This post is the 2nd episode of my Terratec Aureon 7.1 FireWire mod. You can check the 1st one here.

Below is the final appearance of my Aureon. Sigh… despite the colorful capacitors, I don’t see any reason to say it’s a beauty or an art 🙁

The first thing was to remove all the capacitors on the main supply section. It took almost an hour just to trace and find the right combination. This sound card was quite unique as it was supplied with an AC Adapter transferring AC supply directly to the sound card module. So the rectification would be done on the card itself, not on the AC Adapter (so I would call it as step down transformer, instead of AC Adapter).

The main bridge was the DF04S from Fairchild Semiconductor rated at 1.5A. At this stage, I would let this rectification section as-is.

The DAC section also got another modification. The VMID (midrail decoupling) of the DAC now decoupled with Rubycon ZA, upgraded to 22 uF from 10 uF. Rubycon ZA is a nice replacement for the famous Black Gate capacitor.  On the right of the ZA, you could see Os-Con for the digital supply section.

The VMID section also bypassed by default with a SMD Ceramic Capacitor, but I added another Vishay MKP 1837 to clean up all the noise on this section.

The final appearance of the DAC section. Elna RBP2 used as final smoothing caps for the 5V signal. A pair of 100 uF Rubycon ZA also used nearby.

The main supply section was powered most likely by Elna Cerafine and RBP2. The first smoothing capacitor was Black Gate NX Series. This should be the ultimate combination for a supply section. Also note the “giant” 2200 uF Elna Cerafine. This was used to clean up all noise before entering the LDO Regulator to power up the DAC and the clock.

The sound? It was a huge improvement over the previous mods. The separation, staging, and depth were improved a lot. I mean, A LOT!

That’s all I can say for now. I think I’m gonna love it…