M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

[felipeunix]

First of all. Sorry for bad english.

Friends ... I bring you, firewire 1814 (milf) naked..


"I made several pictures of her, because I have not found anywhere inside the images (if anyone wants to, just ask)."

Well, I will try to be as direct as possible.

Initial reason: I was with noise problems at one of the headphone outputs, so I just replaces one of the capacitors near exit headphones (10uF / 10V) and the problem was solved!

So I thought .. I'll change everything right at once!

I put in the picture the description of most capacitors, and my initial doubts are as follows:

*The red arrow indicates Rubycon capacitors, the others are any generic capacitor.

At first I wanted to change everyone for ELNA Silmic II but...

1 - The caps 220uF / 10V appear to be feed, these can also be replaced by low esr ELNA? Or must be replaced with Panasonic NHG?

2 - The caps 47uF / 63V believe are of phantom power, can also substitute low impedance ELNA?

3 - The caps 10uF / 16V close the headphone outputs have to check if they are all coupling, or are a coupling and uncoupling.
I can replace all of 22uF? Or only the coupling I could do it, and the decoupling keep the 10uF?

4 - The caps 22uF / 16V referens the analog outputs.
I can replace all of 47uF?

5 - The capacitor 22uF / 16V referens analog inputs.
I can replace all by Nichicon MUSE ES? Or should I keep polarized?

6 - The capacitors close to the ADC / DAC 10uF/16V believe it would be better to replace by Sanyo OSCON, right? But I do not like buying them, unfortunately. So what could you do then?

Thanks for listening!

[Khron]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

1 - Since there seems to be an SMPS on-board, i'd be inclined to use low-ESR caps for the supply decoupling, but NHG's should do fine as well.

2 - The 63v caps are actually the input coupling caps, and yes, they have to block the phantom power DC. If the Elna's you wish to use are at least the same value and voltage, it should be ok.

3 - I don't see why going up to 22uF should or could hurt anything. Worst case, it will get you an extra octave of bass Although going from 16Hz cut-off frequency to 8Hz won't really be noticeable anyway

4 - Same as above.

5 - You might want to measure how much DC is across those caps, but since they're on the analog outputs, bipolar ones should be ok.

6 - Other low-ESR caps should do fine there.

PS: The two big caps on the input look like they have Jamicon-like vents on top - i would replace those too

[felipeunix]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

1 - Since there seems to be an SMPS on-board, i'd be inclined to use low-ESR caps for the supply decoupling, but NHG's should do fine as well.

2 - The 63v caps are actually the input coupling caps, and yes, they have to block the phantom power DC. If the Elna's you wish to use are at least the same value and voltage, it should be ok.

3 - I don't see why going up to 22uF should or could hurt anything. Worst case, it will get you an extra octave of bass Although going from 16Hz cut-off frequency to 8Hz won't really be noticeable anyway

4 - Same as above.

5 - You might want to measure how much DC is across those caps, but since they're on the analog outputs, bipolar ones should be ok.

6 - Other low-ESR caps should do fine there.

PS: The two big caps on the input look like they have Jamicon-like vents on top - i would replace those too

Let me get this straight ...

Did you say that the wisest course is to keep the capacitance values, and can replace ALL by ELNA Silmic II and be happy?

PS: The largest power input capacitors (1000uF) you think they are bad?
I'll replace all yes.

Again, thank you for attention Khron666!

[Khron]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

Well, yes and no

If you'll read my reply (more) carefully, and compare it to your first post, you should be able to easily deduce my opinion

And secondly, i can't really say i believe all the "voodoo" related to "audio-grade caps" (Silmic, Muse, Black Gate etc). In my personal view, even general-purpose Japanese caps are better than just about any Chinese / Taiwanese caps, at least regarding reliability

I'm not necessarily saying those big input caps are bad, but i would replace them, for peace of mind I mean, as long as you have the unit open anyway...

[felipeunix]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

Well, yes and no

If you'll read my reply (more) carefully, and compare it to your first post, you should be able to easily deduce my opinion

Well, what I did was:

1 - I can use low ESR at all.
2 - The capacitance values than I thought change would not make much difference.

ok?

doubt:

6 - Other low-ESR caps should do fine there.

You would not use the same capacitors at all, is it?
Put others in this area to have a "contrast"?

I'm not necessarily saying those big input caps are bad, but i would replace them, for peace of mind I mean, as long as you have the unit open anyway...

Yes, even if they are good, I'll replace them anyway.

And secondly, i can't really say i believe all the "voodoo" related to "audio-grade caps" (Silmic, Muse, Black Gate etc). In my personal view, even general-purpose Japanese caps are better than just about any Chinese / Taiwanese caps, at least regarding reliability

Did you say that any capacitor Japanese general purpose, are at least more reliable than the Chinese / Taiwanese? this is it?
No doubt, but I will import from reliable source not to take issue with false ELNA. Do you recommend any particular place of purchase?

[stj]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

we had a thread about upgrading a soundblaster card where a lot of info about different cap types was posted.

my personal preference for audio is Rubycon YXF series.

[felipeunix]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

we had a thread about upgrading a soundblaster card where a lot of info about different cap types was posted.

my personal preference for audio is Rubycon YXF series.

How did this conclusion? (I will look for this topic)
At least in anything we've ever tested (Diy) always got better results with ELNA and Nichicon.

I know this may seem, "personal" but I have worked with music production, I believe that most people who say they have no difference in capacitors is because they are not acostumas to notice the small details, which are actually the biggest difference.

[stj]

Re: M-Audio Firewire 1814 MOD-Caps

the esr across different frequency's is what makes each type of cap different.
obviously the best cap will have a stable esr figure across the audio range.

film caps are better than electrolytics, but a lot larger and more expensive, specially polystyrene.

now something to think about - are polymer capacitors better than electrolytics for audio filtering, or worse???
i dont think they have been tried in that way before.