[dough head]

By passing the caps is the way to go. You were right, as you already knew, Scottiebabie. The apparent bass from the Black Gates was due to the masking of the top end stuff. Without the output caps the bass is real, the soundstage huge and the detail outstanding. It is possible to hear loads of extra things going on, double tracked guitars, vocal placement(Phil Collins is singing backing vox just over John Martyns left shoulder on the Grace and Danger album), reverb from the vocal booth and so on..........
 
It is all too apparent that a lot of modern remastered cds are not actually as realistic sounding as the earlier issues. The Rolling Stones remasters sound fantastic in the car but not as good as the Bob Ludwig versions did years ago. Charlies high hats just sound like tizz tizz on the remasters and not like metal cymbals at all. Interesting, in an anorak way The older ones sound better cranked up a bit. The instruments etc.... are all better separated on the old ones as well.
 
This will save a pile on getting remasters.

 

[]eep]

If your traces are lifting maybe what I do is a good idea. I do not insert the wires directly into the holes because the milspec teflon wire I use is just a little bit to thick. So I solder a little strand of solid copper (w/e) wire I clipped from the overlength of the caps wires in the hole and leave it there. I solder my wire to that little stub. Or try to get sockets like Iizuka.

And on the subject of remastering: some remasters are really good (I like the Genesis remasters) some are less good and very often it's just for easy commercial gain. And the temptation to suddenly compete in the loudness war is just too compelling. When that happens you loose dynamics like a bad burrito.
Sometimes old records were compressed because of the lp mastering, not everyone had a turntable of todays standards. So if you can master the original tapes in the original dynamics then its worth the effort. But most modern remasters for cd sound worse than my original lp's. Old remasters from the 80's-90's of famous recordings are often just terrible. Just like the first digital recordings in 14bit/16bit.

Actually we live in very interesting times for audiophiles. The range in quality is tremendous, all the possibilities are there. And all the more chance for the cloth-eared record-company bosses to screw up.

 

[ardilla]

Someone please post a pictures of a bypassed Muse? And some nice instrudtions? Would be bery appreciated )

 

[viatraco]

Quote:

Jep, that's the one. Using a voltmeter to measure the output and a tiny screwdriver to trim the "Trimming Potentiometer" (see picture) you can adjust between 8 and 13 V appr. But 9V is best (Muse doesn't get so hot). Inside the MuseDac on the board it is printed 9-12V, so it is very much ok. 

 

Are you sure ? I've read earlier that adjusting is between 5-10V .This is important to because I want use teradak supply for muse and audinst. I need 9V and 12V.

 

[]eep]

Yes I am sure. It works perfecttly. I didn't turn it all the way up, but it had like 8V and it was really easy turning it up to 12V. I then went back to 10.5V.


This is all for the shorting of the outputcaps.

Use a little rod or wire, or just solder it over with a blob of solder. You can leave the caps in situ.

 

[ardilla]

same here

 

[Chefano]

Just received the russian PIO's.
I think it its the first time that Ive listen to  a paper in oil cap. Dont know if its a "new toy syndrome", but oh boy, they sound so fluid, so smooth, tons of details. To bad they are really big, and I dont have any amp at home that uses caps in decoupling to test the tda1543 in bypassed config.
The black gates must wait, Im in love with 2 russian ladies now 

 

 

[viatraco]

Is good idea and safe to use tantalum capacitors on analog output ? "KEMET T110 10uF 20v 10%" . Size and voltage is doesn't matter for now, just example pictures (1xTDA1543 and another unknown DAC). Keyword is "tantalum"
 

 

[ardilla]

So, in order to test, one can actually just hold a screwdriver while playing at each short-cut point and listen to the difference on the fly, so to speak?
 
What's this about not all amps tolerating such a short-cut?
 
Quote:

This is all for the shorting of the outputcaps.

Use a little rod or wire, or just solder it over with a blob of solder. You can leave the caps in situ.
 

 

 

[Chefano]

Quote:

So, in order to test, one can actually just hold a screwdriver while playing at each short-cut point and listen to the difference on the fly, so to speak?
 
What's this about not all amps tolerating such a short-cut?
 


 

The problem of doing this mod withou knowing if your amp has or not coupling/decoupling caps is that you can really damage your speakears/headphone.  Doing the mod you are  allowing DC enter in the signal path, so if you have doubts about that, I would advise you to not do it.
 
 

 

[scottiebabie]

Quote:

So, in order to test, one can actually just hold a screwdriver while playing at each short-cut point and listen to the difference on the fly, so to speak?
 
What's this about not all amps tolerating such a short-cut?
 


 

bud thats aint something i would do personally as i dont think my hands are steady enuff to hold a solid full contact for an extended listening session. plus my hands mite just slip & perhaps short out some other components. for me, soldering a straight wire across the cap ends seems such an easy & safe proposition that i'd be a fool to do it anyother way.
 
but thats just me. all i can says try it with the screwdriver & let us know how that pans out. goodluck bud
 


Quote:

The problem of doing this mod withou knowing if your amp has or not coupling/decoupling caps is that you can really damage your speakears/headphone.  Doing the mod you are  allowing DC enter in the signal path, so if you have doubts about that, I would advise you to not do it.
 
 

the easiest way to determine if your amp is cap coupled in any shape or form is to measure the amps out via a DMM. if u keep the vol at min, there'll be zero gain (ie no amplification of any incoming signal & suspect DC if any). cant get any safer than that as neither speakers nor headphones need to be hooked up for this 'test'.
 
FWIW the Muse's cap decoupled (ie.short'd out) measures a full 3.7v DC. yes thats a 3700mv for those of u not quite into the full volt. LOL! on the other hand, non of the amps (that i have & am using the Muse with) measures any substantial DC - 1-10mv +-1mv at worst. as usual on all things, caveat emptor 

 

 

[SP Wild]

 
Quote:

So, in order to test, one can actually just hold a screwdriver while playing at each short-cut point and listen to the difference on the fly, so to speak?
 
What's this about not all amps tolerating such a short-cut?
 


 

 


Quote:

The problem of doing this mod withou knowing if your amp has or not coupling/decoupling caps is that you can really damage your speakears/headphone.  Doing the mod you are  allowing DC enter in the signal path, so if you have doubts about that, I would advise you to not do it.
 
 

Best advice right there.  You should be familiar with DC offset and how to measure it.  Use the multimeter you used for adjusting the voltage of the Teralink PSU and follow the instructions of this link:
 
http://www.rock-grotto.co.uk/dcoffset.htm
 
Can't get to the internals of the amp? no problems, cut off a cheap 1/8 headphone cable and measure from the wires.  PM me if you have a problem.  My experiments with building a headphone amp and chucking out the DC filter capacitors improved sound significantly.  But first I made sure the DC output of the entire system was within tolerable limits without the capacitors.
 
Also turn the volume knob and check DC offset through the entire travel.  The amp will amplify DC off set from the source if it doesn't have input filter caps.  I am not aware of any commercial amp that doesn't filter out stray dc offset from sources, nor am I aware of any commercial DACs that doesn't filter DC offset. 
 

 

[petemac110]

My Muse arrived yesterday! It runs quite hot on 12V so I'm running it on 9V and I cant tell the difference sonically, so all is good in that regard.
 
I don't mind the sound of it in standard form - quite forward in the midrange with limited high-end extension and sparkle compared to my Hotaudio DAC WOW, and not as tight overall. Very easy to listen to though! I think it will grow on me, particularly after some mods as outlined in this thread.
 
Interestingly, the output caps on my Muse are Elna Silmic 10uf 35V (not Silmic IIs). They have the brown sleeve with white printing. I have a load of Silmic IIs here and they look really similar.
 
I really don't know whether they are genuine or fakes, but I'd like to think that they are genuine, and perhaps new-old stock.
 

 

[ardilla]

Thanks - and welcome back SP! 
 
Did you get your broken Muse replaced?
 
Quote:

Best advice right there.  You should be familiar with DC offset and how to measure it.  Use the multimeter you used for adjusting the voltage of the Teralink PSU and follow the instructions of this link:
 
http://www.rock-grotto.co.uk/dcoffset.htm
 
Can't get to the internals of the amp? no problems, cut off a cheap 1/8 headphone cable and measure from the wires.  PM me if you have a problem.  My experiments with building a headphone amp and chucking out the DC filter capacitors improved sound significantly.  But first I made sure the DC output of the entire system was within tolerable limits without the capacitors.
 
Also turn the volume knob and check DC offset through the entire travel.  The amp will amplify DC off set from the source if it doesn't have input filter caps.  I am not aware of any commercial amp that doesn't filter out stray dc offset from sources, nor am I aware of any commercial DACs that doesn't filter DC offset. 
 

 

 

[Chefano]

 
Quote:

 


 



Best advice right there.  You should be familiar with DC offset and how to measure it.  Use the multimeter you used for adjusting the voltage of the Teralink PSU and follow the instructions of this link:
 
http://www.rock-grotto.co.uk/dcoffset.htm
 
Can't get to the internals of the amp? no problems, cut off a cheap 1/8 headphone cable and measure from the wires.  PM me if you have a problem.  My experiments with building a headphone amp and chucking out the DC filter capacitors improved sound significantly.  But first I made sure the DC output of the entire system was within tolerable limits without the capacitors.
 
Also turn the volume knob and check DC offset through the entire travel.  The amp will amplify DC off set from the source if it doesn't have input filter caps.  I am not aware of any commercial amp that doesn't filter out stray dc offset from sources, nor am I aware of any commercial DACs that doesn't filter DC offset. 
 

Well.. most of designs that run on opamps dont use DC blocking, at least Im aware. I have two headphone amps, both from famous designer, and both just pass DC direct to  the headphones.
So.. The best is to test =D