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

[HighFidelityGuy]

I finally got round to fitting a gator board in my Caiman at the weekend. The poor thing had been sat in it's box for months. Compared to the sound I was getting with the passive mod in place I now seem to be getting better dynamics, finer detail and a generally more energetic and more captivating sound. I was a bit worried I would get way too much gain from the gator but the the extra gain is just about manageable and I'm not getting any distortion. I'm definitely getting the best sound quality I've ever had now, so I'm very happy. Thanks Stan. I can also now re-fit the lid on my Caiman for the first time in a year. That's if I can find it and it's screws. I put them safe somewhere.

[d00gz]

Hi, Ive been following the threads on getting the most from the Beresford Caiman and Gator for the last few months. Thanks for all the useful info that's been posted. Ive now started upgrading my Beresford Caiman using Tirna Electronics kit. Here is the difficulty I'm encountering: My Gator board came with 6 grey 33uf rubycon caps and a pair of yellow mono block caps rated at 22nf. This appears to be different from the picture on the homehifi website which shows a Gator board with black caps and a pair of 47uf monoblocks. I have successfully swapped out the grey 33ufs for black 47uf rubycons. However, I have tried to swap the 22nf yellow monoblocks for 68nf wima caps. The result was an extremely low level of signal from the fixed output and an overdriven sound from the variable output. If anyone has any useful input into the way forward for me concerning these monoblocks or if you encountered this version of the board and managed to upgrade the monoblocks please let me know. Cheers much.

[StanleyB]

I have successfully swapped out the grey 33ufs for black 47uf rubycons.

Those grey caps were the best of all the caps tested, and are now no longer available on the market. I bought up the last remaining stock from the shelves of everyone who had some. I am now using the black ones, but the Gator fitted with grey caps is still the best sounding version.

Not sure why you swapped over the 22nF.

[d00gz]

Thanks Stan.

From the pictures I can see online, most Gator boards are supplied with yellow 47nf monoblock caps located either side of the opamp. My understanding was that those caps could be upgraded to 68nf Wima monoblocks. (This was part of the Tirna upgrade kit). My gator came with 22nf monoblocks either side of the opamp. It was those I was attempting to upgrade to 68nf Wima caps.

Am I right that yellow 47nf caps are situated either side of the opamp on most Gator boards? Or do they all have 22nf same as mine?

Could I upgrade those caps to 22nf wima caps (if they are higher quality than original caps) or some other value of wima caps 33nf or 47nf?

[HighFidelityGuy]

Doug, I think the mods you are applying to your Gator board are supposed to be for the standard Caiman/7520 opamp board. I think there are two tweaks available for the Gator boards, one that optimises it for a particular model of headphone and one that adjusts the gain. The latter was mainly for the first version of the Gator and it sounds like you have the latest version. I don't think Tirna sell either of these. So I would recommend that you put your Gator board back to how it was and concentrate on modding the main boards in the Caiman with the new regs and Elna caps.

[d00gz]

Thanks for the advice. I think you are right, the upgrade was designed for the original board. I might choose to keep the 47uf rubycons in place though as they seem to give a little more body to the sound. I am going to try 22nf WIMA monoblocks in place of the standard blocks and see if that improves the sound any.

I have fitted the murata regs which sound great and I've started replacing the main board caps.

Thanks also goes to Jimmy Dripps at Tirna Electronics for being very helpful in giving soldering techniques and for fixing up a soldering mistake of mine.

[Gazjam]

One for Stan methinks...

If the non switching regulators I have on order fix my "whistling" problem, I wont go back to the passive mod - the Gator stays.
If so, I'd like to get rid of both the black sockets the Gator fits into on the PCB and hard solder it in.

Any problems with this approach Stan?
Does the board need a particular clearance from the main PCB or....?

I noticed the background whistling changes slightly if I refit the board..suggesting the interface between the Gator and main pcb might be a factor.
If so..I want to hard solder it in.

Advisable?

thanks.

[DaveK]

Thanks also goes to Jimmy Dripps at Tirna Electronics for being very helpful in giving soldering techniques and for fixing up a soldering mistake of mine.

Another very big thumbs up for Dr. Jimmy from me also - very helpful, very capable in all aspects of audio electronic, good turnround, reasonable prices and all round nice guy to boot - highly recommended.
Dave.

[HighFidelityGuy]

One for Stan methinks...

If the non switching regulators I have on order fix my "whistling" problem, I wont go back to the passive mod - the Gator stays.
If so, I'd like to get rid of both the black sockets the Gator fits into on the PCB and hard solder it in.

Any problems with this approach Stan?
Does the board need a particular clearance from the main PCB or....?

I noticed the background whistling changes slightly if I refit the board..suggesting the interface between the Gator and main pcb might be a factor.
If so..I want to hard solder it in.

Advisable?

thanks.

The legs on the Gator board aren't long enough to reach through the PCB as the headphone socket and two lytic caps are in the way. I've removed those and soldered my Gator in place and I still get the whistle. Doing this also removes the headphone output and the variable line output. So it's not for everyone. Another way would be to replace the Gator's pins with longer ones but you would then run the risk of not having enough hight in the case.

[Gazjam]

Dave,
your Waaay ahead of me chum!

Dexa's on their way from Canada - might even come tomorrow (he says hopefully ) and will fit them asap.
I'll post when Ive had a chance to hear them.