Modifying M-audio FW Audiophile?

[aphex]

I recently bought M-audio Firewire Audiophile at eBay. I'm planning to use it mainly as a digital transport for my DAC. Which means I'll be using only the digital portion of this device.

I was not quite happy when I open up the enclosure to check what's inside. Voila! I found a whole bunch of G-Luxons as you can see in the attachment.

I got Panasonic FM and FK (SMD type) model from Digi-key and ready to change the caps. Do I have to change all the caps except the tiny chip capacitors?
I never tried to change the SMD type, so any tips would be appreciated.

[Logistics]

Re: Modifying M-audio FW Audiophile?

If you're only using it as a transport to feed a digital signal to something else, then one thing you may improve is the cleanliness of power coming into the unit. There's likely some filter caps around the power switch or where the plug from the AC adapter enters the unit which would be ideally changed with those Panasonic FM's you mentioned.

Edit: Another little something you could try is finding a dead PC power supply and yanking the AC input plug out of it and building a little box for it with an AC outlet and putting it in front of the AC adapter. They usually have chokes and EMI/RFI filter capacitors attached to them so you could experiment and see if the extra filtering helps the unit sound any better.

[aphex]

Re: Modifying M-audio FW Audiophile?

I have changed all capacitors with Fanasonic FM and FK series. I don't know how big is the difference since I never tried it in original condition.

About supplying it cleaner power, I was thinking about buying a lead-acid battery and charger to build a battery-powered supply. Or, at least getting a regulated AC/DC power adaptor instead of included Switch Mode power supply.

Unfortunately, the manual warns not to connect AC adaptor and 6-pin FireWire connector at the same time and use AC adaptor only when using 4-pin FireWire.

So, I'm just using it with 6-pin FireWire bus power as a matter of convenience. Maybe I will try to add a in-box regulating circuit with LM7812, bridge diode and capacitors later.

Gosh, I wish I had more knowledge about electrics.