into SE secondary. The connection takes 5 minutes and the sowters cost 140 GBP per pair. Together for 200 GBP including a new Behringer we get a stellar performer ! Recommended. On the sound quality scale between the stock opamp stage and the lampizator stage this is 90 % at the lampizators end. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 7 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM To steal the signal I removed completely the integrated quadrupled R43 resistor 11K. I simply applied on the quadruple resistor a big drop of solder which heated it so much that it fell off. Then I soldered AWG30 silver wires to the soldering spots on the DAC side of those resistors now removed. Counting from top of the photo these are R+, R-, L+ and L- voltage outputs with very small DC offset. I measured only 0,15 V not 2,5 as usual. In fact - I believe they can be connected to tube without any caps in series - just wired directly to tube grids. This system does not require any filter in analog domain. I wire it naked saut to the tubes. If you use single ended solution with one phase - use 1st and 3rd point, or - 2nd and 4th. Better way is to use them BOTH phases and all 4 signals. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 8 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM This product has 4 voltage regulators: two for opamps - 15 V and -15V - these regulators are on the back wall, left of the one marked 5V above. Their role is for output opamps and headphones. I did not need that so I have cut off their respective AC power - the yellow pair from transformer. Other than that - there are two 5V regulators. Main one is on the back wall with big screw. This one supplies the DAC and some other parts. In all, 5 caps buzzed to confirm connection to this regulators output. The biggest blue cap above on the photo with red circle mark is BEFORE the 5V regulator - it is the main raw supply. You need a 16 V minimum rating for this cap, and a minimum of 1000 uF. I used 3300 uF Nichicon. I experimented with the remaining 5 small electrolytes, and the small BG HX HQ 22 uF were best for me. I did not like oscons there - cant say why. Later I decided, that since I am adding the new transformer anyway - I may replace the stock miniature transformer (the small EI below) The stock trafo has two secondaries: 10 V for the 5V DC regulators (our good supply) and 18 V for the opamps. Cutting the opamps supply - yellow pair - does not affect the digital functioning of the Behringer but the trafo has easier work when the opamps are killed. So you can cut the yellow and keep the orange wires. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 9 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM The big trafo is my new Lampizator transformer with 5 V (for rectifier tube heating) 2 x 6,3 V, 2 x 12,6 V and 2 x 230 V ac You can do any tube circuit imaginable with it. I decided to use the 1A secondary 6,3 V AC for the Behringer in place of the stock trafo, and then - build the lampizator. 6,3V rectified gives 9 V DC, ideal for 5V regulators. BUT WRONG WAY ! This did not sound good at all. Then I used 12 V secondary (18 V rectified) and it sounded much better but the regulators overheat. So I went back to the stock trafo - the 10 V AC output (15 V rectified) and it is just perfect. Without the opamp load - with yellow wires cut - the stock transformer is really very good. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 10 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM As you see above there is a provision for the star ground point as well as toroid transformer mounting nest. Just perfect. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 11 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 12 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM If you are one of those persons who need exact recipe - use 330 Ohm Rk, 200 VDC Ua, 250 K grid resistor, 2,2 uF input caps MKP by 160V or more going to grids, but the other phase of signal must have bigger cap - 10 uF is an absolute minimum. I used 22 uF Tantalums, plus side towards cathodes. . All resistors 1/4 W metalized 1% type. Tubes - any choice from the above list. My best pick is e801cc from Siemens or 6H6P Russian. Below in the schematics of power supply use 20 or 40 mH choke by 20 mA or more. Here comes my cave wall painting power supply schematics: OK , OK, I AM NOT GOOD AT DRAWING ! Download schematics of Behringer HERE (2 MB) BEHRINGER PROPERLY LAMPIZED Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 13 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM The above is a one tube variation of the previous scheme. This is my actual reference in real life. Very elegant and pure design. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 14 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 15 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 16 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM = July 18 2009 I want to get better results - my analog stage is almost perfect. There is not much more one can do. Of course everybody is more than welcome to try and do better. I am not claiming to know anything about tubes, I just have fun trying various solutions. To better the above design one can: 1. Make dual mono construction with two power supplies. 2. Use exotic parts. I tried to use electrolyteless design with all PIO in power supplies (first - 4 uF as maximum allowed by tube datasheet for the diodes, and then - two caps of 10 uF after the choke. It is very very clean design and sound. 3. Make it fully balanced by using one triode per phase per channel. In that case - the minus signal is used the same as plus (to the grid) in separate triode. (second triode of same tube). Now I am going to upgrade the Behringer PCB again. I already upgraded the power supply caps to a mix of tantalums and oscons. The output analog stage can be upgraded (opamp power supply and coupling caps) and it will give very good results. But I opted for lampization instead, because no matter how you tweak the opamps - they will not even come close to tubes. The energy and slam of tubes cant be matched. It is like comparing the traffic light acceleration of a car and sport motorcycle. Anyway - my next step is the DIGITAL INPUT SECTION Thanks to my audio buddies relentlessly searching for the Holy Grail, I already got some tips. 1. The digital signal comes in via a digital transformer. Its role is a mysterious one. It sits there God Knows What For. I know that a telecom cable buried under a desert needs a transformer to avoid the ground potential differences and to protect from damage. (by the way - the modern day S/PDIF receivers are offsprings of the broadly used long distance format called RS422). But since we are not sending our signal over a distance, under the desert, and by the cable thats one mile long - we dont need the transformer at all. Our receiver is a simple device - it sits there waiting for the zero to become one or vice versa. A simple gate is triggered by the square wave going up or down. The gate could not CARE LESS whether the signal arrived by the cable of 75 Ohms, by a coax, twisted pair, lamp cord or else. The transformer can not add any value added to the zero becoming a ONE. So in DAC-Transport connections we can completely ignore the whole 75 Ohms hysteria. Why inside players the same digital signal can travel over one metre of thin trace without any transformer and any 75 Ohm termination ? And in outside cable - all of the sudden - it MUST ? I know that I am alone here, and every audio guru, specialist, salesman, critic or even engineer will tell you that the S/PDIF transmission MUST be terminated at both ends with 75 Ohms and the plugs must be special and the cable must be of characteristic impedance 75 Ohms. However NOBODY EVER demonstrated that it matters to the sound, or even to the oscilloscope or the happiness of the chips involved. Behringerhttp:/lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html 17 of 4310/11/11 10:51 AM Of course - the ONLY proper way of sending a fa