SonicJedi
New Head-Fier
I believe this will be my last post on the upgrades / mods. I had another go at it and changed the PS caps as well. I replaced the 3 x 280uF nippon chemi-con caps with 3 x Nichicon 330uF caps. I also bypassed the 0.68uF output caps with 0.01uf Vishay 1837.
The results, which I credit mostly to Vishays, are astounding. The piano notes go high, and have weight behind them and they decay beautifully. The bass is still tight and authoritative with my Paradigm Studio 60v5. I am very happy with these changes. I haven't had a chance to try how this setup will sound with my Senn HD 700s.
In summary, this is what I've replaced on LD MKIII v4 board:
1. Replaced the two crappy orange film generic looking things with 2 x 0.68 Mundorf Mcap Evo Oil Aluminum.
2. Replaced the PS bypass generic looking orange crap with 2 x 0.47 Vishay MKP X2 safety caps.
3. Replaced 4 x Ero 1840 0.22uF with 4 x Mundorf Mcap Evo Oil Aluminum 0.22uF.
4. Replaced 3x PS caps Nippon chemo-con 280uF to Nichicon 330uF.
5. Bypassed 2 x 0.68 Mundorfs with 0.01uF Vishay 1837.
All of this fits in the case. Although, it takes forever to get things back in again.
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I
The results, which I credit mostly to Vishays, are astounding. The piano notes go high, and have weight behind them and they decay beautifully. The bass is still tight and authoritative with my Paradigm Studio 60v5. I am very happy with these changes. I haven't had a chance to try how this setup will sound with my Senn HD 700s.
In summary, this is what I've replaced on LD MKIII v4 board:
1. Replaced the two crappy orange film generic looking things with 2 x 0.68 Mundorf Mcap Evo Oil Aluminum.
2. Replaced the PS bypass generic looking orange crap with 2 x 0.47 Vishay MKP X2 safety caps.
3. Replaced 4 x Ero 1840 0.22uF with 4 x Mundorf Mcap Evo Oil Aluminum 0.22uF.
4. Replaced 3x PS caps Nippon chemo-con 280uF to Nichicon 330uF.
5. Bypassed 2 x 0.68 Mundorfs with 0.01uF Vishay 1837.
All of this fits in the case. Although, it takes forever to get things back in again.
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I
Alright. Done with the second stage of upgrade. This is what I did in this part:
1. Replaced the two crappy electrolytic generic looking things with 2 x 0.68 Mundorf Mcap Evo Oil Aluminum.
2. Replaced the PS bypass generic looking crap with 2 x 0.47 Vishay MKP X2
It took me good 2.0 hours to do this minor upgrade, since Mundorfs are big, and it was a challenge to close it back. I ended up unsoldering all wires, got the board in, and then pulled in each direction and attached wires on each end. I ended up taping the leads because they may touch the sides. But, once in, there's good 1 mm space between the LD bottom and the caps - so all good.
Results:
After the initial upgrade of the 4 x .22uF Mundorf Evo Oil Aluminum coupling caps, the sound became really thin. So much so that Louis Armstrong sounded like Stevie Wonder. I am exaggerating a little bit. But really, the lower mids completely disappeared. I suspected that the caps were too small, and it was acting as a filter, by truncating lower frequencies. The bass became boomy. The highs were brilliant, airy and spacious.
I suspected because of those generic caps, there was something off. So, I ended up up upgrading the PS bypass caps as well.
After this upgrade, the mids are back! The highs are airy. The piano notes seem to hang in the air as they decay, it's beautiful. Louis Armstrong sounds like himself again.
One thing that has changed though, and that's baffling is that the volume is too low now. So I had to adjust the gain to 4, by toggling the switches. Before the upgrade, I was driving it by having the pot set at 12'0 clock. Now, I am getting the same volume at 3'O clock. Not sure what's the cause.
The sound's great though! Also, the noise floor has sank quite a bit, and there's much less ambient noise.
Here's a photo of the board: