marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 9, 2006 10:41:29 GMT
Hey just performed the panasonic caps upgrade to 1800uf cars for all 10 of the psu's also replaced the input and output caps as well as fitting heatsinks to all 4 transistors and added a little heatsink compound paste between the heatsinks as well as drilling some holes thru the psu board for more ventilation. Also added a clear blue LED just to signify that its modded from the outside !
Hey I also added 220nf poly caps to the input and output caps on the bottom of the board.
The results are stunning, big difference, im also running the diy power supply. I have a new set of valves on order they are reflectors and should be here soon !
I will post some pictures if you want.
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thegreatroberto
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Post by thegreatroberto on Mar 9, 2006 21:48:42 GMT
Good stuff.
C'mon..............where's them pics ?
And only 1800uF caps in the top board..................I reckon I can get a pair of 8200uF caps in the 16V slots...................That plus the 8 X 3300uF will giv ethe diodes something to think about...........Actually most likely blow them !
Anyone know what the 16V caps on the top board actually feed ?
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 9, 2006 23:00:25 GMT
I will post some pictures if you want. Pics are "compulsory" here Marc  Glad you got the job finished and that you're happy with it, remember that it will take a good couple of hundred hours before it "really" kicks into gear (yes, burn is "does" exist!) now....... you mentioned "pictures"?  All the best, Mike. |
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 0:02:17 GMT
will post pics after work !
Hey I used yellow polyster caps for the bypass at 220nf , woundered if I should have used the green metallised polyster caps instead ? from memory I think it should be 10% of the main caps value. Ie 470nf for the 470uf caps and 10nf for the 10uf ?
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 0:04:13 GMT
oh sorry guys i'm new here , how do i insert an image ?
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Stormy
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Post by Stormy on Mar 10, 2006 9:39:35 GMT
10% of 470uF is 47uF.
470nF would be 0.1%.
Useful information though - I had no idea how to choose them. I've heard from various sources (including Mike of course) that you should use several bypass caps of different values - would it be wise at this point to go down in powers of 10? i.e. 47nF, 4.7nF etc?
P.S. Woo-hoo! I'm a Space Lieutenant. Babbling on and on does have some advantages then...
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 11:24:09 GMT
take it you mean bypass the bypass caps with something else ?
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Stormy
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Post by Stormy on Mar 10, 2006 15:24:15 GMT
Surely bypassing a bypass cap is exactly the same as bypassing the main cap with two others, as they are all technically in parallel with each other?
I'd just heard that using only one value of capacitor to bypass a "big" electrolytic can lead to resonance problems and actually do more harm than good in terms of audio quality.
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 19:55:37 GMT
yes of course it is the same, the best second cap is probably a silver mica one. maybe I will use a 2nd cap on the input and outputs, I cant seem to source a silver mica in NZ but will keep looking.
P.s please help me with instructions for posting the pics I have them stored in my computer !
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Stormy
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Advocates putting smokers in a "Sin Bin"
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Posts: 153
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Post by Stormy on Mar 10, 2006 20:04:03 GMT
Fairly certain you have to upload the pics somewhere else on the internet, then link to them. If you haven't got your own webspace, you could try one of the free image hosting sites.
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 20:40:38 GMT
Here is what i used correct me if you think I could have used something else - Some of the caps were hard to source in NZ - I had to use 16volt 470uf caps, but should be ok as I think the orig is only 6 something volts also the 50v 10uf np are hitichi but of 105c.
I have bypassed them with bypassed with yellow 220nf polycaps maybe I will use something else as well, if its 10% then they should be as per the above post, dont know if it'll make much difference though changing the values to 10% of the main cap ?
10 x 35v 1800uf pana fc's
4 x 63v 100uf pana fc's
2 x 16v 470uf np natali - bypassed with yellow 220nf ploycps
2 x 50v 10uf np - think they were hitichi ? 105c though - bypassed with yellow 220nf polycaps
heatsinked all 4 of the transistors and cut the fins off one side on both 2nd ones - I used a white heatsink paste to help dissipate and teransfer the heat between them .
I also carefully drilled holes thru the PSU board to aid cooling.
I'm still waiting on my russian twins to arrive (reflector valves) I'm getting kind of board again and need another project. Thinking of locating a musical fidelity v2 amplifer (that looks the same as the xcan tube enclosure) and going nuts on the capicitors etc in that, it would be a little nicer then my NAD home theater reciever for music and I could biamp it off the pre outs to the front channels. It would also look quite nice next to my xcan on my amp rack with another blue led in it !
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 10, 2006 22:25:38 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 12, 2006 14:29:11 GMT
I can't see those pics Marc, it's asking me to log in etc. can you hotlink them from the page? ie: right click on the photo and go to "properties" highlight the URL and then paste it in between image tags ![]() [/img] put the URL of the image between the two tags. |
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 12, 2006 18:31:07 GMT
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thegreatroberto
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Post by thegreatroberto on Mar 13, 2006 19:31:51 GMT
Ain't working for me !
Ah,if i register it does !
Nice, never seen X-can with no burn marks before !
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 14, 2006 19:46:52 GMT
simple just heatsink it as soon as you buy it ! I only used it for 2 weeks prior to heatsink and drilling the board, it'll be interesting to see if it stay lie that, i'm guessing it should.
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 17, 2006 6:40:35 GMT
hey - have all you guys been asleep for the last 3 days solid ! No posts since ? If everybody gets more active then we could make a great forum such as head hifi !
Correect me if im wronng, thanks
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thegreatroberto
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The Great Roberto "himself" The real deal on a stick!
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Post by thegreatroberto on Mar 17, 2006 7:43:45 GMT
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Maybe they are all of listening !
I have PM'd Pink Floyd with a couple of Q's ,and as yet no reply, so I think he may be away.
If you want some fun, get some 3300uF FC's in the top board.It can be done !
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 17, 2006 18:09:52 GMT
much diff between 1800 and 3300uf in sound quality though, think upping the output caps from 200 something to 1000uf will make a difference in bass, I could only find 460uf Np's that I am using so far, with 1800uf on the top.
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thegreatroberto
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The Great Roberto "himself" The real deal on a stick!
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Post by thegreatroberto on Mar 17, 2006 18:31:24 GMT
I have to look at caps in one of 2 functions.
1) As a source of ripple-free DC in a PSU
2) As a filter.
In application 1) More is usually better.Assuming that the ESR is low.(biggish assumption).Here the ultimate cap is a large car battery !
In 2,then upping the value can and will have a distinct effect on the sound.It's unlikely that here you will get more bass, just less treble.The cap is acting as filter.Although caps are normally used in a high pass application.i.e. they allow treble and block bass.
So,give it a go.If the bass is better and the treble is good then fine !
But coming back to 1).I fitted 8 3300uF FC's because I could ! It did require a bit of jiggling, but it works.The 2 16V caps were changed to 2200uF FM's that I had.I think that they are the ones that feed the heaters on the tubes/valves, in which case fitting bigger/better caps will have no value.
To be fair I doubt my 3300uF have a significant difference to say your 1800uF's. I'm sure the value comes from better quality caps.i.e. lower ESR.
Bigger caps are there to provide a ripple free DC source to the amplifying devices.......i.e. valves and trannies.Ripple-free is achieved by either drawing small amounts of currant or using large caps.So,if you don't draw much DC from the DC rails you don't need large caps !.........However where would be the fun in that.
My MF 100W/channel had 4 6800uF inn the PSU.that was considered enough to give ripple free DC when delivering 100W/Ch................And how much capacitance have I got now in my X-canV2 ?....8 3300uF to drive approx.1W/ch..........
I think what I'm trying to say is that 1200uF caps are fine in the PSU.1800uF better and 3300 better as well, but not twice as better as the 1800uF ones.If you get the chance to try bigger ones,then see if you can hear the difference !
BTW.The 100W/ch MF amp now has 4 10,000uF caps...........But that is another story !
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marcm09
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Post by marcm09 on Mar 18, 2006 5:00:46 GMT
tell me about the other story, I'm thinking about looking for a MF amp to biamp from my NAD reciever which I could also directly input my cd player into, I'm also keen to mod it especially if I knew that I could make it better and that it had the jamicon caps in it, what model did you mod and what is available ?
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thegreatroberto
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The Great Roberto "himself" The real deal on a stick!
Posts: 157
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Post by thegreatroberto on Mar 18, 2006 14:22:01 GMT
OK
The X-As100 Power amp is a Dual mono design and uses an off board transformer that feeds 2 rectifiers and 4 6800uF capacitors.
I found some 10,000uF caps in RS that had the same dia (35mm) and were 50mm tall rather than the 35mm of the 6800's.
5 Minutes with the soldering iron and I now have 4 10,000 caps.
Just for good luck I also changed the 2 6800uF caps in my REL Strata 3 sub................
As for any significant improvement..........It's early days.Actually 2 of the ex MF caps only showed 4500uF.
Anyway the whole exchange thing makes me feel better !
A word of caution with bi-amping.The gain of the power amp MUST match that of your existing power amp stage of the receiver.Otherwise the you will have too much top or bottom end.
All MF power amps have the same gain (31dB I think) which means that bi amping is easy.Just pick any 2 amps from their entire range. I used to use my X-A1 to drive the top end and the X-AS100 to drive the bottom.Now I have a Nu-Vista pre, I'm down to just the X-AS100 !
In the UK the X-As100 is a good second hand buy.Arround £300.
My next purchase is likely to be a A300Cr or 308CR power amp to drive the low end and use the X-AS100 for top duties.Another option is to get 2 more X-As100's and use them in bridge mode to drive my low ends...................They are a versitle amp.In dual mono mode they give a true 100W/ch into 8 ohms.I'm not sure what they do in bridged mode though.Something towards the 200W I guess.
Oh, the 10,000uF caps were approx £6 ea.
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Glad you got the job finished and that you're happy with it, remember that it will take a good couple of hundred hours before it "really" kicks into gear (yes, burn is "does" exist!) now....... you mentioned "pictures"? 
