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Post by HD Music & Test on Apr 25, 2024 11:52:43 GMT
Yes Matt, something I did about 20 years ago before designing my owm. I found it made a small but noticeable difference to noise floor and flow, with all of the other items you chaps have performed may well ne an interesting move.
Personally I would removal the whole filter and cover imho.
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Post by mattspl on Apr 25, 2024 12:47:59 GMT
Yes Matt, something I did about 20 years ago before designing my owm. I found it made a small but noticeable difference to noise floor and flow, with all of the other items you chaps have performed may well ne an interesting move. Personally I would removal the whole filter and cover imho. Thanks Tony, I will look into it. |
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Post by mattspl on Apr 27, 2024 17:51:20 GMT
Another update. After chatting to Damien, he examined the photo of the internals of my DSP and sent me back a Bob Ross sketch of how to divide up the internals with Faraday cages. I also removed the card piece to allow heat to circulate more. First up was adding a cage around some regulators  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Opening up the DSP a day later and the copper tape had started to peel, so I added some liquid insulation tape that I got to try. Its black sticky stuff that has a very strong solvent scent. It cures enough to touch after an hour or 2, but ideally needs a day to fully cure. This also worked really well around the edges of the cages to prevent shorts. I tested the liquid tape in the oven from 60deg C to 120deg C. It is good to use upto 60 or 80deg C before it starts to soften too much, so ideal for our purpose.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr The power supply and regulator cages seriously improved the DSP's performance. I couldn't wait to try more. This morning I decided to tackle as much as I could, so made a few more cages.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I messed up somewhere with my measurements here, so had to extend this one to fit over a lone capacitor on the Input stage.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I did a dry fit before securing everything.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr All I can say is these mods have completely transformed my DSP. If somebody had told me they put a new fancy Dac in my system, I'd have believed them. Thanks to Damien and Atoz for starting all this and helping out with instructions and materials. |
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atoz
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Post by atoz on Apr 27, 2024 18:01:49 GMT
Matt, that's a fantastic job you did there, my dac was a walk in the park compared to what you took on.
Good when you do this work and you hear the outcome.
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Post by mattspl on Apr 27, 2024 18:07:42 GMT
Thanks atoz, it was worth it in the end.
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Post by mattspl on Apr 27, 2024 18:11:27 GMT
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Post by stellabagpuss on Apr 27, 2024 18:39:19 GMT
Just got back from the Rain Forest... Those Damn Worshippers 🤣
I'm so pleased you came on board for this Matt, not only has it exceeded your expectations, but we also had some great brain storming moments, and it's forced us to look for material products we didn't even know existed.
As l've said, the Mods are more Arts and Crafts work,anyway well done. In the words of Yazz "The only way is up"
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Post by mattspl on Apr 30, 2024 20:14:23 GMT
Another update on the Faraday cage mods. There were a couple of other area's Damien suggested I tackle.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr This was quite awkward due to proximity to everything else and required lots of the liquid tape, some of the sound deadening putty and a piece of 3M heat resistant insulating tape. I let it all dry overnight before putting the lid on. I used copper mesh this time as it arrived earlier.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I'm now finished with the DSP  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Things have improved greatly since the start of this process and with each stage things improved more. Everything is so much quieter now, less bright, better bass, better imaging. |
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Post by stellabagpuss on Apr 30, 2024 20:59:58 GMT
Excellent Matt... I'm so pleased all the efforts you put in, have resulted in an improvement, you probably couldn't have imagined.
l won't bleat on anymore, but l guess,the reality of most designs,that your missing 30% of performance, just from leakage.
Can't wait to see the progress and how you're going to push your DAC proformance even more.
Well done, l'm chuffed Matt
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Post by mattspl on Apr 30, 2024 21:56:35 GMT
Excellent Matt... I'm so pleased all the efforts you put in, have resulted in an improvement, you probably couldn't have imagined. l won't bleat on anymore, but l guess,the reality of most designs,that your missing 30% of performance, just from leakage. Can't wait to see the progress and how you're going to push your DAC proformance even more. Well done, l'm chuffed Matt Thanks Damien, looking forward to some Dac mods. |
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atoz
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Post by atoz on May 1, 2024 6:52:45 GMT
Well done Matt,great effort with a happy outcome.
Hardest part of the Gustard DACs mesh work, is deciding which screws to loosen to take the lid off
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Post by MartinT on May 1, 2024 8:29:42 GMT
Hardest part of the Gustard DACs mesh work, is deciding which screws to loosen to take the lid off LOL - yes, that does take some working out! Those are some long bolts. |
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Post by mattspl on May 19, 2024 18:11:32 GMT
A few small updates This AHP fuse arrived after about a year on back order. I'd forgotten about it. After good results with the fuse, I upgraded the tails feeding from the main(AHP) fuse to my Gigawatt circuit breaker that feeds the Hifi. I used 2 cores of this Acrolink power cord off cut.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I took the lid off the ZeroZone power supply and measured the voltage output, rather than relying on the display for its 12 volts. I was getting 12.2 volts at the output, so reduced it a little. Display now reads 11.8 volts. I also pulled the cables off the IEC and Graphene treated them.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Then last night, turning off the speakers after them being on for about 15 hours, the right one was worryingly Hot to the touch. I measured it with an infrared thermometer at 55deg C. The other speaker was its normal quite warm 45 deg C. The right speaker has always ran a bit hotter, but never like this. So I did some research and Bias adjustments for Bryston amplifiers and hoped I had enough info to make necessary adjustments. I had no voltage settings available, so I measured the 'Normal' temperature speaker and compared it to the Hot one. On one amp section in each speaker I measured an identical 0.9mV, but on the other amp section, one speaker measured 1.4mV and the other 2.6mV, so I reduced the 2.6mV to 1.4mV and they have been on 4 hours now and Temperatures are looking normal.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr |
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Post by MikeMusic on May 19, 2024 20:05:38 GMT
Well sorted My talents lie 'elsewhere'  |
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Post by MartinT on May 20, 2024 12:30:20 GMT
Must have been too much DC offset, burning needless power and heating up the voicecoils.
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Post by mattspl on May 21, 2024 19:07:37 GMT
The Cisco switch arrived and as some of you saw in the BubbleUPNP thread I couldn't get it to work, so needed to reset it. All working perfectly now and ready for the first stage of mods hopefully at the weekend,  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr |
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Post by mattspl on May 25, 2024 15:30:56 GMT
After putting the Cisco switch into my system after the Router, with just the Dac/Renderer plugged into it even my wife commented that it sounded better which is rare. Tone and timbre sound more lifelike and the music has more energy to it. The switch is powered using a very short off cut of Acrolink 7N-P4030II that thankfully is the perfect length for the job. But as always, I chase that little bit extra, so did a couple of modifications. I searched the internet and found out that putting a filter in the form of capacitors on the 12 volt side after the SMPS would benefit the sound. I have seen one company offer this modification and they just use the large Russian Silver Mica capacitor. Others used a combination of a smaller Silver Mica and a fairly large electrolytic capacitor. So I ordered the parts and did the mod. I was hoping to mount them nice and tidily, but the cable length, components on the board and the heat sink dictated their placement. A future mod could be to rewire the cables from the power supply with nice OCC cable and shield it.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Next mod that I just completed was to build a cage around the SMPS.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr The installation of the switch and the mods has brought my system up another level of resolution and revealed musical detail that I wasn't previously aware of, but most of all it has more musicality and emotion. Next stage is to get another switch and link them with fibre. I'm using the Sablon 2020 from switch to Dac and using an Amazon Cat8 from router to switch. I have a Ugreen CAT8, Akake CAT8 and Linkup Cat8 arriving tomorrow to try from router to switch. both the Akake and Linkup come with test certs. |
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Post by stellabagpuss on May 25, 2024 21:04:30 GMT
Nice work Matt, your certainly on a roll now. It's amazing what can be accomplished with pretty much little investment.
Your really on the road to Hi Fi utopia, and best all of ... It won't break the bank, and be so much more satisfying.
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Post by MartinT on May 25, 2024 22:44:44 GMT
Looks a bit like what I did to my Caiman SEG by the time I'd finished with it.
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Post by mattspl on Jun 6, 2024 20:00:33 GMT
Another update I've been meaning to get round to doing. After the success with the Cisco switch and reading that 2 is better than 1, I got hold of a second switch. A newer version of the 2960.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr As you can see, the switch is a bit different inside and out, but the power supply is almost identical.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I did the Cage mod and also shielded the cables on this one and added just the silver foil capacitor while I waited on the nichicon to arrive. I'm happy with it likr this, so might leave as is.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Adding the second switch which is just connected with Cat8 to the first switch brought a very nice upgrade similar to the first switch. Reverb and ambiance in recordings has greatly increased. We started watching a series called 'Dark matter' and the sound is really good. Excellent, big soundstage and placement of effects and wrap around imaging, that seems to only be restricted from going behind the listening position because the sofa is against the back wall, except for the depth of the double radiator. I bought a couple of A4 sheets of Ultraperm 80 after Damien's testing with the EMI meter and his Dac mods, although I got paranoid about using it due to how thin and sharp it is. I had a bit of an idea involving a laminator.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr After laminating a sheet, I cut pieces to size and laminated them a second time..  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr Then I stuck them in certain parts of the Dac and to the inside of the base in an attempt to shield areas. I also shielded a lot of the internal cables, firstly wrapping them in sleeving, then copper foil, followed by more sleeving and insulating tape.  Untitled by Matt Hoyle, on Flickr I also wanted to separate the Hifi system from the Tv, sky box and internet stuff, so I got another pure sinewave UPS, although this isn't double conversion, so doesn't maintain a steady 230v, it will just maintain the voltage within set limits. I now just have the Dac and DSP on my Power inspired AG500, showing 0% load its so low. I moved the FMC, Router(Zerozone lps), 2 x switches, sky box and Tv onto the new UPS. This is only at 8% load when the Tv and Sky box are in standby and around 20% with them switched on. This has brought further gains in reducing noise and creating blacker backgrounds for more detail and precise imaging. |
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