Posted on Wednesday, 23rd June 2010 by Auw Jimmy
This post is the 2nd episode of my Terratec Aureon 7.1 FireWire mod. You can check the 1st one here.
Below is the final appearance of my Aureon. Sigh… despite the colorful capacitors, I don’t see any reason to say it’s a beauty or an art 
Tags: aureon, Black Gate, mundorf, sound card, speaker
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Posted on Monday, 21st June 2010 by Auw Jimmy
I’ve been very busy later these days, almost no time even to refresh myself listening the music. Powering my tube amp, let them warm up won’t take less than 30 minutes. Well for next few weeks, I don’t think I have such time. Now, I spend most of my time in front of my Notebook, limited with poor onboard sound card and speakers.
After digging my cupboard, I found a pair of Altec Lansing MX5021 speakers and my old Terratec Aureon FireWire 7.1. Not the finest setup and my ears were irritated to hear the sound at first time, although they were better than my onboard combination. On a lazy Sunday evening, I fire up my soldering iron. Let’s see what we could do to improve the sound 
You can check here for my previous introduction about the sound card.
The main improvement should be the power supply. I found “el cheapo” 1000 uF /35 Volt. OK, this was the main filter, the most important, let’s change it to Black Gate NX Series 680 uF / 65 Volt. Also note another capacitor changed to the “purple” Os-Con. This was on the digital supply section.
Enough change for initial stage. Let’s power it up and test the sound. Wow, that was the first impression on the 1st second I heard the sound. The sound was very transparent, the staging, the tonal, all were improved. Not to the level that I was expected, but for a consumer grade sound card, this was OK.
Tags: altec lansing, aureon, Black Gate, mundorf, mx5021, sound card, speaker
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Posted on Sunday, 22nd November 2009 by Auw Jimmy
When I arrived back home at night and cleaned up my equipment, I noticed that my solder tip has “golden” color appearance. Well, I have been on this solder-toy-world for over 15 years, but never saw my solder tip showed this kind of color.
I think this is caused by the usage of Mundorf M-Solder Supreme Silver/Gold. Check here for another entry of my blog for the short review of this solder.
Am I Seeing (Smelling?) My Gold Burned?
Tags: mundorf, solder
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Posted on Sunday, 22nd November 2009 by Auw Jimmy
I also got chance to test the Mundorf M-Solder Supreme Silver/Gold. This is one of the finest solder on the market. Currently, I use WBT for most of my main project. But the chance to try the M-Solder shouldn’t be wasted, right?
This Mundorf M-Solder Supreme Silver/Gold consists of:
Tags: mundorf, solder
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Posted on Sunday, 23rd August 2009 by Auw Jimmy
Never ending tweaks and mods? Yes I think so. Actually, my Aikido Pre-Amp already sounds good. But as a DIY, I think the journey never ends. Tomorrow always comes with another mods. After completing the PSU mods with Mundorf MCap Supreme 3.3 uF/800VDC and ASC X386S 40 uF/440 VAC here, I decide to go further with some other components.
First, I still hear small hum. This is mainly caused by the Filament/Heater Center Tap of my DIY transformer is not exactly on the center. So the 1/4 B+ isn’t injected on the correct Center Tap position. The only solution is to create a Virtual Center Tap with a pair of 100 Ohm resistor. I use 100 Ohm 5W Kiwame. Some people may say that you can use any cheap resistor for this purpose, but I always choose the best price/performance. At US$ 2 each, Kiwame fits this job perfectly. Make sure you use an accurate resistor (metal film should fit best, carbon film also ok).
I fire up my Aikido and ta-da… no more hum, even when my ear next to the speaker! But I need to confirm later with high-gain amplifier. With a normal/standard gain amplifier, the hum is usually less noticeable.
Tags: Aikido, DIY Audio, Duelund, Kiwame, mundorf, preamp
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Posted on Tuesday, 18th August 2009 by Auw Jimmy
After you read this, perhaps you would expect a better system to test the capacitors. So today, I visit a friend, and test the capacitors on his system. We can call him, Mr. X. Here is some brief of Mr. X audio system.
Below is the power amplifier. Powered with RS241, RE604,and 6J5. Rectifier is RGN 2504 (later we try Klangfilm RGN 4004). OT is Tango. Currently powered with Jensen Copper Foil Capacitor and old NOS Western Electric capacitors. FYI, RS241 is claimed by most audiophiles as best sounding tube amplifier (forget 300B or 2A3) – and it’s really proven, if you have chance to hear it. This is an ultimate Single Ended tube amplifier (if you really know what do RS241, RE604, and 6J5 really mean to an audiophile).
Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, tube
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Posted on Monday, 17th August 2009 by Auw Jimmy
I just change my old “Aruki” Korean oil-can capacitor to ASC and Mundorf MCap Supreme. The configuration before is 60 uF and 40 uF Aruki Capacitor, now changed to 3.3 uF MCap Supreme and 40 uF ASC X386s.
The effect? The mid and high are getting more liquid. Background is even darker, with better separation and richer timbre. No surprise some people love the film and oil capacitor on the Power Supply section, and this MCap + ASC combination also proves such theory.
For cheaper solution, I usually go with Solen or SCR.
Tags: Aikido, ASC, mundorf
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Posted on Saturday, 4th July 2009 by Auw Jimmy
Still remember the extreme capacitors battle? Well, we need to break-in those capacitors first for a fair judgement. So here it is. I don’t have much time to break-in those capacitors. Around 2-3 hours/night for next 2-3 weeks. I think this should be fine
All those capacitors stacked together:
All soldered together with WBT Silver Solder, connected to my Aikido via Silver Teflon interconnect. I use white cable heat shrink to cover all the leads (and for safety reason). This leads carry half of B+ or around 130VDC. Enough to shock you if touched.
Tags: Aikido, Break-In, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, VCap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (14)
Posted on Sunday, 21st June 2009 by Auw Jimmy
After some “crazy” capacitors here, I keep adding some more items on my collections. I call it, rest of my life collections.
First, some N and NX series Black Gate. Best located at tube Cathode/Feedback position, since it’s only rated at 6.3V. Nasty and lazy 200 hours break-in time is killing me 
Ah my new long awaited collection, the Duelund Carbon/Silver Resistor. Best used at speaker crossover. Unique design and quite expensive. Before I prefer Mills on crossover, but we’ll see how this will perform against Mills.
Tags: Components, Hammond, jensen, mundorf, Solen
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (10)
Posted on Saturday, 13th June 2009 by Auw Jimmy
Most of the time, money could buy anything – except time (and sometime, love ). Like this Duelund CAST-PIO capacitor. You have the money, but you have to wait around 6-8 weeks (not including shipping time), before you could get it on your hand (even if you could pay more, it won’t arrive faster). Well, it happens on me. After a long time waiting for this, finally it arrives today – the current most praised and perhaps most expensive capacitor (I’m not saying it’s the best sound one – not yet), Duelund CAST-PIO Copper (Cu) capacitor. I bought the copper foil version. The most expensive (and not reasonable from my point of view) is the silver foil, but that one should be completely out of my imagination (and budget).
Handmade in Denmark? Some say you can’t rush the Danes and yes you can’t. Just wait 6-8 weeks before they will finish your order. This Duelund VSFCu-PIO/CAST is rated at 630VDC or 300VAC.
Suffix CAST means this is the highest grade compared to VSF version only (without CAST). According to Duelund, as below:
The Duelund CAST Capacitor is our no holds barred flagship capacitor. The construction builds on the foundation of our Virtual Stack Foil design but does so with the addition of a proprietary WPIO dielectricum which necessitates several days of impregnation under high pressure.
Hope they are right, otherwise I shall regret for the rest of my life for buying this capacitors
I plan to run some benchmarking from these capacitors below, to get the “King of Capacitor” title of my version. Please be noted that the best for my ears doesn’t have to be the best for your ears to. YMMV!
The contenders:
I remove Audio Note Capacitor from my list, since I hate its leakage issue. Good capacitor but less durable is simply out of the league (well, at least for me). I hear the new Oil Filled Mylar from Audio Note is better and safer. Will try if I have chance later.
It’s also interesting to see the battle between Jensen Copper Foil (old one) vs Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube (latest generation). Just like Audio Note with its new Mylar Filled Oil, Jensen also update their premium capacitor line-up with its Paper Tube version. This Jensen Paper Tube version priced around 2.5 times more expensive compared to the standard Copper Foil.
Now, it’s break-in time!!!
Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, v-cap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (10)
Posted on Tuesday, 24th March 2009 by Auw Jimmy
Still remember my “silly” project, this one and this one? I think I will make it even more “sillier” than before. Watch out.
First, I’m thinking of testing my new Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil on my Gainclone. This top of the line capacitor from Mundorf sounds promising. Before, I was thinking to try a pair of VCap. But since VCap only available in lower voltage (250-300VDC for value over 1uF), so I need to think multiple times to spend large amount of money for that capacitor. Well, with this 1200VDC Mundorf, I can use them on my tube amplifier. While for 250VDC VCap, my usage will be very limited. So shall we welcome the Silver/Gold/Oil?
Tags: Allen Bradley, Capacitor, mcap, mundorf, resistor, shanghai, shinkoh, supreme
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (6)
Battle of Three Capacitors
Measuring ALC660 Power Output
Duelund Interconnect 2.0 Rev2 vs 1.0
DIY Audio Gathering at Bintaro
SRPP PCB
When Cardas SRCA Meets Duelund 2.0 Rev
Stockholm Cathedral Choir: Now The
Are You Thinking What I’m
Tube Rectifier Filament Supply Selector
Various Artists: This is K2 HD Sound!
Terratec Aureon FireWire 7.1 Mod (II)
Terratec Aureon FireWire 7.1 Mod