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

[Gazjam]

Can say that with the passive mod...on the "problem" tracks theres none of the harshness.
Music open clear no harshness...just reduced volume in comparison.

With the Gator board these tracks are practically unlistenable.
But only on CERTAIN tracks???

Theres no commonality between these tracks, different genres, some 24/96 some mp3 320kbs some 16/44...jazz, rock, classical doesn't matter.
The problem is that theres a helluva lot of them.

Only thing in common I can see is high frequency dynamic peaks, whether its female vocals hitting the peaks, electric guitar solos, violin crescedo's...its just too harsh.
Its the same distortion you would get if something is recorded at far too high a level.

Happy to say its my system rather than the Gator board itself (well....the design itself as opposed to the sample Im using) as loads of Gator owners are extremely happy - but this distortion - in my system - is a pain in the tits and quite frustrating honestly, as some tracks sound better than before but not all. I'm getting 99% of better..but that last 1% is spoiling it.


grrr..

[magiccarpetride]

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

True. After I've Gatorized my Caiman, I've noticed that certain bass notes on the Les Nubians CD sound like my Maggies have been shredded to pieces. At first, my heart stopped, and I immediately pushed Pause. The bass on that track is extremely strong and loud, so my first thought was that the speakers got damaged.

Upon further examination, turns out that the distortion is on the original recording. I wasn't able to hear it before the upgrade, but this devilish little Gator plumbed the depths of the sound signal all the way down to the bitter end and unearthed that little ugly piece of sonic turd.

Shame on the engineers who recorded/mastered that CD with such terrible anomaly (but on the other hand, they don't care because they know that only a tiny portion of Nubians fans have sufficiently revealing hi fi to detect that faux pas)

[Gazjam]

always good for a laugh Alex, but those shitty recordings you hate so much now...what if they sounded wonderful before?
thats what im hearing.

I'm happy to go back to using film caps with the passive mod, but having heard the Gator I can see what the fuss is about....

theres just something amiss somewhere.

[magiccarpetride]

always good for a laugh Alex, but those shitty recordings you hate so much now...what if they sounded wonderful before?
thats what im hearing.

I'm happy to go back to using film caps with the passive mod, but having heard the Gator I can see what the fuss is about....

theres just something amiss somewhere.

Hmmm, good question Gary. Yes, you're right, whilst before Gatorizing my Caiman I used to really enjoy that particular Les Nubians track, I'm now dreading it. It tends to break my heart, as it always sounds as if that super intense bass is wrecking my Maggies. In reality, the engineers messed it up somewhere in the recording/mixing/mastering chain, only it wasn't plainly audible before (vanilla Caiman was less revealing I s'ppose).

Moral of the story? Ignorance is bliss? Dunno.

[Puffin]

Are these boards still available? £24inc postage?
Is there a Mk2 due?

[LittleTone]

Hi Rob

I believe this is the link to the Mk2 Gator

http://www.homehifi.co.uk/PP/Upgrades_1.html

I had 50 pieces of the Gator MK2 in stock at 1PM. There are now 42 pieces left. So don't miss out if you are after one of them .

The MK2 has a lower gain so that it is compatible with some older amps. The headphone output has also been tweaked so that it can make better use of high current opamps. I have tried the THS493s, LM4562NA and AD826. I'll have to desolder my LM4562HA form a different PCB in order to give that a try as well.

Regards

Tony

[Gazjam]

Hmmm, good question Gary. Yes, you're right, whilst before Gatorizing my Caiman I used to really enjoy that particular Les Nubians track, I'm now dreading it. It tends to break my heart, as it always sounds as if that super intense bass is wrecking my Maggies. In reality, the engineers messed it up somewhere in the recording/mixing/mastering chain, only it wasn't plainly audible before (vanilla Caiman was less revealing I s'ppose).

Moral of the story? Ignorance is bliss? Dunno.

Hey Alex,
I wish I COULD say it was just a case of bad mastering etc being highlighted by a more transparent system...I could live with that.
Its not though..its very definately a sibilance/distortion problem IN MY SYSTEM thats not playing nice with the Gator board.
Which is a shame as I liked the increased clarity and better 3D I was getting with most of my music.

Was hoping someone could pitch in with some specific thoughts about what could be causing it and can it be fixed.

I've tried:
Going over to the variable output - same
Different cables - same
Comparing with film caps - problem not there

Which makes me think its my amp..but Martin has the same problem and he has tried his Gator with three different amps...so I'm still none the wiser.

My friend who loaned me the Gator says he has no problems with the board itself in his Dac, which makes me think something in my system isn't playing nice with the Gator somewhere.

any help/comments appreciated!

[Gazjam]

Right, had a read back through the Gator threads here and a couple of possibilities came up.

1.
Problems with the contact pins on my Dac PCB?
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showp...&postcount=174

How easy are the black pin covers on the PCB to remove? Are they just push fitted and could be taken off with a set ofneedle nose pliers say?
Anyone done it?

2.
Input gain too much on my Amp...similar to problems Alex_UK had:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showp...&postcount=196


Would this "gain mod" take care of the problem, like it did with Alex's and a couple of others?

Stan, what do you think?
Could you supply a Gator 2 with the "gain Mod" applied?
...and if the problem still exists could I return it?

Im REALLY keen to get this to work, as Im looking to get a good set of headphones and I prefer the extra clarity from the Line out with the Gator.

So many questions!
Thanks very much.

[Trumpetman]

Hey.
Im thinking of buying a gatorized caiman to use with a power amp and B&W CM1. Havent bought the power amp, but am thinking of a rotel 1070.

Is this problem with the stock gatorized caiman? Or is it a prob with a modded versjon?

Espen

[magiccarpetride]

Hey Alex,
I wish I COULD say it was just a case of bad mastering etc being highlighted by a more transparent system...I could live with that.
Its not though..its very definately a sibilance/distortion problem IN MY SYSTEM thats not playing nice with the Gator board.
Which is a shame as I liked the increased clarity and better 3D I was getting with most of my music.

Was hoping someone could pitch in with some specific thoughts about what could be causing it and can it be fixed.

I've tried:
Going over to the variable output - same
Different cables - same
Comparing with film caps - problem not there

Which makes me think its my amp..but Martin has the same problem and he has tried his Gator with three different amps...so I'm still none the wiser.

My friend who loaned me the Gator says he has no problems with the board itself in his Dac, which makes me think something in my system isn't playing nice with the Gator somewhere.

any help/comments appreciated!

Hey Gary,

Can you get similar issues to come up on those same tracks with a different DAC? See if you could borrow a different DAC from a buddy, and let us know. Or are you absolutely certain it is only specific to the Gatorized Caiman?

I've had no other problems with my Gator, but that pesky distorted bass is driving me nuts. I have no other explanation but to chalk it up to the faulty master.

Other than that, everything else plays divinely. And I've been upgrading my system like crazy in the past month or so, meaning that even with various components in and out of the chain, Gatorized DAC keeps playing nicely.

Sorry bud, I ran out of reasonable options here. Best of luck with taming the Gator, I know how much you love squeezing the last atom of stellar performance out of your gear