[szore]

Wow nice man, I use an RME ADI-2. I have used Schiit before, I enjoyed the pairing with Bifrost 1, for awhile. Im way to spoiled by the feature set of the adi now. I can't live without hardware level PEQ.

Yes, the RME may still be on my list... I just hate the fact that it is not balanced, and to me the amp is a waste because I just dont need it....

 

[Slim1970]

Wow nice man, I use an RME ADI-2. I have used Schiit before, I enjoyed the pairing with Bifrost 1, for awhile. Im way to spoiled by the feature set of the adi now. I can't live without hardware level PEQ.

I use one in a different setup but you’re right about the RME. Love the feature set of that DAC. The Hugo 2 has been stuck to my LP since I got it.

 

[szore]

Does anyone here have opinions about output options from computer to DAC? I have EVGA NU audio card... Is optical out best? Or USB, BNC? Would I need a high end usb card to put in computer, or if BNC is best, is there a card to put in computer to provide BNC out? I am in unchartered waters here and can use some guidance...

 

[malocadi]

just finished the Cap mod up on mine.. 12$ in parts from mouser, got em overnight, they are close by. Pretty easy cap swap. Just fired it up an hour ago, no magic smoke. Ended up doing Elna Silmic 470UF x 3, 10UF x 2, and a Nichicon 100UF "UKZ" aka "Muse", for the front XLR cap, as recommended by ksorota. Desoldering was a little harder then typical, but not too bad. the muse caps where only available in 50v, had to trim the leads a bit to get them to fit.

Edit for clarity : "Trim the leads" means reducing the radius of the wire, as it was physically to thick to fit though the hole. I used a small bench grinder with a smooth stone wheel. Ideally you could get the cap in a lower voltage, which would have smaller leads.

I finally modded my LP last night too. Getting that solder was such a pain. Word of advice to anyone trying to do this: use a solder sucker, forget trying to use a wick; there was hardly any flow and I kept trying to add more solder/flux to see it'd help but didn't.

Anyway, it was a success! Not going to post a pic since it's not nearly as neat as this one I used elna/silmic capacitors recommended by @ksorota.

Impressions (D90 -> LP (cap mod, stock tubes) -> LCD-4): Details were a whole lot clearer after the mod, and I mean well past any doubt contributed by confirmation bias. I can't quite tell if the bass was tempered or the mids were raised after, but overall the sound seems more balanced across the board (listening to Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way where the vocals always seemed more relaxed, I noticed it was more forward after). Bass felt like it had a lot more oomf and less roll-off into mid-bass (Alice in Chains - No Excuses, I felt like I lived inside that bass drum). Highs were still fast and crisp, just as before (Dave Brubeck - Take Five intro, both the ting of the cymbals and the reverberation of the bass and snare drums came through crystal clear). There was one point I was listening and thought someone was knocking on my door behind me, ended up being what I was listening to (Tool - Chocolate Chip Trip). After realizing this, I listened to some other tracks I knew well (Amber Rubarth - Strive, Diane Krall - Temptation, my go-to's for comparing soundstage and imaging) and concluded that soundstage also seemed to have increased slightly.

Didn't want to lead in with this but my immediate impression after the mod was "I'm done". I'm done in the sense, that I can comfortably stick with this amp in its improved form for a good while.

 

[Slim1970]

Does anyone here have opinions about output options from computer to DAC? I have EVGA NU audio card... Is optical out best? Or USB, BNC? Would I need a high end usb card to put in computer, or if BNC is best, is there a card to put in computer to provide BNC out? I am in unchartered waters here and can use some guidance...

I’m strongly considering the Sonore OpticalRendu with Uptone Audio’s LPS 1.2 power supply. If you have an optical output on your sound card you can go straight to the OpticalRendu. Otherwise, you‘ll need the optical module to convert USB to optical.

 

[Slim1970]

I finally modded my LP last night too. Getting that solder was such a pain. Word of advice to anyone trying to do this: use a solder sucker, forget trying to use a wick; there was hardly any flow and I kept trying to add more solder/flux to see it'd help but didn't.

Anyway, it was a success! Not going to post a pic since it's not nearly as neat as this one I used elna/silmic capacitors recommended by @ksorota.

Impressions (D90 -> LP (cap mod, stock tubes) -> LCD-4): Details were a whole lot clearer after the mod, and I mean well past any doubt contributed by confirmation bias. I can't quite tell if the bass was tempered or the mids were raised after, but overall the sound seems more balanced across the board (listening to Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way where the vocals always seemed more relaxed, I noticed it was more forward after). Bass felt like it had a lot more oomf and less roll-off into mid-bass (Alice in Chains - No Excuses, I felt like I lived inside that bass drum). Highs were still fast and crisp, just as before (Dave Brubeck - Take Five intro, both the ting of the cymbals and the reverberation of the bass and snare drums came through crystal clear). There was one point I was listening and thought someone was knocking on my door behind me, ended up being what I was listening to (Tool - Chocolate Chip Trip). After realizing this, I listened to some other tracks I knew well (Amber Rubarth - Strive, Diane Krall - Temptation, my go-to's for comparing soundstage and imaging) and concluded that soundstage also seemed to have increased slightly.

Didn't want to lead in with this but my immediate impression after the mod was "I'm done". I'm done in the sense, that I can comfortably stick with this amp in its improved form for a good while.

Well said, the cap mod literally transforms the LP into an outstanding amp with gobs of power.

 

[fordski]

Really appreciate @ksorota 's help, his informative guide made a noob completed his caps mod!

I'm not good at finding the differences, describing it could be more difficult, anyway I'll try my best, in my way. Note that I've only got 30 hours of burn-in, so it could sound better, but I don't think I really find much difference from the hour 0 to now, maybe it sounds a bit smoother now? And I've forgot about the OG LP sounding already so...

My have 3 main impression on the change of sound, and I will certainly exaggerate the difference:

1. Smoother treble. Sometimes I wished the treble could be a bit smoother on the OG LP, as I found my modded HD650 could be occasionally a tiny bit too hot, not to mention modded HD800 (yes, I love warm and dark sounding). But today, I used modded HD800 for the whole day without much fatiguing. Female vocal is smooth or even sweet, love it!
2. Cleaner sound. It's like this mod washed away some of the mud in the sound, now things sound slimmer after the mod, kinda like some old Hifiman style slim sound. But theose old Hifiman headphones sounds empty when I looked away from those highly focused sounds, but on the modded LP, when I look away, I see (or hear) microdetail. With sweeter treble, female vocal gives a lot more emotion now. It just sounds nutritious, and yummy!
3. snappier sound. The bass might not become heavier, but the punch became harder, and a bit faster sound (is this called "transient response"?) This is like Focal headphones, hits harder and acts faster, yes please!

So... Wait... It's like combining my favorite parts of HD650, old Hifiman and Focal... Is it too good to be true? I don't know, but I really haven't found any weakness yet... Again, the differences are not as pronounced as in words, but they are there, and I think this combination of improvement is great.

Or, actually there's one drawback for me: I usually found myself listening under higher volume now, because the treble spike is much better on HD800 now, and, I want more. Not healthy!

This is my impression of the mod currently, do take my words with a grain of salt, as I haven't used any better amp than LP, so there's no more comparison, and I'm using a pair of cheapo NOS Russian tubes. Oh, I'm in China so the caps I bought might not even be genuine... So your experience could be better than mine, as they were all mentioning better tube rolling result, and the caps you get would only be >= mine.

Thanks for posting your experience. Could you please direct me to the guide as I'm having a little trouble finding it in this forum. I am considering doing this mod myself as I'm in Mexico and shipping back and forth from here is quite expensive. From the sounds of it it sounds like a fairly simple and beneficial mod.

 

[A Jedi]

Thanks for posting your experience. Could you please direct me to the guide as I'm having a little trouble finding it in this forum. I am considering doing this mod myself as I'm in Mexico and shipping back and forth from here is quite expensive. From the sounds of it it sounds like a fairly simple and beneficial mod.

Start on page 192.

 

[eeagle]

FedEx made me smile today!

Monoprice delivered on their short lived good deal. Installed the stock tubes included, and I am in new gear heaven listening to my Hi-Res collection. LP easily drives even my hard to drive planar's balanced with not much more than the 10 o'clock on the volume knob position, and so far I have not noticed any channel balance inconsistencies. Very happy with this purchase. Thanks to all in this thread that have recommended the LP.

 

[szore]

FedEx made me smile today!

Monoprice delivered on their short lived good deal. Installed the stock tubes included, and I am in new gear heaven listening to my Hi-Res collection. LP easily drives even my hard to drive planar's balanced with not much more than the 10 o'clock on the volume knob position, and so far I have not noticed any channel balance inconsistencies. Very happy with this purchase. Thanks to all in this thread that have recommended the LP.

It's a great feeling, ain't it? FedEx did me right today too!!!

 

[MikeW]

Yes, the RME may still be on my list... I just hate the fact that it is not balanced, and to me the amp is a waste because I just dont need it....

What do you mean it is not balanced? the RME Adi-2 DAC FS is, oh your talking about the headphone output? I only use it as a DAC, but the headamp is actually not terrible. I found it competitive with Jotunheim, honestly, especially with a little EQ. It's not a high end headphone output, but it's not entry junk either. Kinda middle of the road headphone amp, and excellent dac. I would not bother pairing the ADI-2 with anything "less" then a 500$ amp, as the built in amp performs close to that level imho.

 

[szore]

What do you mean it is not balanced? the RME Adi-2 DAC FS is, oh your talking about the headphone output? I only use it as a DAC, but the headamp is actually not terrible. I found it competitive with Jotunheim, honestly, especially with a little EQ. It's not a high end headphone output, but it's not entry junk either. Kinda middle of the road headphone amp, and excellent dac. I would not bother pairing the ADI-2 with anything "less" then a 500$ amp, as the built in amp performs close to that level imho.

O, the DAC IS balanced out, my bad...

 

[hikaru12]

I finally modded my LP last night too. Getting that solder was such a pain. Word of advice to anyone trying to do this: use a solder sucker, forget trying to use a wick; there was hardly any flow and I kept trying to add more solder/flux to see it'd help but didn't.

Anyway, it was a success! Not going to post a pic since it's not nearly as neat as this one I used elna/silmic capacitors recommended by @ksorota.

Impressions (D90 -> LP (cap mod, stock tubes) -> LCD-4): Details were a whole lot clearer after the mod, and I mean well past any doubt contributed by confirmation bias. I can't quite tell if the bass was tempered or the mids were raised after, but overall the sound seems more balanced across the board (listening to Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way where the vocals always seemed more relaxed, I noticed it was more forward after). Bass felt like it had a lot more oomf and less roll-off into mid-bass (Alice in Chains - No Excuses, I felt like I lived inside that bass drum). Highs were still fast and crisp, just as before (Dave Brubeck - Take Five intro, both the ting of the cymbals and the reverberation of the bass and snare drums came through crystal clear). There was one point I was listening and thought someone was knocking on my door behind me, ended up being what I was listening to (Tool - Chocolate Chip Trip). After realizing this, I listened to some other tracks I knew well (Amber Rubarth - Strive, Diane Krall - Temptation, my go-to's for comparing soundstage and imaging) and concluded that soundstage also seemed to have increased slightly.

Didn't want to lead in with this but my immediate impression after the mod was "I'm done". I'm done in the sense, that I can comfortably stick with this amp in its improved form for a good while.

My two cents on the LP cap mod is that it introduces a lot of clarity and focus but you lose a bit of that tube warmth and haziness which provides for a more relaxed listening experience. The cap mod does make the amp more responsive to tube rolling though which might be good in your circumstance. I personally just love the tone of this amp - it pairs so well with more analytical/brighter tubes and I'm convinced had I kept my Aryas they would have do wonders to smooth over any peakiness.

I'm very impressed with how well it responds to even cheap tubes.

 

[szore]

I’m strongly considering the Sonore OpticalRendu with Uptone Audio’s LPS 1.2 power supply. If you have an optical output on your sound card you can go straight to the OpticalRendu. Otherwise, you‘ll need the optical module to convert USB to optical.

I emailed Sonore and they called me immediately and did a phone consultation..Great people...I am going to follow your lead, I think. Not gonna use optical, they recommend CAT 6 out of computer.....

 

[Slim1970]

I emailed Sonore and they called me immediately and did a phone consultation..Great people...I am going to follow your lead, I think. Not gonna use optical, they recommend CAT 6 out of computer.....

So they recommended the UltraRendu instead of the OpticalRendu to connect to your DAC? Then from your DAC to the LP?