Last, but (hopefully) best ever modified and complete NAD 3020

[poundy]

So I recon this should suffice

 

[poundy]

The problem is that the caps are next to the regulators (trannies) , and the heat from them dries out the caps. 😉

They are very close

 

[analog_sa]

convert it to Lateral FETS.

Interesting. In the early 80ies built quite a few clones with various improvements, mostly in the PS . Cannot see how lat fets would address the weakest features of the 3020: bass and dynamics.

 

[poundy]

@analog_sa
well the last one i did certainly improved the sound,IMO anyway, and ive listened to alot of these as ive repaired them over the last couple of years
I certainly appears to make the sound 'cleaner'
I agree some can sound 'wooly', but they all seem a bit different to me everytime i listen to one
certainly not as good as the 3103 IMO, the tone on those is realy good, again IMO.

and its all down to the individuals ear as well i guess

 

[analog_sa]

Not really arguing. It's natural that we may perceive differing shortcomings in the same amp. Laterals, despite their great qualities are not better in doing bass, even the opposite. All things being equal, DF is likely to suffer.

 

[planet10]

I always thought these NADs had small main capacitors,

Our first mod to these was running some wires out the bottom and attaching 2 really big (the size of a BIG can of Arizona Ice Tea, 100k µF total[?]), crude but effective, made a serious improvement.

dave

 

[poundy]

@analog_sa
still an interesting and challenging project 👍

 

[poundy]

So I'm going to use 3mm thermal odyssey to make up the gap

 

[Mooly]

I've never seen anything like that before.

 

[vinylkid58]

I've never seen anything like that before.

Probably a good reason why. 😉

jeff

 

[poundy]

They use it for attaching chips to heat sinks in pcs

 

[poundy]

Thermalissues.com

 

[vinylkid58]

Regulator chips?

jeff

 

[poundy]

All sorts I think.

 

[Mooly]

I'll be diplomatic and reserve judgement 🙂 I think I would want to test it first.

You could rig up a transistor on a heatsink and power it from a variable PSU adding a resistor from C to B to turn it on a bit. When you have a voltage and R value that generates some heat try adding a layer of that padding and see if the heat is transferred very quickly to the heatsink.

 

[vinylkid58]

I think I would want to test it first.

Definitely.

jeff

 

[poundy]

Well I could give it a try

 

[Mooly]

I think you should... not that I know anything about that stuff... but I really really think you should,

 

[Globulator]

I'd tend to dig around for a total thickness of 3mm copper and/or aluminium 🙂

 

[Mooly]

Would a bit of flatted copper water pipe be doable, I was thinking to slit it first and then flatten it in a vice. Even a couple of layers might still work well.

Try your padding first though.