Black Lion Audio M-Audio FW1814 Mod

[jim jedlicka]

Hi,
We wanted to let everyone know that we have just developed a mod for the FW1814 unit.

When approaching the FW1814, we wanted first of all to clean up the quality of the audio signal as it heads into and comes out of the conversion process. We achieved this by using an amplifier with roughly half the noise, twenty times the bandwidth, and forty times the speed of the existing circuit. By doing this, we not only reduce noise, we improve the ability of the circuit to provide a clean, detailed signal.

The second area we wanted to address is, of course, the internal clock. We knew from our experiments with clock circuitry and propagation that we would need some way to limit oscillator jitter and noise down to the theoretical minimum. Instead of using a typical logic IC to handle clock signal shaping, we began to experiment with using discrete class-A circuitry, and were pleasantly surprised at the end results. Why on earth would we want to use something like this for a digital circuit? Because although the clock controls aspects of the digital circuitry, it is actually an analog signal, which means it’s subject to the much of the same rules as an analog audio signal. And since logic IC’s are fairly noisy in comparison to our discrete circuit, they have the capability to add to the problem. Quite simply put, we feel that this clock will far outperform any high-end external wordclock currently available—period, and at a fraction of the cost!

Have a look at our site for more information.
http://www.blacklionaudio.com/maudio_FW1814.html

[edgarbc1]

would you consider a similar mod to the ProjectMix I/O?
as far as i know, the guts are similar to a FW1814
except for the control surface circuitry...