Sid and Coke
and so the rebuild continues..
I had a minor problem yesterday after powering down and moving my Musical Fidelity X-Can. Basically it kept blowing the fuse in my PSU. After taking it briefly apart , re-seating the valves and shouting and swearing at it very loudly, it seemed to start working agai. I was using it this afternoon with no problems ( it was sounding loads and loads better than my Rotel Pre's Headphone jack ).
I had been meaning to do some mods to my X-Can, especially after seeing the stuff on Pinky Floyds website and exchanging a few e-mails a while ago. Work and my Exams got in the way and i never got around to doing any mods. Now i have some spare time and i wouldn't mind giving the mods a go, especially as the X-Can did have an un-known but very real problem yesterday. ( I can even justify fiddling about with capacitors as they are in the syllabus for my exam re-sit )
First of all let me say this; I really like the sound of my X-Can, despite what others may say about it or the brand in general. To this end i feel it is worth my while trying to get even more pleasure from it by trying out some mods. I bought it as part of a fairly cheap s/h package a long time ago, with a pair of Senn HD580's. i managed to get a fair few quid for the Senn's after selling them on recently. I now consider the X-Can as a freebie, so basically it's here to stay. ( until i get a cutie Creek )
My main reason for posting is that there is a bewildering amont of capacitors , etc, out there. Some are reputed to be better than others. Having read several posts on these boards and others there seems to be a bit of discussion on which ones are best. Some of the brands/models that keep cropping up are , Elna Cerrafine, Silmics and Stargets, Panasonic FC's, Black Gate and Rubycon . After looking at all of the obvious online places to buy these i note that there is a large price range, some of the Black Gates in particular are very expensive.
Looking at RichardH's bulk buy thread it would seem that these 'Audio Grade' caps can be bought cheaply if bought in bulk.
Why do the Manufacturers not do this ? Why is it that keen DIYers seem to be able to say they get more from the equipment than the manufacturer by changing a few relatively cheap components ?
The Caps inside my X-Can are made by Teapo, ( cheapo-teapo ??
). It was also suggested to change the 2 opamps over to BurrBrown's, from the Phillips items that are fitted. RS have the correct model of OpAmps , but they only stock Texas Instrument ones now , are these any good ?
I did try a half Mod by changing the Valves a few months ago, I followed some instructions on another website and fitted a mactched pair of JJ Electrics , I can't honestly say I noticed that much of an improvement (OK i didn't notice any at all !!). One channel of the X-Can badly distorted a few weeks ago , changing back to the original stock Phillips valves fixed the snag, the JJ Electrics are now in a landfill somewhere. Would a pair of the famous Mullards do anything for me ? Its a few quid for a maybe and although I'm keen to try , i'm not willing to just waste money.
Sorry about the length of this post , i kinda got carried away but;
1) What capacitors would you recommend , would any on my coloured list above do the job ?
2) Is changing the Valves a good plan , mine have a few miles on them now.
3) would the Tex Inst OP Amp be an upgrade to the stock phillips as I can't get the Burr Browns.
4) where is a good place to buy all this stuff. I'm looking at RS components so far , but Farnell seem to have all the right models of Panasonic FC's.
As usual any constructive comments or pointers will be greatly appreciated.
(Edited for most of the typo, punctuation , spelling and grammer mistakes).
I had been meaning to do some mods to my X-Can, especially after seeing the stuff on Pinky Floyds website and exchanging a few e-mails a while ago. Work and my Exams got in the way and i never got around to doing any mods. Now i have some spare time and i wouldn't mind giving the mods a go, especially as the X-Can did have an un-known but very real problem yesterday. ( I can even justify fiddling about with capacitors as they are in the syllabus for my exam re-sit )
First of all let me say this; I really like the sound of my X-Can, despite what others may say about it or the brand in general. To this end i feel it is worth my while trying to get even more pleasure from it by trying out some mods. I bought it as part of a fairly cheap s/h package a long time ago, with a pair of Senn HD580's. i managed to get a fair few quid for the Senn's after selling them on recently. I now consider the X-Can as a freebie, so basically it's here to stay. ( until i get a cutie Creek )
My main reason for posting is that there is a bewildering amont of capacitors , etc, out there. Some are reputed to be better than others. Having read several posts on these boards and others there seems to be a bit of discussion on which ones are best. Some of the brands/models that keep cropping up are , Elna Cerrafine, Silmics and Stargets, Panasonic FC's, Black Gate and Rubycon . After looking at all of the obvious online places to buy these i note that there is a large price range, some of the Black Gates in particular are very expensive.
Looking at RichardH's bulk buy thread it would seem that these 'Audio Grade' caps can be bought cheaply if bought in bulk.
Why do the Manufacturers not do this ? Why is it that keen DIYers seem to be able to say they get more from the equipment than the manufacturer by changing a few relatively cheap components ?
The Caps inside my X-Can are made by Teapo, ( cheapo-teapo ??
). It was also suggested to change the 2 opamps over to BurrBrown's, from the Phillips items that are fitted. RS have the correct model of OpAmps , but they only stock Texas Instrument ones now , are these any good ? I did try a half Mod by changing the Valves a few months ago, I followed some instructions on another website and fitted a mactched pair of JJ Electrics , I can't honestly say I noticed that much of an improvement (OK i didn't notice any at all !!). One channel of the X-Can badly distorted a few weeks ago , changing back to the original stock Phillips valves fixed the snag, the JJ Electrics are now in a landfill somewhere. Would a pair of the famous Mullards do anything for me ? Its a few quid for a maybe and although I'm keen to try , i'm not willing to just waste money.
Sorry about the length of this post , i kinda got carried away but;
1) What capacitors would you recommend , would any on my coloured list above do the job ?
2) Is changing the Valves a good plan , mine have a few miles on them now.
3) would the Tex Inst OP Amp be an upgrade to the stock phillips as I can't get the Burr Browns.
4) where is a good place to buy all this stuff. I'm looking at RS components so far , but Farnell seem to have all the right models of Panasonic FC's.
As usual any constructive comments or pointers will be greatly appreciated.
(Edited for most of the typo, punctuation , spelling and grammer mistakes).
