Caiman Mods

[leo]

yeah? i have read some of your comments before about not being so sure about them (i think)... i was hoping to read about peoples experiences before finally commiting my self to anything ... ...

I'm not trying to put others off the Elna caps, I understand people like them, theres two particular pins on the dac chip you have to be very careful with what type of caps you use, they influence the performance. ANY type of cap which is electrically leaky will make the high's sharp (some new caps CAN measure electrically leaky when new or exposed to too much heat whilst soldering which can settle after running in) . This is one reason I've not rushed into changing all the caps around the dac chip yet. I remember when I was playing about with a dac using the PCM1794, theres also two caps for that dac chip which influences the signature, anything electrically leaky on particular pins would make the sound go sharp.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Well that seems quite profoundly acurate to HiFiGuy dave's experience that he posted earlier today so with me having a couple of weeks wait his findings could prove most useful to me - Keep is posted if you would dave, airyness is what I am after at the moment so that sounds positive, less bass isn't an issue either... And brightness is no issue... As long as it goes away after some break in time

leo, are you saying it's not a permanent thing this harshness, or that it could be if the person doing the mod isn't careful?

[MartinT]

I'm not trying to put others off the Elna caps, I understand people like them, theres two particular pins on the dac chip you have to be very careful with what type of caps you use, they influence the performance. ANY type of cap which is electrically leaky will make the high's sharp (some new caps CAN measure electrically leaky when new or exposed to too much heat whilst soldering which can settle after running in) .

The Elna caps mod was a little hot at first, but that is to be expected. Mine have settled down and now produce wonderful detail in a large soundstage, but not in-your-face or in any way bright. Bass extension has not suffered either, mine still capable of seismic events

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Ah coolio, I'd forgot you had already got em in martin my mind is abit else where at the mo...
To be fair I'm not bothered at all if they start off bright and calm down my amps did the the same and took a couple of months all in I recon before they smoothed out. The caimans break in wasn't quite as profound for me as it has been for some... ... I survived the amps and I'm sure it won't be as bigger deal as them so il cope I'm sure

[leo]

Well that seems quite profoundly acurate to HiFiGuy dave's experience that he posted earlier today so with me having a couple of weeks wait his findings could prove most useful to me - Keep is posted if you would dave, airyness is what I am after at the moment so that sounds positive, less bass isn't an issue either... And brightness is no issue... As long as it goes away after some break in time

leo, are you saying it's not a permanent thing this harshness, or that it could be if the person doing the mod isn't careful?

Its hard trying to explain things on here
With some caps yes, it shouldn't be a permanent issue, if things don't improve I'd look at caps VMIDR/VMIDL of the chip

[leo]

The Elna caps mod was a little hot at first, but that is to be expected. Mine have settled down and now produce wonderful detail in a large soundstage, but not in-your-face or in any way bright. Bass extension has not suffered either, mine still capable of seismic events

Thats good Its basically just to let folks know incase things don't suit

[HighFidelityGuy]

Its hard trying to explain things on here
With some caps yes, it shouldn't be a permanent issue, if things don't improve I'd look at caps VMIDR/VMIDL of the chip

Thanks Leo. I'll see if I can figure out which caps connect to those pins on the DAC chip. I know I did make a slight mistake with the 100uF cap and had to re-solder it. So there is a chance it got over heated. I'll see how things go and if the brightness doesn't tone down I'll swap out that cap for a new one.

For anyone else doing the Elna cap mod, pay particular attention to the 100uF cap when mounting. As it's wider than the cap it replaces you have to bend the legs to get them closer together. When I first mounted this cap I noticed one of the legs was touching a little surface mount cap underneath it and potentially shorting. So I had to raise the Elna cap up a bit to add some clearance. None of the other caps have this problem as they're further away from other components.

[Carson]

As an added note, I put a small piece of shrunk heat shrink on each of the legs on the 220uF and 100uF cap to ensure they did not short on anything else.
If you look very carefully in the above picture, you can see the heat shrink on the 100uF cap.

[leo]

I'll fit a pair of Elna SilmicII later

[apmusson]

Hi Gaz,

I was just getting ready to send my Caiman to Jimmy for the Elna upgrades, but you've unnerved me a bit (...but natural sounding?).

Any updates yet?

Ade

That said, from cold "out the box" the quality of vocals from a DVD soundtrack really did surprise me how "realistic" sounding they were...bigger, more solid than before...but natural sounding?