XS Xclusive: Xtreme Mod in Progress: Auzen X-Meridian Total Recap:

[NapalmV5]

look ma.. no caps!

i just finished removing all the caps.. 1 pad gone.. good thing i can work around that

since ive recapped the mx300 after 10 years with great results.. i decided not to wait that long to mod the xm

why news? if this was done before, it certainly wasnt posted publicly.. if it was, please post a link..

if everything goes fine ill be back later with a pic of a new xm

[sdkevin]

lol totally naked!! how long it take for you to got all the caps off? can't wait to see newly reborn X-Meridian!

[RPGWiZaRD]

Just a quick question...

why?

[jas420221]

Just a quick question...

why?

Thats what I want to know...

[Brother Esau]

Not to deter you on this but a sound card of that caliper the question at hand here is Why

[Psykocyber]

What are you hoping to achieve? Better sound quality like the Creative X-fire mod?

[Martijn]

What are you hoping to achieve? Better sound quality like the Creative X-fire mod?

Exactly. Better caps generally give a much steadier voltage, resulting (at least what he hopes) in better audio quality.

[Rolle2k]

Seriously, don't you people understand what he tries to archive?
Of course its better sound quality. There are alot of expensive and good caps that is especially made for hifi stuff, and my guess is that hes going to put some in there.
Cant wait to hear what you think about it!

Also, this is xtremesystems, so what do you other people think?

[jas420221]

Seriously, don't you people understand what he tries to archive?
Of course its better sound quality. There are alot of expensive and good caps that is especially made for hifi stuff, and my guess is that hes going to put some in there.
Cant wait to hear what you think about it!

Also, this is xtremesystems, so what do you other people think?

I think nothing. I have never seen anyone do this before.

[XS Janus]

Wow this IS extreme: no caps = infinite sound quality

j/k of course.

Good luck on piecing the thing together.
I hope you can do some tests on proper equipment that actually will be able to distinguish those differences you are hoping to obtain.
Nice project.

[NapalmV5]

it didnt take too long to remove.. just like you remove teeth.. one by one

why? i trying to get as much as possible out of the xm.. a lot of potential hidden @ stock

before im off to soldering heres a pic of the caps

all rubycon black gate nx

thanks xs Janus

[Xope_Poquar]

Wow, I don't know if I'd have the patience to solder all of those. Props to you!

[Scubar]

cant wait to see it finished.

[One_Hertz]

hahaha I was very seriously considering doing this when the prelude just came out. Got too lazy when it came close to it. I really hope to hear your results because if it works well for you I will do the exact same thing. Its not too difficult.

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

I don't understand. First thing you should be doing is replacing the opamp. Then the bypassing caps.

I'm not sure why this is news though, I did this to my X-fi months ago. Many other people have also done the same on head-fi.

[Frank M]

it didnt take too long to remove.. just like you remove teeth.. one by one

With a hammer? Just like at Soviet KGB

Total recap...
Man, if you forget from where you took which cap off, you're gonna need
some total recall
But rly, to recap what the others said: why? In hifi circles, modding
the e-mu cards like the one I have was common; however, the mods were
usually about replacing opamps and dacs, I don't remember anyone doing
a full recap.
Just be careful with resoldering which to where, not to end up with a
total crape soundcard from a short.

OK, enough p(h)uns for today!

[KTE]

I've seen it done before quite a lot of times (offline). I used to mod everything I own incl. musical equipment for better filtering, bandwidth and sound quality, and caps were easy so they came first.

Where'd you pick up the Rubycon Black Gate NX from Janus?

Why didn't you opt for Philips Low Loss (Q LL) caps?
They are what is used far often in the best musical equipment (amps too), have higher and tighter tolerances and frequency bandwidth, temperature tolerances, life and quality. Pair them up with Black Gate FK for best results.

[thenrz]

Holy crap, you must have a steady hand and an ungodly air pencil

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

I've seen it done before quite a lot of times (offline). I used to mod everything I own incl. musical equipment for better filtering, bandwidth and sound quality, and caps were easy so they came first.

Where'd you pick up the Rubycon Black Gate NX from Janus?

Why didn't you opt for Philips Low Loss (Q LL) caps?
They are what is used far often in the best musical equipment (amps too), have higher and tighter tolerances and frequency bandwidth, temperature tolerances, life and quality. Pair them up with Black Gate FK for best results.

Personally I think polymer caps are the best in DC-blocking positions when you need high capacitance. Provide great sound quality. the chemicon PSA series is good.

The next best thing to no cap though is film caps, electrolytics cant touch them.

For all other power filtering positions, the best are low esr caps like the panasonic FM, which is what I use.

[naokaji]

why?

because this is spar ehh xs

crazy but nice work, I hope it works out

[jas420221]

Any chance of links showing THD loss and things along those lines... thats kind of cool!

[KTE]

Yep, the Panasonic FM are good for this too.

[NapalmV5]

done! AD797 opamps

beauty to beast

all 10/22uf @ 47uf BG NX
100uf @ 220uF BG NX - 2x @ crystal = 470uf BG NX
470uf @ 2200uf BG NX but ill ecap one more

i was about to tell u guys that it turned out unsuccessful.. for a couple minutes i was doubting everything ive done..

reseated the card in the mobo once more and its all good

success!!!

im testing right now and noticed increased clarity/purity/rich sound right away.. and this is after power cap mod

ill get back to the replies tomorrow

[sdkevin]

wow impressive! those caps looks like mushroom growing on the log very tight space between those opamps, how about putting OPA637 for a test run?

[LordofDoom]

Lol it really did turn to a beast.

Looks ugly as hell XD

I'm sure it sounds great though!