Ok, I've decided to buy Sound BlasterX AE-5 when it comes out next month and for the sake of upgrading the whole experience, I'm planning to mod my Altec Lansing MX5021 speakers. They served me well for years and since they are one of rare few with wall mount option, I'm gonna buff them instead.
Specifically these key areas:
- capacitors in both satelites
- capacitors on the main amplifier
- OP-AMP in the amplifier
- replacement of power converter to more quality toroid transformer (allegedly, this should fix annoying hissing)
I'm planning to replace ALL key capacitors with Nichicon Muse Gold capacitors. For OP-AMP, I was looking at BurrBrown OPA2134PA. It's considered high end and I could get one for price of peanuts. So, I'm even willing to go with something even more high end, I'm just not sure which one is appropriate since I don't know the parameters important for OP-AMPs. For capacitors, voltage and capacitance, no problem. But for OP-AMS, no clue. I also haven't opened up the AMP unit yet, unsure about the complexity of the PCB underneath. Looks fairly simple from above, but I don't know how's it below. I don't have professional solder iron, just very basic clumsy one...
EDIT:
I'm also wondering how to tell orientation of OP-AMPs? I'm assuming it's important how you place them in.
I've also seen some ridiculous Orange OP-AMPs that have tiny PCB sticking out of the plug pins/base. Is that compatible with MX5021 or not? Might be willing to go crazy with OP-AMPs even up to 30€ (the BurrBrown is like 5€ with shipping). Just need to know what to pay attention to when picking them up.
Specifically these key areas:
- capacitors in both satelites
- capacitors on the main amplifier
- OP-AMP in the amplifier
- replacement of power converter to more quality toroid transformer (allegedly, this should fix annoying hissing)
I'm planning to replace ALL key capacitors with Nichicon Muse Gold capacitors. For OP-AMP, I was looking at BurrBrown OPA2134PA. It's considered high end and I could get one for price of peanuts. So, I'm even willing to go with something even more high end, I'm just not sure which one is appropriate since I don't know the parameters important for OP-AMPs. For capacitors, voltage and capacitance, no problem. But for OP-AMS, no clue. I also haven't opened up the AMP unit yet, unsure about the complexity of the PCB underneath. Looks fairly simple from above, but I don't know how's it below. I don't have professional solder iron, just very basic clumsy one...
EDIT:
I'm also wondering how to tell orientation of OP-AMPs? I'm assuming it's important how you place them in.
I've also seen some ridiculous Orange OP-AMPs that have tiny PCB sticking out of the plug pins/base. Is that compatible with MX5021 or not? Might be willing to go crazy with OP-AMPs even up to 30€ (the BurrBrown is like 5€ with shipping). Just need to know what to pay attention to when picking them up.
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