[SoundEngineer]

   
SoundEngineer, thanks for your reply. I've been reading these forums on and off for a few years - I don't post that much but I do like reading what folks have to say. There are a lot of very dedicated people on this forum, and you are certainly one of them.
 
Does replacing the caps involve soldering? Is there a tutorial somewhere to peruse?
 
Not saying I'm gonna do it, but it has always been an intriguing idea. I've gone as far as replacing the fans on my MK VI+, that's it.

Levinhatz,
 
I am not sure if I am a dedicated person of this forum, but I do believe that I am one of the lucky people who made a great decision to buy LDMKVI+ and enjoy all the benefits.
 
Yes, you have to desolder the stock WIMA caps and solder the upgraded caps of your choice/taste.
 
Yes, the tutorial is on this forum broken into bits and pieces in many different postings.  I had to look through all the old postings and photos.  I have no electrical background.  All I know how to do is solder and make my own cables.  This was a very scary and seemed impossible task to do.  But I was highly motivated to reach that Sound Nirvana and took on the task myself (because my local amp guys would charge me an arm and a leg).  The result is beyond my expectation and I am in the Sound Nirvana that I have never experienced.
 
I have to be truthful and not hide any downside of this mod with Mundorf S/G/O.  If your source is not perfect...you might not enjoy your music.  As much as it made the sound really good...this is a highly accurate and micro-detailed capacitor and now I'm hearing all the flaws in the recording, inferior compression of files, and mistakes in the music.  The studio that recorded my wife's 1st album CD actually clipped at the busiest and loudest part of the song and this can be heard with the studio equipment at the studio.  I was not able to hear this with the stock WIMA cap because the sound was somewhat smeared and mumbo jumboed.  But because the Mundor S/G/O is so good at separating the instruments and is so accurate and detailed that I can hear all the details just like I was at the studio when they were recording.  This Mcap S/G/O might make you become a critical listener instead of just enjoying the music.  For those who want to enjoy the music might want to go with Silver/Oil which is said to be much more forgiving and musical.
 
IMO, for me the benefits of Mcap S/G/O overshadows this one downside of too much accuracy and micro-detail. As long as your source music is mastered perfectly and in a lossless format then Mcap S/G/O will enhance the enjoyment  by bringing out all the highlights of the music.  Also, for some of you this might not even be a downside if this high accuracy is what you are looking for in your music.

 

[SoundEngineer]

This is my PIMP MY AMP project.
 
Stage 1:
Gold meter and gold volume knob.

 

 
 
Stage 2: (future project)
Laser engrave or stencil with gold color for faded away Little Dot MK VI+ logo and marking for Power button.
 
Stage 3: (future project)
Sand blast the transformer cover, solid state rectifier cover, SE and balanced output. Then gold pate them all.
Also gold plate all six brass ring and the XLR connector to match with the overall gold on black theme.
 
Stage 4: (future project)
Replace the black rubber feet with gold feet.

 

[baronbeehive]

In reply to levinhatz, yes we are all nutters!! I agree with SoundEngineer, we've stumbled across the bargain of the century, more by luck than design in my case and trying to get the best sound possible out of our systems is all about getting all the parts to work well together. Because amps will not necessarily have the best possible parts in them from the start due to manufacturing costs it's fun to see if we can remedy this ourselves. Some amps do strive to have the best possible components from the start, such as in house hand wound caps, transformers and such like but they are the exception,although the mkvi does have many quality components from scratch. The mkvi is already cheap so it makes sense to spend a bit - or a lot - depending on your viewpoint, to make it that little bit better. I've had mine for 6 years and looking to keep it now so I want to make it as good as I can to enjoy well into the future. I also like the sound signature of the mkvi and it would be a minefield to change it now for something else and possibly disrupt the very thing I like about the system. I can't think of anything that I would change to in the price range or higher, until we are talking much more. But the main reason to change would be to have something with a differenty type of sound for example the 330B, EL84, push-pull, SET, all have their different characteristics.

 

[SoundEngineer]

Little Dot mk VI++ Mundorf Mcap Editon.
 
Here is the mock-up before laser etching for gold lettering.  
This is what it should look like or even better after the gold color lettering.
I changed the Phones 1 to Balanced and Phones 2 to SE.

 
The stock lettering was painted using silk screen and rubs off real easy and the Logo was rubbed off and looked bad.  So I decided to laser etch so it will be permanent and will never rub off.  Since I had to do this anyways I wanted to have little more fun by making this go with same color scheme of Mundorf capacitor gold on black theme.  Now this will be one of a kind special edition.

 

[SonicTrance]

  Little Dot mk VI++ Mundorf Mcap Editon.
 
Here is the mock-up before laser etching for gold lettering.  
This is what it should look like or even better after the gold color lettering.
I changed the Phones 1 to Balanced and Phones 2 to SE.

 
The stock lettering was painted using silk screen and rubs off real easy and the Logo was rubbed off and looked bad.  So I decided to laser etch so it will be permanent and will never rub off.  Since I had to do this anyways I wanted to have little more fun by making this go with same color scheme of Mundorf capacitor gold on black theme.  Now this will be one of a kind special edition.

Nice job, love your mods so far! Be sure to check the spelling before you laser etch though. It looks like it says "blanced" instead of balanced. Also, a shiny volume knob instead of matte would kick things up another notch i think

 

 

[SoundEngineer]

  Nice job, love your mods so far! Be sure to check the spelling before you laser etch though. It looks like it says "blanced" instead of balanced. Also, a shiny volume knob instead of matte would kick things up another notch i think

 

MisterX,
 
Thank you so much for your proof reading!

  I learned in high school that it's always good to have someone read your rough draft.
 
I totall agree with you on the shiny knob.

 I already ordered a gold plated solid brass knob from China and the one in the picture is just for temporary to give me an idea of what it will look like.
 
Thanks for your encouraging comment.

 

[Maxx134]

there is something interesting for you .. links... ..

John57 fixed links here:

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html


http://www.co-bw.com/Audio_High_End_Capacitors.htm

Thanks alot for these links they explain greatly on the sound description of different caps and show that the Mundorf gold/silver/oil are at the top of the best and probably the best upgrade possible of most improvement in this amp as the design is already so well designed.

It was stated in this thread the .67uf is at limit of where spund benifit is herd and a 1uf was stated to increase bass level slightly.
Going beyond that size would likely be an unknown as to hiw it would affect the design.
My personal fear is current surge to input stage of power tubes..
Since I don't have clue of design.

For the mk8se amp,
which less memebers here have,
the caps don't have to be as large,
due to it using much smaller 12xx7 type tubes for the pre- stage..
So .22 was the only available recommend upgrade over the stock caps...
A Member PMed me that .33uf was ideal for the mk8,
So I would not pass .47uf for the mk8 due to same reason too much of a good thing (capacitance) is not necessarily a safe thing for inputting into the power tube stage.
That's my personal opinion altough I have not looked into it .

 

[SoundEngineer]

Volume knob backlight.  This wasn't in my original modding plan but I decided to just give it a try and see how it looks.  I think it turned out ok.  I am going to change the color to orange or orange-yellow to match the two side meters or the orange glow of the vacuum tube heater.
 
I still need to adjust the led positions to even out the light coverage.

 
With low power mode you can just see the ring around the volume knob.

 
With high power mode you can see the volume level markings as if they are glowing.

 
Maybe red or orange-red might be more close to the color of the vacuum tube heater.  I guess I will have to buy bunch of LED and just experiment until I get the right color.

 

[levinhatz]

That's looking pretty zexy....

 

[Benny-x]

  That's looking pretty zexy....

agreed! Especially that frontal... With that illuminated ring! Damn. I don't know I'd change it, if only for that.

 

[SoundEngineer]

  That's looking pretty zexy....

Yes, I do think it's pretty zexy, too.
 

  agreed! Especially that frontal... With that illuminated ring! Damn. I don't know I'd change it, if only for that.

Yes, indeed the frontal is my favorite shot just like everything else...

 
Thank you for your positive comment.  I will try to get the best "frontal" shot as possible when everything is done.  I will also take some shot of the "back side"

 of the knob to show how I laid the LED's.

 

[SoundEngineer]

I am seriously bothered and need some help.  I seriously need some kind of explanation to why this is happening.
 
Here is what I did: (my goal of upgrading the resistors was for better internal heat management...I really didn't need to because of the upgraded fan mod.  I did not do this for sound improvement)
 
Bottom x4 stock Chinese resistors were replaced with Vishay Dale CW-5 330ohm wire wound resistors.

 
Also the top x4 stock Chinese resistors were replaced with Vishay Dale CW-5 330ohm wire wound resistors.

 
The result is slightly improved liquidity (LDMKV+ was never grainy to begin with, it made the sound slightly more liquidity), very subtle extended decay, very very slightly delayed attacked, and slightly and very subtle softer attack.  Because of this stage seems lot wider with more depth.  Sound is lot more pleasing to my ears.  I don't feel like I'm in the front of the stage anymore.  I am just shocked. 

 
I love this sound so much that it freaking bothers me!!  When there is an improvement I need to know why and make sense of it and explain to others to recommend it.  But I don't know what happened here.  I did not expect a slightest change or improvement in my sound signature because this upgrade was just for the improvement in heat dissipation. But this resistor upgrade unexpectedly raised level of the sound quality up another notch.
I thought these resistors were not in the signal path?  The fact is they are not and this is what bothers me.  Why is there subtle but noticeably pleasant sonic improvement?!!  Now I can't do anything!  I can't go to work, eat, and sleep!  All I want to do is listen to all my favorite music.
 
Am I using a resistor that's not the size that was originally designed for?  Is it the quality of the resistor?  (I believe LDMKVIII SE comes with Vishay/Dale resistors stock but smaller size.  I don't know the ohms rating.) Or is it the combination of Upgraded capacitor and the resistor combination?  Or is it that my Mundorf S/G/O is burned in and it's true sound signature is coming out?
I wish someone can give me their opinion and thoughts to explain this situation.

 

[G600]

I clearly stated q while ago that the resistor upgrade over those blue piece of sh... is as big as the cap upgrade.
I don't know if there is any metal into those metal films, but them being in the signal path is naughty.

 

[SoundEngineer]

  I clearly stated q while ago that the resistor upgrade over those blue piece of sh... is as big as the cap upgrade.
I don't know if there is any metal into those metal films, but them being in the signal path is naughty.

G600,
 
I am sorry I didn't read your impression regarding the resistor upgrade.  I would have done this upgrade first before anything if I read your review and also if knew how much improvement it was going to make.  
 
I agree with you on the fact that the sound improvement is as big as the cap upgrade.  The sound improvement is subtle but they are in the noticeable category such as soundstage, decay, attack, and Liquidity.  The improved liquidity is creating smoother harmonics and the improved decay and attack also accentuated the harmonic overtones.  I thought my sound can't get any better after the Mundorf upgrade but I couldn't believe my ears and was literally in shock that it was so pleasing to my ears.
 
My question is how is this possible.  How can changing the resistor for the power tubes that are not in the signal path make such a pleasant and beautiful improvement?  I got x10 Vishay/Dale resistors for $8.  That's $.80 each and times 8 equals $6.40.  How can $6.40 upgrade make such a pleasant improvement?  This doesn't make sense to me.  I got way with more that what I asked for.  I am a logical guy and things has to make sense logically.  I did the resistor upgrade only to overkill the internal heat protection...but now I got both better heat management plus sound improvement.
 
G600, you and I both know and experienced that there is a huge I mean HUGE benefit to upgrading the resistors.  But can you please explain to me in scientific or electronic terms on why there is this improvement in liquidity, extended decay, delayed and somewhat soft attack that makes the sound so pleasing to the ears?
 
After note:
 
Here is another important improvement that I forgot to mention.  The power output also improved.  I used to listen with my volume level at 30 mark.  But now I am listening at 20 mark.  I can't listen at 30 mark anymore because it's way too loud.  My gain setting has not been altered, they were at low setting before the upgrade and after the upgrade.  Could this improvement in power output be one of the many factors that improved the sound signature and quality?

 

[coinmaster]

You know mundorf makes resistors too right?

. Also wirewound resistors are inferior to metal film resistors so there could be room for even more improvement.