|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
64.144.159.250
In Reply to: RE: Has anyone modded a pair of Fi 2A3 monos? posted by Frihed89 on July 02, 2017 at 03:12:47
I haven't touch mine. Only opened them up once to take a look. Only piece of bought gear I have never had an inkling to modify. Don was an artist. With his unfortunate passing, I suppose unmolested Fi products will increase in value, not that I ever intend to sell mine. By the way, mine have Tango transformers.
What would you be looking to improve with modifications?
Follow Ups:
Oh please! Don was a practical man (some say that even slightly more than thrifty...) and used cheap, good sounding components.
The only thing is, why would you like to turn every amp you have into an Audio Note surrogate with tantalum resistors , AN Pio couplers and AN electrolytic caps ?
In fact, I have only modified 2 amps, an AN Conqueror Silver and a Donald North Audio headphone amp., the Stratus. In both cases, I communicated with the mfrs. Strangely AN waved me off, saying the sound would become "unbalanced", but I did it anyway. Yes, the AN sound almost completely disappeared and what I heard was a more immediate presence of the vocals and instruments and a better fit for my non-AN high-efficiency speakers. With the Stratus, I was guided by the mfr. as to what to try, and the major improvements were a darker background on an already very quiet amp, cleaner, tighter bass and a suburb top end.
I am not planning to modify the Fi monos, for the reasons everyone has given. But I will say that Don was an experimentalist. He did change some components in some of his offerings when it sounded right to him and also told me a little bit about some changes on the 2A3s that didn't sound right.
Actually , my suggestion was to modify Fi, but maybe try different components. But, if you like AN parts, go with it. I really don't think Don would mind if you changed a cap or resistor. My mention of Don as a practical man was related to him using what he had on hand rather than particular "philosophy". I say , mod it to your heart content. It will always be a FI amp .
Best Regards, W
So, he was a practical man that produced creative, artisnal solutions... at a reasonable cost.
Cheers,
91.
"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems to characterise our age." Albert Einstein
I completely agree with you. When I first talked to Don about his choice of components, he responded kindly but unequivocally that he chose items solely in service of the music. Yes, he was after great sound, but the music came first, second and third.
RIP.
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
From online photos he used some boutique parts including Black Gates for cathode bypass of the input tube.
Really, nothing in particular. I switched OPTs at Don's suggestion. I would have tried the MQ silvers, but the cost was $6,000, as I recall. I gave him feedback on the ones I did choose (MQ interleaved), and he was interested. By that time, he was using Hashimotos as I recall.
I have modded my various other, non-DC, SET amps with AN coupling silver and copper caps and with AN Kaisei electrolytics and AN non-magnetic silver resistors with a good effect.
I use the Fi 2A3 monos with an AN or a Wavelength NOS digital front-end, a deHavilland preamp, and Tonian Labs speakers, FYI. Sometimes I use all my SET amps with headphones connected to a Blue Circle headphone adapter with adjustable impedances, in and out.
I'd build something else to scratch the experimenter's itch.
Cheers,
91.
"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems to characterise our age." Albert Einstein
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: