Replace LM1117 with 78XX regulator

[francisdemarte]

Good luck! It's looking great, I can already see that the v2 of this amp has better components than mine. Very interested in how that new clock works out for you.

 

[gwillys]

thanks. still waiting on caps & xo.
 
found a nice way to do the power supply. substantial improvement. another nasthicon bites the dust
all i did here was replace that big nichicon with a burson regulator. simple to do & makes a big difference.
the pcb has + & - printed, can't hardly mess up.
 
this thing is very receptive to mods. i already know what to expect from silmic II & burson clock.
then i'll replace the smt regulators. gonna be pretty nice i think, sounding much better already.
 

 

[gwillys]

not a nichicon in sight
recap done. next up probably the clock and then regulators.
due to space considerations, some caps are mounted on the bottom of the board.
 
elna silmic II 25v 47uf & 1000uf.
100hr burn in for the elna's, but you can tell the difference right away. much better after 50hrs.
add a level of purity, detail, & gentleness. low & high frequency extension.
 

 

[FallenAngel]

Curious why you think 2 large Elna Silmic II are "better" than 4 small and 1 large Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors.

 

[gwillys]

well, you got me. you didn't read my previous post? large or small has nothing to do with it. nichicon caps are lousy.
try to fine some real hi-end gear that uses them.
 
anyway, you'll never know the difference, because you wont do this
 
i also have a mundorf 4700uf mlytic that will go before the burson regulator.
it's big and black with very nice gold printing.

 

[FallenAngel]

Uhm... I have done this, to some other gear and a few sound cards.  You can look at my Melos mods for some serious cap-swapping.
 
As for whether Nichicon caps are lousy, that's a joke right?  Nichicon makes lots of great caps for different applications.  The HE line is awesome for power supply with wonderful ESR figures, of course audiophiles use the lower mass KZ lines all the time.  Fine Gold is a line used mostly in newer gear as it's considered "audiophile" while still remaining reasonably priced, they're one grade below KZ in the same product line (geared toward audio gear).  Same as Elna RFS (Silmic II - made for audio).
 
Also "real hi-end gear" will likely not use Nichicon FG, they'll they'll either use Nichicon HE/PW, Panasonic FM or other similar line if they're smart and aiming the gear towards engineer-type audiophiles or they take the other approach and stuff it full of Rubycon BlackGate and Elna Cerafine caps and say it's "magic" when aiming towards superstitious audiophiles.  At least that's the theory I got when I look inside gear.

 

[gwillys]

burson clock with ±1ppm tcxo up & running. this is really going well. a transformation.
 
i'll order the 3 super regulators and figure out some type of case for it. i have a milling machine, so i'll look into cutting the original case and using it as a tray/heatsink. have to get the clock real close to the output pad on the pcb.
 

 

[ROBSCIX]

Great stuff!
 
Nothing better then hearing improvements that were created by your own hands.

 

[FallenAngel]

Yeah, didn't mean to take thread off track, the mods look pretty awesome!

 

[gwillys]

hey Steve, yep, it's a blast. this is quite an improvement over the st, in every regard, and much easier to work on.
no drivers!
 
burson modified aune
 
it was Jack @ burson that turned me on to elna rsf. with the other components upgraded, the elna's and burson opa
come into thier own. this thing sounds great, & gets better after 50hrs..

 

[gwillys]

Quote:

Yeah, didn't mean to take thread off track, the mods look pretty awesome!

no problem, do you have one of these?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

hey Steve, yep, it's a blast. this is quite an improvement over the st, in every regard, and much easier to work on.
no drivers!
 
burson modified aune
 
it was Jack @ burson that turned me on to elna rsf. with the other components upgraded, the elna's and burson opa
come into thier own. this thing sounds great, & gets better after 50hrs..

Glad you are hearing improvements...I mod whatever I can when I get sometime to do it!
 

 

[FallenAngel]

Nope, I currently use an Audio-GD Sparrow after downsizing my setup before moving.  The Dynahi and Grado HP-2 are sitting in a box in the basement until I build a Buffalo2 in 2 months or so.    I've had my eyes on a one of these to mod the hell out of.
 
Quote:

no problem, do you have one of these?

 

[gwillys]

i looked at that DIR9001 + PCM1793 + OPA2134 and others similar. no clock onboard as far as i can tell.

 

[FallenAngel]

As per DIR9001 datasheet: "No External Clock Required for Decode"