[jonnywolfet]

hi all.
i am turning my mint into a pre-amp, as the sound sig of it is great for my dt770 and my warm valve amp (and because its cheaper to use it than buy another option). i am aware that the caps used on the input and psu are smaller than ideal, and so i look to those to upgrade.
my questions are these;

1. is it worth it?
2. what is overkill for the psu part? black-gates? 1000uf?
3. what can i use for input caps? black-gate nx-hi-q caps? what capacitance?

thanks in advance guys,

 

[KurtW]

Quote:

1. is it worth it? 2. what is overkill for the psu part? black-gates? 1000uf? 3. what can i use for input caps? black-gate nx-hi-q caps? what capacitance?

1. it's hard to tell because I don't know what it has. A Mint is a pcb, it can be built out many different ways.
2. This is probably not going to be much of an improvement.
3. The best input caps are no input caps. Unless your source is defective or suspect, you should not need these. If in doubt, measure the amount of DC coming from your source. If it is less than 5 or 10mv you can just short out the caps that are there.

 

[holland]

How do you know the caps are "undersized"?

I would short the caps next to the volume control (as KurtW indicated in point #3). Even if your source is more than 10mV, it is attenuated by the volume control, then the gain is applied to it. I would short, then measure the output of the amp at several volume knob positions, with the source connected (but not playing) and on.

 

[KurtW]

You seem to be happy with the sound otherwise, but I would suggest that the biggest difference that you will get (assuming you have decent size and quality input caps) is by changing the op amp. I ended up changing the op amp in my Mint (with no input caps of course) several times before I was satisfied. What I thought sounded good in other amps wasn't the best fit for the Mint, which seem to me to require a little more mellow sounding op amp.