Gator aid. Or how to get the most from your Gator.

[mervinb]

I’m not able to compare my gatorized Caimans to DACs from other manufacturers, but the fixed line out volume of this model definitely is louder than the volume of Stan’s TC-7520 and the Caiman without Gator PCB.

Thanks Werner. That worries me... Is there some way I can check that I do have a Gator upgrade installed in the Caiman+ (without resorting to use of a screwdriver)?

[chapter three]

I found the gatorised caiman to be lower in output than the stock caiman in my system. More dynamic but a bit quieter.

There's no way of knowing whether there's a gator in there without opening it up but I'd have thought it's very unlikely that Stan would have made a mistake.

[Werner Berghofer]

Is there some way I can check that I do have a Gator upgrade installed in the Caiman+

Well, usually Stan delivers exactly – and very quickly, by the way – what’s been asked from him. If you ordered a Caiman+ with a Gator PCB, I’m pretty sure this is what has been shipped to you.

I use two gatorized Caiman DACs: one in my desktop system, and the other one in the living room. The Caimans replaced the TC-7520 models. I did not compare the output volume by measuring with a reference microphone, but the volume dials on both amplifiers had to be turned a little bit more counter-clockwise when I added the Caiman DACs to the audio chain. At least on my systems, dynamic range and output volume was increased due to the Gator PCBs.

[maniac]

The standard Gator is designed to be all things to all headphones, but I left some blank component spaces in the PCB so that the Gator can be tuned to various cans.

The following is a tune up for my K701. The added caps in the middle next to the 22nF ( 47nF in the standard board) are 220pF. So you need 2 x 22nF and 2 x 220pF. It gives the K701 a lot more weight and body.

Hi Stan, after applying this mod I can confirm that my HD800 now sounds less subtle, or in other words I now can't complain about any quiet bass
Thank you!

I've tried also Koss Sporta Pro headphones (as I do always first after any mod to test if it's safe to connect HD800 ), but those were not able to reproduce so much bass and was distorted even on average volume levels

I did not yet replaced the resistors as i'm not really sure about their wattage. I bought 0,4W resistors, but those are smaller (about a half) than original resistors - is it really OK to use 0,4W resistors here? I just want to avoid burning Gator/HD800s

Photo of the mod, it just replicates Stan's photo:

[kabforks]

Regarding power supply... does one need an upgraded PSU to be able to use the Gator board? I see it's on the ordering list. Could someone elaborate?

[Butuz]

Regarding power supply... does one need an upgraded PSU to be able to use the Gator board? I see it's on the ordering list. Could someone elaborate?

No you do not require an upgraded PSU to run a Gator but stan does reccomend purchasing a Caiman PSU to replace the standard 7520 one "while your at it". I.e if your going to buy the Gator to get better sound you may as well get the PSU too at the same time and get even better sound.

Butuz

[mervinb]

Well, usually Stan delivers exactly – and very quickly, by the way – what’s been asked from him. If you ordered a Caiman+ with a Gator PCB, I’m pretty sure this is what has been shipped to you.

I use two gatorized Caiman DACs: one in my desktop system, and the other one in the living room. The Caimans replaced the TC-7520 models. I did not compare the output volume by measuring with a reference microphone, but the volume dials on both amplifiers had to be turned a little bit more counter-clockwise when I added the Caiman DACs to the audio chain. At least on my systems, dynamic range and output volume was increased due to the Gator PCBs.

Yes, my Caiman+ did come with the Gator pcb as ordered. It is, however several dB softer than my other dacs (probably 2-3dB softer than the standard 2.0V rms, although I have not measured.

I could not resist the urge to add more teeth to my Gator, so I've applied the standard Murata reg (+5V only), better supply caps mods to the receiver/dac board. The sound, which was already good to begin with, started to get more 'life', but lacked the body / authority that my best dacs provided (highly modded Channel Islands VDA-1, Zhaolu 2.0). I looked carefully at the supplies for the Gator, and felt that given the lengths of pcb tracks taken by the supplies (+15V, +12V regulated), some extra caps would be useful. I used Silmic IIs. The results? Superb. This added body to the sound, without taking away the refinement and detail.

There is not much space on the top or bottom of the Gator pcb, but I added caps on the bottom. Cap sizes are "to taste", and I used a range between 22uF and 470uF. For Silmics space is a premium and I have not tested different sizes for optimal sound.

[chapter three]

Yes, my Caiman+ did come with the Gator pcb as ordered. It is, however several dB softer than my other dacs (probably 2-3dB softer than the standard 2.0V rms, although I have not measured.

I could not resist the urge to add more teeth to my Gator, so I've applied the standard Murata reg (+5V only), better supply caps mods to the receiver/dac board. The sound, which was already good to begin with, started to get more 'life', but lacked the body / authority that my best dacs provided (highly modded Channel Islands VDA-1, Zhaolu 2.0). I looked carefully at the supplies for the Gator, and felt that given the lengths of pcb tracks taken by the supplies (+15V, +12V regulated), some extra caps would be useful. I used Silmic IIs. The results? Superb. This added body to the sound, without taking away the refinement and detail.

There is not much space on the top or bottom of the Gator pcb, but I added caps on the bottom. Cap sizes are "to taste", and I used a range between 22uF and 470uF. For Silmics space is a premium and I have not tested different sizes for optimal sound.

Interesting. Could you post some pics of the mod?

[mervinb]

Interesting. Could you post some pics of the mod?

As I alluded, the work is experimental and not pretty...

I have caps connected to the V- and V+ of the opamp (V- is GND for the Gator), and between 12V and GND of the transistors (Q1, Q2) on the left side of the Gator board (for left and right channels). To be really safe and not mess up anything, I suggest tracing the output of the 7912 regulator from the larger pcb, up to the Gator board.

I'm not set up for macro photography, but will try to take a shot if I work on the Gator in the future.

[maniac]

I could not resist the urge to add more teeth to my Gator, so I've applied the standard Murata reg (+5V only), better supply caps mods to the receiver/dac board. The sound, which was already good to begin with, started to get more 'life', but lacked the body / authority that my best dacs provided (highly modded Channel Islands VDA-1, Zhaolu 2.0). I looked carefully at the supplies for the Gator, and felt that given the lengths of pcb tracks taken by the supplies (+15V, +12V regulated), some extra caps would be useful. I used Silmic IIs. The results? Superb. This added body to the sound, without taking away the refinement and detail.

Hi Mervin,
did you notice faint tone on background in very quiet music passages (so muting cirtuit is not engaged) after applying Muratas?

From the moment i've applied Muratas i can hear this tone mainly on HD800's connected directly to phones out of caiman with gator, but it's also on fixed output to preamp. I can hear it only on quite high volume (over 12'o clock on caiman) to which i'm listening to in some quiet recordings..

I was experimenting a bit and found that when i'm using linear PSU and set voltage below 13Volt this tone dissapears completely. By coincidence 13V and up is the voltage when Muratas are expected to start actually "work properly". I allready tried to replace both Muratas with new ones, but situation is still the same

As it was mentioned elsewhere on AOS, another member had the same issue and solved it by applying about 330uF caps to Vin and GND of both Muratas. I've done the same, but then found out that although this will remove background tone, but unfortunately it adds unpleasant noise to music when feeding caiman with 13Volt or more (up to 15,4V which is possible with my linear PSU, or original Caiman PSU).

I'm thinking if it is caused byt switched nature of this regulators and if yes what kind of filtering would help to get rid of this tone on background..