Work in progress

[PinkFloyd]

20th October 2016 - Paul Brown's X-CAN V3.

All ready and prepared....... the plastic valve (tube) sockets were also removed (not shown in photo):



Voila!:



Mills MRA12 non inductive resistor fitted in place of the 4 x wirewound ones (hell this makes a marked improvement in SQ), a precision matched pair of circa 1992 NOS (matched from same batch / identical date codes) Voskhod 6H23N valves / tubes, ceramic valve sockets and a new quad gold plated phono in / out block. The Rock Grotto cap / diode mods were also fitted....... a mixture of ELNA Silmic ll (Japanese made / silk fiber caps), Panasonic NHG, Pansasonic FR, Nichicon MUSE, WIMA MKS4 and UF4007 ultrafast diodes.

All soldered with 60/37/3 (3% silver) solder.

What more needs saying? The proof of the pudding is in the listening and (may I say) this sounds eargasmic! The proof is also in the under the hood pRon so here it is:

[PinkFloyd]

10th December 2016 - Ben Golding's X10 V3 Musical Fidelity Buffer.

Excellent condition inside and out, Ben sent this up to me to be modded:

The stock X-10V3 before the upgrades:



It sounded pretty lame, if truth be told, so time to remove a few parts:



Out with the old and in with the new!:



Night and day MAJOR improvement in the sonic department, and then some!

The "Nu Vista" (JAN Philips) valves were pretty much on their last legs so in with a new pair....... NOS / from a sealed Military batch produced in February 1986:





In situ:



Next up was removing the 4 x 40ohm wirewound resistors and replacing them with 1 X Mills MRA12 non inductive resistor:



The rest of the mods were business as usual...... Panasonic FC, FM, NHG caps...... Nichicon MUSE caps, EVOX film caps and ultrafast diodes. The gold plated quad phono socket was also replaced.

This is how an X10-V3 should sound like.... it's mind blowing!...... I will leave it up to Ben to report back on the SQ once he's had the opportunity to listen to it for a while but, yup, (to my ears) it's absolutely awesome.

Here are a few more pics of the upgrades:

[psychoaudio]

beautiful work!!

[PinkFloyd]

Thanks Armand, nice of you to comment on it. Not so much "beautiful" more a case of taking pride in my workmanship and doing the very best I can.

Cheers.

Mike.

[PinkFloyd]

11th January 2017 - Fergus Thomson's X-CAN V3.

Fitted upgrade kit to this beauty the other day but was unable to take photos outdoors (as is the norm) as the weather has been too bad, snowing as I type!!

Extra capacitance in the power section courtesy of Panasonic NHG and Panasonic FM. ELNA Silmic ll silk fiber capacitors and Nichicon MUSE 6.3V non polar coupling capacitors. I am now using a different non inductive power resistor, it has a larger surface area than the MILLS MRA12 and, to my ears, "just" has an edge in the sonic department..... it's a Mundorf M-Resist and I will be supplying these with V3 kits from here on in (see my original article here: rockgrotto.proboards.com/thread/10847/safe-remove-wirewound-resistors-v3):



It's a fair bit bigger than the Mills MRA12 but increased surface area is always a good thing when it comes to sound quality The Mundorf displays superb heat dissipation and barely gets warm to the touch across its 52mm body and that's what we want!

I replaced the stock 470nF film caps with Jantzen (made in Denmark) film caps and am very happy with them..... they are most definitely on a par with the WIMA caps I normally fit but prolonged listening will be required to ascertain if they are actually better. I have also fitted a pair inside my reference X-CAN V3 and will see how they pan out over the next few hundred hours:



An upgrade kit that delivers the goods (in the sonic dept.) is not something that is achieved by slapping expensive parts into an amp, it is something that takes YEARS to achieve. You also want the parts to fit comfortably into the stock amp and not have to shoe horn capacitors the size of a brick into the enclosure. The latest version of the X-CAN V3 kit does everything it should........ the parts "fit" and the sound quality jumps from "OK" to "amazing".

I better finish off with some photos before the power cuts off..... it's lashing down a blizzard outside with 90MPH winds!

Gold plated ceramic Valve (tube) sockets:



Silmic ll:



Jantzen caps:



On 24 hour test:



A few more pics before the power goes off:

[mikebrooks]

Just to let you know, I upgraded this system wit a Ressonessence Mirus Pro DAC - this is the very first time I have heard digital sound superior to vinyl.

Thx
Mike

[PinkFloyd]

Mar 11, 2017 20:35:22 GMT mikebrooks said:

Just to let you know, I upgraded this system wit a Ressonessence Mirus Pro DAC - this is the very first time I have heard digital sound superior to vinyl.

Thx
Mike

Hi Mike,

All that stuff, I have to admit, is alien to me these days...... DAC's / "streamers" / phone as source / "multimedia devices"......

I have no time for them at all.

They may well sound good but there is way too much "snooping" involved with these devices.... every download / upload is a nail in the coffin for freedom.

I had a healthy "active" sex life back in the 70's / 80's / 90's....... I enjoyed myself back in the 70's / 80's / 90's....... I listened to music / enjoyed music back in the 70's / 80's / 90's.

Go to record shop or go to CD shop....... buy vinyl or buy a CD..... simple!

It's STRESSFUL these days and I don't like it...... your computer goes tits up and you spend 23 weeks getting your "tunes" back together.

f**k all that nonsense......... I'm heading back in the direction of the crystal radio / FM radio (luxury!)......... bullet proof / maintenance free.

I am so happy that you have found digital Nirvana Mike...... AFAIAC it's nothing but a bloody headache (with all the formats / spyware / firmware conflicts) and this 56 year old caveman hippy is happy with what he is hearing from low end vendors such as FM radio / CD players and the occasional bit of "live" music.

As I type Mike........ I am listening to "Jo Whiley" interviewing Debbie Harry (Blondie) on BBC Radio 2 through a 1969 Hacker Sovereign ll FM Radio......... To my ears, it "works"

Enjoy the music Mike.

[bullpup]

Mar 15, 2017 21:20:18 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Mar 11, 2017 20:35:22 GMT mikebrooks said:

Just to let you know, I upgraded this system wit a Ressonessence Mirus Pro DAC - this is the very first time I have heard digital sound superior to vinyl.

Thx
Mike

Hi Mike,

All that stuff, I have to admit, is alien to me these days...... DAC's / "streamers" / phone as source / "multimedia devices"......

I have no time for them at all.

They may well sound good but there is way too much "snooping" involved with these devices.... every download / upload is a nail in the coffin for freedom.

I had a healthy "active" sex life back in the 70's / 80's / 90's....... I enjoyed myself back in the 70's / 80's / 90's....... I listened to music / enjoyed music back in the 70's / 80's / 90's.

Go to record shop or go to CD shop....... buy vinyl or buy a CD..... simple!

It's STRESSFUL these days and I don't like it...... your computer goes tits up and you spend 23 weeks getting your "tunes" back together.

f**k all that nonsense......... I'm heading back in the direction of the crystal radio / FM radio (luxury!)......... bullet proof / maintenance free.

I am so happy that you have found digital Nirvana Mike...... AFAIAC it's nothing but a bloody headache (with all the formats / spyware / firmware conflicts) and this 56 year old caveman hippy is happy with what he is hearing from low end vendors such as FM radio / CD players and the occasional bit of "live" music.

As I type Mike........ I am listening to "Jo Whiley" interviewing Debbie Harry (Blondie) on BBC Radio 2 through a 1969 Hacker Sovereign ll FM Radio......... To my ears, it "works"

Enjoy the music Mike.

Interesting comments Mike and in many ways perfect timing.

Despite just buying the Aune T1 from you  - and it sounds great btw  - see thread update, I have a hankering / preference for older formats. The Marantz CD85 is now hooked up to the X-Cans V1 you did for me an unbelieveable 10 years or so ago and sounds fantastastic. I have just dug out an old FM / AM Tuner to use in my office. Reception is awful so I am going to build a John Linsley Hood Aerial. I'm also about to set too and sort out my Tannoy Berkeleys and then find a suitable valve amp - and probably pester you for valves! Not forgetting the x-pre which although working needs tlc.

[PinkFloyd]

05th July 2017 - Ross Kirby's QED Headphone Amplifier.

Not a Musical Fidelity amp but I thought I'd show it here anyway

This is the QED headpohone amp from 1988.... it was simply known as the "QED Stereo Headphone Amplifier" and was superseded by the QED MB-45 in 1992. It is essentially the same amp as the MB-45, both utilised the LM1877 Dual Audio power amplifier.... the only real difference is the layout is slightly better in the MB-45. The MB-45 resides in a cheap plastic enclosure whereas the QED Stereo Headphone Amplifier has a nice metal enclosure..... if anything, the MB-45 would have been a downgrade considering it is essentially identical to the QED Stereo Headphone Amplifier apart from residing in a cheap plastic enclosure. I think the MB-45 was touted (at the time) as being an upgrade over the QED Stereo Headphone amp but it was pretty much business as usual but in a cheaper enclosure.

You are pretty much limited as to what you can do (tweak wise) with these QED amps as the LM1877 is what it is and you can't go under the bonnet and mess about with it Having said that, the SQ really does benefit if you have a tweak of the capacitors and here is what I have done.

Before the tweaks:



After the tweaks:



I got rid of the 470uF axial capacitor and replaced it with a 1000uF radial type...... simple to do, I simply drilled a 1mm hole and soldered the negative leg of the cap to ground..... no need for that long axial 470uF cap with it's long leads (think inductance!) much better to have a radial cap of 1000uF in this position.

The output coupling caps were 100uF electrolytic (directional) caps..... there is zero voltage across these caps so I replaced them with 470uF Nichicon MUSE non polar types. The 470uF caps will let the bass dig deeper (especially with low impedance 'phones) the 100uF directional caps were not doing the corner frequency any favours and quite frankly sounded like shite in the signal path With the 100uF caps a 32 ohm load was rolling off @ 50hZ....... with the 470uF caps a 32 ohm load was rolling off @ 10hZ so 100uF was totally inappropriate for a 32 ohm load. Perfectly OK for a 300 ohm load but pretty naff if driving a 32 ohm load..... the 470uF caps also help higher impedance 'phones dig deeper (as low as they can go) so it's a win win situation.

I replaced the 1uF electrolytic caps with 1uF Film caps...... who on earth designed that board?....... the pitch for the radial electrolytic caps was WAY too wide! I decided to use some of the established (hard wired) lead from the original 'lytics to mount my 1uF film caps on... seemed the most logical way to do it.

Replaced the 2 x 10uF no name caps with ELNA Silmic ll (Japanese silk fiber) caps for no other reason than I know they do the job (superbly) in this position...... they really do.

I whacked a Vishay class X2 suppression cap across the input (the blue one).... again, a 1mm drill job.... works wonders.

Removed the stock ELGEN (?) 2200uF / 25V cap and fitted a Panasonic NHG 3300uF / 35V (105C) in its place.

That's pretty much it..... an hours work and a totally different amp sonically..... different in a VERY positive way...... sounds amazing!

Here are a few more photos:

[nando]

I "Mike"modded one of my x10-d (is it a x11-d or x10-d MkII or x10-d SE now?)

I know I am running against advise from Mike but I hoocked it up in my system (x-ray v1, modded x-pre v1, modded x10-d x-psu v1, x-a200, Quad esl-63). It sounds very bass heavy. Like I have pushed the loudness button.

Can it because of the (positively tested by Mike) Phillips Jan valves? Will other valves sound a lot different? (I have a pair of RSD which tested good)

[PinkFloyd]

10th September 2017 - Jan Eveleen's X-CAN V2.

Full set of mods on this one, Jalco pro headphone socket, Gold plated quad phono socket, ALPS potentiometer plus knob, purple LED, new 2.1mm DC socket, Gold plated ceramic valve sockets, ultrasfast diodes, Panasonic FM, Panasonic FC, Nichicon MUSE and Wima capacitors. Sounds gorgeous

PSU board ready for populating:



Fully populated PSU board:



Mainboard stripped:



Purple LED (with 5K taming resistor) fitted:



Jalco headphone socket with chrome ring / new knob and Purple LED:



New 2.1mm DC socket and gold plated quad phono socket:



On test:





Alps pot, Nichicon MUSE input coupling caps and Nichicon MUSE output coupling caps:



A few pics of completed amp:

[nando]

Nice workbench.

[PinkFloyd]

Sept 11, 2017 17:25:57 GMT nando said:

Nice workbench.

That's a table Nando.... the workbench is out of shot but can be partially seen in the background:

[nando]

I meant with all the valves. So much glass loveliness.

[PinkFloyd]

Oh, I see

This?



It was raining outside yesterday, more of a monsoon in fact, so I couldn't go outside to my usual photography "podium"..... had to take the photos in the workshop (not that there's much work going on there these days!) and seeing that a box of valves was sitting near the window (daylight) I took a few snaps there...... yeh, I'm with you now Nando.... that would make a cool workbench wouldn't it

I'm so used to seeing these things around me (valves, capacitors, bits and bobs etc.) and don't think of them as anything unusual.... I'm surrounded by them..... but, yeh, I see what you mean about "nice workbench" now That particular workbench is a batch of 1979 Voskhod 6H23N that I was checking through.

Mike.

[nando]

Come to think of it. If one would collect a lot of (worn out) valves and mold them in transparent epoxy that would make one hell of a tabletop.

[jmpsmash]

Mike, long time reader. Great stuff! I have started modding my XCV2 to great effect.

I noticed in your mods, you used to wire-bypass the 10uF input coupling cap (C102) but later you stop doing that and instead just swap in a better quality cap. Is there any reason for not doing the bypass?

Also, any tips on the .47uF (C103) slightly downstream? would increasing the value help the low end? I have some .68uF WIMA and some 1uF lying around I wonder if they would work.

[PinkFloyd]

Sept 29, 2017 18:12:21 GMT jmpsmash said:

Mike, long time reader. Great stuff! I have started modding my XCV2 to great effect.

I noticed in your mods, you used to wire-bypass the 10uF input coupling cap (C102) but later you stop doing that and instead just swap in a better quality cap. Is there any reason for not doing the bypass?

Also, any tips on the .47uF (C103) slightly downstream? would increasing the value help the low end? I have some .68uF WIMA and some 1uF lying around I wonder if they would work.

Hi Smash,

Welcome to the forum / what's left of it

I don't know if there's DC present on anybodys source output so nowadays I always fit the input coupling caps (10uF non polar) as a belt and braces type thing. The owner of the amp is free to remove them and jumper over the pads with a wire link but only after checking there is no DC present on the source output. Most sources these days have zero DC on the output but the input caps are there as a belt and braces "safety device" for some sources that may have DC present on the output.

I, personally, don't fit input coupling caps to my amps because I know my sources don't have any DC present on the outputs. So, to answer your question, if your source has no DC present at the output then remove the input coupling caps and jumper over the pads. As I say, the input coupling caps are simply belt and braces safety devices intended for the VERY small percentage of sources that may have DC present on their outputs.

C103 / C203 should, ideally, be between 1.0 - 2.0uF so what I do is to parallel a 1uF film cap under the board (not seen) so C103 / C203 becomes 1.47uF (or thereabouts)..... yes, well worth doing / I have been doing it for years with good results. It's also worthwhile adding a 10uF non polar to C106 / C206... parallel the 10uF non polar to the 1uF under the board.... gives you 11uF (or thereabouts).

There are a few more under the board tweaks but, hell, I'm not disclosing them here 'cause if I did nobody would buy my kits

Best regards,

Mike.

[jmpsmash]

Sept 29, 2017 19:47:03 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Sept 29, 2017 18:12:21 GMT jmpsmash said:

Mike, long time reader. Great stuff! I have started modding my XCV2 to great effect.

I noticed in your mods, you used to wire-bypass the 10uF input coupling cap (C102) but later you stop doing that and instead just swap in a better quality cap. Is there any reason for not doing the bypass?

Also, any tips on the .47uF (C103) slightly downstream? would increasing the value help the low end? I have some .68uF WIMA and some 1uF lying around I wonder if they would work.

Hi Smash,

Welcome to the forum / what's left of it

What's left is a treasure trove of amp mods information and amp porn. I have been looking through it everyday for info to mod my now 15+ yrs old XCv2.

I don't know if there's DC present on anybodys source output so nowadays I always fit the input coupling caps (10uF non polar) as a belt and braces type thing. The owner of the amp is free to remove them and jumper over the pads with a wire link but only after checking there is no DC present on the source output. Most sources these days have zero DC on the output but the input caps are there as a belt and braces "safety device" for some sources that may have DC present on the output.

I, personally, don't fit input coupling caps to my amps because I know my sources don't have any DC present on the outputs. So, to answer your question, if your source has no DC present at the output then remove the input coupling caps and jumper over the pads. As I say, the input coupling caps are simply belt and braces safety devices intended for the VERY small percentage of sources that may have DC present on their outputs.

C103 / C203 should, ideally, be between 1.0 - 2.0uF so what I do is to parallel a 1uF film cap under the board (not seen) so C103 / C203 becomes 1.47uF (or thereabouts)..... yes, well worth doing / I have been doing it for years with good results. It's also worthwhile adding a 10uF non polar to C106 / C206... parallel the 10uF non polar to the 1uF under the board.... gives you 11uF (or thereabouts).

There are a few more under the board tweaks but, hell, I'm not disclosing them here 'cause if I did nobody would buy my kits

Best regards,

Mike.

I see. The DC explanation makes a lot of sense!

More stuff to play with. Too bad I already placed my parts order and probably won't be worth it to add the extra couple of component with 500% shipping overhead.

I also wonder why some of the caps are non-polar? does that mean the voltage swings negative at some point? i was hoping to put Silmic at the output cap until I realize it needs to be NP.

So it looks like I can replace C103/203 with 1-2uF film cap with no problem. the C106/206 mod will have to wait another day.

cheers. I will try to post some pics of my mods next time I open it up. For now I have been enjoying what I got so far from just changing some/most of the caps.

[pingu]

Sept 29, 2017 21:04:52 GMT jmpsmash said:

Sept 29, 2017 19:47:03 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Hi Smash,

Welcome to the forum / what's left of it

What's left is a treasure trove of amp mods information and amp porn. I have been looking through it everyday for info to mod my now 15+ yrs old XCv2.

I don't know if there's DC present on anybodys source output so nowadays I always fit the input coupling caps (10uF non polar) as a belt and braces type thing. The owner of the amp is free to remove them and jumper over the pads with a wire link but only after checking there is no DC present on the source output. Most sources these days have zero DC on the output but the input caps are there as a belt and braces "safety device" for some sources that may have DC present on the output.

I, personally, don't fit input coupling caps to my amps because I know my sources don't have any DC present on the outputs. So, to answer your question, if your source has no DC present at the output then remove the input coupling caps and jumper over the pads. As I say, the input coupling caps are simply belt and braces safety devices intended for the VERY small percentage of sources that may have DC present on their outputs.

C103 / C203 should, ideally, be between 1.0 - 2.0uF so what I do is to parallel a 1uF film cap under the board (not seen) so C103 / C203 becomes 1.47uF (or thereabouts)..... yes, well worth doing / I have been doing it for years with good results. It's also worthwhile adding a 10uF non polar to C106 / C206... parallel the 10uF non polar to the 1uF under the board.... gives you 11uF (or thereabouts).

There are a few more under the board tweaks but, hell, I'm not disclosing them here 'cause if I did nobody would buy my kits

Best regards,

Mike.

I see. The DC explanation makes a lot of sense!

More stuff to play with. Too bad I already placed my parts order and probably won't be worth it to add the extra couple of component with 500% shipping overhead.

I also wonder why some of the caps are non-polar? does that mean the voltage swings negative at some point? i was hoping to put Silmic at the output cap until I realize it needs to be NP.

So it looks like I can replace C103/203 with 1-2uF film cap with no problem. the C106/206 mod will have to wait another day.

cheers. I will try to post some pics of my mods next time I open it up. For now I have been enjoying what I got so far from just chang

Oh that's interesting Mike.

I have some 1uf Wima's in the box I think so will have to try this.
Any advise on bypassing the PSU caps with 1uf's or would 0.1 be better .

The kit you sent is very good indeed especially now it's had several hours under its belt.
I went and got a silver knob, could not live with the black one (sorry). There is a very very small amount of hum but only when no signal present and when I touch the knob so I'll live with it. I may
pop some heatsink on the shaft and see it that helps but realy so little hum may not be worth doing

Thanks for the kit it's realy impressive

All the Best
Martin

[PinkFloyd]

I'll send you some more caps Martin..... bear with me

I'm rattling my sabre here.......

Remind me of your shipping address mate and I'll send the secret 5 to your doorstep

Mike.

[PinkFloyd]

[pingu]

Sept 30, 2017 21:15:33 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Hi Mike,
Thank you I'll wait the postie later in the week
I've pm'd ypu

All the Besr

Martin

[pingu]

Sept 30, 2017 21:03:49 GMT PinkFloyd said:

I'll send you some more caps Martin..... bear with me ;)l

I'm rattling my sabre here.......

Remind me of your shipping address mate and I'll send the secret 5 to your doorstep

Mike.

Thank you Mike ,

The caps, all four, have arrived I am about to install them now

Thanks again let you know how it sounds in a couple of days

Martin

[pingu]

Hi All,

Just a quickie (as the vicar said to the choir boy) after fitting these caps and a bit of tape on the pot shaft the very small amount of hum has gone completely.
Admittedly it was only very small and only from mid point up with no signal present when you touched the alli knob but it's all gone now, complete silence.

BTW these are a tight fit but with a bit of wiggling will go in no probs

All the Best

Martin