Mod your Caiman

I bet Caiman is less than 10w... (my Northstar 192 is at 15w).

But I understand the (absolute) need.

Not sure I am brave enough to try to yet mod my week-old Caiman, since I am *still* playing with speaker positioning and room acoustics. However, I feel the need for more bass. Before I embark on this I will compare the overall response with DAC and without on both SB3 and CD player - just for some reference. I am not happy with the low bass yet, but this could well be room acoustics. My "test track" is IC19 by Buraka Som Sistema which opens with stupidly low freq. and in my 5.1 setup the sub pushes me back into the sofa, quite literaly.

Given the mod Stan posted would it be a good or bad idea to fit a minature pot instead of a fixed value resistor, something like a 100K one of these: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=6499 ?

I have really not been near a circuit board for decades, so I am wary...

Instead of the cap/resistor mod, try a THS4032 or LM4562HA in the line output. It's better and does not require dismantling of the audio PCB.

Thanks Stan - I will go insane if I have to read the 1,300+ post in the 7250 modding thread - what's the real difference between the HA and the NA ? The Caiman uses the NA, right ? The HA is a drop in replacement but your first post in this thread mentions "less detail" - can you elaborate ? i.e. which foot am I shooting myself in or should I just buy a couple and try them for myself ?

Is the HA the metal canister one ? Off to google I go.

I would leave the headphone amp side alone, as I don't use it - is that OK or should that side's opamp be changed too ?

Hi Peter,

I'd say there's a lot of consensus here that the Caiman needs some time to break in. I'd give it some time before switiching things in or out, especially since you are messing with speaker arangements etc. I'd suggest listening to your new arrangement with other sources if possible and seeing if you hear the same bass characteristics from them that you are hearing from the Caiman. Room arrangement and speaker placement can have drastic effects on these things. Hope this helps. For myself, I'm going to wait until the warranty ends before I jump into the op-amp/mod end of things. Won't be easy to wait that long, but in the meantime I'll work on other aspects of my system (dampening vibrations, finding a great transport, etc.)

Hi Peter, see the mod page on my site first. It shows some pics of the LM4562HA in action and also describes the wiring.

There's a chap on the Wigwam selling a pair or THS4032 op amps for free plus postage.

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/view_topic...jump_to=728282

Scroll down to the post by HectorHughMunro (#693)

How many Volts are:
a) the main internal PSU Capacitor/10000uF
b) the last one electrolytic capacitor of fixed output

at the Caiman?

The big input cap is rated as 10,000uf/16v. Not sure about the last one you have asked about though.

Regards

Chris

presume he means the output signal coupling caps on the line out? if so 25v I think