Tubes for X-can V3

[marcm09]

ok here goes... I'm lost for words my only words for the xcan v2 are - stunning, stunning, stunning, stunning

When I initally got the Reflector corp valves a week ago I was lothed to comment about them as something was not quite right. I realise that valves and components need burn in time, but believe that when burning in components that from the get go that you should think that they sound nice and once burnt or run in that its the icing on the cake. ( and that Burning in a bad component wont make it sound good).

I had already changed the PSU capacitors to 1800uf pana FC's and changed the input to non polarised and the output to 470uf NP both bypassed with 220nf polyprops, I also heatsinked the transistors and drilled holes in the upper PSU board to aid cooling, the other thing that I did was to build a 2amp power supply for it, I had also changed the led to a blue one - just to signify my modifications.

Once the reflector corp valves were in I liked the sound but did not love it, bu have let it run for the last week, leaving it on to tick away through the early hours of the night !

Still it was sounding quite good, but nothing to really rave about... what else could I do, try swapping the valves back for the Phillips standards ones, and yes the sound was not as good. While It was apart I thought oh well 've got a few other idears and proceeded until 2am in the morning pulling it apart again and chaging the following, Upping the cap rate of the output caps to 1000uf - recommended for lots deeper bass with lower ohm headphones such as grado or my senn 595 50ohm ones. (470uf is more than enougth if your headphones are 100ohms +). The other thing that I did was to fit 1000pf Polystetrene caps together with the 220nf poly bypass caps to both the input and the new output caps,the final mod was to the upper PSU boards green cap (brown 470nf cap by power plug) I changed this to 940nf by paralleling two 470nf 250volt poly prop caps in there place, linked together and connected with silver guaged wire to the board.

The results after all of these mods... Stunning, Im not sure but I did all three oif these mods together and what a difference with the new valves !!!!

[PinkFloyd]

This is sounding familiar, very familiar! I had one do pretty much the same thing (caps discharging with sparks etc.) and it turned out that 2 of the caps on the PSU had somehow been taken out.... replaced them with new ones cured the problem instantly.

Check the voltage across all of the PSU caps and let me know what they measure. I'll double check with mine and hopefully we can pinpoint the culprits.

Don't despair, these things sometimes happen, all is not lost it'll just either be a faulty component (or two) or a dry joint...... honestly, don't worry it'll be something very straightforward and won't have affected the sound quality in any way whatsoever..... just find the culprit and it's business as usual.

[szoze]

Yesterday I got a pair of russian reflector tubes from my work-mate. They are NOS from the eighties. I have had them in my amp since yesterday and am planning to give them a go tonight. Exciting.

[marcm09]

good luck, not as big an improvement as changing the caps but still the icing on the cake. The Xcan must and does rely heavily on the capacitor quality being a hybrid mix of caps and valve amp.

Still you'll love the russian twins ! there the hugh heffiner of the tube world ! (was reading in a Ralph magizine that he was up to nearly number 1000 !)

[szoze]

I couldn't wait any longer so I put on my phones . These tubes have improved every aspect of the performance of my X-Can. The treble is clearer and better defined yet less aggressive. The midrange has really opened up and sounds beautifully liquid and lucid. The music really flows now. And as many here have pointed ut, there is more bass and dynamics. Bass is much tauter and deeper. My X-Can simply sounds more musical and there is a beautiful presence to the instruments now.
I'll buy them.