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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 4, 2017 18:46:24 GMT
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 Hi Martin, Glad they arrived OK. That's the reason I use the ABS knobs, the aluminium ones tend to cause hum but only when you touch them.... seems the caps have helped  |
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pingu
Been here a while! 
Reallising what has been taken on with the GB
Posts: 332
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Post by pingu on Oct 4, 2017 18:59:52 GMT
Hi Mike,
Yes you mentioned the hum but I was willing to put with it as it was such a small amount and the aluminium knob looks so much better
Yes these caps have cured it completely seems an extra benefit.
I'll leave it run awhile for all to settle down
Thanks Mike, another happy V2 user
Martin
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 4, 2017 20:16:48 GMT
04th October 2017 - Jan Eveleens V-Can Headphone amplifier. www.rock-grotto.co.ukThe Matched one... V-CAN Slideshow (please click) I decided to go for maximum sound quality on this one and really bring the best out of it. I used a combination of ELNA Silmic ll and Nichicon MUSE (these two work VERY well together) and the results, to my ears, are nothing short of amazing.... this little puppy doesn't "purr" anymore.... it GROWLS! Here is the stock amp:  Here's the modded one:  I got rid of the 2 x 1000uF in parallel and fitted a 3300uF 'lytic and 3.3uF Film cap (in parallel) instead:  I matched the ELNA Silmic ll sleeves because I'm a fussy bugger that way:  The transistors were removed and tested, they were ALL OVER THE PLACE so I hand matched two perfect pairs (Hfe 140 on all four transistors) and binned the stock transistors. At the last minute I removed the stock potentiometer because it was, erm, bloody awful.... again, all over the place. I hand matched a pretty much perfect ALPS 50K log and what a difference! both sides tracking within .5% of each other:  I removed the stock MC33079, fitted a DIP14 gold plated socket (to enable op amp rolling if Jan ever wants to go down that path) and then fitted an OPA1644 onto a Winslow adaptics SOIC14 to DIP14 adaptor...... the OPA1644 really does inject some life into the V-CAN, night and day compared to the MC33079:  I wish they'd produce the OPA1644 in a DIP14 package, the SOIC's seem to be getting smaller by the year Must be my eyesight that's failing. Thank god we can still get hold of "some" large stuff that the ageing human eye can actually "see"..... if all amps were SOIC / SMD etc. I'd stop working on them. The Silmic ll / Nichicon MUSE combo really paid off in this amp.... gorgeous organic tone with plenty of macro detail. So much so that I'm going to supply these with the upgrade kit from now on..... this little amp (The V-CAN) has always been tricky to get just right and I've tried a lot of different things with it over the years but the simple matching of transistors / matched potentiometer / OPA1644 and Silmic ll / MUSE combo was all that it needed. Was it really 8 years ago when the "world first" under the bonnet pRon was revealed? rockgrotto.proboards.com/thread/3895/house-bonnet-exclusive Jesus, time is flying by WAY too fast!! ELNA Silmic ll / Nichicon MUSE / WIMA / Burr Brown OPA1644 / Matched BD139 / 140 transistors / Matched 50K ALPS potentiometer. Another HUGE upgrade was the solder...... the V-CAN is full of that unleaded shite, I desoldered each and every joint and reflowed with lead rich (2% silver) solder..... that "green" solder strangles the SQ big time (it really does) and it's a pig to work with, requiring higher than normal temperature to melt the bloody stuff.... I won't get started on my utter hatred of lead free solder but will finish off with a few photos of one amazing sounding V-CAN:      Finished off with a pretty unique square knob       |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 25, 2017 22:25:37 GMT
X-LPS V3 phono stage mods to appear soon.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 29, 2017 20:10:01 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 25, 2017 21:04:30 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Dec 30, 2017 20:59:18 GMT
30th December 2017 - Joost Dikker Hupkes X-CAN V2... Fitted the latest version full capacitor / diode upgrades, Panasonic FM / FC, Nichicon MUSE, WIMA caps plus ultrafast diodes, Fitted a hand matched ALPS potentiometer (+/-1% per channel), a brand new quad gold plated phono socket, a Jalco Pro headphone socket, a pair of high quality gold plated ceramic valve sockets and an UBER precision matched pair of my December 1993 batch Voskhod 6H23N valves. Everything was soldered using 60/37/3 (3% silver) solder. Was too damned cold outside to take photos but the sun was shining so I put a wooly hat on and went for it The amp sounds absolutely gorgeous, even better than it looks! I had it on a 48 soak test (playing in a very warm room) and it passed with flying colours....... absolutely sublime SQ, beautifully balanced and music from the Gods type presentation...... the dog's nads (as we say in the UK!). Here are a few photos of the completed amp in a not too warm setting As always, the under board mods are not shown           |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Feb 11, 2018 21:28:08 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 12, 2018 20:27:40 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Apr 22, 2018 19:01:19 GMT
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Post by joostdh on Jun 8, 2018 9:34:16 GMT
30th December 2017 - Joost Dikker Hupkes X-CAN V2 Fitted the latest version full capacitor / diode upgrades, Panasonic FM / FC, Nichicon MUSE, WIMA caps plus ultrafast diodes, Fitted a hand matched ALPS potentiometer (+/-1% per channel), a brand new quad gold plated phono socket, a Jalco Pro headphone socket, a pair of high quality gold plated ceramic valve sockets and an UBER precision matched pair of my December 1993 batch Voskhod 6H23N valves. Everything was soldered using 60/37/3 (3% silver) solder. I bought this can secondhand and while it looked great cosmetically it, the worn-out tubes made it more of an ugly duckling. With all the improvements Mike made it is now a beautiful shinny swan which I will cherish and enjoy for many years. I works well with all the headphones I have, currently the Denon AH-D7200, AKG K601 and Hifiman HE-4XX. The HE-4XX are planners and the X-Can is more than capable of driving them with authority. It was a pleasure to deal with Mike and I want to thank him again for the amazing job. PS: he didn’t fit a pink led, that’s just how it looks in the photo. I actually asked him to leave the “old fashioned” red LED which I like more than blue or purple. For those interested, that’s an Audio-GD R2R 11 sitting underneath, currently doing DAC services.  |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Jul 8, 2018 19:47:15 GMT
08th August 2018 - Michael Huewen's Musical Fidelity X-10V3 Stock X-10V3:  Board stripped:  Parts to be replaced all removed:  Fully Modded X-10V3:  I removed the 4 stock transistors (JE340 / JE350), measured them, and they were all over the place so I hand matched some ON Semi JE340/JE350 to make a perfect matched set each with an Hfe of 116:  Matched set:  Removed the stock 6112 valves (tubes) and replaced them with Sylvania Green logo 6948 types..... these are ruggedised versions of the 6112 so microphonics are absolutely non existent.... these puppies were designed for usage in guided missiles and, believe me, they absolutely trounce the 6112 in the SQ department..... lovely valves to use in this application.... they would probably sound good at mach 5 too but I don't have a rocket with a sound system on board to try them out in (even if I did I don't think I would withstand the G-Force BUT if anybody ever does decide to set the controls for the heart of the sun then the Sylvania 6948 is the valve to use in your rocket  The rest was pretty much business as usual, fitted extra capacitance in the power section, replaced the 4 x wirewound power resistors with 1 X Mundorf, renewed the input phono sockets, a couple of under the board tweaks I never show here (if I did I would be shooting myself in the foot). Output coupling caps were replaced with 1000uF Nichicon MUSE non polar (the corner frequency is close to 0Hz with these) the stock 100uF coupling caps are a joke. A totally different X-10V3 now but I won't comment on the sound quality, I hope that Michael Huewen will do that for me (whether he thinks it's better or not). A few more pics:        |
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Post by Witthoff on May 1, 2019 19:42:56 GMT
My first post here. I have a MF X-10 v3. The old valves is switched to the 6948. I am very pleased with the tube-switch. One thing that puzzles me is why some resistors "hover". More precisely The resistors in the X-10 v3: R113-4-5 and R213-4-5. Is there a simple explanation for this !... Regards My X-10 v3 |
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 2, 2019 6:24:12 GMT
My first post here. I have a MF X-10 v3. The old valves is switched to the 6948. I am very pleased with the tube-switch. One thing that puzzles me is why some resistors "hover". More precisely The resistors in the X-10 v3: R113-4-5 and R213-4-5. Is there a simple explanation for this !... Regards My X-10 v3Heat. They are raised to dissipate heat |
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Post by Witthoff on May 2, 2019 7:30:07 GMT
Thanks for reply. When I look at diy-photos for X-10 v3. I can not see any changes of these floating resistors. So the conclusion is well "let them be".
Another thing. After replacing the valves from 6112 to the 6948. The mains adaptor become not so warm more, it is on power constant.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Aug 11, 2019 18:52:13 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 7, 2019 19:39:38 GMT
30th December 2017 - Joost Dikker Hupkes X-CAN V2.... Fitted the latest version full capacitor / diode upgrades, Panasonic FM / FC, Nichicon MUSE, WIMA caps plus ultrafast diodes, Fitted a hand matched ALPS potentiometer (+/-1% per channel), a brand new quad gold plated phono socket, a Jalco Pro headphone socket, a pair of high quality gold plated ceramic valve sockets and an UBER precision matched pair of my December 1993 batch Voskhod 6H23N valves. Everything was soldered using 60/37/3 (3% silver) solder. Was too damned cold outside to take photos but the sun was shining so I put a wooly hat on and went for it The amp sounds absolutely gorgeous, even better than it looks! I had it on a 48 soak test (playing in a very warm room) and it passed with flying colours....... absolutely sublime SQ, beautifully balanced and music from the Gods type presentation...... the dog's nads (as we say in the UK!). Here are a few photos of the completed amp in a not too warm setting As always, the under board mods are not shown |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 15, 2019 21:13:10 GMT
15th November 2019 - Raphael Anidjar's Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 buffer. Full Rock Grotto upgrade! Before:  Quite a few parts removed:  Stripped board:  After:  Fitted a new pair of green label Military issue grade valves / tubes matched NOS Sylvania 6948 tubes..... the best sounding without a shadow of doubt.   Brand new 4 way gold plated phono socket:  Replaced stock "wire" with evolution pro OFC shielded cables:   Replaced the ground wire with a silver (hard wired) PTFE coated wire: Matched two pairs of JE340 / JE350 transistors, fitted UF4004 ultrafast diodes, Fitted Ohmite Audio Gold power resistor and all the usual mods. Sounds like heaven!       |
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Post by colin1 on Nov 16, 2019 9:24:42 GMT
wow... TAKE MY MONEY  |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 19, 2019 10:27:53 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 25, 2019 10:50:37 GMT
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Post by colin1 on Nov 28, 2019 20:18:31 GMT
Hi Mike just a quick post - amp arrived safely today  pictured here with it's brother <img src=" !["20191128-122213-Copy"]() " alt="" style="max-width:100%;">  |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Dec 15, 2019 20:55:03 GMT
Hi Mike just a quick post - amp arrived safely today pictured here with it's brother <img src=" !["20191128-122213-Copy"]() " alt="" style="max-width:100%;"> I've just this minute seen this post Colin, sorry for not replying sooner....... Looking good and I trust sounding good too? All the best, Mike. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Dec 15, 2019 21:24:45 GMT
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Post by colin1 on Dec 17, 2019 18:34:27 GMT
I've just this minute seen this post Colin, sorry for not replying sooner....... Looking good and I trust sounding good too? All the best, Mike. yes it's brilliant Mike - I should have got one years ago I think a Little Pinkie is definitely on the cards after Christmas... if only to take advantage of my returning customer discount Colin |
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