here are the photos of my xcan mods- have replace the caps on the psu with pana fc's have heatsinked the transistors to run cooler and drilled the boards to aid cooling also replaced the input and out caps and bypass them with bypass caps. I have also made my own psu for it, The results are stunning.

[StevieDvd]

Nice work if your able to do it.

Did you get inspiration from anywhere to do all this or are you just more technically savvy than us mere mortal diy'ers.

It just proves a point that a standard headphone put socket is usually compromised by cheaper components and that even when spending on a headphone amp cost ccutting can hold back the results.

From what I've read and from others who tweak MF cans, MF argue the case that the components don't matter. But it's more like they would not sell as many for the extra price of including quality components. An extra few quid at manufacture time gets grossly inflated at the shop price end.

Any way this is a nice post and I'm glad that you have the knowledge and impetus to improve it.

Sexy cables next then...

Steve

Regarding DIY cables - I have just made up a .7 mtr RCA for my xcan headphone amplifer. It uses Eichmann bullet plug rca's with slinkylinks silver interconnect cable and if I must say myself is stunning. The conductors are two stands of 0.25mm made of 99.9999% pure silver and are wrapped in an airtube, so that the condutors only occasionally touch the side and means that they have produce a 96% air dielectric.

Eichmann Bullet Plugs were selected for their sonic superiority and minimal metal content. view www.eichamnn.com.au and www.slinkylinks.net for the cable.

These are stunning cables and come very close my expensive wireworlds...

sorry blonde day its www.eichmanncables.com . thanks for the comments havent really bothered with this forum for a while as I got flack from a couple of guys regarding my thoughs on a DIY cable which i made and didnt like too much ! I have since moved to hifi org its another great website too !

Good luck and feel free to ask questions.

[Mr.D]

I've got some mullard valves in my Xcan V2. Sound is less brittle compared with the philips it ships with.

Im waiting on the russian sovtec valves which are surposed to be as good as the mullards in the xcan, cant wait for my 'russian twin's' to arrive !