Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 (advice needed)

[vuittion]

Please please please can anyone give me some advice concerning my new Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 headphone amp I purchsed a few days ago.

I am using the amp with a pair of Sennheiser HD650's running from a Marantz CD 5001 OSE CD player, the interconnect cable is a Chord Cobra 3.

The problem I have is I am experiencing extreme brightness maybe even shrill to the extent that it makes listening to music nearly impossible.

I have done a little bit of reading on the forum and see that the stock tubes are known to be very bright with some setups.

My question is do you think this is the problem with my setup or do I have a faulty amp, will the brightness subside with burn in, I have had the amp for only 4 days with about 20 hours of use.

If so what tubes do you reccomend and the most important thing is how difficult is it to change the tubes over, I am a complete noob concerning headphone amps.

Many thanks for any replies.

[vuittion]

First off thank-you very much for the reply.

I reside in london england and the interconnect cable I am using is around £50/$100 and has many favourable reviews.

I am going to take your advice and let the amp burn in for at least another week and take it from there.

Could you tell me the procedure for changing the stock tubes maybe there is a tutorial somewhere on the internet.

Here is a link to the interconnect cable I am using.
www.avreview.co.uk/review/reviewproduct/mps/RPN/6753/RER/2/v/2

Thank-you again for all your help.

[PinkFloyd]

Hi,

Rolling the valves in the v3 is easy. EXACTLY the same procedure as this but you have 5 screws to undo at the rear and 4 to undo on the front www.rock-grotto.co.uk/x-can-v2-tube-rolling.htm couldn't be simpler

You get the occasional extremely harsh / shrill sounding JAN / philips 6922 (not often but occasionally) swapping them out for some 6H23N-EB will almost certainly pay dividends rockgrotto.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=q&action=display&thread=1182955042

Is the v3 brand new? If so I'd be inclined to take it back to the dealer and ask him to either supply you with another one or get a replacement set of valves for you. No reason to put up with shrill sounding valves when the amp comes with a good warranty.... plus, if you roll in new ones and find it still sounds shrill then you are back to square on..... take it back.

[vuittion]

Thanks very much for the tips.

I purchased the amp brand new.

I will contact the dealer tomorrow and see what he thinks.

[PinkFloyd]

I will contact the dealer tomorrow and see what he thinks.

It should not sound shrill.

[buelligan]

I got my X-CAN v3 and AKG K701s last March. I have at least 1500 hours on the combo and I still am getting a very detailed, but very bright and somewhat grainy treble. I would love to hear from vuitton about his results with swapping tubes, since I seem to have the same problem. (I thought it was just how the phones were; I haven't heard them with any other amp.)

[Deleted]

vuittion
"It should not sound shrill."

It's brand new. Do as Mike suggests and take it back to the dealer. If the dealer isn't local, contact them and explain the position, and say that you want a replacement. Do not be fobbed off with a " wait and see if it improves with use."
On this occasion, I disagree with Miguel. A little "brightness" is one thing, "shrill" is completely unacceptable. Unless of course, you really mean a bit too bright sounding.
Do NOT take the cover off before returning it !
SandyK

[aurum]

buelligan said:

I got my X-CAN v3 and AKG K701s last March. I have at least 1500 hours on the combo and I still am getting a very detailed, but very bright and somewhat grainy treble. I would love to hear from vuitton about his results with swapping tubes, since I seem to have the same problem. (I thought it was just how the phones were; I haven't heard them with any other amp.)

I wonder if what you are experiencing is actually a lack of bass response, as I recall prior to my V3 mods that this amp was a bit shy in the bass. I have tried all sorts of valves in this unit, & have settled for the Siemens 6922, which has a lot of top end sparkle & in an unmodded unit could be shrill sounding.
Changing a particular four power supply caps did more for the bass than any valve I have tried rolling.

[bennyboy]

vuittion said:

Please please please can anyone give me some advice concerning my new Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 headphone amp I purchsed a few days ago.

I am using the amp with a pair of Sennheiser HD650's running from a Marantz CD 5001 OSE CD player, the interconnect cable is a Chord Cobra 3.

The problem I have is I am experiencing extreme brightness maybe even shrill to the extent that it makes listening to music nearly impossible.

I have done a little bit of reading on the forum and see that the stock tubes are known to be very bright with some setups.

My question is do you think this is the problem with my setup or do I have a faulty amp, will the brightness subside with burn in, I have had the amp for only 4 days with about 20 hours of use.

If so what tubes do you reccomend and the most important thing is how difficult is it to change the tubes over, I am a complete noob concerning headphone amps.

Many thanks for any replies.

Sounds like your source, as the v3 is not bright! I'm very hard to please on the treble end and my v3 was never bright (even unmodded) althoe I did find the stock tubes to be thin sounding!

I'd send it up to mike for the mod and see if he's got any 6n23p-eb tubes left.

goodluck.

[alspe]

Sept 29, 2007 9:18:53 GMT @aurum said:

buelligan said:

I got my X-CAN v3 and AKG K701s last March. I have at least 1500 hours on the combo and I still am getting a very detailed, but very bright and somewhat grainy treble. I would love to hear from vuitton about his results with swapping tubes, since I seem to have the same problem. (I thought it was just how the phones were; I haven't heard them with any other amp.)

I wonder if what you are experiencing is actually a lack of bass response, as I recall prior to my V3 mods that this amp was a bit shy in the bass. I have tried all sorts of valves in this unit, & have settled for the Siemens 6922, which has a lot of top end sparkle & in an unmodded unit could be shrill sounding.
Changing a particular four power supply caps did more for the bass than any valve I have tried rolling.

Hi. I'm new in this fine forum.

I'm buying used X-CAN v3 from my friend and partnering it with Alessandro MS1. Sources are modded Original CD-A8T and Creek CD43. Original will be my headphone player, I think. (it is bit bright sounding though).

So I'm asking which mods will give more body and bass for X-CAN v3 + Alessandro?
X-PSU?
v3 upragde kit from Floyd?
better tubes?

Sound is really "detailed" or sometimes even harsh and too bright. I tried X-CAN with different source and I think that not all brightness comes from my Original player. It is detailed and bright, not too harsh I think.

Thank You if You can help me.

[derekrumble]

Sept 2, 2007 14:15:04 GMT vuittion said:

Please please please can anyone give me some advice concerning my new Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 headphone amp I purchsed a few days ago.

I am using the amp with a pair of Sennheiser HD650's running from a Marantz CD 5001 OSE CD player, the interconnect cable is a Chord Cobra 3.

The problem I have is I am experiencing extreme brightness maybe even shrill to the extent that it makes listening to music nearly impossible.

I have done a little bit of reading on the forum and see that the stock tubes are known to be very bright with some setups.

My question is do you think this is the problem with my setup or do I have a faulty amp, will the brightness subside with burn in, I have had the amp for only 4 days with about 20 hours of use.

If so what tubes do you reccomend and the most important thing is how difficult is it to change the tubes over, I am a complete noob concerning headphone amps.

Many thanks for any replies.

Interesting. I use my X-CanV3 (with stock tubes and power supply) with both Sennheiser and Grado phones (plus other less expensive earbud types) and the sound is ALWAYS better , much better, than any headphone output elsewhere in my system.

So it's a puzzle. What have you been listening to previously? Standard headphone output on a CD machine or amp? Or what?

Derek

[derekrumble]

And yes, it does need a bit of running in; a week or two. And the bass is improved with a pinkie. But the pinkie isn't making a silk purse from a pig's ear - the X-Can sounds good to start with. Can you get it back to the dealer, or visit a mate with one and do a side-by-side?

Derek

[derekrumble]

I am having a total brain failure today - I saw this topic was live and failed to notice how old it is - I have lost the plot on this one and I'll shut right up. ;D

Gives you all summit to read anyhow.

Derek

[Defecitve Audio Component]

Jul 30, 2008 7:37:29 GMT @alspe said:

Sept 29, 2007 9:18:53 GMT @aurum said:

So I'm asking which mods will give more body and bass for X-CAN v3 + Alessandro?
X-PSU?
v3 upragde kit from Floyd?
better tubes?

This is an old thread, but still it got no clear response.... my XCANv3 is also lacking in bass response. It rolls off a bit too early, killing the sub bass. Does any of these three things help? (Someone here must surely have tried all three?)

[mikemalter]

I am running an X Can V3 at work, and was having the same problems with it. Then I brought in my PS Audio Ultimate Outlet to clean up the power, and it solved my problems.