Posted on Thursday, 9th August 2007 by Auw Jimmy

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Just finished my Onkyo SE-90PCI mod yesterday. Haven’t tested it yet, maybe later… Don’t have enough time :)

Before the mod:

After the mod:

I used various capacitors in this project:

  • BlackGate F Series in main supply.
  • Rubycon ZL in DAC supply (upgraded from 330uF to 470uF)
  • Elna RBP2 in op-amp supply
  • BlackGate NX Hi-Q in DAC->op-amp coupling
  • SideRealKap in op-amp->output coupling
  • Some Rubycon ZA and Elna Cerafine (non-polar) in other sections

I decided not to change the op-amps (yet). Would try it and made sure I didn’t make any mistake ;) My target was to use AD825 with SMD->DIP back-to-back adapter. Would see how did this “monster” perform before I decided to upgrade the op-amp.



Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (30)

30 Responses to “Onkyo SE-90PCI Mod (Finally, It’s Done!)”

  1. Kr1z Says:
    August 13th, 2007 at 08:17

    Dhuar, kaya dinamit aja om :)

    D tunggu repiuwnya modnya…



  2. L30N^_^H34RT Says:
    September 9th, 2007 at 17:31

    Om Jim, gimana kabar onkyo modnya?
    Dah dicoba lom?
    Ditunggu dnk reviewnya…

    Regards.



  3. Kvaud Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 08:46

    Why didnt you seperated the two big yellow non polar capacitor? (like howthe orignal with the copper plate) BTW, You should also do EMF/EMI radiation shielding back/front of the card. anyways, awesome blog you have. i just bookmarked =)



  4. hehee Says:
    November 12th, 2007 at 23:39

    hey jim…
    i’ve se-200 i modded the opamp and main caps…
    can you reco which caps still need to mod…
    wats the big fat yellow/green caps named…?



  5. Jimmy Auw Says:
    November 13th, 2007 at 13:02

    The big fat is Siderelcaps…



  6. hehee Says:
    November 13th, 2007 at 18:16

    i got two blackgate 16v 2200uf on hand ….
    can you suggest ?



  7. rd411topan Says:
    November 24th, 2007 at 09:30

    Wow, nice mod bro. Hasilnya gimana bro ? Penasaran nih :)



  8. Jura z Brna Says:
    March 11th, 2008 at 18:50

    Dal bych si pivo.



  9. Zhuge_Liang Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 01:23

    buset dah… ini sound card apa dinamite :D



  10. Suryo Says:
    April 24th, 2008 at 10:15

    Sudah ditest apa belum bang? Gimana hasilnya?



  11. Bang Rossi Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 08:43

    I still waiting for the result and the opamp mod result.

    The downside from this mod is this card will take 2 slots of your PCI space.



  12. vv Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 19:57

    Can you teach me how to mod SE-900 onkyo sound card. I’m also, using ESI Juli@. Both of them are very high quality sound card. Will you agree?
    Where can I buy those High quality CAP

    Thx for your professional advise.



  13. Jimmy Auw Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 23:10

    You can buy those components (most) at your local audio shop. You can search online also.

    Thank you.



  14. Bang Rossi Says:
    June 11th, 2008 at 19:20

    Can you explain every parts that you’ve changed.. why did you chage it and why did you choose those parts as a subtitude, is there any reason?

    Thanks



  15. Jimmy Auw Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 00:47

    Here is a little snippet:
    - Black Gate is a must for PSU Filter if you can afford it (I used the “cheap” F Series)
    - Elna BP is good for opamp PSU
    - BG NX Hi-Q is for first stage coupling
    - SideRealCap is for second stage coupling
    - Others are “standard” Rubycon ZL and ZA

    Reason? Simply just follow your intuition and from your own previous experience in those caps.



  16. William Chong Says:
    August 12th, 2008 at 16:48

    Dear friend,

    Can you let us know what is the outcome after the SE90 PCI MOD ?

    Thanks.



  17. Jimmy Auw Says:
    August 14th, 2008 at 20:59

    Very good sound, but dont have much place inside my chassis to put it for long time…



  18. Mibu Says:
    November 11th, 2008 at 15:07

    Is really really an interesting mod :D



  19. kiki Says:
    November 29th, 2008 at 01:34

    om gimana tuh hasilnya?



  20. Thomas Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 18:09

    Hi Jimmy,

    what about the clock? :-)

    Regards
    Thomas



  21. lazir Says:
    August 11th, 2009 at 16:47

    Om Jimmy saya sangat tertarik dan mau mencobanya,boleh minta no telpon ga ? tuk konsultasi maklum masih newbie, BTW beli AD825 dmana & brapaan ? Thanks a lot B 4



  22. Jimmy Auw Says:
    August 11th, 2009 at 17:05

    AD825 dulu saya pesen dari luar bro. Di Indo coba cari di forum2 ada kayanya.

    Thanks.



  23. lazir Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 06:33

    bung jimmy, sc 90 modifnya dijual ga ? saya minat nich



  24. Andre Says:
    June 8th, 2011 at 01:03

    pak jimmy,, kalau onkyo se-90 dibandingkan dengan esi julia.. performanya bagus mana ? kebanyakan untuk penggunaan playback bukan recording.. thanks



  25. Auw Jimmy Says:
    June 8th, 2011 at 21:42

    Halo Pak Andre,
    Juli@ cenderung bersuara natural, tanpa kolorasi. Sementara Onkyo cenderung lebih tebal di mid.
    Tinggal sesuai selera.
    Thanks.



  26. Nahum Setio Says:
    October 10th, 2011 at 08:09

    Halo Pak Jimmy, saya kebetulan ketemu blog ini saat searching tentang onkyo SE90.

    Saya sangat tertarik dengan modding sound card seperti di atas. Yang ingin saya tanyakan, dimana saya bisa membeli kapasitor high end seperti di atas, juga opamps.

    Saat ini sound card saya adalah auzentech x-plosion cinema yang opampnya replaceable.

    Terimakasih…



  27. Auw Jimmy Says:
    October 11th, 2011 at 00:21

    Hi Pak Nahum,
    Silakan berkunjung ke Glodok atau LTC.
    Ada beberapa toko yang menjual komponen2 ini.
    Thanks.



  28. Nahum Setio Says:
    October 12th, 2011 at 12:22

    Terima kasih atas jawabannya pak. Saya akan coba cari.

    Oya, saya baru saja membeli onkyo SE90 seken, dan akan memodifikasinya.

    Tentang opamp, di Onkyo ini ada 3, apakah perlu diganti semua atau hanya 2 saja yang untuk L dan R? Juga kalau saya lihat di spek NE5532AP, opamp tersebut adalah stereo (ada 2 sirkuit). Jadi apakah opamp penggantinya harus stereo juga, atau bisa yang mono? Karena OPA627/637 adalah mono dan saya berencana untuk menggunakannya..

    Terimakasih…



  29. Auw Jimmy Says:
    October 12th, 2011 at 19:27

    Hi Pak Nahum,
    Kalo mau ganti yang mono, otomatis harus pake 2 buah (total 6 buah opamp mono untuk menggantikan 3 opamp stereo) dan harus pake konverter lagi.
    Thanks.



  30. Nahum Setio Says:
    October 13th, 2011 at 09:27

    Ok pak, terimakasih atas penjelasannya. Saya sudah ada circuit diagram dari 5532 dan 627, tinggal merancang rangkaian buat konverternya..

    6 buah OPA627 ternyata lumayan mahal.. :(



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