MF X-Can V2 Good For Which HPs And Modes

[Crispy]

Nov 5, 2012 20:02:50 GMT @cjarchez said:

Any help?

It sure was Chris.

So if I am reading this correctly the connections should be as below?

[Crispy]

Nov 6, 2012 11:52:15 GMT Crispy said:

So if I am reading this correctly the connections should be as below?

Can anybody confirm for me that these connections would be OK?

My mate Chong is kindly sending me some OCC wire (thanks again) to try out in this situation and I just need to verify what I am doing before I do it

Chris

[XTRProf]

Nov 8, 2012 16:25:27 GMT Crispy said:

Sorry, Photobucket is down with somebody putting a beta web GUI there and I can't do anything with the new GUI. So can't put the redrawn picture here. I couldn't even log out from there. Damn whoever there!

[PinkFloyd]

Can someone give me the picture of the bottom of the board without the wires on it and I'll draw them in.... sorry but I had to reformat my computer hence taking AGES to get onto this.... nightmare getting all the software installed again, technology my "ass"

[Crispy]

Nov 18, 2012 11:46:36 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Can someone give me the picture of the bottom of the board without the wires on it and I'll draw them in.... sorry but I had to reformat my computer hence taking AGES to get onto this.... nightmare getting all the software installed again, technology my "ass"

You're right there Mike - my computer takes about 5 minutes to load up - time for me to do a reformat and fresh install of Windows also

Below is a picture of a stock lower board.

[PinkFloyd]

Best to do it with a twisted pair of wires

[Deleted]

Thanks Mike

[Crispy]

Nov 18, 2012 18:20:52 GMT PinkFloyd said:

Best to do it with a twisted pair of wires

Thanks a million Mike

It may be some time before I get around to doing this mod - too busy listening to my repaired amp ;D ;D

I am sure Jeff will be itching to carry out this mod so I am looking forward to him being the guinea pig - plenty of pics and a quick review eh Jeff

[PinkFloyd]

That's with the input caps removed Chris ^

You can jumper over the pads with the caps removed so you will have both wire AND track for the signal or just remove the caps, use the wire and that will bypass the track. The changes are subtle but noticeable.... be sure to twist the wires or if you are using a shielded cable ground one end to a suitable grounding point.

This is highly "controversial" as some may say that the added "length" of a twisted pair of wires is not as short as the tracks etc. but I have found that (to my ears) there is a subtle difference in overall performance.... whether that difference equates to an "improvement" to YOUR ears is another thing entirely.

This is very fine tuning and probably totally non necessary BUT it is worth trying.... the best that can happen is that is sounds better and if it doesn't then it's a simple case of desoldering the wires and going back to the track.

If you REALLY wanted to go to town you could cut all of the tracks and P2P with wire of your choice between pads but that would take HOURS and would probably end up looking like spaghetti junction.

These days I'm of the opinion that if you have the time / inclination to do that then you really are devoid of entertainment / fulfillment / purpose in life...... much better going out to see a live band than polishing a turd in the comfort of your own home.......

Having said that........ I may well give it a try I've got a 100 metre reel of SOLID silver PTFE wire and it would be interesting to hear what a fully P2P solid silver conducted V2 sounds like...... it would be a real bummer if it sounded like SHITE

I would probably supplement the pads and "wrap and solder" the wire direct onto the legs of new parts, of course with a 50% tin, 1.4% silver, 48.6% lead type solder..... you would need about 3mm of "pin" for the wrapping.

Of course, the more solder you use, the different type of solder, the inductance / capacitance etc. of the "wire" will all play a part and each solder joint is actually a "chemical" reaction taking place..... it's all a matter of getting the recipe right and over egging the pudding is all too easy to do.....

Hmmmm... no, maybe not..... I might be better served sitting in front of my S.A.D lamp this winter and just hoping some other nutter will try my ideas out

I've got a V2 here that I went CRAZY on a few years ago, I must upload some pics when I have time...... ALPS blue velvet, damping, insane capacitance..... in fact, everything bar the kitchen sink...... it sounds like CRAP! Totally over egged and a good lesson was learnt back then that less is MORE when it comes to tweaks and each and every tweak should be assessed..... the blunderbuss approach (throwing everything into the mix) is one which should be avoided at all cost!

Anyhoo......... that twisted input wire mod is worth trying

[PinkFloyd]

If you're doing it with the input caps STILL in circuit then it's like this:

[PinkFloyd]

Nov 8, 2012 16:25:27 GMT Crispy said:

Nov 6, 2012 11:52:15 GMT Crispy said:

So if I am reading this correctly the connections should be as below?

Can anybody confirm for me that these connections would be OK?

There would definitely be a "sound" (of sorts) but I doubt it would be the type of sound you were expecting Chris

[Deleted]

Nov 18, 2012 20:07:36 GMT Crispy said:

I am sure Jeff will be itching to carry out this mod so I am looking forward to him being the guinea pig - plenty of pics and a quick review eh Jeff

Thanks a feckin bunch Chris, now I'll have to try and find my digital camera

[PinkFloyd]

Nov 18, 2012 21:40:46 GMT @ekbluesboy said:

Nov 18, 2012 20:07:36 GMT Crispy said:

I am sure Jeff will be itching to carry out this mod so I am looking forward to him being the guinea pig - plenty of pics and a quick review eh Jeff

Thanks a feckin bunch Chris, now I'll have to try and find my digital camera

PM me your address Jeff and I'll send you enough solid silver PTFE coated wire to do the job FOC

Mike.

[PinkFloyd]

It's a bastard to strip (the PTFE), really slippery BUT once you get the length prepared and solder it there's no "insulation creep" when you apply heat..... really good shit once you get the knack of stripping the ends. For a beginner (with nimble fingers) the best way is probably a craft knife,,,,, cut through the "sheath" until you hit the silver (all around) then strip the sheath off.....

Back to my S.A.D lamp, this thing is beginning to work!

[Deleted]

Mike,

You have PM

[XTRProf]

Finally, Photobucket is running ............

To make matter better, I suggest this, my version (bypass dc decoupling caps and bypass copper tracks from input to input voltage reducing resistors) from yesterday, ............





The short extra links with better material may not better the sound though. Too short. The bypass wires used must be better than the copper tracks. The yellow one is not a link but to show the first wiring must be taken out.

Btw, I have not done any of these as I'm more into computer audio and surviving now ............. Just to help out and makes everybody happy as it's going to be Christmas month.

[Deleted]

Slow day today sooooooo;

( couldn't listen though, I forgot to bring the power supply )

[XTRProf]

Er, what highend wire is that?

[Crispy]

Nov 19, 2012 19:07:12 GMT @cjarchez said:

Slow day today sooooooo;

( couldn't listen though, I forgot to bring the power supply )

Chris If I am seeing your mod correctly you are using a screened cable with the screen earthed only at the input end?

And just to echo Chong What cable are you using?

[Deleted]

Chris & Chong,

The cable is a noiseless OFCC two core plus earth screen with ptfe fibre packing, that I buy locally at a musical instruments shop.
I have found it to be very good for various uses and make pseudo-balanced RCA interconnects from it of a remarkably good standard.

As for the screening being earthed at the source end only, I was simply following instructions

be sure to twist the wires or if you are using a shielded cable ground one end to a suitable grounding point.

It is something I have done before when the earth screen is not actually "needed".

[XTRProf]

Chris Jr,

Interesting cable! That OFC cable can be used for microphone wire (75ohms I think)? Now you had given me a good idea for Computer AV if can.

Thanks.

[Deleted]

That OFCC cable can be used for microphone wire (75ohms I think)?

It's highly unlikely to be 75 ohms.
Alex

[XTRProf]

Nov 21, 2012 0:21:09 GMT @sandyk said:

It's highly unlikely to be 75 ohms.

Oh!

[Deleted]

I received the silver PTFE coated wire that Mike was kind enough to send me to try out this mod today so thought I might as well get on with it.

I had already by-passed (jumpered) the Input caps with silver-plated OFC copper cable, Bluesboy Cable :-








I found the easiest way to prepare the wire was to grip one end in my small, portable vise and gently ‘saw’ all round the wire with a scalpel.





I was then able to strip the sheathing from the actual silver wire inside. As Mike says, the PTFE is really bloody slippery stuff, but once you get the hang of it, its fine.








After some trial and error to get the right length when twisted, I prepared all 4 ends (twisted and then tinned them) and as you can see marked one wire at each end (temporarily) with some electrical tape. This enabled me to twist the two cables together and still know which was which.





One wire soldered at the resistor end: -




Resistor end completed:-





Here’s a rubbish shot of both wires soldered at the vol-pot end: -





Finished -




As you can see re-assembly is a tight squeeze -





I would stress that a good habit to get into is to use some abrasive on the chassis grounding point, the end cap grounding point, and both sides of the ground wire tag every time you close the chassis. A good ground is important to help avoid any noise.
Check out my super-blurry shots




.


Finally, the whole job is a lot easier if you have someone to hold this, hold that, point the camera there, etc.etc. so step forward my helper –






I then got down to listening. I didn’t have a lot of time as I was heading out to work , but I was able to spend an hour or so listening – and it was all good.


I started out with Jennifer Warnes and ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and immediately noticed much better instrument separation than I am used to in this track. It seemed clearer with less muddle.

I then went on to Donald Fagen’s “Morph The Cat” and on ‘Morph the Cat’ and ‘What I Do’ the bass was much more articulate. I was able to pick out and hear individual bass notes better than before. Something else which struck me right away was that I was able to focus on each individual vocal track in the chorus. Fagen multi-tracks his voice in the chorus and I was able to either let it flow over me as one, or listen in and hear each individual vocal track separately, something I had been unable to do before.

In a very similar vein, on ‘The Expert’ from Yello’s “Touch”, Dieter’s vocals were resolved easily as two different vocal tracks, one in each channel. Heidi Happy’s (Priska Zemp) vocals were stunning and I suddenly realised that her vocals were multi-tracked as well. I had never noticed this before.

To my ears, in my system, this mod improved my ability to resolve instruments and vocals. As Mike said in an earlier post, the difference is not night and day, but is clearly noticeable.

From unplugging my V2 till plugging it back in again, the whole mod took around 45 minutes for me. And probably a good 20 minutes of that was preparing the cable. A very worth while mod and highly recommended.

Thanks again to Mike.



My system – Shanling CDT-100c as transport to Cambridge Audio Dac-Magic, to M.F. X-10D, to M.F. X-Cans V2. Headphones used were Sennheiser HD-600, Beyerdynamic Dt 990 Pro, and Sony ZX-700.


Jeff

[PinkFloyd]

Hey Jeff,

That cable IS a bitch to strip, it's just so slippery. From a purely "perfectionist" point of view there's too much conductor on show...... I would be looking at maybe 2mm (MAX) per end but we don't live in a perfect world and getting to grips with stripping that stuff is an art form in itself!

I like your assistant, I wish I had one like that

The PTFE insulation will hold up with the hottest of soldering irons, The input joins look a bit dry to me...... maybe resolder them and snip off any excess. Then again, it may be your camera that's just got too good eyesight

I like your assistant, is she available for "one off" PTFE soldering sessions?

You've done a good job there Jeff, thanks for sharing the pics.....

Enjoy the music!

Mike.