Mod your Beresford TC-7510

[electronlibre]

Hi Grant,
Thank you! It is playing good music, very sweet.

[electronlibre]

Hello!

A few more mods have been made during the last days, or should I say... I replaced a few more parts!
As it was when I posted the last photos, I had replaced the digital regulator, (5volts out), but not the analogue one, (10volt), I mean the one that goes to the analogue circuits, the output. I said to myself that it was not necessary to have these fancy regs, because the dac is being fed by a 12volt battery, followed by a 4700uF capacitor. I even thought about replacing the 5v Belleson by the standard one, the "original".

Well, today I was surprised by a few experiments I made. I tryed an external linear psu, I regulated it to 12v and also tried it regulated to 15volts. OK, nothing gets hot, it sounds good.
I couldn't hear a difference between the battery and the linear psu. May be there was a litle difference, but so litle that I ignored it.
That been observed, I decided to desolder the 10 volt regulator and solder a New Class D reg, with 12volts, so I used the linear psu setted to 15volts.
Now the 5volt Belleson gets hot, so I screwed a heat sink to it. Nothing else gets hot. Should I replace some resistor(s)? May be, but it seems safe, and it's sounding good.

The sound improved a lot! So much that I am not anymore pointing the loudspeakers. Yesterday I felt that my gainclone was lacking of power. Today I have "power" enough. I knew already that most of the times we accuse the speakers, the fault comes from the source. What audiophiles often look for, or search, in amplifiers, is what they are not getting from the source. That's why, in my opinion, most of audiophiles change so mny times of amplifier. They just don't look for a better source. When the dac or cd player achieves a certain level of quality, the system gives this feeling of power, bigger scale, and the sound comes out of the boxes. In this case, it was achieved by improving the psu of the analogue output. One of the most important sections of any system : a good output powered by a good psu. Even the most old and modest dac will sound good.

I also replaced the styros by two more 220pf Charcroft silver mica. In the psu I have now a 4700uf Kaisei capacitor and soldered the standard 4700uf Audio Note after the linear psu, just before the "jack" of the dac's case. It will be shown in the next photos.

I am curious to "see" if the sound improves by just using the Dorado. If yes, should it improve by desoldering the regulators using two supercapacitors psu? One 5v and one 10v, or 12, directly to the regs holes. Later on. I'll post some pictures this week, after finishing some replacements in the phones section.

If this dac has such an incredible potential, it is thanks to the great electronic design. The sound is very good, even in these modern days...

The sound also improved by soldering to the gainclone psu two Kaisei caps with 4700uf each. These caps have no competition. I use silmics or mundorfs most of times, but they have no chance against the Kaisei.
I still have two silmics in the output stage, those with 47uf. These, and all the caps from the phones output, will be replaced by Non Polar Kaisei caps. More to come, if someone is still interested or reading in this old topic.

[electronlibre]

I want to state that I am not making commercial publicity and I don't receive money from any brand. I am just sharing my feelings, thoughts and experiences. I am only a hobbyist and passionate for audio.

[electronlibre]

I may build one big and simple external linear psu with a bank of good caps and a big toroid. I have to take a deep look to my drawers...

[electronlibre]

Hello again!

This project still is in evolution. The sound is still improving. I had a 4700uF kaisei cap in the psu, but I removed it, because it is not necessary now. I wanted to try feeding the board of the TC-7510 with 5volts and 10 volts directly. The sound was very good, as I said before, but I noticed some harsh sound that was more and more noticeable. I had some saturation in the treble and middle hights. I tryed a lot of things and finally thought that my suspicion about the gainclone psu was right. I was feeding the LM3875 with a dual 18V transformer. That way I could use the 25Volts Kaisei caps. Even with 300VA I was not getting rid of the problem. Then I found a dual 24volt transformer with only 50VA. I connected and the problem was completely gone. I am waiting for a 200VA/2x25v toroid for a Creek 4330. It will be useful for this gainclone before.

Now that I am sure that this psu configuration works with the TC-7510, next move will be a case with two linear psu, one for digital and other to analogue. It will be simplier. Just two capacitor banks, to feed the regulators that were there before : the 5v Belleson and the 12v Dexa. I think that they even are better than the Salas and the other psu I'm using now. It will be important in the analogue section. I think...
I am getting 5Volts/780mA from the Salas psu and 10Volts/4A from the other. Or, I will feed it with two supercapacitor psu. It will be the best of all, but a lot more investment.

I am psting some more photos after this. I would like if someone make some comments, even if it is not positive.
I am feeling alone in this forum, this is being a big monologue. I know, this threat is not exciting, not anymore, but still is for me!

[electronlibre]

Still waiting for the non polar Kaisei caps to populate the headphones amp board.

[electronlibre]

The amp will be installed in an old Rega Elex.

[electronlibre]

I will use Cornell Dublier in the power banks, no need to use Kaisei before the voltage regulators, I believe that it would be a waste.
I am using two 4700uf Cornell Dublier in the gainclone psu with very good results. 63v kaisei would cost a fortune and I am getting reasonable.

I will install an Amanero board in the TC case, feeded by a Dexa reg. The Amanero will be in the place of the removed psu cap.


The sound now is very fluid with absolute silence and fluidity. No aggressiveness at all. The control over the speakers is very good.

[electronlibre]

Now, finally, I have a few questions :

- Is it really worth to have two psu, if I use the special voltage regulators? One digital and one analogue?
- If I simply use one good external psu, using the original jack of the case and one 4700uF on the board, is it worth to change it?

- If I decide to use supercaps, is it worth to make two psu?
-If I use only one supercap psu, like the Dorado, is it worth to change and use two external supercap psu,
feeding the board directly? (5v and 10volts)


What do you think the best situation will be?

Thank you!

[electronlibre]

My guess is that the best is to use two external psu, feeding the special voltage regulators, or... even better...
use a supercap psu, but should I use one supercap psu with normal regulatots or two directly connected, with no regs, of course.
My guess is that the last proposition is the best, but I am not sure and I have no electronics skills at all.