mwallace573
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- May 16, 2006
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Inspired by this thread, I decided to take the plunge and attempt a few mods to my Entech 203.2. I am happy to say that they went off without a hitch.
Here we have the 203.2 board pre mod. Sorry for the somewhat fuzzy picture but my camera was a bit funky at the time. I had already snipped the front LED wires when I took this picture.
The mods I attempted were to attach some connectors to the front panel so I could remove the panel without having to desolder the wires every time. I also decided to switch out the opamp to a LM4562 as mentioned in this thread, so that meant that I was going to have to install a DIP socket.
This was the first time I've attempted a real mod outside of a simple recable, so I decided to take a few precautions. The main thing I did was get something to practice on; namely a busted soundcard that I purchased from a small computer shop. I also got the card because it had the connectors I would need for the LED mod.
Here is a picture of the board after I removed the OPA2134, which I decided to save in case I wanted to bring the DAC back to it's stock configuration, as opposed to snipping the connectors as was mentioned in the thread that inspired me to do this in the first place.
I didn't notice that hole was clogged until I took the picture. Needless to say I cleaned it out before I continued.
Next I went about psyching myself up for the main event, which was installing the DIP socket, which is Mouser p/n 575-113308. I used silver solder and a shakier hand than I would have liked, but it still went a lot smoother than I expected.
Here's a picture of the board post socket installation, with the LM4562 sitting next to the board. Doesn't it look lovely?
Edit: Decided to add a pic of the back of the board. A bit low light but good enough.
After that, things were pretty uneventful. I attached two pin connectors that I removed from the old soundcard that I practiced on, and ripped off a couple of computer case LED wires (the kind that run from a motherboard to computer case) to attach between the board and panel LED.
The case gave me a little fight before I was able to close it up, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Effects of the opamp switch are subtle but noticeable. Highs and mids are improved, and the bass seems to be unaffected. Bass guitars do sound very nice though. I can't say anything more specific right now. I'll need a little more time with it before I can say something definite. All I can say for certain is it sounds very nice.
Well, that's my story. Feel free to chime in with your Entech mods. I heard about a "Wildmonkeysects Filter mod", but searching turned up nothing. Any info about that mod would be appreciated.
Here we have the 203.2 board pre mod. Sorry for the somewhat fuzzy picture but my camera was a bit funky at the time. I had already snipped the front LED wires when I took this picture.
The mods I attempted were to attach some connectors to the front panel so I could remove the panel without having to desolder the wires every time. I also decided to switch out the opamp to a LM4562 as mentioned in this thread, so that meant that I was going to have to install a DIP socket.
This was the first time I've attempted a real mod outside of a simple recable, so I decided to take a few precautions. The main thing I did was get something to practice on; namely a busted soundcard that I purchased from a small computer shop. I also got the card because it had the connectors I would need for the LED mod.
Here is a picture of the board after I removed the OPA2134, which I decided to save in case I wanted to bring the DAC back to it's stock configuration, as opposed to snipping the connectors as was mentioned in the thread that inspired me to do this in the first place.
I didn't notice that hole was clogged until I took the picture. Needless to say I cleaned it out before I continued.
Next I went about psyching myself up for the main event, which was installing the DIP socket, which is Mouser p/n 575-113308. I used silver solder and a shakier hand than I would have liked, but it still went a lot smoother than I expected.
Here's a picture of the board post socket installation, with the LM4562 sitting next to the board. Doesn't it look lovely?
Edit: Decided to add a pic of the back of the board. A bit low light but good enough.
After that, things were pretty uneventful. I attached two pin connectors that I removed from the old soundcard that I practiced on, and ripped off a couple of computer case LED wires (the kind that run from a motherboard to computer case) to attach between the board and panel LED.
The case gave me a little fight before I was able to close it up, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Effects of the opamp switch are subtle but noticeable. Highs and mids are improved, and the bass seems to be unaffected. Bass guitars do sound very nice though. I can't say anything more specific right now. I'll need a little more time with it before I can say something definite. All I can say for certain is it sounds very nice.
Well, that's my story. Feel free to chime in with your Entech mods. I heard about a "Wildmonkeysects Filter mod", but searching turned up nothing. Any info about that mod would be appreciated.
