Trends Audio TA-10: Modding Potential?

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#722
I read your site Panomaniac,
I have a suggestion for further improvements, I haven't been through all of this thread yet so it might have been covered before.

Air cored inductors:
Instead of shielding the air cored inductors just desolder them and refit them from the underside of the board. the poured ground plane will provide excellent shielding, If you wish you could solder shield boxes over them onto the ground plane.

Upgrading the power filter caps:
leave the originals in place and solder extras onto the underside of the board. use a fine tipped iron and keep the leads short.
 
#724
I have both the film and the PIO Obliggatos, neither of which produce any odor. There may be something amiss with the caps or your hookup. If you check all connections twice and everything seems in order, you may want to contact the seller regarding the smell coming from the caps.
 
#725
potentiometer

Thank you Davet for your indication.
Do you know case of TA10 improvement by changing potentiometer, in this case wich type of potentiometer?
I think may be in some case the improvement is in relation by bypassing the pcb with shielded wires.
 
#726
Davet said:
I have both the film and the PIO Obliggatos, neither of which produce any odor. There may be something amiss with the caps or your hookup. If you check all connections twice and everything seems in order, you may want to contact the seller regarding the smell coming from the caps.
Click to expand...

False alarm!:clown: The smell was just soldering fumes that had funneled from my work station into the living room where my system is located. The smell hung out in that area for hours.🙄

So far I'm underwhelmed by the effect of the Obbligatos on the sound quality. In comparison to the stock caps, the width of the sound stage has been shrunk drastically, dynamics/extension have suffered and separation is fuzzy. I'm hoping with more burn-in time this will change.

Perhaps this is a synergy problem. My system: Bolder SB3> Mhdt "Constantine" dac.>Mapletree line 3 SE tube preamp.> Omega Hemp Dipoles> biamp w/ 2 Trends 10.1s. The Mapletree really adds smoothness to the sound without subtracting detail and separation. Maybe the Mapletree doesn't mesh well with the Obbs.? 😕 Frankly the stock Trends, once broken in, was sounding great but, naturally, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I'll let them burn in some more and I might order some other caps that don't produce such rounded tones. Anybody have some suggestions? I was thinking about Sonicaps or perhaps the Auricaps that Mardis uses for the Audiomagnus mods. Jupiters?

Raj
 
#727
****!!

I accidentally turned on my t-amp when the pot was at full, feeding it a line level signal. Now the left channel is pretty much dead, it only sends a signal at full volume. I turned it off after only half a second but it seems it was too late.

Did I burn the chip??? What should I be troubleshooting?
 
#728
OK after more investigating, at full volume the left channel passes a respectable listening level, with no signs of distortion. So I think the chip must be alright as it is still amplifying.

Maybe the pot has been burnt out? Would that be a likely culprit? I would try the amp in power amp mode but I don't have anything that can act as a preamp. Any other places to start troubleshooting at?
 
#732
rajacat said:

So far I'm underwhelmed by the effect of the Obbligatos on the sound quality. In comparison to the stock caps, the width of the sound stage has been shrunk drastically, dynamics/extension have suffered and separation is fuzzy. I'm hoping with more burn-in time this will change.

Raj
Click to expand...


Sorry to hear that. I'd guess its worth giving them some time. It will be a week or two before I get the Jupiter caps in, I'll let you know how that works out.
 
#733
Yeah it is I tested it. Actually I was messing around in the T-amp with the multimetr while it was on and fried the chip. Very displeased I guess but I'm only out another $150.

Does anybody know of a place that sells tripath chips online? The t-amp chip doesn't look that bad because only a few of the pinouts are being used...
 
#735
daggerlee said:
OK after more investigating, at full volume the left channel passes a respectable listening level, with no signs of distortion. So I think the chip must be alright as it is still amplifying.

Maybe the pot has been burnt out? Would that be a likely culprit? I would try the amp in power amp mode but I don't have anything that can act as a preamp. Any other places to start troubleshooting at?
Click to expand...


daggerlee said:
Yeah it is I tested it. Actually I was messing around in the T-amp with the multimetr while it was on and fried the chip. Very displeased I guess but I'm only out another $150.

Does anybody know of a place that sells tripath chips online? The t-amp chip doesn't look that bad because only a few of the pinouts are being used...
Click to expand...


Using a portable device, like a cd player or mp3 player, or a computer will give you volume control in place of a dedicated preamp. It sounds like your pot may have been defective. I'm sorry it led to frying your chip trying to figure it out.
 
#736
dweekie said:






Using a portable device, like a cd player or mp3 player, or a computer will give you volume control in place of a dedicated preamp. It sounds like your pot may have been defective. I'm sorry it led to frying your chip trying to figure it out.
Click to expand...


I actually did try that before frying the chip, and the result was the same - amplification in the right channel but not the left. It led me to believe that maybe the chip really had been blown out in the first place and that the amp was just passing the line level signal to the speakers in the left channel.

What I was actually trying to test was one of the pins on the chip that is supposed to indicate if the chip has been overloaded or not according to the datasheet. :xeye:

I found a place that supposedly sells TA2024 chips, I will order one as well and see if I can get the old one working again. SMD soldering can't be that hard, right? 😀
 
#737
Obbligatos

I now have about 24 hours on the new Obbs. This morning I played Two of a Kind
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Mind-Paul...155958?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1188232337&sr=8-45
This album has a very definite interplay between left and right channels. The effect that I have noticed since I inserted the Obbs. is that Desmond and Mulligan seem to be playing from the same place in the center between my speakers whereas with the stock caps there was a very pronounced dialog between left and right. This is the narrowing of the sound stage that I eluded to earlier. The odd thing is that the depth of the sound stage is quite good. The music is very easy on the ears but seems to lack the excitement, drama and detail that the stock caps (Bennics?) provided. However I do like the nice upper bass sound of the Obbs. I will give these caps another 24 hours of burn-in and if they don't improve I'll go back to the stock caps and ponder some other caps for future experimentation.

Raj
 
#739
Re: Obbligatos

rajacat said:
I now have about 24 hours on the new Obbs. This morning I played Two of a Kind
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Mind-Paul...155958?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1188232337&sr=8-45
This album has a very definite interplay between left and right channels. The effect that I have noticed since I inserted the Obbs. is that Desmond and Mulligan seem to be playing from the same place in the center between my speakers whereas with the stock caps there was a very pronounced dialog between left and right. This is the narrowing of the sound stage that I eluded to earlier. The odd thing is that the depth of the sound stage is quite good. The music is very easy on the ears but seems to lack the excitement, drama and detail that the stock caps (Bennics?) provided. However I do like the nice upper bass sound of the Obbs. I will give these caps another 24 hours of burn-in and if they don't improve I'll go back to the stock caps and ponder some other caps for future experimentation.

Raj
Click to expand...

How's it sound without the preamp?
 
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