Any Digital Impressions of the Caiman yet?

[Covenant]

I agree about the Caiman's bass-its fine but remember it can be tailored by changing the op-amps. I find the 2132 to have more bass and it costs next to nothing.

[sum1]

Thanks for the response guys. Looks like i'll get one once i sort out the finances.

Anyone here got a NAD c542 cdp. Currently that is the CD player in my system and if anyone here got one as well and can compare to the beresford unit then it would be much appreaciated

[DaveK]

'Morning Guys,
A thought has just occurred to me, having read the last few posts on this thread, and I wonder if Stan, or anyone else who can 'read' his circuits, can clarify the situation. I may have been responsible in part for adding to the confusion - if so, sorry .
I and two other members had our 7520 'Wolfsonised' by adding the WMA8716(?) chip and I called it 'Caimanisation'. Since that time several others have done the same I understand. We now have a situation where we have 'Caimanised' 7520s and genuine Caimans out there, all now often being referred to as Caimans.
We are now discussing amongst ourselves about the sonic impacts of op-amp rolling, with owners, including me, following the lead of other owners by fitting op-amps which we hope will give us the effect that we are looking for, based on the findings of others. But what if a Caimanised 7520 is not sonically identical to a genuine Caiman? In that situation surely the effect of any given op-amp in one could not be guaranteed to be the same in the other?
Or am I worrying unneccessarily, not for the first time .
Be gentle with me, I know nothing of such things.
Cheers,

[technobear]

Thanks for the response guys. Looks like i'll get one once i sort out the finances.

Anyone here got a NAD c542 cdp. Currently that is the CD player in my system and if anyone here got one as well and can compare to the beresford unit then it would be much appreaciated

I think it's worth re-iterating at this point, since I had the experience last Monday, that fresh out of the box, the Caiman is somewhat bright and brash. Don't let this put you off! It soon settles down although full performance is only reached after about 200 hours use. Be patient. It's worth the wait.

I'm running my second one in now. 24/7 for two weeks playing something suitably full range will do it. I'm using In Silico by Pendulum

You don't have to listen to it the whole time, just so long as the selector on the amp is set to 'Caiman', the amp can be off. I have 'phones connected too.

The Caiman is neutral, full range and fast - this does not describe my albeit limited experience of Nad which is coloured, soft around the edges and a bit slow. That's exaggerating it a tad but you get the idea. Prepare to hear you music collection for the first time

[Gazjam]

'Morning Guys,
A thought has just occurred to me, having read the last few posts on this thread, and I wonder if Stan, or anyone else who can 'read' his circuits, can clarify the situation. I may have been responsible in part for adding to the confusion - if so, sorry .
I and two other members had our 7520 'Wolfsonised' by adding the WMA8716(?) chip and I called it 'Caimanisation'. Since that time several others have done the same I understand. We now have a situation where we have 'Caimanised' 7520s and genuine Caimans out there, all now often being referred to as Caimans.
We are now discussing amongst ourselves about the sonic impacts of op-amp rolling, with owners, including me, following the lead of other owners by fitting op-amps which we hope will give us the effect that we are looking for, based on the findings of others. But what if a Caimanised 7520 is not sonically identical to a genuine Caiman? In that situation surely the effect of any given op-amp in one could not be guaranteed to be the same in the other?
Or am I worrying unneccessarily, not for the first time .
Be gentle with me, I know nothing of such things.
Cheers,

The "Caiminsed" 7520's had the Wolfsen Dac Chip (a la Caiman) transplanted, the LM4562 OpAmps fitted, and the MLC 5/6 Caps snipped on the Output stage.

There MAY be a difference in the Headphone Amp stage (honestly I have no idea, I just heard this and not being a headphones user doesnt really matter),but to be fair to Stan either Dac sounds fantastic!

Id buy a Caiman if I was doing it again.

[steveinspain]

Talk to me, you clever people..
I am about to place an order for a Caiman, but want a few questions answered..
What is an op-amp ?
How can I tailor the sound of my Caiman - my speakers are the very little known RMS Rev1 - Les of Avondale is behind them, and only a few pairs were ever sold, but they are for me, slightly bass heavy.
If I get a Caiman, and find it too to be bass heavy, can I do something to reduce the bass - I would rather have a bass-light sound if anything, as there is less to wake the kids by rattling through the house..
If it helps, my previous speakers were Naim SBL's - not bass heavy, and tending towards brash if anything.
As DaveK says, be gentle with me, as clearly I know nothing (and I am not from Barcelona, but way further south..)

[chrism]

Hi Steve,

I'll be the first then!

Can I suggest that you may be wanting to run before you walk. My advice is to forget opamp rolling for now as it is really intended for the enthusiasts who like trying things out. I think that Stan has spent a lot of time and effort with selecting the components in the Caiman and I am not certain anyone has found better as yet.

One thing you will find is that the Caiman is very true to what it is being fed so it neither adds or takes out anything. On this basis the Caiman will not be the cause of bass problems, quite the opposite in fact.

The Caiman I have replaced a Grad 1 / TPX2 so that says something about it's capability. I run a wireless Squeezebox to the Caiman via Spdif and then to an A260 via the variable outputs.

I use a cheap linear power supply to the Caiman though as I am not a fan of switchmode types.

Hope this helps with your decisions.

Regards

Chris

[Ali Tait]

Hi Steve,
An op-amp is an Operational Amplifier,basically a small square black thing that looks like a silicon chip,with little metal legs coming out of it.In the Caiman,these are plugged into the circuit board via a socket,instead of being soldered directly to the circuit board in as in most applications.This allows you to easily swap them without doing any soldering so you can try different ones as different types give you a different sound.You need to try in your own system with different op-amps to see what sound you get.They are easily available from ebay and are mostly pretty cheap.

[steveinspain]

Thanks Guys !
Chris - you replacing a Grad1/TPX2 tells me loads - my pre is an avondaled Naim 102 with a TPX4, so very similar ball park.
I am trying to run first, and do realise that, but the idea of being able to make subtle differences really appeals. I think the main cause of my bass heavy-ness problem, if it is as big a thing as that is down to my music room being too small for the speakers.
Ali Tait - Thanks to you too for clearing that one up - Expect a thread asking what the different op-amps do in terms of sound and what might be best for me when I have got me a Caiman, which I am very close to doing - just waiting to plan my next trip back to the UK to arrange delivery..!

[StanleyB]

just waiting to plan my next trip back to the UK to arrange delivery..!

Is your local post office in the UK?