Thanks for the mod John. I came across the cap bypass and toolbar mods
just the other day after owning my touch about 2 months and i'm very
pleased with the results of the mods. My display is not working after
putting it back together so i am expecting just the ribbon cable came
out but i'm not
Did this mod yesterday and found it quite straight forward, helps that I
was trained as an electronics engineer many a year ago :) Whilst I had
the case open I decided to disconnect the FCB's to the screen to see
how difficult this was to get them back in. Also not to bad once you
realise there
Just an advise that might help Check Harman Kardon HD990 CDP. It has
digital ins full balanced analod outs and one of the best DACs arround
with a very good implimentation.
Why bother yourself and patch a very good working unit, when addin
some 300$ you get a brilluant cdp and a superb DAC?
stirliz;665411 Wrote:
Just an advise that might help Check Harman Kardon HD990 CDP. It has
digital ins full balanced analod outs and one of the best DACs arround
with a very good implimentation.
Why bother yourself and patch a very good working unit, when addin
some 300$ you get a
HUH, this soldering this is not for me. Skrewed up again. My analog
stage is completely gone. Digital out to the rescue!. Will soon start
to look for a decent external DAC.
--
lake_eleven
lake_eleven's Profile:
bitstopjoe;660773 Wrote:
Ok I screwed up, UGH and I am usually SO damn careful. Have modified and
built audio and PC stuff for 30 years now...
When removing the cap on the left ( rca's on top) I pulled off the
land it was sitting on. I guess I didnt wait long enough for the solder
to melt
lake_eleven;660710 Wrote:
Still after these mods, sound from analog out is noisy and fatiguing.
After doing the following:
1. Coupling Cap mods (not done the best way though!)
2. Unmodded Jerome Labs PS to touch (will soon go to Bolder for mods)
3. Introduced a hub (cisco switch) before
lake_eleven;662086 Wrote:
OK, I have now screwed up my Touch, a little impatience pulled the land
off left channel cap. Tried to drop a solder blob , still no sound from
left channel.
Joe, how did you fix this. I am not sure if the input or output side
has come off. I have marked it in the
Thanks Joe, I will try this and see.
--
lake_eleven
lake_eleven's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=48979
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=83412
If you really want to do more hacking on the Touch one thing that can
help a lot is magnifying goggles and a good light source. I bought mine
at Harbor Freight for $5 years ago, I think they still carry them but
the price might have gone up. It makes a BIG difference.
If you are going to be
Thank you John! Very thorough as usual and great info..much
appreciated!
--
Stilly77
Stilly77's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=43680
View this thread:
Soulkeeper;660793 Wrote:
On which side did the pad come off? If it was on the output side,
perhaps you could make a shunt directly from the input pad to the RCA
central connector with a piece of wire?
Well the RCA's are on top so it is the land closest to me, furthest
away from the RCA's.
lake_eleven;660797 Wrote:
Hope soulkeeper solution works for Joe.
Though I did coupling cap mod (though not in a perfect way it has to
be), the analog output was still noisy and fatiguing.
Hence I turned on to spdif output, which gave me a real surprise.
Digital out now sounds much better
Phil Leigh;660712 Wrote:
Leave it as it is - your cap mod does not impact the digital output.
I wouldn't get the PS modded until AFTER you have tried a decent DAC.
Even after that it may not be worth doing if you are using the digital
output. PS mods have much greater impact on the
lake_eleven;660858 Wrote:
Phil, you have opened a new dimension in my system now. I tried using
the optical out, which I never did. The optical out is definitely
better than coax. Has better top and bottom extensions, better
dimension and better dynamics. I am now using basic coax and
bitstopjoe;660773 Wrote:
Ok I screwed up, UGH and I am usually SO damn careful. Have modified and
built audio and PC stuff for 30 years now...
When removing the cap on the left ( rca's on top) I pulled off the
land it was sitting on. I guess I didnt wait long enough for the solder
to melt
bitstopjoe;660773 Wrote:
I kept the ribbon cable attached but I did remove the two black
and red wire connectors.
Good to hear you got you SBT back in action.
What are the 2 black and red connectors for. Any advantage of
disconnecting them?.
--
lake_eleven
Stilly77;660943 Wrote:
..I too very much notice the highs being very crisp and separated.
Listening to Donald Fagen, Morph the Cat, before the mod, the cymbals
seemed to be all mashed together...definitely not similar to my Pioneer
stand alone CD player. And it happened with nearly
lake_eleven;660949 Wrote:
I've got the itch now!, want to redo coupling caps mod the right way to
see if the analog out is really better than digital.
I hope it goes great for you. My soldering skills are meh, I really had
a hard time pinning the wire to the pad and getting the solder in
This really needs a sense of perspective. The quality of signal flow
through a half- inch blob of correctly flown solder is orders of
magnitude better than that through the connector surfaces of an
RCA/phono plug!
--
Phil Leigh
You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a
Still after these mods, sound from analog out is noisy and fatiguing.
After doing the following:
1. Coupling Cap mods (not done the best way though!)
2. Unmodded Jerome Labs PS to touch (will soon go to Bolder for mods)
3. Introduced a hub (cisco switch) before Touch
4. Changed PS to both the
lake_eleven;660710 Wrote:
Still after these mods, sound from analog out is noisy and fatiguing.
After doing the following:
1. Coupling Cap mods (not done the best way though!)
2. Unmodded Jerome Labs PS to touch (will soon go to Bolder for mods)
3. Introduced a hub (cisco switch) before
Good!, dont have to bother opening the Touch again!. My option for spdif
is AZ MC2. But I see reviews that Black Cat Veloce is amazingly good.
Any impressions?.
--
lake_eleven
lake_eleven's Profile:
Ok I screwed up, UGH and I am usually SO damn careful. Have modified and
built audio and PC stuff for 30 years now...
When removing the cap on the left ( rca's on top) I pulled off the
land it was sitting on. I guess I didnt wait long enough for the solder
to melt before I lifted the cap leg as
On which side did the pad come off? If it was on the output side,
perhaps you could de-solder and make a shunt directly to the RCA
central connector with a piece of wire?
--
Soulkeeper
-that is not dead which can eternal lie. and with strange aeons even
death may die.-
touch (sans caps) +
Hope soulkeeper solution works for Joe.
Though I did coupling cap mod (though not in a perfect way it has to
be), the analog output was still noisy and fatiguing.
Hence I turned on to spdif output, which gave me a real surprise.
Digital out now sounds much better than analog - this change is
Yes I do believe it makes a big difference. In normal use solder is a
thin layer between two pieces of metal, its bad enough in such a thin
layer, but a half inch of the stuff that the audio signal has to go
through, that's not good at all.
By its very nature solder forms gazillions of grain
I don't disagree about using a good solid conductor from point to point
but, respectively, I don't believe the signal is degraded as severely
as what you are describing. In fact, I don't think there's a problem
with the signal at all.
I've been using a Pioneer DV-58AV with a Burr-Brown PCM1796
lake_eleven;660316 Wrote:
Congrats on your success.
I too did the mods a 2 weeks back. I am hard pressed to hear any
difference before and after the mod. I scratched my Touch a lot
though:(.
What I did is, I did not remove the caps. Instead I dropped chunks of
solder starting from the
with good quality solder, do you really think it will really make any
difference John?
I am sure there are audiophiles that will say they can hear a
difference with a wire present.
--
Stilly77
Stilly77's Profile:
Congrats on your success.
I too did the mods a 2 weeks back. I am hard pressed to hear any
difference before and after the mod. I scratched my Touch a lot
though:(.
What I did is, I did not remove the caps. Instead I dropped chunks of
solder starting from the bottom on one side to the bottom of
lake_eleven;660316 Wrote:
Congrats on your success.
I too did the mods a 2 weeks back. I am hard pressed to hear any
difference before and after the mod. I scratched my Touch a lot
though:(.
What I did is, I did not remove the caps. Instead I dropped chunks of
solder starting from the
Even though I am a pretty un-skilled solderer, I successfully performed
the cap mod. I was a bit apprehensive to begin with but since I can't
yet afford the external DAC I desire, wanted to optimize the signal
into my Little Dot 1+ headphone amp/Grado SR-225i setup.
I removed the caps and
Succesfully performed coupling cap mods for analog out. Yet to hear it.
Its a REAL pain removing the SB. DONT ATTEMPT IF YOU DONT HAVE PROPER
TOOLS AND READY TO TAKE THE RISK. The screws are very tight. I short
circuited each cap by moulding solder from one end to another. Did not
look neat!.
Yes,
you should have no issues with bypassing the caps.
John S.
--
JohnSwenson
JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974
View this thread:
Thanks for the feedback. Right now my Touch is connected to a relatively
cheap integrated amp (NAD C315BEE), but I mostly use it with a Grado
RA-1 headphone amp:
[image:
http://www.audiostereo.pl/uploads/old/post-8831-11279%201257443362.png]
Looks like my cans should be safe.
In the
I went for the approach of not loosening the ribbon cables, because I
had serious doubts about my ability to reattach them without ruining
the Touch. I hate those ribbon cable attacmhent things. Luckily,
removing the screws with the ribbon cables attached, wasn't all that
difficult.
But there
A random thougth, the original designer migth not have been totally
wrong.
Just very catius better safe than sorry. the implementation could
obviusly have been better.
The dac itself does not produce dc offset, but there is no guarantee
that the files is free from dc offset, especially all
So safe to assume if one uses the digital out (a TOS-Link or the
coaxial) to a DAC ( I am using an Elightened Audio Design 7000 Series
II DAC with the lastest Burr-Brown 20 bit DACs)this mod is not
necessary, correct? I do use the analog out from time to time with a
24/96 Flac as my DAC doesnt
Mnyb;632558 Wrote:
The dac itself does not produce dc offset, but there is no guarantee
that the files is free from dc offset
Hm. Interesting point. Got me there. Perhaps the best approach would
actually be to replace the caps with a more linear/appropriate kind
of (high C?) caps?
The only time there might be an issue is if you run the analog outs
directly into a high power amp with DC coupled inputs. These are
somewhat rare so there is not THAT much chance of having a problem.
The theoretical issue is that at power up or down you might get some DC
on the output which
i did not want to scare anyone, you migth have dc filtering in preamp or
power amp.
just speculating on what the designer was thinking ? if I used the
analog out i would remove the caps.
--
Mnyb
Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS
Squeezemenicely;628600 Wrote:
Hi John,
so is it ok to solder the wire across from one top of the silver cap to
another? (As I drew on to the picture)
Am a bit nervous about this, does it really make that much of a
difference?
No, this is not how you do it. The solder tabs are close to
What you've done on your drawing, is solder the left channel to the
right one, resulting in a mono signal at best.
Have a look at this (just a random picture I found on the web, for
illustration). See the small tabs on the underside of the cap to the
right? Those are the two you're supposed to
iPhone;590400 Wrote:
Hi Jacky. Why go to the point of buying a high end DAC or much less
modifying the Touch unless you are going to be changing your whole
setup.
Actually, just adding a cheap DAC (never mind a high end one) improves
the sound of the Touch, which is a bit on the grainy side.
JohnSwenson;590565 Wrote:
Look at the bottom picture (referred to as the rear view in the post),
the output caps are the two small metal cans visible above the white
RCA jackTo bypass the cap just solder a small piece of wire from
one tab to the other. You don't really need to remove the
Jacky;590451 Wrote:
.
HD web stations: check Shoutcast, you can set filter rates: my
setting 192 kbs. Some are really in HD-quality you mean a good CDP
makes the job.
I believe ShoutCast only streams compressed audio. The highest
bitrates they offer is 320k MP3 and 128k AAC+, that
I did the mod:
testing on my workbench system!! seems to work so far --
http://www.box.net/shared/9ghc7upmuu
http://www.box.net/shared/ypdijkqk36
http://www.box.net/shared/9biiznn67r
--
sckramer
Squeezebox Touch - PSaudio DL3 DAC (Cullen level 4 mods) - PSaudio Trio
C-100 Amp (Cullen level
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