[Jolida302]

I've got an Imod, and i'd be interested to have some reports of V Cap users to know how it upgrades the Imod. Thanks

 

[qusp]

I dont currently have a working VCAP dock although I have the caps and am building one right now. I have however spent a bit of time A/Bing a blackgate piccolino LOD and a piccolino Teflon Vcap dock; which IMO is AT LEAST one step above the ALO vcap OIMP dock; IMO from the time I spent with it. I found the image to become much more defined. the BG dock does sound good; no doubt about it, with good bass slam and a good feeling of weight behind the notes; but there is something a bit wrong about it. the bass and lower midrange can sometimes become a bit homogenous; that is a bit blended together and lacking in speed. to explain that further, instrument separation is there, but as far as the soundstage and detail in the bass; after listening to the vcap it seemed a bit closed in and lacking that last bit of extension, texture and detail. with the BG, sometimes two instruments seem to occupy the same space, but somehow the vcap maintains separation even with two things at the same frequency and pan. I dont know how it does this but it does.

and the highs OMG the highs; before I go on I should say that I was using stevenkelby's UBER dock with a LISA III XP with LLP and a both denon MD5000 jena re-cabled by steve and my SE530 IEMs. also both these combos with the RWA signiture 30.2. and K1000 (heaven)

the VCAP dock gave my shures extension in the highs I didn't even know they had. with a soundstage that extended well outside the boundaries of my head (go rockbox crossfeed

and female vocals sounded OHH sooo sweet.

I'm no good at all this lingo really, so I'll stop attempting to wax lyrical but suffice to say after this experience I came home to brisbane ordered some VCAPs and a hammond case and i'm on the hunt for some D5000 or D2000 to work some magic on. I wont stop until this has been achieved.

any specific questions man???

 

[Crikey]

Sry for my noobishness but could someone enlighten me on what a Vcap dock does? I've seen it thrown around here and used as a intermediary between an ipod (or is it only for imods) and an portable amp.

 

[qusp]

the VCAP is a tyupe of very high end capacitor. the vcap dock is a dock that contains VCAPs

it IS only for use with an IMOD or DIYMOD. in an IMOD/DIYMOD the purpose is to remove jthe cheap caps and inductors in the signal chain thus providing a much cleaner path to the amp. these caps are them replaced either inside the ipod (with Blackgate or other small quality caps) or in a dock outside the IMOD. this can take the form of an LOD, or in this case a larger case that has room for much higher quality and expensive capacitors) that signal is then passed onto an amp and audio bliss ensues

oh and to explain briefly why you need a capacitor at all; most sources (and the ipod is one) produce whats called DC offset this DC offset if left unfiltered will be amplified by your amp and then destroy your headphones or whatever you have plugged into the amp. when capacitors are placed in series with the audio signal they remove the DC offset rendering the signal safe for equipment. now since these caps are inline with the audio signal the higher their quality, the better the sound quality.

 

[tonyep]

I see people using external caps on unmodded ipods too!

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkkopi /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see people using external caps on unmodded ipods too!

yeah i've seen a couple of those wierdos getting around too; there was one in the gallery just after you a little while ago; said he was a friend of yours. What is going on there???

 

[Rico67]

Regular Ipod have soon internal caps.
When you use 2 caps (A+B), result of the capacitance 'll be less than the smaller value, so it have no sense.
You degrade the sound.
Use great caps if you have an imod, or a regular LOD with a regular ipod.

 

[SEABREEZE]

I attended a local meet this weekend , and one of the two best sounding systems was a

5.5g iMod and a stevenkelby iMod VCAP dock that sourced the Raptor, which had the senn 650's smokin. We tryied a 600 senn and it didnt give us the same synergy.

I have become a fan of the imod v cap dock. I want one

We took out the raptor and sourced it to a Cambridge Azur 860 cd player, and the synergy was lost

In my opinion a 5.5g iMod and a stevenkelby iMod VCAP dock that sourced with a good portable amp and you have the best of both worlds. One for travel and one for the home amp using the same 5.5g iMod and a stevenkelby iMod VCAP dock as source.

The question is which portable headphone will match up synergistically for the portable set up. As the senn 650 did for the home set up.

 

[jamato8]

I have some Russian teflon caps coming one of these days. At a fraction of the price of the V cap it should be interesting. I have used USSR teflons for a long time but these are a little different.

-----What Black Gates were used for the comparo?

 

[musicmaker]

I'm in the process of building a sonicap dock. Have all the materials, just need to find that time to build it. This post makes me want to do it real soon. The iMod with a blackgate LOD I build sounds pretty good for a portable. I wonder what kind of an incremental improvement the external dock with yield. Well I'll know in a few days. Its not a vcap but I'm not spending that kind of money. The sonicap is reasonably priced and I'm told sounds very very nice.

 

[jamato8]

What size of cap is being used?

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have some Russian teflon caps coming one of these days. At a fraction of the price of the V cap it should be interesting. I have used USSR teflons for a long time but these are a little different. -----What Black Gates were used for the comparo?

please update on those russion TFTF I just made an order at percy audio and he had them in stock but without any info on them I left it. wil get with my next order for a bypass if they sound good. may even buy some to make a second capped dock.

OH and i'm using 3.3uf (measured matched perfectly @3.37uf) OIMP VCAPs in mine with piccolino and cryo silver wiring and eichmann RCA sockets

LOD on piccolino, mini in/out and charging capability on the LOD via a lithion battery and USB to top it up

should put the corner frequency at 0.9hz and intermodulation starting at 9hz with any amp with a 50k input impedance (pico in my case but most quality portables seem to be 50k or above)

 

[pdupiano]

Is there now a general consensus on what rating Caps to use for an iMod/DiyMod dock?

 

[qusp]

not really; it depends on what the input impedance of your amp is. this is easily found out by what type of volume pot your amp uses. with a 50k/ohm input like the pico and the RSA amps are mostly you could get away with 2.2uf or even just a touch smaller. but with a 10k input you couldn't really go below 4.7uf. putting the corner at 3.386275389hz and roll-off starting at 33.86275389hz which is starting to creep into the audible FQ well and truly. With a 25k input 3.3 would be JUST ok with a corner of 1.929150828hz and roll-off starting at 19.29150828hz this number should stay below 20; so as you can see you just squeeze it in. i'm using 3.3uf with a pico with an input of 50k and that means the bass roll-off will start at 9.645754138hz with a corner FQ of 0.964575414hz; well low enough for anything you would hope to plug into it. With mosfet type amps they generally have massive input so you could go quite low indeed. the original pico had an input of 10k so that would have been an issue for me. Luckily I bought mine later; well I should say lucky I received mine later lol ;p

sorry ive wandered a bit there. generally if you use at least 4.7uf (can be a bit pricey with high end film caps) you will be safe and the roll-off will not effect the audible frequencies at all. although if your input is 10k or lower you would have to go considerably higher; ideally 10uf or above. the top shelf films dont really go that high though mostly

hope that helps

 

[Rico67]

i think Vcaps in the pvcaps are smaller.
if you look on the constructor site, only 0,68 uF have a size that can get inside PVcaps.
SO it's will work fine with 50 ohms imput impedance but no lower.
It's only base on the size of pvcaps, no electrical check.
Maybe it's a special production, but i doubt of it.
Often, it's better to use low value caps with great quality than the opposite.
Does someone have mesure it ?