Mod your Beresford 7520

[Gazjam]

Best £10 you have spent Gaz?

Dunno,
there was that Belgian hooker that one time......

and it was 8.99, so even better.

[StanleyB]

Dunno,
there was that Belgian hooker that one time......

and it was 8.99, so even better.

Was that EURO or Belgian Francs?

[chebby]

LM4562NA (x2) arrived this morning.

10 minute job (mostly ensuring the kitchen work surface was as dust free as possible with a clean microfibre duster and finding my old antistatic wrist-strap and attaching it to the earth connection under the sink and getting the little plastic cap from the TC-7520 box to cover the exposed fibre optic connector).

Swapping the opamps was very easy due to the sockets (thanks).

All connected back to the hifi and the bass improvement was immediate. Nothing subtle. I spent an hour or two listening to 'Sinatra at the Sands' and Pearl Django and Bucky Pizzarelli. (iTunes Lossless and 256kbps AAC via USB from laptop system.)

Now I am watching the Sopranos episode "Mr Ruggerio's neighborhood" from season 3 (the one with the great mixture of Mancini's "Peter Gunn" theme and "Every Breath you take" by The Police) with my Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder connected via optical cable to the DAC.

Finer detail and better bass. It has not lost the class-A type character that I so enjoy with the TC-7520.

I will not be doing any further upgrades. I like the neatness of the Beresford supplied PSU and dislike the size and look of the Maplin unit. (Looks tacky and is too big with more wires.)

I am certainly not going to start soldering anything. No experience or training.

I have been urged by 'Gazjam' (in another forum) to wait for the new opamps
to run-in. They sound fine right now so if they get better then that is a bonus. The rest of the TC-7520 has been playing for many hours every day for almost 2 months so I am sure it is 'run-in' by now. I honestly cannot say I listen for such things.

As someone said, it is all about the music. The nicest thing about the TC-7520 so far has been the way it disappears. (Even my wife loves listening to the Archers on Freeview radio via the DAC or the Omnibus repeat on iTunes and likes how natural and easy and open it sounds. I won't tell her about the upgrade and see if she notices anything different in the next few days.)

[StanleyB]

LM4562NA (x2) arrived this morning.

10 minute job

Swapping the opamps was very easy due to the sockets (thanks).

Just consider that you would have had to send the DAC away and fork out at least 200 quid before you could get a set of LM4562 fitted to the DAC of one of my nearest priced competitors. And after spending at least £400 for that DAC plus its upgrade I have not yet come across any A/B tests that puts the performance of the TC-7520 below it, or any other DAC for that matter. The only mention of sorts is that done my JLAND100 about his 3 box solutions DAC.

[Covenant]

http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/inde...0&page=1#47590
Crappy review of the 7520 by a Cyrus fan. As usual price not a factor.

[StanleyB]

The shocker was that some of them were modified, but he had no idea which ones. Is it the same Cyrus DAC that was judged to be not much better than the TC-7510 by a well respected HIFI magazine not so long ago?

[Covenant]

I wouldnt know Stan as its about two years since I bought a hifi mag! Much more information on forums such as this. As you said he just casually throws in the fact that some of the dacs are modified but he doesnt know by whom, what was done and how much was spent.
The sad thing is many people will go and spend too much money on an inferior product as a result.

[drumlins4ever]

Over the last few weeks i have been testing the following opamps with the 7520.

LM4562NA
OPA2132PA
OPA2134PA

And have decided to stay with the LM4562's, put them back in today, the others are very nice too but i just love the 4562's soundstage, presence and bass .


Proac 110
Harman Kardon HK680
Beresford TC-7520
Airport Express / Macbook
CA 640C Azur

[Covenant]

I have installed one LME49720HA today and got terrible distortion. Sounded like the PA at a working mens club after ten pints of Guiness.
Thought I had done something wrong and put back the 4562-brilliant sound.

Is it possible I have a duff one?

[mwahahaha]

I have gone back to the original opamp in the headphone section and the 49720 in the line section as the other 49720 was getting really really hot I didn't want to leave it in and risk damaging the dac.