Graham Slee Novo Upgrade?

[amcananey]

Has anyone here ever undertaken any upgrades on their Graham Slee Novo (other than buying the PSU1)? If so, what did you do?
 
Regards,
Adam

 

[Old Git UK]

It’s probably of no benefit to the original author as it’s over 10 years since the post was made. I recently acquired a Slee Novo which has Ver 2 on the board. I’m assuming it’s original in respect to components. I’ve seen other post criticising the quality of components used with specific reference to cheap capacitors and cheap volume pot. That criticism is at odds with my findings as at least one pair of caps in the signal path are 10uF Nichicon FW. Perhaps the Ver 2 included component changes as there are plenty of polystyrene caps which are great for audio circuits. Turning to the volume pot the one fitted is a 50K Alps with its casing separately earthed. Again perhaps the Volume pot was introduced on the Ver 2 board? My Novo came with a standard plug in power supply which is being replaced with a much higher quality device featuring 3 levels of filtration. I’ve used similar power supplies on other low voltage circuits and they provide a considerable improvement in offering a stable and quiet output eliminating RFI, and EMI. I have previously experimented with component changes in an old MF XCANS changing the Opamp and also closer tolerance, better quality caps with increased values where I felt there was limited headroom. Many of these changes were recommendations on the Rock Grotto website. The Novo has been criticised for its overly bright presentation which can cause listener fatigue with certain source material. After a bit of experimentation with different component values I have managed to tame any tendency to brightness in the tonal balance. Now I’m able
to enjoy all source material, even the brightest recordings without reaching for the volume knob. I settled on Nichicon FW for the main 1000uf filtration caps and the 470uf values have been replaced with a Nichicon Muse BP. The Muse BP sounded better than a Panasonic or Nichicon FW. The existing pair of 4.7uf were replaced by a larger 10uf Nichicon FW. Physically they are about the same size but the Muse BPs are larger than the generic factory caps they replaced. These encroach on the space allowed for one of the new Nichicon 10uFs so it was relocated to the reverse side of the board where there is sufficient space. I guess there was a trade off when designing the Novo where component selection was driven not only on cost grounds but also the available board space. The biggest improvement however was made when I changed the 10uF for a Nichicon FW 47uf. This immediately gave a much broader sense of soundstage depth and width and a noticeable gain in detail that was previously hidden in the mix. I knew it was there as I had picked it out when listening my vinyl copy of Nick Drakes Pink Moon. The phono stage fitted to my Crimson 510 is particularly revealing. I thought it was down to the Hifiman Ananda lacking resolution. I’m glad to be proven wrong. The closest analogy is a bottleneck affecting the original 10uF which was removed by raising the headroom offered by the 47uf cap. Each component change was made a week apart so I could evaluate and confirm there was an improvement. I had changed a couple of the polystyrenes to Wimas but without any detectable improvements I reverted back. I’ve run it for a couple of weeks now and it really has proven a worthwhile upgrade. So impressed I've acquired a second Novo to use in my Motorhome. Can’t wait to plug in the better power supply when it finally arrives.

 

[Old Git UK]