Yesterday I got my Modified M-Audio Delta
1010 Soundcard back,
and after a 'burn in' of some 24 hours I was now able to do some
comparing between the old and the new stuff.
And indeed it has all improved enormously: much more open sound, more
air, more and tighter basses. There is only one conclusion I can draw:
Rob Spigt did a very good job.
We had some problems with the pre-amp last week, some distortion in the
compressor stage, but that was resolved after putting back some original
component, it seemed they were not in the signal path and were used to
drive the compressor.
So, what was modified?
In the TL-Audio 5051:
Tube voltage from 90 Volts to 130 Volts (more
headroom) and an extra filament transformer added to feed the tubes,
because the were running on 10.3 Volt DC instead of the required 12.6
Volt!
Capacitors replaced with New Old Stock (NOS) paper and oil Russian made
Capacitors.
In the signal path the capacitors replaced with ELNA Cerafine and Sanyo
OSCON.
The original TL074 op-amps replaced with Burr-Brown OPA4227, and
some resistors replaced with Allan Bradly's.
In the M-Audio Delta 1010:
Replaced the orignial MJN5532 op-amps with Burr-Brown OPA2604 op-amps,
and replaced the original capacitors with Cerafine.
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Here are some audio samples to compare the original and the mods.
Original Bass Track: BeforeMods
Bass Track after modifications: AfterMods
It might not give the clear and best comparison the between two, but it
is the only one I can come up with in such a short notice.
You'll have to believe me when I tell you that the improvements are big!
;-)