Hotrodding the X-Fi: A Layman's Guide (No 56k) - Page 16

I've ordered the blackgate capacitor and it should arrive in a few days.
The opamp however seems to be harder to get. I've ordered 3 samples from national 6 days ago (20th march) and the delivery date is still "not confirmed".

I haven't paid for any shipping though and I wonder if there's something I have missed in the process (like maybe the confirmation mail with shipping payment info got caught by my spamfilter).

I suppose a lot of you have been through this process and maybe could tell if I've missed something or it's just National being slow (or maybe getting suspecious about the sudden interest for their LM4562 opamp samples

ah been searching through my mails and it seems I've missed the mail regarding shipping payment.

Looking forward to complete the mod

Ok I want to mod X-Fi elite pro, only the front channel ,,
when changing the old power cap by the one with 2200uF, 16V , if the blackgate cap isn't used but any cap with 2200uF, 16V. Will I see big impact in sound quality for long time?

I've another thing, after replacing the JRC opamp with LM4562 and shorting the four caps of the front do I guarantee stability to the surround opamp and DAC provided that 2200uF, 16V cap is used also ?

Is this overkill or what ?

ESR paper over and under + grounded aluminum sheild. everything sealed in plastic (except grounding point).

I will check how hot the card gets before i place the ESR paper any closer.

Have not modded the card yet thought, will let someone else do it for me next week mayby.

that does look a little overkill! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my card... the way my case is situated with my PSU on the bottom, my card is sandwiched between my gfx card and my psu. Although, having my gpu watercooled should help since there isn't a fan directly above the card. I do have the card spaced as well as I can though. I may just put some ERS paper on the top of my card and on the top of my psu... idk.

But I was thinking that I might just order 1000uf Blackgates instead of the 2200uf ones. they're smaller and cheaper... and the stock cap is only 220uf so it should be more then enough. I do not see any benefit from going all the way to 2200uf, someone tell me if I'm wrong but I think the 1000uf would be more then enough.

Does anyone else have any impressions on using ERS paper? This is the one part of the mod I haven't tried yet but I'd like to hear more opinions on it before I spend the money on the paper.

Did all of the mods today on XtremeMusic. Shifted op-amp, added Blackgate 2200uF 16V, ERS Paper and shorted the caps. And wow. I never though the source would do this much. My H5 and DT990 05 32ohm are finally shining as they should. Great mod, thanks cotdt

has anyone tried a 1000uf blackgate instead of the 2200uf cap?

I have a low ESR 480uF cap in parallel with default cap and it does its job well enough. 1000uF is great...

Actually, I am pretty sure that is is the soldering iron
Before, I practice my soldering skill with the soldering irons that was provided by my Robotic class teacher, everything was great.

But then, after three years, I decided to do soldering again... and now... I used a Radio Shack 25 W pencil and here is what happen.

first of all, the top of the soldering iron does not transfer heat well
I need to use the part that is like.. 1 or 2 mm away from the tip in order to heat up the soldering until it melts

second. the tip deform badly just by working with it for like... five hours.
It is badly deform until a point that there is a "hook" on the tip of it.

Third. I really think is because the soldering iron was not hard enough... since apparently, most of the heat that I apply to the capacitor socket when I try to desolder went to the heat sink of the x-fi processor. And the tip of the soldering iron was stuck on the board

Fourth: the tip actually gets lose after some soldering... I need to unplug the soldering iron, wait till it's cool, then tighten the tip again...

So, today, after finally went back home, I visit a local electronic store, picked up a Philmore 30W soldering iron for 8 bux. Even the replacement tip.... (even though the store owner told me that the tip should be good for like.. a year of soldering with normal/minimum usage, but hey, what the heck)

CONCLUSION: STAY AWAY FROM THE JUNKS IN RADIO SHACK, THEY ARE NOT GOOD, NO, NOT GOOD AT ALL

yeah your right, the radioshack one's aren't much good but should be alright for 8 joints.

db597 admitted he never tinned or used a sponge so it was him in this case.

Anyway, enough about soldering.

How are you finding this great, cheap mod?

file the iron tip?

The mod is pretty great, it made the card sounded much more clear, and much
much more realistic when I am listening to music.... (I turn my head around few times... )

but anyway, after the mode, my card barely fit into my case XD
It did eventually though.

Tomorrow i will have my card get modded.

One question, i still hesitate to short the caps. The card will be connected to a pretty expensive rig so i want to play safe.

Do i miss out on alot (sound quality wise) by not shortening the caps ?
it is still a big improvement if i only switch to blackgate and LM4562:s right ?

Really excited about this mod, hope i get close to what i had with my dedicated CD-player before.

Sold the CD-player becouse its so much nicer to have all music on the comp in FLAC and swich songs with the Creative remote (yes i am lazy haha)

if you are really concerned about the caps instead of shorting them just replace them with higher quality caps