[baronbeehive]

  Definitely.
Just 8 resistor and 4 caps, and you reach another level.
Far beyond my expectations, in fact.

One step closer to modding the LD......., I've looked at a lot of caps and narrowed it down to the Audyn True Copper that you already have, and the Mundorf Supreme Silver in Oil and Supreme Silver/Gold in Oil. I would prefer the Mundorfs but since you can almost get a full set of Audyn's for the price of one Silver/Gold in Oil, it could be the Audyns. Looks like the combination of good detail and naturalness together with a bit of warmth would be a killer, just what I'm looking for to complement the HiFiMan sound.

 

[G600]

I haven't tested many, but you can't go wrong with the Audyn. They can be hard to source, that's the only drawback I see.
What size you chose ? Beware, they are on the big side of things !
They'll be installed by LD ?

 

[baronbeehive]

  I haven't tested many, but you can't go wrong with the Audyn. They can be hard to source, that's the only drawback I see.
What size you chose ? Beware, they are on the big side of things !
They'll be installed by LD ?

I thought 0.22uF, 630V as thats close to the LD upgrade spec and I heard that the bass is quite strong on the True Copper anyway. What are yours? I also like the look of the Audyn Tri-Reference even cheaper. I've got a valve engineer to do the upgrade, it's not my thing. I haven't found out the size yet, do you need to leave the bottom plate off?

 

[G600]

No, that's the point : you have to choose a cap that fits without leaving the plate off.
0.22 is probably fine, and it's cheap !
I strongly recommand that you upgrade the 8*330 Ohm 5W resistor. Put a good carbon film there, like Kiwame.

 

[baronbeehive]

  No, that's the point : you have to choose a cap that fits without leaving the plate off.
0.22 is probably fine, and it's cheap !
I strongly recommand that you upgrade the 8*330 Ohm 5W resistor. Put a good carbon film there, like Kiwame.

I'll do that too...... the fact that they're cheap means going to that next level even sooner now. The cost of the mundorfs really made me think twice about the mods. I really don't know what to do about capacitance values - they will go up to 2,20uF, whether they fit or not, I'm assuming that will only affect the bass and I'm not a basshead..... or into death metal .....but maybe it will have other effects.
 
I've had the LD for 6 years, so time for some more fun!!!

 

[G600]

Let's go for 0.22µF then, they fit !

 

[baronbeehive]

Copy that!

 

[baronbeehive]

  Let's go for 0.22µF then, they fit !

I've gone for it..... the waiting begins!

 

[G600]

 

[baronbeehive]

Cheers G600, resistors have arrived, still waiting for the caps. I'm interested to see what difference carbon resistors make, I must say I'm sceptical especially as not all resistors are being replaced, let alone the vital ones. I'll get my techie man to replace the ones you have had done in the 2 groups of 4 in your previous diagram. Why did you do these by the way? I'm just hoping that nothing bad happens such as what happened to ozaudios, maybe he dislodged something trying to remove the PCB. (Wonder what happened to him, everything was going swimmingly then.....).
 
Re the caps I was going to go up to 0.47uF but as the main reason was to save money cf the Mundorfs I didn't think it worth it to end up paying almost as much! Should still be a whole lotta fun.

 

[G600]

I replaced them because they were cheap chinese stuff.
They overheat often (it happend to some headfiers), and one of mine was brown.
Carbon film are higly regarded for tube amps, and Kiwames are "burn proof".
Have them replaced, I'm positive you'll hear the difference.
 
If your friend is a careful techie, nothing is going to happen, beside musical enhancement !

 

[Poladise]

I'm after a bit of advice guys. Received my new VI+ a few days ago. Yesterday I had some crackling on the left channel. Typical dying tube sound. Turned off the amp for a bit, powered back on and the right meter was at the usual 75-80, but the left meter was down to 40. There was no music in either channel though.
 
Whichever side the no.1 power tube is seated will produce the 40 reading. Any combo of the 2,3,4 tubes on either side will show 75-80, so it looks like just one bad tube, but shouldnt the amp still play one channel if only one power tube is out?

 

[Poladise]

Am I late to the party with this amp? Well David helped me diagnose the problem. That 1 bad tube was stopping both sides from working. Running with no power tubes on the left channel let the right side work again and same result vice versa with good power tubes on the left and no power tubes inserted on the right channel.
 
Cant wait to listen to it again. I'm used to disappointment with new amps, but this thing sounded awesome with only a few hours on it just using SE input, stock tubes and balanced out.

 

[Androb]

Am I late to the party with this amp? Well David helped me diagnose the problem. That 1 bad tube was stopping both sides from working. Running with no power tubes on the left channel let the right side work again and same result vice versa with good power tubes on the left and no power tubes inserted on the right channel.

Cant wait to listen to it again. I'm used to disappointment with new amps, but this thing sounded awesome with only a few hours on it just using SE input, stock tubes and balanced out.

Balanced sounds alot better than SE!

 

[Poladise]

Yeh I bet. I'm thinking tubes first, then new balanced dac, then maybe after warranty runs out i'll go for the resistor and caps upgrade.