The Apple diyMod: My Take on the Famous iMod [56k killer] Featuring 3G, 4G, 5G and nano 1G! - Page 126

Well Black gates are running out , well what about Elna Cap ? any review on that ? i heard it is bang for bucks, 47 uf will be just well fitted in the dock

I have heard that the elna silmic II's offer better sound than the bg's but have yet to compare myself. Maybe it's just people trying to find alternatives as bg's won't be around much longer or maybe there is something in it?

Yes we should try other cap not stick to black gates do u guys agree?

I myself have moved away from BGs for a while now. And I have found comfort in using the very fine sounding Elna SILMIC and Cerafine series. Nichicon MUSE and Fine Gold series are superb as well but they may be a bit thin sounding to my ears (compared to SILMIC)

well AFAIK they are not in short supply at all, none of my sources are anywhere near drying up; I think they6 acdtually started making them again. I still prefer them to elna, but thats just me.

EFN, do you think the shield was there to protect the dac from EMI produced by the wifi transiever?? thats what I would guess.

pcyl: do you notice more interference when using Wifi than before?? I only ask because I just finnished a mod (4G photo) where I has to use twisted pairs for each channel to reduce interference produced by the HD and graphics processor.

and about that; will post pics shortly; just have to add to photobucket

well heres some pics; sorry about the quality. I had to use a bit of epoxy to immobilize the wires as being that they are cotton insulated 28AWG 6N cardas silver, which sounds great but freys, I had to stop that process, so the solder joints near the dac are not very visable in all but a couple of pics, but they are still accessable as I only epoxied very near the joints, not over them, so service is still p[ossible at both ends if needed, but they are still immobilized so they cannot contact anything they arent supposed to, including each other.

this one you can the joints; you can also see the remainders of my trial with leaving the inductors in the path to reduce noise, but decided to try other methods as the blitter noise was still there, not as much, but it wasnt as nice sounding... which is the main thing afterall.


^^ see that I have grounded the twisted pair by soldering to the .errmm ....thingy (technical term) that connects the ground planes of the 2 circuit boards. its only grounded at the one end as there was nothing close to the dac that was easily accessable; that is why there is a bit more epoxy than you would ythink nessecary, to seal off the end not soldered to anything (drain). also, this pic isnt as scary as it looks, the wires come down from the joint on the ....thingy, so arent as close to the other inductors as they appear. all teh same I needed to epoxy it in place to avoid movement.



so you can see I tried to keep to the edge as much as possible


^^ and a very blurry one, just to show how it fits with the battery in and in the case.

all of these pics arde in the correct orientation, so solder to the north pads near the dac and the south pads near the dock. I dont think I would use silver in cotton again, sounds great, but the fraying made it problematic. better off sticking to the silver in teflon I have. there is room for fairly decent size wires in this mod; in fact I even considered using the 24AWG cryoparts wire I just recieved, but thought best to stick to silver and I have had great results with silver in cotton with internal wiring before, but mainly point to point stuff where you can use heatshrink. I realize half these pics are of virually no use to anyone thinking of doing this mod but didnt think to take the pics until after it was done. sorry about that.

so not the cleanest of jobs visually, as I was faced with that damn blitter noise; i'm more than happy with the result, but its not the most attractive to look at. the first incarnation was rather neat (of course I would say that) but I just wasnt happy to leave something that could be improved on. so was a bit of an experiment to try and improve on it. and happy to say that part was an absolute success and now know what is needed. will also be on the lookout for some suitable coaxial wire to use in future photo mods.

Anybody actually succeeded in DIYmodding a zune 80/120GB? I am tempted to do this sometime in the near future

NOPE, hasnt the zune already got a decently clean HP out though?? might be why noone has bothered

Wouldn't the zune use the same DAC as iPod 5G yes? so I take it the output will be identical sounding if DIYmodded

iPod 1G touch

Now confirmed.

The shield can be taken off without really damaging it and is actually fairly easy.

Go around the bottom edge of the shield with a small, flat screwdriver. Slowly lift as you go around. It should pop right off, no problem.
You will have to cut a bit of the frame to get to the capacitor areas. After you are done, just modify the shield for the openings in the frame.

Here is a Cnet Pic of what I am describing:


Getting the iPod touch open is a Major PIA! That was by far I thought the hardest part.

BTW: I wouldn't worry sooooo much about the tiny resistors at the as they are 0.1ohm and you can just put a tiny blob of solder in their place without harming anything (it will likely register on your MM as .07ohm which is pretty close.

The solder job took about 30-40 while I watching a show. Yay, morning project! I would say that it took at least an hour to get the iPod open though. Overall, the whole project including making a DIYmod dock took about 3 hours.

I actually just used some XLO solid core copper wire as it had the thinnest dielectric.
As of right now, I am listening with a multi strand UPOCC silver with UPOCC Copper Thick Ground and using 47uf Cerafine caps. I have some very nice 4.7uf film caps that might be worth trying in a film dock (time for Radioshack!).

It is distinctly better than a stock iPod dock. I know that the Cerafine isn't exactly king soundstage, but I like them a bit better than BG's.


Thanks EFN!

Congratulations -=Germania=- on your DIYmodded Touch 1G. And thanks heaps for researching a better way to deal with the metal sheet. My tired eyes must have veiled my judgement when I tried to remove them off the first time.

And just a quick note, I have not listened to the Touch for more than 3 hours but it was enough to convince me that the modded Touch 1G does sound a bit more transparent than the 5G, Mini and 4G counterparts. I am all set about getting myself one in the very near future.

Unlike others, my LOD uses very low uF for the e-Caps. My all time fav 4.7 uF Elna SILMIC worked like a charm with the modded iTouch. I'd recommend those Elnas if you can get hold of them

Cheers

Yeah, all I had on hand in small enough packages were the 47uf cerafines. The 22uf Silmics were a bit too big for the sire I used. I also had some 10uf stargets, but they are only average quality...albeit tiny!

I will make a film dock today (I have some Audiophiler 4.7uf) though I need to make a quick trip to radio shack for a small project box and some Mini recepticles. A cheap and temporary solution. I might get another box for my little bluetooth reciever since it got a crack from a biker hitting me at a corner.