Little Dot 1+
Hello,
My repair on the Little Dot 1+ was slow at first with a few difficulties after the rebuild/repair.
Thanks to 2 guys who helped me Diy Threath to find the causes, he runs again.Here again a big thank you.
As a reminder, an electrolytic capacitor from the power supply was defective on one of the poles and the left tube socket was also defective.
I replaced the 2200uf/ 25 v electrolytic capacitors with the Audio Note standard ones. (Hificollektiv)
The 2 tube sockets were replaced by ones with gold pins and set a little higher for more stability.(Hificollektiv)
The Elna electrolytic capacitors were replaced with 470 uf/16 v Nichicon Fg.(Hificollektiv)
Replaced the film capacitors with 2 new ones from Mex.(conrad electronik germany)
Some of them were bent to 90 degrees, one was pressing on the PCB and the other on the tube socket.
Replaced the Rca sockets with Audio note ones and re-soldered the wiring with silver instead of copper.(Hificollektiv and supermarket)
I kept the standard values for the capacitors, but replaced them with higher quality ones.
I kept running the little one to give burn in in a few hours.
I used the Brimar Ef92 tubes.
I left the Opa original for now.
(more about that later)
Headphones are currently the Aeon R/T.
I was glad that it was running again.
During the burn in I noticed that the bass had increased a bit and that the treble range had gained a bit more shine (probably due to the Nichicon Fg).
This remained the same afterwards, and it was remarkable that the overall temperature of the device was reduced by quite a bit and remained stable throughout, even after 4 hours and more.
I suspect that the Audio Note standard electrolytic capacitors contribute a lot to this.
With time I noticed that I was missing a bit of the final touch that it had before.
I spontaneously remembered that I still have a Burson V5i Opa.
I used it and gave it some time.
I didn't like the Burson as much as the original Opa before the rebuild and found it more than a step backwards compared to the original.
I thought it coloured the sound a bit too much and the bass was a bit off.
After rebuilding and replacing the Elna's with the Nichicon Fg, I think the Burson suits it better.
I think it brightened up the stage a bit more, and the breaks and separations are more coherent and fit better together in terms of tuning.
And brings a bit more stage freedom and closer to the vocals.
The bass has also become crisper and more to the point with a bit of pressure and in the right place.
What I was still missing after the rebuild was the light syrupy and fluid flow of the music.
That came back with the Burson.
I am blown away even though I personally did not know much about capacitors etc.
The result was positively surprising and not even expected.
Finally, it is worth making the small investment.
The capacitors are not too expensive.
In fact, you would probably only have to replace the Elna with the Nichicon Fg to get right down to the cost with the Burson V5i.
I can't say whether the Audio Note standard really has an additional influence.
Possibly they do.
The most expensive will probably be the Burson, which costs around 50€ at the time.
It's a pity that Little Dot saved money because of two or four capacitors in order to do without a better result.
This would have been a good added value and would have reduced the failure rate.
You are welcome to use this excursion as inspiration from me or as help for a repair or tuning possibility.
If the results were not so good, I would have left it uncommented.Have fun,
.