Caiman history

[dave2010]

Pardon me for asking, but what is the history behind the Caiman? I understand it is a hand crafted version of another project - 7520? Did these start off as DIY projects by an enthusiast (Stanley?), or were they always commercial projects?

Again, are the designs confidential (though presumably can be reverse engineered) or are they open source? From reading posts here, it looks as though quite a few people know what's inside the box, and what might be tweaked a bit.

There seems to be an interesting interaction between Stanley's customers and him as designer/implementer. I generally work with software, and the concept of open source software is well established, but this does feel like open source hardware - at least a bit. In the case of software, really most people do leave the code alone, but it's always possible to read it and modify it if there is a real need, and sometimes that leads to interesting new developments. Maybe it's the same here.

[Gazjam]

You do make some good points Dave, Stan Beresfords approach to his Customers is pretty unique in the Business, and as a very happy long term customer of his I have to applaud it.

I had my Dac modded recently with the latest recommended mods and the sound of the Dac has jumped up to the next level.

This level of encouraged modding makes for a great product.
That said, there has been some people critisising this approach....usually those losing profit on more expensive Dacs.

[dave2010]

Gazjam

Stan Beresfords approach to his Customers is pretty unique in the Business, and as a very happy long term customer of his I have to applaud it.

Seems we're very lucky to have him around. On the other hand, it is pity that he is as you say unique. It'd be good to have more people who are this much involved and responsive.

I had my Dac modded recently with the latest recommended mods and the sound of the Dac has jumped up to the next level.

Sounds good, but could I afford it? Who did the mods?

[Gazjam]

Hi Dave,

Yeah, you wont find many places where you can talk to the designer of your product and get direct feedback.

I had my Dac modded (for the second time) by Tirna Electronics.

I had teh two regulators upgraded to Mutara Regulators, and the caps changed to Rubycon caps.

Also, I had Wilma caps swapped in too.

The costs were:
Regulator upgrade £20
Rubycons/WIMA £15
Insured delivery £8.50

Unfortuntely though these upgrades were part of a limited "group buy", where one forum member bought in a load of components and distributed them amogst participating members.
There were problems with availablility and cost , which were worked around with a bulk buy from America (I believe).

I believe to buy the components singly would be difficult and costly.


But any component upgrade you require I would recommend Tirna.
I am hopeless with a soldering iron so leave it to the experts!


How do you like your Caiman?


By the way, Your Pioneer Amp?
Is it the Tom Evans Precision model? I had an A400 which I liked a lot and I wonder how the A300 sounds..


Gary.

[HighFidelityGuy]

Stan really is a rare gem. It's not often you find a commercial manufacturer/designer who are willing to spend their personal time helping their customers to modify their products. Most companies actively combat modders/hackers.

I think it's a really good thing as it allows the customers to have an active roll in the gradual development of the products.

[dave2010]

Hi Gary

Yeah, you wont find many places where you can talk to the designer of your product and get direct feedback.

Absolutely!

Interested to hear about your mods. I can live with the sounds I'm getting right now though. I may think about mods a bit later

How do you like your Caiman?

I'm getting happier with it all the time. The bad thing is that I really get tired listening to rough inputs such as Napster, or even Spotify. I know I'm supposed to buy the CDs and rip them to my hard drive, but (a) it takes time, and (b) sometimes I just want to listen to specific music which is available on these online site. Really p**d off that I can't put SACD through it though - what a bummer! I suppose there might be an AV receiver which would be able to convert HDMI input to SPDIF to feed into the Caiman, but I don't know of one, and in any case I don't know that I could afford yet another gadget. Even if I could, it might not go down well...

With some material the Caiman makes it sound almost real - as though the musicians are in the room, and I can hear quite a few separate threads at the same time. That's what I was hoping to achieve. I didn't manage that with the DACMagic on either of the amplifiers I used. I was perhaps slightly unfair to the DACMagic, but really I couldn't tell much difference between having it in the system or not, so I thought I'd save the money. It was good with USB inputs - but then so is the Caiman, and it has a headphone output.

By the way, Your Pioneer Amp?
Is it the Tom Evans Precision model? I had an A400 which I liked a lot and I wonder how the A300 sounds..

I inherited the A300. It has a volume control issue, but it's not too much of a problem. I assume it's a regular model - there are no logos or any obvious signs of being anythng special. I'm sure there are better amps, but I think in its price range it is/was great. Switching from my Rotel to this has made quite a big difference, though I did like the Rotel. I'll use it for a system in another room.

[machinehead]

Hi Gazjam,

Any pics of the upgrades?

Which caps do they replace?

Hi Dave,

Yeah, you wont find many places where you can talk to the designer of your product and get direct feedback.

I had my Dac modded (for the second time) by Tirna Electronics.

I had teh two regulators upgraded to Mutara Regulators, and the caps changed to Rubycon caps.

Also, I had Wilma caps swapped in too.

The costs were:
Regulator upgrade £20
Rubycons/WIMA £15
Insured delivery £8.50

Unfortuntely though these upgrades were part of a limited "group buy", where one forum member bought in a load of components and distributed them amogst participating members.
There were problems with availablility and cost , which were worked around with a bulk buy from America (I believe).

I believe to buy the components singly would be difficult and costly.


But any component upgrade you require I would recommend Tirna.
I am hopeless with a soldering iron so leave it to the experts!


How do you like your Caiman?


By the way, Your Pioneer Amp?
Is it the Tom Evans Precision model? I had an A400 which I liked a lot and I wonder how the A300 sounds..


Gary.

[Gazjam]

Hey Machinehead (not your real name is it? )

See HERE for Pics:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...t=4580&page=27
(Post 85)

I did what Carson did, replaced standard regulators with Mutaras and Output Caps on the OpAmp board with Rubycons...

much better...smoother yet more detailed with improved soundstage.
Much more "realism"?

Well worth it!