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

[ROBSCIX]

Enjoy.

[NapalmV5]

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

thanks yeh it takes a bit of patience to solder 74 caps

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.

my prelude/opa637 + 1500uf BG NX power cap = brutal

all needed for one hellava prelude

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.

you think i started this mod without trying opamps/different power caps..

like ive said @ 1st post if this mod was done on xm before please post a link

im not referring to any other sound card/audio gear here i thought that was crystal clear

With a hammer? Just like at Soviet KGB

why didnt i think of that.. much easier to remove

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.

lol couple of close calls but in the end it surprisingly survived

OK, enough p(h)uns for today!

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?

lol no i boughtem from soniccraft

Why didn't you opt for Philips Low Loss (Q LL) caps?

for one i didnt know of phillips q ll caps.. now i know, thanks! its appreciated when specified

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.

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

total opposite of steady.. just an old trusty cheap simple solder gun

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.

dont stop, keep going.. please specify which film caps.. ive read the same but just which film caps can i use on the xm/other sound cards?

because this is spar ehh xs

crazy but nice work, I hope it works out

madness! thanks, yup it turned out great

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

i wish i could bench it.. my only bench is my ears its all i need though

Yep, the Panasonic FM are good for this too.

ok

phillips q ll
panasonic fm

ive heard that some siemens are better? which ones?

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?

lol yeh mushcaps

i hope i got time tomorrow to test the opa637

but that brings the tally up to:
xm + 6x opa637 + caps = $600+ and im not done yet lol

Lol it really did turn to a beast.

Looks ugly as hell XD

I'm sure it sounds great though!

indeed lol

Enjoy.

thanks Rob i better enjoy it now.. lol

[NapalmV5]

now that the total recap worked as planed.. this leads to the next recap

from the beginning i wanted the coupling caps (24 caps) @ 100uf but since the 100uf is more expensive ive tried the 47uf

ill probably just recap the top coupling caps to 100uf but recap all subwoofer caps

when ill have it done, will post an update

-

as for the sound quality of the recap mod, what i expected: rich pure clear powerful sound that i could only dream @ stock

unfortunately this kinda mod begs for better voltage regulators and better crystal

i dont recommend this very costly mod but for me was worth it

to get the xm close to this level all thats needed is: highend opamp opa637/opa627 ad797/ad8620 + power cap @ 1500uf NX (11$) or 2x 1500uf e-capped and you gotta hear it to believe it

[jas420221]

Again... anything measurable (THD for example)? Im not doubting your results from your 'ear' tests, I just would like to see something empirical like links showing that THD or S/N was improved.

[NapalmV5]

again.. i wish i could bench it.. is there progs/soft to run a sound card through for that?

look guys, im no pro, just novice at best at all this sound stuff

[jas420221]

I have no idea personally. It doesnt need to come from you, Im just curious as to how much improvement this makes with real numbers.

(I missed you post where you said that)

[sdkevin]

there are many software out there for testing sound card, you can try this one "SoundCheck" which opamp do you like best?

[NapalmV5]

^alright ill look into that soft

opa637/ad797.. opa627/ad8620 - cant go wrong with any of these four highend opamps


6x opa637

im finally satisfied with opa637 on the xm
used to get nasty noise/interference on the same asus mobo the xm its on now

by the time ill be done with the caps tally be @ 700$+

by the time ill be completely done.. ~1000$/1000$+ but that remains to be seen/heard

[Nosfer@tu]

Why havent you pushed the Caps down closer to the board ?

Great work Sir

[rcofell]

I've seen RightMark Audio Analyzer used before, which you can get here.

It looks like you've put a bit of time and money into it, glad to see you got the desired results. Although I'm a little curious, why didn't you just go for a dedicated external DAC?

[jas420221]

by the time ill be done with the caps tally be @ 700$+

by the time ill be completely done.. ~1000$/1000$+ but that remains to be seen/heard

You are going to end up spending how much?????????? Wow.

[NapalmV5]

Why havent you pushed the Caps down closer to the board ?

Great work Sir

thanks

LOL @ pushed

for one, i made it temporary, may end up permanent.. that way its easier to remove if i need/want to recap
another, the space is very limited for large caps

I've seen RightMark Audio Analyzer used before, which you can get here.

It looks like you've put a bit of time and money into it, glad to see you got the desired results. Although I'm a little curious, why didn't you just go for a dedicated external DAC?

definitely the desired results, id certainly do it again

if id go external dac/amp @ 6-channels then id be spending way more..

even the setup i got now is too much for the apartment im at now

when ill have a mansion of own.. then ill go all out

You are going to end up spending how much?????????? Wow.

lol its 50/50 on that but im still contemplating cause if ill go with the other mods.. i dont know if my sound system will be able to keep up.. probably the mods will force a sound system upgrade which is kinda futile at the place im @ now

[One_Hertz]

I'd love a rightmark bench as well. The cost is within reason for what you get...

[NapalmV5]

ive downloaded rightmark so heres my first audio mark ever.. lol

what in the world does that mean, first time ive seen these kinda benches

good/bad ?

i did the generate wav then analyse wav and thats the results

ive ran the playback test but at the end nothing shows up

can u guys tell me how to properly bench @ rmaa.. thanks.. scuze my noobness

[NapalmV5]

^ never mind

this will have to do

[cadaveca]

Seriously..those are some nice figures in first SS. Second pic..well...ideally would be identical lines. Currently your right channel is capable of pushing higher volumes at some frequencies than left in 50-abt 175nhz(BASS), the left produces more mids...probably due to how the caps are attached.

Nice job tho...really. Too bad you don't have tests from teh first card so you can see how well you really have done.


Edit:
Stole a pic from BitTech for ya:

[NapalmV5]

thanks

what i meant by never mind is that ive done that on the mx300, ht omega claro+ and x-meridian and got the same results.. definitely not generated through the sound card..


modded/total recapped diamond mx300 for comparison

OscilloMeter of mx300

[jas420221]

EXceleent, exactly what I was looking for... but what did it START with?!?!?!?!?!?! Any paper specs available?

[NapalmV5]

those of u @ stock xmeridian/prelude or other sound cards will have to post some results cause i wont be going back to stock thats for sure

or if there are some posted results already.. link it

wouldve been nice to see some spectrums before any mod but that wasnt on my mind..

[Jamestuk]

lol resoldering 74 caps (twice) just to get a before shot. looks like you did a pretty good job wish I had the money!

[NapalmV5]

thanks

latest test mod

[I34z1k]

That my friend, is insane. Nice work. I wanna do something like this to my x-fi. Know anywhere that ships caps internationally? Where can I go to find other mods like this?

[NapalmV5]

thanks.. sounds just insane

lot of info on xfi @ headfi

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/ho...no-56k-226975/

[ColonelCain]

latest test mod

Oh god... how many slots does that beast take up now?

[Zorlac]

That rules! I have a Prelude and the only thing I have done to it is replaced the OPAMP with one that Auzen now sells (Texas Instrument's OPA637). Are the Prelude caps cheap? I kind of assumed that they would have high quality caps on their cards...


Also, are you going to do the ERS paper mod? If so, can you please let me know what you use for insulating material? The mod is referenced on Headfi:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/ho...no-56k-226975/