Super NES digital audio mod

[zedrein]

I've been considering doing this (www.alpha-ii.com/Info/snes-spdif.html) mod for a while now but with the fear of negatively altering the current, noise, impedance, loading, introducing crosstalk etc. of my SNES seems like a legitimate fear considering how temperature sensitive a surface-mounted chip can be. With that said, what precautions do you all take before performing a mod such as this? Have any of you performed this specific mod? I know for certain that I am probably going to need a very small (almost like a mechanical pencil) soldering tip because the leads of these chips have very little surface area and are spaced very closely together. Thanks for your time and expertise! I am new to any sort of console modding and I am collecting all the relevant information I can get.

[TheGreySpectre]

Make sure you are grounded when working. If you don't have experience soldering I would recommend practicing before you try to solder things to your snes.

do not use a heatless soldering iron (these can arc and short out chips), if at all possible use a soldering iron with adjustable temperature.

As to the specific mod I can't tell you much about it and infact I am having a hard time finding people who have actually done it, just a number of threads on people talking about doing it.