Touch hardware mods

[HumanMedia]

Based on this, I assume you have a clock fitted. Did the sound improve after the mods?

No not installed. I ordered the components from the Audio Fidelity eBay store and I'm contemplating exactly what to install, in stages or all at once.

[UV101]

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[HumanMedia]

What did you order? I guess the micro clock. Anything else?

The clock board:
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Micro-Clock-t...#ht_1055wt_897

And some of those exact caps used (no longer listed by Audio Fidelity on eBay)

[UV101]

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[HumanMedia]

Ah so you have actually tried one of the Audio Fidelity clock boards?
But not in an SBT?

Yeah I got 5 SEPCs in total, one is usually used on the USB power, but I think I will use it on the SPDIF at U34 instead. Unless someone thinks that might be a bad idea??

Those oscon sepc caps are very good. I had one of the 1st C2 clocks from fidelity audio. The initial few produced came with rubycon ZA decoupling. I was advised to swap to sepc which I did and change was not subtle. I swapped back a forth a couple of times as I didn't believe that the caps could have such a profound effect.

As stated, i've never tried just lower uF smt caps but I have found that those sepc's are better than anything else I've tried on all digital rails.

Nichicon also make similar spec and construction caps but the cases are larger. In the touch, clearly space is at a premium so the smaller can of the sepc is of benefit.

[UV101]

Yep, I've got lots of their products and I've been massively impressed with them all.

The first clock I got from them was a C1 which was pretty basic but was capable of x1 & /2 clocks so was good for the Marantz CD63's as it could clock both the main clock and servo and was pretty good VFM. The only downside was it was massivley improved with better regulation.

The C2 was a massive improvement with onboard quality regulation (SPower)and outputs for x1, /2 & /4. this is particularly usefull for TDA1541 based players and DACs. I had the 1st or second retail unit. The improvement over std clocking with a Trichord clock 4 i'd had for several years was immense! It promted me to write fitting instructions for advanced clocking of TDA1541 which is still on the clocks page of the fidelity audio site. I also included a raft of useful stuff I'd collected from forums along the way (obviously inclucding references where text was copied).

I have I think 14 SPowers in total! The compact design is excellent. I have tested the SPower against Audiocom regs and much larger Salas shunt regs. The performance of the SPower was miles in front of anything else I've tried. This lead to me produce my own reg heavily based on the SPower initially on Vero with through hole components and finally on my own boards in smt format. I also included space for an oscillator in my board layout effectively turning the board into a decent clock. This is not a commercial venture on my part, its just a way of me feeding my additiction to tinkering!!

So in answewr to your question.....yes I do have other Fidelity audio products and yes I do rate the quality of the items. Also, for what its worth, the business owner has been a great help to me personally with many of my projects.



Final note, if you pick up feb HifiWorld mag, you'll see a review of a £300 cdp with a fidelity audio £400 mod package compared to a Naim CD5 (£1500)...guess what came out on top!!!


:-)

[HumanMedia]

Thanks UV101, I am now eager to install the mod.
(hopefully later today)

[UV101]

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[HumanMedia]

How many caps did you buy and where are you thinking of fitting them?

Bought five and will use three on the clock board as Audio Fidelity do.
One I've already fitted today to the main digital 5v rail replacing the one that was there.
I was planning to use the other for SPDIF at location U34, but after getting the case open again today, I don't think there is room to have a metal-can cap down squat on top of the chip and also fit the SBT back case on. Too hard basket with that one for a bit. Thoughts of SBGKs lunch box case start crossing my mind.

Scoped out the PCB territory in prep for 'operation clock board'.
My god those SMD components are tiny, tiny, tiny. If you haven't done this stuff before, or are not prepared to solder with a very fine soldering iron tip viewed through magnifying glass then forget about DIY SBT mods completely - send it to straight to someone like audio fidelity.

I will post images later as I need to confirm the location clock out pads. I think I've got em but have to be sure before those oscillators and supporting caps come out.

[UV101]

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