|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Dec 20, 2019 21:29:49 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Jan 26, 2020 20:34:07 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Feb 17, 2020 19:40:30 GMT
Jim Farrell's X-CANS amp (V1) / 16th February 2020. Before:   After......... Removed all 29 capacitors and fitted top quality ELNA Silmic ll, Nichicon MUSE, Nichicon AUDIO, Panasonic FM / FR, Samwha VA, WIMA MKS4 caps. Extra capacitance in the Power section of the board...... top quality C103 / C203 non polar Nichicon MUSE input coupling caps...... ELNA Silmic ll (Japanese silk fiber)..... the best possible caps for the job. Sounds as sweet as a nut! Every solder joint was desoldered and resoldered with 60 / 37 / 3 % (3% silver) solder. DC socket replaced with a new one..... Quad phono socket replaced with a new one...... headphone socket replaced with a new Jalco Pro socket.... Blue LED and 5K glow taming resistor fitted..... pretty much a total rejuvenation all round. Precision matched pair of JAN Philips 6922 (matched triodes / Gain / Transconductance etc.) Valves fitted. Photos:           On test:  |
|
|
|
Post by noddy6 on Mar 29, 2020 12:07:26 GMT
Hi Mike
In October 2017 you turned my VCansV1 into the most amazing piece of kit I own. I cannot believe that an amp that comes in a blister pack could be converted from a piece of averageness to something so incredibly dynamic and detailed. It is part of a system that includes over £3000 worth of electrostatic headphone equipment which I now hardly listen to. You have a great ear and amazing talent and I am sorry I have not thanked you sooner.
Jan
|
|
|
|
Post by thewardy on Jun 6, 2020 18:35:47 GMT
Should be some v-can II pictures about here........ 😉😂
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Jun 15, 2020 19:27:41 GMT
George Frangia's X-CAN V2 - 14th June 2020. Full capacitor mods plus Voskhod 6H23N precision matched pair of valves, 3K9 gain mod, 3.3uF 3D soundstage mod, Brand new input / output (Jalco Pro headphone socket and gold plated phono socket) all signal path solder joints desoldered and resoldered with 60/37/3 (3% silver solder), Blue LED plus 5K glow taming resistor, Matched ALPS potentiometer (plus knob), copper noise nulling shield...... as good as new but miles better in every regard  Before:  All eight of the "TLEC" power board capacitors were bulging and measured very high ESR. MF normally fit Jamicom general purpose caps in this position (which are bad enough) but this is only the second time I have seen a V2 with these "TLEC" capacitors fitted and twice is too times too many! You've got to appreciate that these caps have been giving good service for over 20 years so maybe so you can't really complain BUT it would have been nice if MF had kitted the boards out with the parts the V2 deserved (at the time)...... they chose to go down the minimal cost / maximum profit route and, fair play to them, the V2 has stood the test of time (even in stock guise) and is an iconic little amp. It was fair game, 20 years ago, for me to question their decision to "not" max the amp out and sell it for double or even treble the price. They got it right, they sold many thousands of the amps, and Anthony Michaelson is now possibly sitting by the pool in any one of his 3 homes across the globe.  The design is a true classic, no question about that, the fact that "20 + years later" they are still giving good service and are "serviceable"...... you can, basically, upgrade these amps and they will shit over most of the competition....... No such thing as an "old amp"........ components wear out but a classic design will forever remain. Anyhoo............ roll onto 2020:   New DC input socket / New quad phono socket:        48 hour soak test and good to go George....... enjoy the music mate! Mike. |
|
|
|
Post by thewardy on Jun 16, 2020 16:01:12 GMT
Hi Mike,
How much sonic difference is there between what you did for me 2/3 years ago and the x-can v2 kit of today?
Don't forget the v-can pictures too, you've been busy!
Cheers
Paul
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Jun 18, 2020 20:04:08 GMT
Paul Ward's V-CAN ll Headphone amp - 18th June 2020..... I completed this a couple of weeks ago and have only now got round to posting photos on the forum, sorry about that Paul! The most important thing is the fact that you're happy with the work and are enjoying the sound quality and I'm over the moon with your comments via e-mail..... to know you're enjoying the amp that much really brings a smile to my face. OK..... to the photos: Stock V-CAN ll before the upgrades:  Modded V-CAN ll (after the upgrades:  I removed the stock opamp and fitted a gold turned pin DIP14 socket:  Slotted in a Burr Brown OPA1644:  OPA1644 is my preferred choice of opamps (after trying many over the last ten years) See the original thread from ten years ago: rockgrotto.proboards.com/thread/5227/good-price-free-mod-tips I have, finally, after ten years of listening experience concluded that the OPA1644 (to my ears) brings the very best performance out of this amp..... it transforms the sonic presentation from "waiting at the door to get in" to "inside and sitting at the best seats". I won't waffle on about the "sound quality" because that is my "ears" talking..... may sound completely different to a different pair of ears / remember, ears are as unique as fingerprints........ no ear hears the same thing the exact same way. I fitted out Paul's V-CAN ll with ELNA Silmic ll (Japanese silk fiber caps), which take a while to fully blossom, but, when they do blossom they come out in the most glorious bloom of organic, scented, musically real explosion of aural goodness. Paul... I don't want to steal your thunder mate.... feel free to post your own impressions of the V-CAN ll over the past 50 hours. Here are the rest of the photos........ WIMA film caps in strategic places, 3300uF Nichicon power cap with 3.3uF WIMA film cap (as a bypass cap)        |
|
|
|
Post by puggie on Jun 18, 2020 20:41:14 GMT
Those meters by Peak are awesome, I have the LCR and the transistor tester. Electrolytic caps are a service item in audio if you keep stuff for more than 10 years. I used to service pro audio gear and we had a Neve console that needed all its electrolytics changing about every 7 years due to the heat in there. I like serviceable audio which is why I bought my v3s they are great.
|
|
|
|
Post by thewardy on Jun 18, 2020 21:19:32 GMT
Great photo's Mike, the quality of your work screams through.
For anyone thinking of having one of these modded just do it, you will not be disappointed I guarantee it.
I'm now in the enviable position of having two headphone systems, a x-can v2, x-10D and x-psu, all of which have had Mike's magic breathed upon them.
My other system is a v-can II, v-psu II and a v-dac II which provides both systems the audio feed (I have a pro-ject dac too but that's currently back at the dealers for repair). The v-can was a recent purchase from eBay out of curiosity mostly, and roughly at the point it arrived the tubes in the x stuff needed a refresh and I stumbled on to the v-can mods from Mike and I didn't hesitate.
At stock the amp was very clean sounding, but lacked sparkle and detail compared to my x kit. My cans are hd600s from 1997 and a pair of audeze el8's, these were a gift from a friend who upgraded, for which I'm eternally grateful!
Mike turned the mods around in no time, plugging it in the transformation was immediately apparent, there was more detail and the sheer amount of drive and power was a blast!
Mike said it would get better as the capacitors formed and he isn't wrong.
This afternoon the amp clicked into a higher gear as I hit around 50 hours of use, extra layers of detail, bass that was extended to the full depth that the cans could reproduce and with real speed and control too. Finger snaps and snares genuinely sound like they are in the room,and with the hd600s the soundstage is massive and instruments are placed with absolute precision. I couldn't stop smiling as track after track went by.
I've been flicking between the two systems, purposely to compare and also to try and mitigate any psychological adjustment to just one replay system. The changes Mike brings to the amp are real, massive and highly recommended.
Compared to the modded x-kit, the valve system lifts vocals out of the mix slightly, but has a slightly narrower soundstage. The valves also add texture across the whole range of reproduction with a more solid feeling low end, which is part of the valve magic I guess, it makes close miked vocals sound even better, though perhaps at the cost of pure accuracy of replay. Both amps share fair more traits than differences which did surprise me.
My thanks to Mike, who has a great ear for developing these kits in the first place, and couldn't be more helpful.
Looking forward to more working from home tomorrow and more big smiles.
|
|
|
|
Post by thewardy on Jun 19, 2020 18:50:32 GMT
Having spent the day listening to both I genuinely can't say I have a favourite amp, the vocal performance of the valves is slightly more engaging courtesy of the valve harmonics with a slight ethereal edge but the solid state goes lower on the bass registers and its delivered at astonishing speed and control, I keep opening my eyes and its hard to believe that the scale of the performance is coming from such a small box.
I'm looking after a Earmax Pro whilst a friend is working in Qatar and it doesn't even come close to either amp.
Once lock down is over I'll take the amps to another friend and let them stand against some really high end kit,i really do think it will be a close run thing
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Aug 21, 2020 20:16:24 GMT
Paul Johnson's Musical Fidelity X-10D buffer - 21st August 2020... Before the upgrades / Stock X-10D:   After the upgrades:   Full Rock Grotto upgrade kit fitted plus ceramic valve sockets, blue LED (with 5K glow taming resistor) and presicion matched pair of Voskhod 6H23N valves - 1978 batch. I fitted my latest addition to the kit which is the power resistor module. Essentially two resistors in parallel which give a larger surface area (better heat dissipation) but, more importantly, the Ohmite gold resistors I employ are special order non inductive / non magnetic types so this module plays one helluva part in the sonic department. The standard Ohmite Audio gold is non magnetic but I special ordered a batch of their non magnetic / non inductive variants: A MASSIVE increase in SQ compared with the stock "penny a pop" wirewound power resistor:   Anyhoo.... back to the upgrade....... Brand new input / output sockets fitted (Always a good idea to fit fresh input / output connections)  Top quality ceramic valve sockets fitted - much tighter grip on the valve pins = best possible connection which relates to better SQ:  Precision matched pair (and I mean absolutely PERFECT matched pair) from my batch of 1978 (year) Russian Voskhod 6H23N Valves...... these are the dog's bollocks! (excuse my French!) No, really, these are "genuine" NOS and haven't seen the light of day since they were manufactured in 1978....... a truly superb batch:   Old stock parts removed:  Board stripped:  Upgrade kit ready to be fitted:  A lot of typing going on my end, I'm going to "lose" this part of the upgrade..... it takes me longer to type and upload photos than it does to mod the gear  In a nutshell...... this X-10D sounds sublime. Will ship her / him back to you on Monday Paul...... I'm going to feed her / him a diet of radio two, on loop, over the weekend to get the caps and valves cooking..... prepare yourself for an eargasm Bottom of the board after upgrades........ I'm in and out like a stealth bomber running a HAKO iron at 440C (fast and hot is the key) and the solder I use is a secret (hell, I can't show you me totally nude..... got to keep my pants on in some scenes) but, yes that's the way you do it.... you play the guitar on the MTV  On that note...... off to bed |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Aug 21, 2020 20:18:07 GMT
Paul Johnson's Musical Fidelity X-10D buffer - 21st August 2020- Before the upgrades / Stock X-10D: After the upgrades: Full Rock Grotto upgrade kit fitted plus ceramic valve sockets, blue LED (with 5K glow taming resistor) and presicion matched pair of Voskhod 6H23N valves - 1978 batch. I fitted my latest addition to the kit which is the power resistor module. Essentially two resistors in parallel which give a larger surface area (better heat dissipation) but, more importantly, the Ohmite gold resistors I employ are special order non inductive / non magnetic types so this module plays one helluva part in the sonic department. The standard Ohmite Audio gold is non magnetic but I special ordered a batch of their non magnetic / non inductive variants: A MASSIVE increase in SQ compared with the stock "penny a pop" wirewound power resistor: Anyhoo.... back to the upgrade....... Brand new input / output sockets fitted (Always a good idea to fit fresh input / output connections) Top quality ceramic valve sockets fitted - much tighter grip on the valve pins = best possible connection which relates to better SQ: Precision matched pair (and I mean absolutely PERFECT matched pair) from my batch of 1978 (year) Russian Voskhod 6H23N Valves...... these are the dog's bollocks! (excuse my French!) No, really, these are "genuine" NOS and haven't seen the light of day since they were manufactured in 1978....... a truly superb batch: Old stock parts removed: Board stripped: Upgrade kit ready to be fitted: A lot of typing going on my end, I'm going to "lose" this part of the upgrade..... it takes me longer to type and upload photos than it does to mod the gear In a nutshell...... this X-10D sounds sublime. Will ship her / him back to you on Monday Paul...... I'm going to feed her / him a diet of radio two, on loop, over the weekend to get the caps and valves cooking..... prepare yourself for an eargasm Bottom of the board after upgrades........ I'm in and out like a stealth bomber running a HAKO iron at 440C (fast and hot is the key) and the solder I use is a secret (hell, I can't show you me totally nude..... got to keep my pants on in some scenes) but, yes that's the way you do it.... you play the guitar on the MTV On that note...... off to bed |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 12, 2020 18:50:09 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 8, 2020 20:17:06 GMT
Paul Gent's X-CAN V2 / 08th November 2020 Full capacitor upgrade modification plus brand new JALCO Pro headphone socket, new gold plated RCA inputs, all under board "secret" 3D soundstage tweaks etc. This amp has seen 20 years of "always on" duty and sounded a bit tired (no wonder!)...... it's now good to go for, at least, another 20 years and sounding very refreshed indeed. The V2 is an amp that never stops giving....... 20 years service and, yes, it wasn't firing on all 4 when it arrived with me BUT it was still firing and that's quite an achievement! "Always on" for 20 years? Even the best of us couldn't cope with that amount of nagging and stress! Anyhoo..... as good as new and sounding 100% + better than a new V2 ever did. Hope you enjoy it for many years Paul. Mike.           |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Jan 20, 2021 19:57:38 GMT
20th January 2021 - Mark Chesterton's Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 Buffer.... Full upgrades...... Capacitors = EPCOS / Nichicon MUSE / Nichicon Audio Gold / Panasonic FM / WIMA MKS4 and ELNA Silmic ll. 4 x wirewound capacitors were replaced with 1 x Ohmite Audio Gold (non inductive / non magnetic) power resistor. The stock JAN Philips 6112 valves (tubes) were replaced with a precision matched pair of JAN Sylvania (Green logo) 6948 valves, these are the military grade / ruggedized versions of the standard JAN Philips 6112 and originally designed for use in guided missiles..... they also do an excellent "non life destroying" job in the X-10 V3 frank.pocnet.net/sheets/084/6/6948.pdf I also replaced the 4 way gold plated line input / loop output phono block with a brand new one. All solder joints were were made with the 60 / 37 / 3 (3% silver) solder. Before the mods:  Out with the old:  Stripped board:  Completed mods:  JAN Sylvania Green Logo 6948:      |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 24, 2021 22:21:30 GMT
Under the board tweaks not shown |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 25, 2021 20:04:22 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by howlinhoosier on Jul 10, 2021 17:40:17 GMT
I upgraded my X10-D in 2015 - where are we at these days as far as an X10-D upgrade is concerned? I have the low resistance Panasonic 1500 mfd caps and diode updates - what value caps are being used the rest of the way? Looking at snaps the large poly caps are either 4.7 or 3.3 mfd, and the power resistor is either a single or piggybacked pair.
|
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 21, 2021 22:05:49 GMT
Doktor Joy X-PRE Part one 21/10/2021 Doktor Joy...... Here is another one I started on this morning. It belongs to Doktor Joy. Dok (Dr. Joy) felt that this X-PRE was a lot brighter sounding than his older (well used X-PRE). I had a quick listen and, yes (to my ears) it did sound quite bright BUT, by the looks of the unit, it's quite possible it hasn't quite settled down yet. I measured the stock JAN / Philips valves and they measured as good / almost perfect with both sides (triodes) very well matched (34.1 / 35.0) on valve one and (35.1 / 34.4) on valve two. Transconductance was well within spec so that would suggest this unit has had very little use...... the valves were pretty much spot on in every regard so no need to change them. The X-PRE is not a proper valve pre-amp as the valves are starved so they are essentially there to add a tube like "colouration" to the sound....... almost like a glowing "equalizer", a totally unnecessary addition to the signal path BUT quite a lot of people are great fans of the X-PRE (myself included!). I know, from experience, that a matched pair of Voskhod 6H23N valves will certainly balance things out and I will be discussing that with Dok in due course. I dealt with the bottom board today and will get to work on the upper PSU board tomorrow. The capacitor changes I have made will most certainly bring about vast changes / improvements in the sound quality. Here is the stock bottom board before I worked on it:  Here is the board after I worked on it:  The stock 2.2ohm wirewound power resistor runs quite hot. It is both magnetive and inductive (both bad things!)..... a penny a pop piece of crap! I have replaced it with two high quality Ohmite Audio Gold non inductive / non magnetic resistors in parallel (2 x 4.7ohm wired in parallel = 2.35 ohms) I could call it my special "power resistor module" (or some other such like bollocks) bit it is simply 2 x non inductive / non magnetic high quality resistors connected in Parallel. These are £2.40 each (so £4.80 for two) but worth every penny!  The other advantage of 2 x 5 watt power resistors in parallel is a greater surface area....... they don't even run warm to the touch, they are almost stone cold in operation. The next nice little tweak are the output coupling caps..... MF fit cheap and nasty directional electrolytics here...... there is zero voltage across the caps but they fit them as a "belt and braces" device...... you can actually jumper across the pads of C109 and C209 and lose them completely out of the circuit. I prefer to go down the sensible route and have fitted non directional / Non Polar caps in C109 / C209 courtesy of Nichicon MUSE non polar types (the green ones):  The rest of the 10F caps I have used ELNA Silmic ll (Japanese silk fiber) caps. I think I mentioned it before but will reiterate it again...... the headroom inside the X-PRE (especially between lower and upper boards) is insanely limited so you have to choose the dimension of your capacitor VERY carefully or you will find you have just wasted a lot of money on parts that just don't fit! I had to use nippon united chemi con 105C (superb capacitors) (35V / 1000uF) miniature capacitors (the big brown ones) they were the only caps I could find that wouldn't foul the top board....... they are as fat as f**k (excuse my French) but the best caps for the job. Same goes with the film caps...... I decided to go with 630V 2.2uF metallized polyester film in this instance (for reasons I will explain later) Just look at how tight a fit they were....... I "literally" had less than 1mm so had to form the leads to perfection:  Thoroughly enjoying every second working on this (so far / touchwood) just thought I'd add that before I continue....... Fitted a couple of nice Nichicon "Audio" caps (105C rated) next to the non inductive / non magnetic power resistor (power resistor module?) but pure overkill....... they will never feel any heat (unlike the el cheapo 3 watt power resistor positioned right up the arse of the 85C Jamicon caps).......  I'll e-mail Doktor Joy with my work so far and will continue (PART TWO) when I upgrade the top (PSU board) tomorrow Oh (jesus I've had too much coffee) been off the alcohol for a good 3 months now (and not feeling any benefits of being sober) but must also say the 220nF (small yellow caps) are NOS Mullards (or maybe Mallory) and have a tone to die for, they are little beauties. Another big (and I mean BIG) upgrade to the X-PRE is the OPA1644 rockgrotto.proboards.com/thread/11255/musical-fidelity-pre-upgrade-module but that's something that can easily be fitted at a later date. I could have typed all this to you Dok but better sharing it with other enthusiasts......... I take immense pride in my work and would rather share it with the world for all to see rather than just send you a bill. Part two tomorrow  Best regards, Mike. |
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 30, 2021 19:25:53 GMT
Full Doktor Joy X-Pre mods HERE |
|
