Stiffening caps, replacement C10 and output caps (mixture of Wima and Samwha Low ESR - again I can't seem to find the 'right' Panasonics in the UK but I'm probably not looking hard enough) are on order - seems to be a delay. I also have a set of the Autocostruire air-core inductors to try later - http://www.autocostruire.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=256
The rest of the system is all my spare early 90's kit; Marantz CD52 that can barely summon the energy to open it's drawer, and a pair of Mission 761i's. I did briefly plug in my Project Debut II turntable to the T-amp but it sounded awful!
I'm hoping to upgrade the CD and turntable soon.
The rest of the system is all my spare early 90's kit; Marantz CD52 that can barely summon the energy to open it's drawer, and a pair of Mission 761i's. I did briefly plug in my Project Debut II turntable to the T-amp but it sounded awful!
I'm hoping to upgrade the CD and turntable soon.
Sad with the sound of the turntable. Get You another t-amp and mod it to fit the it, or maybe get a switch for multiple inputs with the right dampings and stuff to get the right sound. Strange with the bad sound if You have a phonostage...
My problem is still - so sound and no light. Got me another multimeter and found out that there is +12 and -12 power to the board. As I don´t have any (lately remebered) electronic experience my next step was to find out if there were any power between the +12 power and groundplane which it wasn´t - My next question is if that is good or bad....;-).
The power +12 is connected over the blobs where the switch should be connected and qould also be found where it originally was connected. So the +12 is alright on the board.
The -12 is connected on the original position, and is alright to the blob. From there I have no idea of where it should/could be found elsewhere....
Stuck with the starting blocks still on my shoes unable to get any closer to the finish line . . . .
My problem is still - so sound and no light. Got me another multimeter and found out that there is +12 and -12 power to the board. As I don´t have any (lately remebered) electronic experience my next step was to find out if there were any power between the +12 power and groundplane which it wasn´t - My next question is if that is good or bad....;-).
The power +12 is connected over the blobs where the switch should be connected and qould also be found where it originally was connected. So the +12 is alright on the board.
The -12 is connected on the original position, and is alright to the blob. From there I have no idea of where it should/could be found elsewhere....
Stuck with the starting blocks still on my shoes unable to get any closer to the finish line . . . .
Member
Joined 2003
Sharkythefrog said:
Hey Sharky, good to see you found time to revisit the sonic!
Firstly.... you mean +12V and 0V right?, your supply should not be a +12V/-12V....
The best thing to do is connect the 0V negative wire to the large solder pad under the chip and then solder the +12V to the chip side of C10 under the board....if the LED is still dead then we need some close-up pictures.
Make sure you connect the 12V to the pin nearest to the chip.......
EDIT: Dcibel got there first but you need to confirm the power supply....
Yes finally some hours left. My new lady suddenly got his daughter from her X on the "wrong day" so they went away to her place, sorry but,,,, time for some other nice stuff....
Sorry boys.
Offcourse there is no -12V, just 0 and +12V - It was just names that came up in my head from reading tons of posts about powersupplies and trafos.
Ok, I try to switch place of the 0 first because it seems to be no contact between the original 0 input an the rest of the boards ground. Lostcause to You really mean the soldering pad with all the small holes in it or the big one in the corner opposit from original 3,5 input?
Thanks for all the help . . . any day now
Sorry boys.
Offcourse there is no -12V, just 0 and +12V - It was just names that came up in my head from reading tons of posts about powersupplies and trafos.
Ok, I try to switch place of the 0 first because it seems to be no contact between the original 0 input an the rest of the boards ground. Lostcause to You really mean the soldering pad with all the small holes in it or the big one in the corner opposit from original 3,5 input?
Thanks for all the help . . . any day now
Sharkythefrog said:"Nice" spelling in a few places in my last post, sorry about that Lostcause... A little bit tired bacause of only 2 hours of sleep last night as a storm came in and ripped parts of my roof away which was a little bit disturbing trying to sleep...
No major damage I hope?
Anyway, yes, the pad with all the holes in it, just tack it on with a small amount of solder (it's a good place for grounding)
Member
Joined 2003
Wow, that sucks. Today we have one hell of a blizzard where I live. These pictures don't show nearly how bad it is:Sharkythefrog said:"Nice" spelling in a few places in my last post, sorry about that Lostcause... A little bit tired bacause of only 2 hours of sleep last night as a storm came in and ripped parts of my roof away which was a little bit disturbing trying to sleep...
Blizzard1.jpg
Blizzard2.jpg
Blizzard3.jpg
Hi all, I've been lurking here long enough to be thoroughly corrupted with CAI disease (continuous audio improvement).
So far I've built a set of buschhorn mkII's and put the little rs 40-1197 in them, bought two t-amps (one of them by accident due to a back-order) and I recently purchased a pair of fostex 108E sigma's also but haven't decided on a cabinet for them yet. I also ran across an an old 1001 PS1 to use as a cd player.The t-amp sounds pretty good to me as-is through the buschorns so I'm eager to hear the modded amp
First I'd like to thank everyone for freely sharing information here, it sure is good to learn from each others successes and mistakes.
I'm about to try my first mod on an amp and have a couple questions. I've read through the threads a few times and I still am lacking understanding on a couple things. I'm planning on using auricaps, either 2 or 2.2 uf for inputs, and am going to replace c-10 but am unsure what to use there. I've seen several references to panasonic fm caps of various sizes and some using an off- board stiffener also. Is bigger better or is there a limit to useful size ?, and for the off-board cap, what is it's purpose? and if c-10 is a large cap would the other one be necessary? and is the off board cap run in series with c10?, I've studied the photos but can't seem to get it. BTW I'm not an electrician so I am having to "paint by numbers" here. Oh, and where is the best place to buy all these parts?
I'll put some pics up soon hopefully.
I am re-boxing the amp so there is plenty of room for larger caps. So far I have come up with an alps 50k pot and plan to get some binding post's and rca inputs. I also plan to replace the led with a blue one .
So far I've built a set of buschhorn mkII's and put the little rs 40-1197 in them, bought two t-amps (one of them by accident due to a back-order) and I recently purchased a pair of fostex 108E sigma's also but haven't decided on a cabinet for them yet. I also ran across an an old 1001 PS1 to use as a cd player.The t-amp sounds pretty good to me as-is through the buschorns so I'm eager to hear the modded amp
First I'd like to thank everyone for freely sharing information here, it sure is good to learn from each others successes and mistakes.
I'm about to try my first mod on an amp and have a couple questions. I've read through the threads a few times and I still am lacking understanding on a couple things. I'm planning on using auricaps, either 2 or 2.2 uf for inputs, and am going to replace c-10 but am unsure what to use there. I've seen several references to panasonic fm caps of various sizes and some using an off- board stiffener also. Is bigger better or is there a limit to useful size ?, and for the off-board cap, what is it's purpose? and if c-10 is a large cap would the other one be necessary? and is the off board cap run in series with c10?, I've studied the photos but can't seem to get it. BTW I'm not an electrician so I am having to "paint by numbers" here. Oh, and where is the best place to buy all these parts?
I'll put some pics up soon hopefully.
I am re-boxing the amp so there is plenty of room for larger caps. So far I have come up with an alps 50k pot and plan to get some binding post's and rca inputs. I also plan to replace the led with a blue one .
Hi Soundphreak, PS1 - T-amp - Fostex...Hmmmm Nice!
That's exactly my layout at the moment but with FE207E's in an MLTL.
I have found that listening level makes a difference when choosing power cap/caps. I listen at low to moderate levels and find that too much 'stiffening' with BIG caps actually slows the base response. Higher volume levels and they come into their own with good 'punchy' base.
The best setup is to get two FM's onto the sonic, one on each supply pin, but that's pretty tricky to do so make C10 an ultra-low ESR 1000uf (8mm casing fits but you can get bigger ones in there if you put it under the board).
The trick is to get it/them as close to the power pins as possible, this shows you how to get two in there....
extreme modding!
Then, if you decide to have off-board stiffening then you need to have that as close to the board as possible and keep your leads as short as possible. This one bridges the + & - lines like this:
stiffener
Note that you can connect to the existing holes or jump the power to the + lead of C10, but the latter nulls the switch and leaves the Sonic permanently ON.
I (as well as many others) have found that a buffer/pre-amp is also better with the T-amps.
Happy modding.
That's exactly my layout at the moment but with FE207E's in an MLTL.
I have found that listening level makes a difference when choosing power cap/caps. I listen at low to moderate levels and find that too much 'stiffening' with BIG caps actually slows the base response. Higher volume levels and they come into their own with good 'punchy' base.
The best setup is to get two FM's onto the sonic, one on each supply pin, but that's pretty tricky to do so make C10 an ultra-low ESR 1000uf (8mm casing fits but you can get bigger ones in there if you put it under the board).
The trick is to get it/them as close to the power pins as possible, this shows you how to get two in there....
extreme modding!
Then, if you decide to have off-board stiffening then you need to have that as close to the board as possible and keep your leads as short as possible. This one bridges the + & - lines like this:
stiffener
Note that you can connect to the existing holes or jump the power to the + lead of C10, but the latter nulls the switch and leaves the Sonic permanently ON.
I (as well as many others) have found that a buffer/pre-amp is also better with the T-amps.
Happy modding.
On stiffening caps in the t-amps:
You can easily get a 680uf 16v cap in the same spot that C10 occupies now, as it's the same 8mm diameter. I used a Nichicon PW(M) from Mouser that was described as "low impedance," and that made a big difference in the bass.
I got a little more bass response by adding a (barely) off-board 4700uf cap, attaching the + lead to the pad where the power switch comes back in and the - lead to the solder-covered ground plane near the chip. That made a small difference. From my reading of these forums, 10,000uf is the top end for any discernable improvement, and may even be a little overkill.
--Buckapound
You can easily get a 680uf 16v cap in the same spot that C10 occupies now, as it's the same 8mm diameter. I used a Nichicon PW(M) from Mouser that was described as "low impedance," and that made a big difference in the bass.
I got a little more bass response by adding a (barely) off-board 4700uf cap, attaching the + lead to the pad where the power switch comes back in and the - lead to the solder-covered ground plane near the chip. That made a small difference. From my reading of these forums, 10,000uf is the top end for any discernable improvement, and may even be a little overkill.
--Buckapound
No led but at least half the sound i had in mind from the beginning. At least from half as many channels that I was counting in having sound from. So there is hope for mankind.
I soldered the 0 to the big ground plane on the bottom of the ship and suddenly, there were 13,2V to the + pad, but still no led (who needs that anyway .
Jumped up to Axel12:s room connected the amp with no volume on, connected the power and started the CDplayer - and suddenly sound appears. Nices sound tha n before, but in less channels, which is kind of bad when You start up with only two.
Switching cables around and realize that its not anything wrong before input ore after output of the amp - its in the amp. Except from that minor problem I did find myself listening to a total different sound than before. I still think it has to be burnt in as the mid and hight still needs to soften a bit. But what a differense on the bass side. Pretty stiff and rapid an low.
I really think the setup that I have with 560 uF on C10 and 4700 uF offboard and the rest of the other "standard mod sizes" as pictured in our hero Audio1st last picture could very well go for a "more than good enough" mod.
Audio1st our hero, even the stiffener cap on picture. Everything set for the Pure Newbies - except for the local traning cource in soldering SMDs. GReat job Audio1st.
But still - only one channel . . . any one have any idea of the next step. Measuring somethings (the multimeter is up and running) or unsoldering cable by cable shifting them around to find out where the problem is???
The problems with bridging C04 maybe didn´t turn out great even if it looked good. Who knows
I soldered the 0 to the big ground plane on the bottom of the ship and suddenly, there were 13,2V to the + pad, but still no led (who needs that anyway
. Jumped up to Axel12:s room connected the amp with no volume on, connected the power and started the CDplayer - and suddenly sound appears. Nices sound tha n before, but in less channels, which is kind of bad when You start up with only two.
Switching cables around and realize that its not anything wrong before input ore after output of the amp - its in the amp. Except from that minor problem I did find myself listening to a total different sound than before. I still think it has to be burnt in as the mid and hight still needs to soften a bit. But what a differense on the bass side. Pretty stiff and rapid an low.
I really think the setup that I have with 560 uF on C10 and 4700 uF offboard and the rest of the other "standard mod sizes" as pictured in our hero Audio1st last picture could very well go for a "more than good enough" mod.
Audio1st our hero, even the stiffener cap on picture. Everything set for the Pure Newbies - except for the local traning cource in soldering SMDs. GReat job Audio1st.
But still - only one channel . . . any one have any idea of the next step. Measuring somethings (the multimeter is up and running) or unsoldering cable by cable shifting them around to find out where the problem is???
The problems with bridging C04 maybe didn´t turn out great even if it looked good. Who knows
By the way, the roof wasn´t to bad. A few hours of work 10 mtrs up on the top of the roof and a slide down to lets say 7 m off the ground shifting a broken brick will do. Except from the fact that we now also got snow and ice - like You Dcibel. Maybe I just hope for a long winter to fix the roof on a warm spring sunset.
Excellent news....it's looking good!
So now you need to put the multi to resistance 200K setting, and put one end on the amp side of the new input capacitor and the other on the amp side of the input resistor.....20K is what you should see....if nothing, then its the connection or your jumper on C4 or C3...whichever is the dead channel.....which one is dead by the way?
Film/foils don't actually have polarity but it's best to have the inner layer on the amp side....some have indications like lead colour etc......
So now you need to put the multi to resistance 200K setting, and put one end on the amp side of the new input capacitor and the other on the amp side of the input resistor.....20K is what you should see....if nothing, then its the connection or your jumper on C4 or C3...whichever is the dead channel.....which one is dead by the way?
Film/foils don't actually have polarity but it's best to have the inner layer on the amp side....some have indications like lead colour etc......
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