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Recommended M2X parts upgrade

86.200.202.234
Posted on May 20, 2012 at 13:28:48
Nounours18200
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: France
Joined: January 9, 2005
 Hi friends,

I have recently upgraded the analog card of my DAC 4.1 (the one using the 5687 tubes) and this has largely improved the Dac.

Now I am going to work on the M2X power supply and I would like to know what are the parts that you would uograde (and the replacement) in order to make it even better ? (: capacitors ?, regulators ? Bridge ?)

Thanks

 

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RE: Recommended M2X parts upgrade, posted on May 20, 2012 at 14:37:36
Lobachevsky
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: Tokyo
Joined: May 18, 2012



I just threw the kitchen sink at mine during the building process and tried to incorporate things I liked in the PSU for other projects. This includes oil caps and chokes so I used a 50uF(C5) followed by a Jensen 4-Pole(part of an extra Pi-filter and an experiment with this type), followed by another 40uF(C3) oiler (the oilers were aquired years ago from Angela Electronics.) You may notice the extra cap which precedes a second choke.

I generally utilize Riken resistors, but they have been getting harder to aquire for some values even in Tokyo, so I matched the line stage and upgraded to AN Tants.

Since I started with a bare board, I upgraded the sockets to teflons. The octal was a drop-in replacement, but the 9-pin took some drilling and a bit of trace cutting to make it work. The end result was quite clean though.

For future mods I left the bridge in with the intention of eventually replacing it probably with schottkys. I wanted an easy mod for the future so I can say I tweaked it. I also have a HiFi Tuning fuse to play with and see if my old ears can hear the difference once things burn in. I will roll tubes as well, and already have a redbank Bendix 5852 rectifier to try, and a Tungsol ecl-82.

The biggest downside to my whole project is I will not know I harmed the sound or improved it. For me it is like building the hotrod I never had as a teenager.

Mike

 

RE: Recommended M2X parts upgrade, posted on May 21, 2012 at 05:40:26
Nounours18200
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: France
Joined: January 9, 2005
 Hi Mike,

C3, C4 and C5 are all 100uF: have you just replaced them with 50uF or 40uF?... I plan to replaced the original compact BlackGates 100uF by a few Mundorf Tubecap 100uF or 200uF if I manage to find enough free space in the DAC 4.1 cabinet: look at the link here: http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/mcap_tubecap.html
I do not know the improvement that you have got with the oil caps you mention, but I am always cautious with the capacity reduction (100uF to 50uF if I have correctly understood).

Regarding the resistors, it seems (on the photo) that you have used bigger resistors than the ones provided with the kit: are they 2 Watt resistors ?
Rikens become difficult to find as you say, but maybe MILLS would be OK for this use ? or AN 2W tantalum

 

RE: Recommended M2X parts upgrade, posted on May 21, 2012 at 13:25:15
Lobachevsky
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: Tokyo
Joined: May 18, 2012
 Hi Nounours,

I changed the input cap C5 to 50uF oiler->15H choke->100uF Jensen 4-pole->15H choke->40uF oiler (C3). So yes I reduced the values of the first two caps in the psu circuit, but sandwiched an extra Pi-filter between them (Cap-choke) which should more than make up for the reduction in resivore given up.

I looked at the Mundorf Tube caps when I was shopping as they get great reviews and the beauty of the AN cabinet is the amount of space available to include extra/oversized components for mods. I think you will like them. My favorite use of Blackgates has been using the best non-polar I can use as a cathod bypass, especially on the for Directly heated triodes in the output position.

As to the resistor, I used 1 watt AN tantalum except for R11 (2 watt) and R8 (2 watt Rikens parallelled from my junk box). I increased the wattage at R8 & R11 after reading through the forum and finding a couple of references of failure. It was probably not needed, but I was starting from scratch and hotrodding.

I am just beginning to get my first listening impressions through headphones as I'm waiting on speakers. I left my old system back in the States and have been building a new system including 45 DHT mono blocks. But, even under less than ideal conditions and several variables, I can tell I'm playing with a much better digital system that I hope will supplant my analogue desires. I've already listened to a couple of albums that put a childish smile on my face with great music.

Cheers,
Mike

 

RE: Recommended M2X parts upgrade, posted on May 22, 2012 at 01:42:42
Nounours18200
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: France
Joined: January 9, 2005
 Maybe I will go to the simpler route of Mundorf Tubecap and of course change the resistors for higher wattage values. I have to look at the available space to determine if the 200uF Tubecap can be housed.

I will also probably work on the rectifier bridge...

Thanks very much Mike (I just have to fix a pb with my desoldering station before starting...)
Nounours

 

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