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

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Originally Posted by maniac

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

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I did read your posts with interest, but have not noticed any such noise. You may have noted that I only used the 5V Murata, as I didn't see much too gain from the 12V regulator, since the 12V load looks trivial (just a few transistors?).

I've also used the Murata (5V) regs on my Channel Islands VDA-1. It's an interesting story: the PCM1716 dac was damaged from some modding that kept de-emphasis on all the time. I was going to replace it directly, but read some Beresford posts on upgrading the PCM1716 to Wolfson WM8716. To cut the story short, the WM8716 makes huge difference, providing good bass and refined top end. With the Muratas, the dac runs a lot cooler too, without a heatsink to the +5V reg with the heavier load.

Several other power supply cap changes later (solid aluminum polymer for digital, Silmic II for analogue), I replaced two 5V regs with Muratas, and these opened up the sound further. In many ways my Channel Islands dac has been Caiman-ized... ;)

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

Perhaps I should do an upgrade kit for the TC-7520, comprising of the Gator, opamp, and Caiman power supply?

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Having just upgraded with a Gator 2 and moved the 4562 into the headphone socket I've just come across this post.
Can I further improve the SQ with a Caiman power supply. I was under the impression it was a higher voltage and therefore unsuitable.

Regards
Tony

Bit late top the Gator party, having run my "caimanised" 7520(*) with the passive mod, using the yellow film caps Stan recommended for this mod.

Been chatting with a friend who has the "Gator 2" board as well as the original, and he says the 2nd version sound better.

That got my attention...and I'm interested in seeing what the fuss is about!

Anyone try the Gator 2 over the Passive mod and have some thoughts to share?


(*) 7520 with:
replaced Dac chip.
Mutara Regs
Elna Slimics
Wire Mod
15v Linear Maplin CBR psu
Passive mod with Stans Yellow film caps instead of opamp board.


thanks.
Gaz.

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Originally Posted by LittleTone

Can I further improve the SQ with a Caiman power supply. I was under the impression it was a higher voltage and therefore unsuitable.

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Where did you read that it was unsuitable for use with the Gator?

Have a loan of a Gator2 board from a friend, fitting it today and will do some proper listening over the next few days.

Will be comparing a film caps Passive modded dac with Mutaras, Elna Slimics and 15V linear PSU.

Should be good :)

*EDIT*

Had a listen for half hour or so...
not so good...and wondering whats up.

Peak level distortion on a lot of tracks, listening is an "edge of the seat" experience..like everythings been turned up to 11.
Its particulalrly noticable on female vocals, piano's saxophones etc, so might be an issue of frequency response rather than absolute peak level?

It sounds as though there is far too much gain in my system, any danger of there being an impedance mismatch with the Gator board and my amp?
Using Cambridge Azur 640A (Input Impedance: 47k Ohms) so should be ok with the Gator? No problems with the original opamp board.

The Gator board is GOOD compared to the Passive mod with film caps, a better sense of 3D and more air and a bit more "life" to the sound...but I wonder if this is just the increased gain. Its hard to get past that to be honest...its just TOO much.

Shame, because you can tell it sounds great...theres just something causing distortion somewhere.

any ideas?

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

Where did you read that it was unsuitable for use with the Gator?

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Hi Stan

Not so much unsuitable for the Gator but the standard 7520.
I'm running a standard 7520 with a Gator 2 upgrade using the supplied 12 volt
power supply. I thought, rightly or wrongly the Caiman was using a 15 volt PS.
If its ok to use the Caiman power supply AND it would improve SQ please let me know how much it's gonna cost and I'll order one.

Regards
Tony

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Originally Posted by Gazjam

Peak level distortion on a lot of tracks, listening is an "edge of the seat" experience..like everythings been turned up to 11.
Its particulalrly noticable on female vocals, piano's saxophones etc, so might be an issue of frequency response rather than absolute peak level?

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I get some odd distortion on certain tracks and at the moment the Caiman (and original Gator) is going through an Audiolab 8000C. Will put variable out direct into power amp soon to compare.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gazjam

Have a loan of a Gator2 board from a friend, fitting it today and will do some proper listening over the next few days.

Will be comparing a film caps Passive modded dac with Mutaras, Elna Slimics and 15V linear PSU.

Should be good :)

*EDIT*

Had a listen for half hour or so...
not so good...and wondering whats up.

Peak level distortion on a lot of tracks, listening is an "edge of the seat" experience..like everythings been turned up to 11.
Its particulalrly noticable on female vocals, piano's saxophones etc, so might be an issue of frequency response rather than absolute peak level?

It sounds as though there is far too much gain in my system, any danger of there being an impedance mismatch with the Gator board and my amp?
Using Cambridge Azur 640A (Input Impedance: 47k Ohms) so should be ok with the Gator? No problems with the original opamp board.

The Gator board is GOOD compared to the Passive mod with film caps, a better sense of 3D and more air and a bit more "life" to the sound...but I wonder if this is just the increased gain. Its hard to get past that to be honest...its just TOO much.

Shame, because you can tell it sounds great...theres just something causing distortion somewhere.

any ideas?

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This is exactly what I get. Distortion on female vocal, piano and acoustic guitar. It certainly seems to be frequency related and it's only on certain tracks but always present each time I play the track.

It's very annoying. I have both versions of the Gator and the distortion is present on both. I've tried it with three different amps. It's there with all of them.

I've had the Murata and Elna Silmic upgrade. I'm using the Maplin CB radio supply set to 15v.

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Originally Posted by chapter three

This is exactly what I get. Distortion on female vocal, piano and acoustic guitar. It certainly seems to be frequency related and it's only on certain tracks but always present each time I play the track.

It's very annoying. I have both versions of the Gator and the distortion is present on both. I've tried it with three different amps. It's there with all of them.

I've had the Murata and Elna Silmic upgrade. I'm using the Maplin CB radio supply set to 15v.

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I should imagine it's on the original recording then & you are now hearing it due to the increased transparency of the DAC ;) I can't guarantee this though, but take it from me that my system shows up crappy recordings - i live with it ;)

Lots of CDs etc recordings are distorted, it just takes time & money to find the offending articals :rolleyes:


I should add though that well recorded stuff sounds amazing :eyebrows:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chapter three

This is exactly what I get. Distortion on female vocal, piano and acoustic guitar. It certainly seems to be frequency related and it's only on certain tracks but always present each time I play the track.

It's very annoying. I have both versions of the Gator and the distortion is present on both. I've tried it with three different amps. It's there with all of them.

I've had the Murata and Elna Silmic upgrade. I'm using the Maplin CB radio supply set to 15v.

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I certainly had an issue with my original Gator, but no problems at all with the modified version - unless as Mark says, it is on the recording... I haven't done any other mods, though. Have you tried the passive mod, and do you get the same problems? If not, and you want to try it PM me and I can send you some caps to try in place of the board that I used before Gatorisation. :)