Haha thanks 
And apologies for my forum ignorance here. Iāve just been super busy and havenāt been able to read up on everything.
These things are not obvious, you are far from ignorant.
1 Like
4 Likes
Thanks Elk 
My dual overhead gerbil wheels plead the fifth on that 
2 Likes
Next round of wine is on T . . er, wait, what forum is this? 
1 Like
Hahahaā¦ Reaching for my wallet already!? I see how you guys are
2 Likes
I think I will also try the EMI/RFI shielding inside at Tedās previous recommended places as I have some Sillpoint ERS and mumetal on hand.
In contrary to the 3M paper, the Stillpoint ERS is effective down to the 10MHz range, which according to Tedās info is partly relevant (see chart below).
@tedsmith: in case I could place it with some isolation (e.g. behind the display board), will the ERS or the mumetal be more effective in the 10-1000 MHz range?
SPECIFICATIONS
ERS shielding effectiveness (in db attenuation):
10 Mhz - 49
100 Mhz - 48
200 Mhz - 62
400 Mhz - 53
800 Mhz - 54
900 Mhz - 50
1 Ghz - 49
2.4 Ghz - 53 (802.11B)
3.5 Ghz - 54
5.8 Ghz - 57 (902.11A)
7.5 Ghz - 61
10 Ghz - 66
17 Ghz - 55
Mu metal and ERS do different things, they could easily be independently useful. On the other hand most of the DS (except for the output transformers) is pretty insensitive to magnetic fields (I explicitly try to keep loop area small, etc.) Mu metal needs to be a closed cage to be effective so itās hard to shield things that werenāt designed to expect to use it. Similarly youād need a Faraday cage to nuke conductive noise. But using things like ERS to attenuate RFI is effective without being a closed surface. The display board is indeed a good place to put some ERS to separate it from the rest of the interior. If you donāt use the Bridge take it out. If you do, perhaps some ERS to separate it from the rest of the box might be helpful. But note, ERS is much more effective near either the source or the receiver of the RFI, not just as a wall between them.
5 Likes
Thanks, thatās what I also wanted to askā¦a sheet of ERS directly above the bridge card? I still use it currently.
And does a stripe of ERS behind the output transformers, on the bottom side of the digital board make sense? Thatās the only place with parts on the analog board below.
Didnāt realize that mumetal doesnāt work as sheet as many years ago I got rid of some hum just placing a sheet at a certain place, but also understood now that itās just against magnetic fields.
The bottom of the digital board is good, just donāt short any vias there. If you have the XS4400 transformers, they stick up thru the digital board and IIFC that gap probably isnāt wide enough to shield with ERS (I could be wrong.)
4 Likes
Correct it isnāt there at all the gap. Itās just possible to shield the space behind, not the transformers themselves. Except if it would make sense to shield the iron around the coils.
In case the ERS could theoretically short anything I could use a one sided adhesive tape on the one side of an ERS stripe and a double sided on the other and stick them together all around and stick the double sided to the upper board.
Hi all. Is anyone going direct to amp with this mod? Seems like some hint of negativity possibly if you do not have a pre in the mix?
I can fully confirm your impressions. I also have done the Farrad + XS4400 mod. Together with Windon its a ādream teamā. In my experience, every of the components needs about 300 hrs burn in. Specifically the Farrad even more. Not sure how much you have on the clock, but there may be more to come ā¦
1 Like
I can just tell in my case with preamp, I usually had lifelike level (means the loudest level Iād like to listen to for some time, which is probably louder than what most others would prefer) between 10 and 11 oāclock (high gain recordings) and between 1 and 4 oāclock (low gain recordings).
After the transformer mod it seemed like a wider macro dynamic range. Low volume parts of the music are lower in level, loud parts louder (but only the maximum peaks). This led to the impression that for most of the dynamic spectrum I now have to turn up to 11-2 oāclock (high gain recordings) and donāt have enough range anymore for the really low gain recordings for maximum volume (but I still reach fairly high levels).
An example for a very low gain recording is this 24/176,4:
Without a preamp in my case the DS wouldnāt be able anymore to drive to loud levels, but this wasnāt possible before, too, with low gain recordings.
I use balanced connection, so I donāt have the -6dB problem.
5 Likes
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
Btw, the heat sinks now are cold enough to be touched for 30sec. Before 1sec.
2 Likes
update in update.
Belleson has been added to lps.
https://www.belleson.com/
@wctaudio
3 Likes
At about 100 hours burn in.
Not going to really wax poetic in audiophile terms. 
This transformer mod is very good. Clearly an improvement across the spectrum and great relative value.
Thanks to all who explored this and provided info and service.
3 Likes
Thank you everyone for this great forum!
I would also like to do the FARAD (and transformer) modification (with the TE Connectivity connector No. 350428-1). Mattijs from FARAD asks in this context: Do you also know the pinout, where should plus go and where GND? (For assembly with a level 2 cable connection GX16-4)?
@ Ted Smith: Can you answer that, please? Thank you in advance!
2 Likes
Always follow the red cable for plus and use a multimeter for checking cabling. Red is pin as usual. But Ted will tell better Iām sure.