They charge $90 an hour.
1 Like
I think Vadimgal just want to know how much he can charge people for the mod in Toronto. He wanted to charge me $400 for the job so I looked elsewhere.
Finally had my transformer replaced by a competent technician in Munich.
Send him the analog board, got it back two days later. He charged 2,5 hours x 70 Euro (plus 19% VAT), which is totally fine.
Once Iāve been able to do some serious listening Iāll share my findings here.
4 Likes
Looks good, congratulations 
Iām thinking youāll love it Philippā¦
I spent a few days upgrading a pair of Crimson 640E monoblocks for a friend. Including mag shielding the toroids (all 4 lol), some new Kemet (BHC) slit foil PSU caps and most of all some āchampionā recipe signal input caps. This cap recipe took a lot of time, effort (and expense) to determine, but it was oh so worth it.
Iām always amazed at how big a difference it makes to remove the toroid magnetic radiation for example. I also tried reversing the polarity of 1 toroid relative to the other to see if could get some active cancellation going. Magnetic radiation did drop on the probe, but not nearly as much as the 2 layers of shielding. A 3rd overall shield layer is coming as well. Itās not hard to understand that itās not good to bomb a high gain circuit in particular with strong magnetic field radiation 
Anyway Iām hearing some astonishing sounds from the system 
The DAC is fantastic IMOā¦ It just keeps getting better, as the electronics around it get better. T
2 Likes
Turbotk
What did you use to wrap the toroidals to shield them?
Richard
1 Like
Itās a high saturation magnetic shield material. 010" thick. 2 layers in this case. T
1 Like
In the meantime I put Stillpoints ERS at all places Ted recommended plus under the digital board and the cut out pieces onto the transformers (being at board level then).
What I recognized is slightly better focus, detail and 3D easiest to hear by voices as well as slightly sharper transients in a positive sense and ease/flow somehow. Worth it.
Still waiting for my usual fuse upgrade for the Farad, so surrounding conditions are still not on the level as before the mods and differences probably a bit smaller than they could be perceived later as the fuses made a huge difference in my setup.
I should add, that at any place where I put it aside of directly on chips, I used such thicker double sided tape to avoid to short anything. I had to use double sided tape anyway as my ERS was without an adhesive side.
1 Like
I thought it was mentioned here, but now I canāt find it. The recommended soldering tip temperature to desolder the RoHS solder from the board to remove the old trannies. Hakko recommends not going over 360C for desoldering, but Iāve read that the lead free stuff normally requires a higher temperature to get it to flow - plus the trannies acting as heat sinks. Any recommendations from those whoāve done the work (or from @tedsmith, for that matter!) is welcome.
Edcor XS4400 arrival today. Iāll be leaving that swap to a local pro.
Iām also interested in the analog board external PS mod but wanted to double check this with those who have had success. In the pic below, the red wire is the positive connection and the black wire is negative, correct?
That is correct, but if you have to askā¦ I say let your pro guy handle this, too. I have the equipment to test polarity at three points before and after my harness build to ensure everything wired up correctly.
You only get one chance to not fry your analog board.
7 Likes
Greatly appreciated!
1 Like
An all-call (including @tedsmith) query to those of you that have performed the Edcor XS-4400 transformer modā¦
Iāve left my CD transport on repeat for about 60 hours now hoping to get past an upper midrange and high frequency glare/brashness that arrived along with these new output transformers. Sonic memory suggests the soundstage has expanded somewhat and perhaps become a little airier while the low frequencies enjoy a little more heft. However this gritty thing going on in the upper mids and highs is not at all appealing. It definitely wasnāt present prior to the mod and seems particularly evident on big dynamic swings. It sounds a little like the sort of distortion you experience when driving solid-state into clipping. Is this something that I can expect to gradually go away with further burn-in @tedsmith?
1 Like
Who did the transformer swap out and pcb reinstall?
Like the original DS, you have just started your burn-in. Go 24/7 till at least 300 or so hours.
3 Likes
Dan Santoni of DTS electronics here in Hamilton ON. Dan is a gifted tech that specializes in high-end @weedeewop He actually provides local authorized warranty repair for many high-end AV companies.
Thanks @tedsmith. My current system is quite high resolution and set up in a well treated room with a low noise floor. The combination makes differences in recordings and even minor system changes quite plainly audible. The transformer swap was not at all subtle and initially at least, not all to the positive. However, Iāll do as you suggest and just leave a CD on repeat to rack up the hours.
3 Likes
Also take Tedās other advice to use the DACās low gain setting, as it seems to care for faster burn in for the transformers. Iād also check if no shipment problem occurred with connections of cables etc.
1 Like
Hi, the solder on the analog board is quite sticky. I started with 350C and had to go up to 390 to achieve clean extractions.The solder pads took no damage at all. On holes where the first extraction failed, I used lead based solder to resolder the joint as it stays liquid for a longer period and then extracted again. The final soldering of the XS4400 I did with 4% Silver solder.
5 Likes
I recall you mentioned earlier in the thread somewhere the AC cables inside the DS emit EMR that is deleterious to the Sonics. Wrapping with Stillpoints EM wrap? Or, I have a bottle Audio Magicās amazing Ultimate Black Out I can apply which soaks up EM/RF like crazy broad spectrum.
Your thoughts?
I donāt think I said anything that specific. The AC transformer can interact with the output transformers, but the only thing we see on the Audio Precision is the expected 60Hz way down there. The AC lines can have high frequency crud on them which could theoretically have some effect (otherwise power cord changes wouldnāt be so dramatic, but the DS mostly has high level signals and solid drive so they arenāt nearly as sensitive to crud as most audio devices.
Iād expect that shielding the display, the bridge if you have one, between the digital and analog boards, etc. would be a higher priority, then perhaps the AC lines.
1 Like