[Bigjppop]

I'm the proud owner of the DV 337 and have been very pleased with it overall. I've had fun rolling tubes into it and am pretty sure I'm set with what I've got (Tung Sol 5998's and some Tung Sol mesh plates for the drivers).

I'm just curious if any Darkvoice owners out there have modded their amps. It seems that this is one of the rare pieces that I never see anyone talking about modding. Does everyone keep their's stock? I'd love to hear what, if anything, you've done to your amp and how the sound has changed.

 

[Skylab]

I have not modded mine. I was thinking about it, and even asked another head-fier who does such things about it, but the 337 is pretty well made, and it just never ended up seeming like a good financial investment. I use my 337 every single day, and love it - it is the headphone amp in my family room, where my main hi-fi lives.

Tube rolling has taken it's toll on one of the my 337's tube sockets, however, and that socket is a little fussy about how the tube sits in the socket, so I am beginning to think about the mod again - what I would do is upgraded internal wiring, upgraded caps, and massively upgraded tube sockets

But have not pulled the plug yet on doing it.

 

[fhuang]

nobody is doing/talking this maybe because there's already a different version? actually there are two i believe. one is the se version, you know with the gold face lift/cover and the other is just the same. i saw the one now selling in Hong Kong is different than the one i have. i notice the switches(the stick) are different. how's the sound? i don't know. i didn't try that out.

 

[RickEC]

One of the local shop, during a discussion, mentioned that he has modded a DV337. He changed caps and the wirings amongst other mods. I have not come to the stage where I find DV337 limiting my audio chain. Might in the future send in the unit for mod, but not now. Fiddling with the tubes, interconnects and the duo power cables have kept me busy, still.

I would be keen to hear results of modifications here though.

 

[Skylab]

I decided not to go for a 337SE because of the change from the 6SJ7 to the 6BX6/EF80, because I have a nice collection of great 6SJ7GT's, and didn't want to start over in that regard.

 

[Bigjppop]

Well I have to say I'm a little shocked... it seems that the feeling so far is "The 337 is good enough and doesn't need to be modded." Has such a thing EVER been said of ANY amp in the history of Head-fi!? I was always under the impression that anything good could be made better by modding.

Of course some of the above is tongue in cheek, but still... I'm really shocked that more people haven't gotten into modding this amp.

Like I said up top, I'm very pleased with the sound of this amp so I should just sit back and enjoy, right?

 

[Skylab]

You can always "mod" it by tube rolling

While I think your tubes are great, why not torture yourself and try to score some GEC UK-made 6AS7G's? That will keep your mind off doing any mods

Also, have you tried playing with power cords?

 

[frank99]

Here is a link I post before about the mod for a DV337, the output caps were increased from 51uF to 100uF. It is in Chinese, but has a many pictures that basically describe themselves quite well.

DV337 upgrade

Also it is not hard to buy/build the 6SJ7 to EF80 converters, I think that's the easiest way to "mod" the DV337.

 

[Bigjppop]

I haven't tried any power cord "rolling", I'm a pretty faithful Signal Cable user and have been very pleased with their product. I am curious about these EF80 tubees though. This could also be very interesting.

 

[fhuang]

for power cord, i really want to try something new. i've been using the darkvoice for more than a year. i remember switch from stock/pc cables to ps audio punch. there was really an improvement. right now i'm thinking voodoo mirage and cardas quadlink

 

[Skylab]

I got some EF80 adapters made so I could use them in the normal 337 in place of the 6SJ7GT, but I did not find them better sounding. In fact, I prefer the mesh-plate Tung-Sol 6SJ7GT over the Amperex mesh-plate EF80.

 

[jbloudg20]

I'm very willing to bet that changing the output caps would be a pretty major upgrade.

 

[Skylab]

Yep, that, the wiring, and the tube sockets would be the things to do.

Now, who feels like modding mine for me

 

[setamp]

Quote:

I'm very willing to bet that changing the output caps would be a pretty major upgrade.

Has anyone upgraded the output caps in this amp?  Which caps did/would you use?