| Originally Posted by mrarroyo I would strongly recomend the PinkFloyd mods. Lately Mike (PinkFloyd) has been swamped with work (I should know I have two of his Little Pinkies for my X-Can V3 and X-Dac V3) but he is working hard at clearing up the backlog (he has my X-Can V2 and an order for a third Little Pinkie for the V2). I believe there has also been an issue with the transformer supplier being a bit late. Just do not give up, the mods take this amp to a whole new level. Finally good choice, the V3 is a sweet amp. |
| Originally Posted by Duc Is the power supply worth it? How does it change the dynamics of the amp? |
| Originally Posted by Duc /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK, so after about a month of modding and playing around with the amp I have more to report to owners and potential buyers. I definately did modding in stages, added and removed certain features several times. The amp itself stock sounds good, no noise and plenty of power to drive I would say most anything. The k701's I run have yet to come close to clipping on anything I have thrown at them, from rock, metal, complex orchestrical, to the bass heavy electronic. I would say the amp lacks pop, it has the power, but needs help in sculpting the sound. First was the replacement of the stock JAN Phillips tubes. The JAN's tubes are clean and clear, but don't really have any characteristics that really make them shine or stand out. From UpscaleAudio I bought a set of Rocket Logo 6H23's and a set of Amperex Holland A-Frames, a little over $200 for both tubes, with the Amperex's being $140. Their mid range tubes are matched, extremely low in microphonics, and ship with 72 hours of run time on them. The Rockets add good warmth to the sound with better extension in the lows, but I feel the warmth veils the sound too much for my tastes, however the warmth gives a toe tapping quality to the music. The Amperex's are simply amazing. If I were to recommend a single mod, it would be the addition of the Amperex A-Frames. The resolution of the music is dramatically increased. The 701's have tremendous instrument seperation in what I feel would be left to right. With the Amperex tubes the sound is extruded front to back. They add a 3D space to the music and great resolution around the instruments.The mids and highs are crisp and well defined without being too sharp, but is borderline with some types of music. The music now has shape and visualization. At this point I would say the amp has enough to keep satisified and doesn't really need much more, but there is always the wondering what one can add to inprove the already great sound. The next step was the much talked about "PinkFloyd" mods. PinkFloyd (Mike) and Benny can install new Panasonic capicators throughout the amp. PinkFloyd's kit, I believe, has a few more caps and will include a detailed installation sheet. Both will install for you if you ship to them. I would go with Benny if you are in the States and PinkFloyd if you are in the UK, or Europe, both are in the neighborhood of $100. If you are a real DIY'er you can pick up the caps from Mouser or Digi-Key for about 30 bucks. After the initial installation of the Caps I was dissapointed with what happened my beloved Amperex tubes, they had completely killed the sound. I had bought my kit form Mike and sent him an email. He replied they I might have a dry socket and should try resoldering the caps. Dissapointed I removed the caps and reinstalled the OEM's. The Amperex sound was back. A little un-nerved I moved on to the power supply. Mike has a power supply he sells the "Little Pinkie". It seemd at the time he was short on supply and I ended up finding an X-PSU from a fellow Head-Fi'er. The stock Wall Wart adapter doesn't really seem to lack in any manner, but I had to find out. The X-PSU seemed to help quiet down the soundstage and almost put the listiner above the music, as in you are elevated above the soundstage. On complex passages the music is more relaxed and seems more capable in keeping the instruments seperated. Although the difference is noticeable, this would be the last mod on my list if I were to do it again. A few days pass and I decide to give the Caps another shot. After the installation the sound seemed clearer and cleaner, but I freaked and pulled them and reinstalled the stock caps again. After re-installing the stock caps I realized how much the Panasonic upgrade helped. The stock caps sounded lifeless and has less clarity compared to the Panasonics. So an hour later the Panasonics go back in where they have manage to stay. On the third installation of the caps I decided to throw in the Ultra Fast Diode upgrade. I used Fairchild UF4007 and had ordered the wrong ceramics fom Digi-Key so I went with some 500v .01uF ceramics from RadioShack. It seemed that the clarity was gone again, but since I had just head the differences in the caps I attributed this to the diodes and pulled them out and reinstalled the OEM 4007's. All is happy for a few weeks. I had decided to cut the roof open and install some sockets on the top of the case so I would be able to switch out the tubes faster than having to open the case up every time. This didn't work out so well (used tube sockets, cut wire too short) so I passed. In the process of removing my tube socket mod I decieded to give the diode mod another try. After installing I felt the sound was veiled and decided to try removeing the cermamic caps the next day. I removed the diodes and the caps, reinstalled the diodes and resoldered a few joints on the reinstalled tube sockets. The diode upgrade put a major improvement in the amp. With the diodes the amp seems more musical, as in the sound is much more engageing. After about an hour of listening I was trying to figure out how to describe how the diodes had made the amp more musical. When you think about it, how do you describe any change in the sound. You know it is there but how do you define it. Then it hit me, the music was colored. Not colored like it shouldn't be, but colored like you have been listening to the music like a Black and White picture and now you are looking at the same picture, but in Color. The instrumentation also seemed to have what was described by others as having more air around them, the resolution seems to have increased as well. Definately the number 2 mod to the tubes, $3 in UF Dioeds is more than worth it. After all is said and done and if I were to do it again, I would spend my money on: 1. Tubes, a great way to change the dynamics of the amp. 2. Diodes, adds color and air to amp 3. Capicators, adds clarity 4. Power Supply, relaxes the amp So after all these mods I have come to another realaziation. With this 'hobby' you can spend too much time listening to the equipment and not enought time actually listening to the music. You spend all your time trying to improve your equipment and spend your time trying to hear the difference, but what you are actually doing is listening to how the equipment effects the sound and not the sound itself. The sound could be better, but now off to find a better source
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| Originally Posted by Solitary1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Another endorsement of this great amp. Where is Team X-Can? If there isn't one, we need to start one. |
| Originally Posted by bonethugz /img/forum/go_quote.gif since i guess most of the x-can fans are here. maybe you guys can help me with this. i heard this benny(i remember this guy before, i remember him suggest me to get this amp but i wanted to get something special, or some limited edition so i got a headfive, that's another story though) mod and this pinkfloyd can make this sound like tube. i was, maybe still am thinking of getting one. if i wanted to get something to sound like tube. why don't i just get a tube amp instead of this? this takes time and probably more money too. how good is this modded x-can amp compare to some real tube amp? |
| Originally Posted by kool bubba ice /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Xcan3 is a tube amp.. |
| Originally Posted by Duc /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, as far as burn in goes, I find myself paying more attention to how the amp sounded, versus how it sounds now. The Russian tubes have about 75 hours on them. I thought the caps might need time but the OEM's had little burn in and had sounded better than Panasonics at the time. I am tempted to find another set of the 6H23's to see if they differ than the ones I have now, cause the ones I have now are awfuly warm. B |
