Help me mod my receiver. Suggestions welcome ; )

So my friend came over to my house to give me some money that he owed me, and he walks up with a receiver in his hands. Technics SA-AX730

He said it works, but I haven't tried listening to it yet, as I took it apart the second he left the room (I do that with all my new electronics. It's not a good habit). 

Anyway, I see some generic "Audio" caps in there. I was wondering if replacing those with "nicer" caps would be worthwhile. I'll be using these to power my speakers that I'll be building this summer, which won't be the highest end speakers either.

Capacitors I mentioned would be the largest 4 to the bottom left and right of the massive heatsink in the middle.

Marked as "Audio" capacitors

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoetheArachnid 

Bob, I think you need a new camera.

 

Perhaps you ought to listen to it first to try and work out what you want to change about it?

 I don't actually own any speakers atm. As far as the headphone out, I'd rather take a closer look at the circuit before I close it up (and give it a listen).

I'm really looking for a capcitor suggestions. I've never really looked at them, or their prices, but Blackgates seem to be the standard choice.

I'm just going to say that I quite like the way this amp sounds. It's by no means great, but it's better than I expected. The noise is much lower than it is on my Minimax, to my surprise (I'm going to order some output resistors to put in it, BTW. I currently have none in there, and it's a problem). I quite like this big guy! 

The design seems to be pretty nice, but I can't get to the board that powers the headphones, but I didn't try very hard either. I feel that with a boutique capacitor it might sound better than my Minimax, and that's saying a lot since I got this for free.

OK, I've been listening for a little while, and I've gotten a good taste of what this thing sounds like. It's mids and highs are actually quite good. The bass is a little wonky and kinda flops instead of kicking the way it should. I can live with those, but what I can't live with is that they aren't as detailed as my Minimax. The background detail gets buried and isn't clear. 

Replacing a capacitor wouldn't make these clearer, would it? I'm still looking around at the one I want to buy.

Ok guys. I'm back.

I'll be replacing all 4 of the audio capacitors (2 x 6500 uF 35 v & 2 x 7500 uF 75 v) so I'll let you know how that works out. These uF seem to be a really large number.  I'm also rewiring the board with SPC wires (the wires used currently look like they're falling apart).

There are several pots that change the treble and bass levels. There is also another pot that adjusts the L/R balance. I'm worried these might be affecting the sound in a negative way, and I also don't want these "features" on my amp. I'd prefer the sound coming out of the amp to be as close to the orignal sound as possible. Also, the sound is difficult to control in the low end with the volume knob. It goes from quiet to LOUD with 1 cm of turn (on my headphones). Would getting a better volume pot fix this? The pot that's in there now has a motor, and it used to have a remote until my friend lost it.

The capacitors that are installed currently are glued to the PCB, so it should be fun getting them out.

I'm having a lot of fun with this thing. The fact that I got something that worked, for free, is unusual for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holland 

hard to say anything without knowing what is driving the headphone jack....

I took a look, and it goes through several resistors, and then I kinda gave up (not enough light for those tiny traces. I'll take it in the other room and look). I'll be using these to power speakers too, so this ain't a one trick pony.