[atistatic]

  Very clear and spacious sounds also can mean that bass is also very tight which can give the impression of less bass. The VI+ has a very clear sound in general. Just use the output you like. Some different driver tubes do have a darker sound.

and ... with which one i get a flat sound signature?

 

[Poladise]

Just in case it's my wiring, here's the signal path through my XLRs. Pretty sure that's right, but can someone confirm? cheers
 

 

[john57]

The wiring look okay if looking at the 4-pin xlr jack on the VI+ or the back of the XLR cable, not the front.

 

[Poladise]

Yep that's how I had it it, thanks John. Looks like it's time to start searching for a balanced dac...

 

[greenkiwi]

Yep that's how I had it it, thanks John. Looks like it's time to start searching for a balanced dac...

Any friends near by with one? Or another head-fier?

Or an audio dealer?

 

[Poladise]

Yeah Item Audio are not a great distance from me, pretty good to deal with, might pay them a visit.

 

[greenkiwi]

I'd do that... no reason to spend money chasing the wrong problems.

 

[Maxx134]

John57,

Thank you so much for the clarification.  I can now focus on just getting four caps upgraded.

Can someone recommend a good place to buy Mundorf silver/gold/oil caps?  I've seen them on ebay but not sure if I should buy them from ebay.  I was looking for some more reputable sellers.

http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_film_mundorf_sgo.html

Wow, just made an interesting (noob?) discovery. When I first got the VI+ a few months ago I used it single ended for a couple hours before altering my LCD2 & Grado cables to add the 4 pin balanced connections. When I tried it balanced, I thought it sounded cleaner and wasnt sure if I was just imagining it, but there seem like less bass. I do remember craving some more body to the sound in the few weeks afterwards, but I then sent it back to LD to sort a slight channel imbalance and upgrade the caps.

Got the amp back recently and was impressed with the clarity improvement from the new caps, but still thought the VI+ was too anemic sounding. Over the last week I became tired of it's sound: very clear and spacious, but lacking any low end grunt and almost unpleasantly forward mids. I'd been looking to see what bass heavy tubes I could buy to fix it. 

Then tonight I thought back to when I first tried the amp and about that switch to balanced being a bit thinner sounding. Made up an adapter to go back to SE... yes! totally fixed, everything I was missing has been filled back in, sounds sooo much better now.

Is that weird balanced sound i've been getting, the effect of my single ended source being converted to a balanced signal in the amp?

This definitely sounds like an out of phase problem. .
either your wires to the amp or your headphone cable. ..
test by using another headphone and cable. ..

Replace the cables from source to your amp. .

I once received a headphone that previous owner thought he blew one driver and it was because he wire one side opposite. .

Anyways it does sound odd to have more bass on single ended when you should have much more power running out of balanced outputs. .

 

[coinmaster]

Does anyone know where I can look up how to replace the default caps with mundorf caps? I can't seem to find any guides.
Also does bigger mean better?

 

[SoundEngineer]

  Does anyone know where I can look up how to replace the default caps with mundorf caps? I can't seem to find any guides.
Also does bigger mean better?

coinmaster,
 
I am in the same shoes.  I am planning to upgrade to mundorf 0.68uf 1000v Silver Gold Oil.  I modified my fans to dual 140mm and mounted them on the bottom of the case.  So I have enough room for the bigger cap.  I am not sure if bigger is better.  But we know 0.33uf had a good review and only reason he didn't go larger was because Little Dot wouldn't install bigger ones because of the size limitation.
 
My biggest question is polarity.  I have never installed caps before and I don't want to put them on with wrong polarity.

 

[coinmaster]

what about 10uf caps(not 0.10)?

I'm just not sure how I would even go about replacing them. I would assume I'd have to desolder the default caps and then solder on the new ones. I have no experience soldering electronics to circuit boards so that would suck (or any soldering skills at all).

 

[Poladise]

This definitely sounds like an out of phase problem. .
either your wires to the amp or your headphone cable. ..
test by using another headphone and cable. ..

Replace the cables from source to your amp. .

I once received a headphone that previous owner thought he blew one driver and it was because he wire one side opposite. .

Anyways it does sound odd to have more bass on single ended when you should have much more power running out of balanced outputs. .

 
Hmm, I've had mixed info on whether VI+ can even be used with a SE dac fed to the amps SE inputs while using headphones connected to balanced. Obviously there's sound, but maybe it's not supposed to be used like that. I havnt tried swapping cables, Ill try that soon. Cheers Maxx

 

[Poladise]

I think the audeze cable must have been causing some issues. I started losing the left channel when the cable moved, right on the bend of the mini xlr connection on the LCD. Got a new cable now and not getting the weirdness I had.
 
With SE dac to SE input, balanced out does sound slightly cleaner and SE out does have slightly more low end presence, but nothing like the differece there was before. I bet a balanced dac would improve the bass weight a little, people with Mjolnirs have reported the same going from SE to balanced dacs.

 

[SoundEngineer]

I am sorry to change the subject.  I need help.
I took all the screws out that hold the board but the board will not come apart from the case.
 
Can someone who upgraded their own capacitor help me how to go about getting this done?
I just bought x4 Mundorf 0.68uf 1000dcv Silver Gold Oil Caps and I am stuck.

 

[SoundEngineer]

I got it out!!!  I searched through the older post and found ozaudio's post regarding caps and resistor upgrade.  I just needed to wiggle it out.
Upgrading is not as easy as I thought.  There are so many wires and zipties.  I should have taken pictures before I cut the zipties because now I don't remember what went where =..(
 
I think I'm going to upgrade my resistors to (Kiwame 5W 330 ohm Resistors) just like Ozaudio did only because I have the board out and I do not want to repeat this process again.
 
Does anyone know changing x8 big blue resistors make any difference in sound quality?