Ians X-PSU V3 mods

[aurum]

I opened my PSU V3 and thought there wasn't much that could be done to improve it. But I did find some things.

1. I popped a Bybee in the mains power supply

[aurum]

I then decided to get rid of the ferrous bolt & change it to stainless steel. I also made a sandwich of 2 copper plates cut into a nice circle & added damping with a cut out cork tile. Don't underestimate cork it is very good in audio

[aurum]

The finished product sounds dead quiet A blacker background is what I have noticed the most. Perhaps from better vibration control & the effect that the Bybee is a high frequency filter.

regards
Ian

[colinh]

What is a Bybee , ? Never heard of one before .Where do you obtain one from ?

[Sol]

colinh said:

What is a Bybee , ? Never heard of one before .Where do you obtain one from ?

A Slipstream Quantum Purifier IN short .. it's a product that claims to work on electrons at a quantum level - ordering them neatly in a line and therefore preventing noise affecting the signal.

[PinkFloyd]

What you can also do is strap a class X2 capacitor across live and neutral (275AC rated) doesn't cost a lot and easy to implement

[aurum]

I only power the headphone amp with the PSU. I have considered disconnecting the other leads from the outlets. Perhaps this is another source of noise. There is quite a bit of stuff on the net about the Bybees they are quite a controversial item. I only use them on the power supply, as the music can sound over filtered.

Pinkfloyd - I am not familiar with what a class X2 cap is (polyprop)? would you suggest a uf value that may be tried?

regards
Ian

[PinkFloyd]

aurum said:

I popped a Bybee in the mains power supply

You could supplement the bybee with a quantum clip Ian, you'll find the quantum clip on its own may not interact fully with the bybee so you may have to cream your cables with some cream electret, stick some green morphic message foil under the PSU and possibly supplement with a few strips of rainbow foil. Belt has got a new product out at the moment "Special Black Cream" they have also developed a Silver Mirror Foil entry point which, when attached to any object and Creamed with the new Black Cream, preserves the correct angular relationship of white sunlight and artificial light and the object. At only £250 for a 5ml jar it's got to represent stonking good value for money.

You can tune further by "belting" your family. Take a photo of them, place the photo in a plastic bag and write <x26OK on it with a PWB chunky pen.... now freeze in the deep freezer, this should bring about a noticeable improvement in the highs. If you feel the bass is slightly lacking you could try attaching a Red Magnadisc to the outer cover of every AC power plug, some yellow Magnadiscs should be attached onto a suitable part of as many doorways in the territory as possible, attach a Green Magnadisc on any window, anywhere within your house, a significant beneficial improvement will take place......

His full product line up can be found here www.belt.demon.co.uk/product/product.html

Have fun!

[rickcr42]

Go easy on the guy mike.MANY are snookered by this "improvement" and are willing to pay high prices to get there.For example :

www.boldercables.com/servlet/Search?category=Bolder+Cable+Products+with+%22Bybee+Inside%22

the argument ranges to both extremes and i have read most of them but to be honest ? The "science" behind the technology is from my understanding all smoke and mirrors,movie "FX" type sh*t and until someone can show me hard evidence to the contrary it is my belief folks are getting robbed blind on the same level as the aftermarket cable industry is robbong them and worse,usually pay more for the "upgrade" than the gear is even worth WITH the upgrades putting the value/cost equation into extreme overload on the dificit side

Just my personal opinion

**

[Sol]

admin said:

His full product line up can be found here www.belt.demon.co.uk/product/product.html

Have fun!

He even has a product named after me ;o)

This reminds me of a rumour started on a motorcyle newsgroup (ISTR it was related ot a new engine being produced by Honda - time has left me fogetting the details - but it was nonsensical) that made magazine copy the following month. Oh how we laughed.

[aurum]

Well well ha ha! at my expense. May I remind you that the reason I decided to enter this forum was to learn something as many are here to do. I do not profess to understand many electronic principals that others may find easy, but I want to learn more, improve my equipment & minimize my mistakes. My expertise are other subjects.

To me its all about the music, the tweaking is a fun hobby, & I am willing to try things to improve sound. Remember its about the sound that bought you here.

If you want debate on the Bybee's go to the audio asylum, they scrap endlessly there about them. The one's who hang sh"t on them, 9 times out of 10 have never done a before & after listening test. I was recommended the Bybees by Steve Huntley (Great Northern Sound) who mods Wadia's for a living, and who's opinion I trust. My ears tell the difference.

Now what I'd like to know is what fu'k'n capacitor should I try in the AC that was suggested.

[Sol]

Don't take it personally .... nothing on the net should be taken personally!

As for the capacitor .. sure someone will be along with a link! Though the DIY section has a post with lots of reference links - so Farnell, RS COmponents, Maplins, Rapid ... may be wort ha search for caps x2?

[Sol]

my.execpc.com/~endlr/line-filter.html

[PinkFloyd]

Pinkfloyd - I am not familiar with what a class X2 cap is (polyprop)? would you suggest a uf value that may be tried?

Hi Ian,

Here is an X2 cap www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=98166&doy=29m1

Specs:

Metallised Paper RFI Class X2 Capacitors
Manufacturer: Wima

Particularly high reliability against active and passive flammability
Excellent self-healing as well as high voltage strength
High degree of interference suppression due to good attenuation and low ESR
For temperatures up to +110°ree;C
RoHS compliant (2002/95/EC)

Class X2 RFI applications to meet EMC regulations. Ideal for capacitors connected to the mains between phase and neutral and neutral or phase and phase conductors. Installation category II in accordance with IEC 60664, pulse peak voltage <2.5kV

I use the 0.47uF versions of these www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=26584&&source=14&doy=29m1

Just another little thing you can try and cheap too.... just solder one across the live and neutral terminals.

You can also connect a Y2 class capacitor from live to earth and also connect a class Y2 cap between neutral and earth www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=26583&doy=29m1

Mike.

[aurum]

Thanks Mike,

This makes it easier much appreciated.


regards
Ian

[Fergus]

I've got a BULGIN IEC filter. Would there be any point in fitting it to the X-PSU V3? I would also like to build better interconnects between the X-PSU and the various X-Components. I can get the NEUTRIK connectors, but can anyone recommend a good cable?

[rickcr42]

24 guage Solid copper stripped from the center of RG-6 coax

[aurum]

I've got about 150 hours on the Revelation Audio Silver umbilical cable & am impressed by the improvement over the stock cable.

www.revelationaudiolabs.com/

[Fergus]

Thanks Aurum,

Looks like a great cable - price a bit steep though. Looking for something pretty cheap but good.

[buelligan]

Hey Aurum,
I'd like to get your detailed impressions on the RA cables and how they compare to stock. I love mine.

[aurum]

Hi Buelligan,

The best comparison is to describe their benefits over the stock cable. My source is a Wadia 861 & headphones are Grados, so picking differences in wire is not a big problem.

First of all the MF PSU cable is quite good with 18G copper wire & gold connectors. First up the cable didn't sound any different from the stock, but after a day or 2 it started to settle & change. The cable has developed a very fast transparent sound, it leaves the impression that the bass is a bit lighter, but with more focus. Midrange vocals have greater clarity, & there is more sparkle in the highs. I think the greatest improvement has to be with the sound stage & placement of instruments. In this case a more neutral sound has been achieved.
I wouldn't liken the improvement as much a cap replacement or different valves, but more along the lines of upgrading all the resistors. In a nutshell better clarity & neutrality.

I use silver Pure note speaker cable in my SET amp & Horn speakers, & there is a lot of sound signature that is similar. The big difference is the short length of silver in this case. It makes me consider changing to silver from amp to headphones as well.

regards
Ian

[PinkFloyd]

The cable has developed a very fast transparent sound

Have you tried the green morphic message foil yet?

[aurum]

I'm going to try the Green Morphic Foil after I've screwed my ex Russian anti gravity boots to the corners of the power supply housing. That is the best way I've come up, with to eliminate any unwanted vibrations to the headphone amp

[buelligan]

Dear Aurum,

I really appreciate your comments. I'm very close to springing for the gs-1000s and the X-CAN v3.

I think I'll let the warranty expire before I mod the amp, but it's great to know there is more in store.

All the best to you,
Buelligan

[PinkFloyd]

Ian,

I meant to ask you if you have done anything to the PSU board inside the X-CAN V3? As you've probably guessed the X-PSU is simply a toroidal transformer outputting 12-0-12V AC from the secondaries, all of the regulation and smoothing etc. takes place "on board" the X-CAN V3 and this is where real improvements can be had.

The general purpose 85C Jamicon caps and 1N4007 diodes can be improved on by fitting low ESR Panasonic FC / FM types and ultrafast UF-4007 diodes. replacing the dual 470nF film caps with 470nF (or greater) polypropylene varieties also improves things.

The X-PSU has more current on tap, it's good for that but the real sonic improvements are to be had by tweaking the PSU section on board the amp itself. Try removing the two 10uF input caps (jumper over the pads) this also makes a pretty noticeable improvement. You can also increase the output capacitance (particularly effective with low impedance 'phones) remove the two 220uF non polars per channel and replace with 2 x 470uF non polar per channel. You can fit higher voltage packages too which also helps improve the overall sonic signature of the amp.... stock is 6.3V .... I find 35V sounds better in this position.

Another thing the V3 (and V2) responds well to is a sloppy base.... I got this tip from Sean Redshaw at www.highendaudio.co.uk/ many years ago and have never looked back.... instead of the usual "firm" support try sitting the amp on a block of foam, it really does tighten things up.... it's slight but each small candle lights a corner of the dark

Valve dampers are another thing you can try, I'll fit some on your National valves before I send them back over (they arrived today) what BLOODY lovely sounding valves they are too! I don't think I've ever experienced a valve in the X-CAN that sounds this good.... not only is the sound accurate but the soundstage, seperation and sheer expanse of sound takes on much broader, deeper and higher dimensions... a truly out of the head experience in places and a big thanks to you for introducing these to me.

Until the arrival of these I was aware that different valves could make a bit of a difference / improvement over the stock 6922 but I never thought they could make this big an improvement.... absolutely fantastic!