[jeffreybehr]

'Stole' a used aR12 that arrived last week.  This is the standard version with 'propylene-film caps, etc.


It came with the PowerChord-E.

Never having liked the concept of outlets (or other 'hi-end' parts) having magnetic parts in them, and having no allegiance to Audience powercords or AuriCaps, improving I did go.
1. Just as no capacitor sounds as good as no capacitor, I believe that no connector sounds as good as no connector, so out the Neutrik Powercon connector came and in went the hardwired bigblue all-Furutech cord.  On the wall end is a 20-Amp F-tech FI152M.


I subsequently replaced the Furutech cable with a Neotec 10g. UPOCC-conductor cable; its conductors are unbroken thru the common-mode choke...

...all the way to the neutral buss or the on/off switch.


2. The new outlets...

...are a combination of FIMs--one 888G (white) and 3 880Gs (blue)--and a pair of Furutech FP-15A Cuprums (black).  The 2 sections of the 880G are easily separable electrically (and those of the 888G and the Furutechs are NOT), so just as were all original outlets, 2 of the FIMs are separated electrically--that meaning that each individual outlet has its own inductive and capacitive noise filtering.  Right now one 880 is combined and capped for analog use, but it can be separated if I need another separately filtered analog outlet.  The black Furutechs have single original Auricaps sized for digital equipment.

3. Most noise-filter caps have been replaced with Mundorf Silver/Oils, not only higher in overall quality than the 'propylene AuriCaps but also with significantly higher AC-Voltage ratings.

I continued Audience's filosofy that digital equipment benefits from smaller-value caps compared with analog equipment, so all digital outlets wear 0.47uF caps.  The FIM 880Gs are intended for my more-important digital equipment and have 0.01 Mundorf Silver/Gold bypasses on them, while the analog outlets have all MSOs, a 1.8uF plus a 0.068.

The 'triangle' filtercaps, from line to earth and neutral to earth, are also 0.068uF MSOs.


4. Altho the stainless-steel screws Audience used are nonmagnetic, being an obsessive old fool--and even worse, an audiofool--I replaced the SS ones with brass screws, applied a little Walker silvertreatment to the ring terminals and screw threads, and added brass nuts.

When and if I get even more obsessed and bored with just listening to my system, perhaps I'll replace the automotive-type solderless, crimped terminals with Audioquest silver-over-copper spade lugs, crimped...perhaps.

Installing this initially in the system in place of a PS Audio Quintessence enlarged the soundstage and reduced what little hi-frequency harshness there was, and the sound will improve as caps break-in.  I'm very pleased.

[jtwrace]

Shouldn't X rated caps be used in that application?

[jeffreybehr]

Probably, at least according to many, but neither Audience's 'propylenes nor Teflons are x- or y-rated.

My double-doc-EE, AC-power specialist buddy thinks these 800VAC caps are just fine.

[rdsu]

Very interesting!

This version doesn't have a GDT, like the Teflon version?

I'm building a Felix, but the caps between the choke and outlets will be Jantzen Superior and Mundorf Silver/Oil.

Did you found that Mundorf sound much better than Auricaps?

[jeffreybehr]

Very interesting!   TY.

This version doesn't have a GDT, like the Teflon version?  What's a GDT?

I'm building a Felix  ...ahem...what's a Felix?

, but the caps between the choke and outlets will be Jantzen Superior and Mundorf Silver/Oil.

Did you found that Mundorf sound much better than Auricaps?  No; it was in my system only a few hous before I started improving it.  I'm not a GEA who recognizes tiny differences quickly; I'm much more a medium- and long-term listener who eventually hears larger differences in the quality of the music.  I chose the Mundorfs for their sound quality, metalized construction (meaning they're 'self-healing', which actually means self-diminishing), and very high Voltage rating.

[jtwrace]

I'm building a Felix  ...ahem...what's a Felix?

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=25757.0

[rdsu]

This version doesn't have a GDT, like the Teflon version?  What's a GDT?

GDT means Gas Discharge Tube.

From your words, Audience use different capacitances in USA and Europe.

In Europe they use 0.1uF for digital sources, 0.22uF for analog sources, and 0.47uF/0.56uF for power amps...

[jeffreybehr]

GDT means Gas Discharge Tube.

From your words, Audience use different capacitances in USA and Europe.

In Europe they use 0.1uF for digital sources, 0.22uF for analog sources, and 0.47uF/0.56uF for power amps...

Yes, gas-discharge tube...I figured that out at lunch today.    
Yes, it does.


Don't know what caps Audience uses in their European versions.  My ar12 contained pairs of 1uF, 0.68uF, 0.47uF, 0.33uF, 0.22uF, and 0.1uF caps on the 6 outlets.

[jeffreybehr]

Nice job!  Any sense for the CMC type/brand/rating Audience is using?

Thanks  Jim

TYVM. 

Too many undefined initializations for me today, I guess--what's a CMC?

[rdsu]

Yes, gas-discharge tube...I figured that out at lunch today.    
Yes, it does.


Don't know what caps Audience uses in their European versions.  My ar12 contained pairs of 1uF, 0.68uF, 0.47uF, 0.33uF, 0.22uF, and 0.1uF caps on the 6 outlets.

Very different

You still doesn't know what is next to GDT? (Something you didn't know also here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=105454.0)

CMC is Common Mode Choke.

[JDUBS]

TYVM. 

Too many undefined initializations for me today, I guess--what's a CMC?

Common Mode Choke...which I believe lie beneath the black heat shrink in your pics.

-Jim

[jeffreybehr]

The cylindrical black thing next to what I presume is a GDT is a 50K, 5W resistor, perhaps to discharge the caps.

Common-mode choke, huh?  I believe the ferrous ring wound with AC (input) cable at the right of this pic...

...is the CMC.

[rdsu]

Yes, that is a CMC and you also have CMC's between the outlets and copper bus bar...

What is the capacitance of the big capacitor close to copper bus bar?

[jeffreybehr]

What is the capacitance of the big capacitor close to copper bus bar?

The original was 2uF; it's now a '1.868uF' Mundorf Silver/Oil.

[JDUBS]

The cylindrical black thing next to what I presume is a GDT is a 50K, 5W resistor, perhaps to discharge the caps.

Common-mode choke, huh?  I believe the ferrous ring wound with AC (input) cable at the right of this pic...

...is the CMC.

Any chance you want to cut into the shrink to see what they are?  The Audience advertises the fact that they are non-current limiting so I'm very curious to hear what CMC they use.

Jim

[jeffreybehr]

Any chance you want to cut into the shrink to see what they are?  The Audience advertises the fact that they are non-current limiting so I'm very curious to hear what CMC they use.

Jim

I did, to replace the Powercon and powercord...or PowerChord-E.   

This choke is a ferrite (?) ring with loops of all-3-times-two conductors wound around and thru it.  The ring is maybe 1-1/8" OD, and each of 6 wires is wound once around.  The front of this lead turned out to be a little short to use good crimpsleeves to connect the Furutech 8g. cable, so I soldered it.  I've requested a new inputcable with longer leads from Audience but don't yet know if John McDonald will make and sell me one.

All the AC wiring in this p-con is 14g. and doubled (= 11g.), and for the line and earth leads, they've used both American and international colors, so we get black and brown (line) and green and yellow (earth).  Don't know where the orange and red for neutral came from.

This week I separated the 2 sections of the second outlet, the blue FIM 880, re-added its own choked cable from the copper busses, and added an original 1uF Auricap to it, so I now have 3 isolated analog zones with 4 individual outlets (instead of 2 with 4).

[rdsu]

Thanks for your info!

Let us know the final result of your improvements...

[rdsu]

Do you already have the final result?

[jeffreybehr]

Do you already have the final result?

Well, I finished working on it, so that's finished.

As I indicated above somewhere, IF IF IF I'm a GEA, I'm a long-term GEA, not a 'quick' GEA.  I've not plugged all the frontend equipment into outlet strips to determine if I can hear the effects of removing the '12 from my system, but I do know one thing--my system has never sounded better, overall.  'Better' in my case means larger soundstage and harshness of high frequencies at least reduced if not gone. MAYBE I'm getting about the same results from my c.-$2500 p-con as the next guy gets from his $9K aR12-TS...and maybe not...but I know that mine is NOT coming out of the system.   

One thing yet to do is to replace the initial 'pigtail' with Neotec stranded UPOCC-copper, the original ferrous ring* with another ferrous ring, and the crimped ringterminals with Audioquest silver-over-copper spades, all so that I can make better connections from the Furutech cable to the inlet pigtail.  (John McDonald refused to make a longer one for me.)  I hope to find and use 8g. crimpsleeves but haven't yet looked for any.

Anyway, I LOVE the sounds of the music coming out of my system with this in it, and all the above is money and time well spent.

* which started to flake apart while I was soldering and taping the connections

[rdsu]

Well, I finished working on it, so that's finished.

As I indicated above somewhere, IF IF IF I'm a GEA, I'm a long-term GEA, not a 'quick' GEA.  I've not plugged all the frontend equipment into outlet strips to determine if I can hear the effects of removing the '12 from my system, but I do know one thing--my system has never sounded better, overall.  'Better' in my case means larger soundstage and harshness of high frequencies at least reduced if not gone. MAYBE I'm getting about the same results from my c.-$2500 p-con as the next guy gets from his $9K aR12-TS...and maybe not, but I know that mine is NOT coming out of the system.   

One thing yet to do is to replace the initial 'pigtail' with Neotec stranded UPOCC-copper, the original ferrous ring* with another ferrous ring, and the crimped ringterminals with Audioquest silver-over-copper spades, all so that I can make better connections from the Furutech cable to the inlet pigtail.  (John McDonald refused to make a longer one for me.)  I hope to find and use 8g. crimpsleeves but haven't yet looked for any.

Anyway, I LOVE the sounds of the music coming out of my system with this in it, and all the above is money and time well spent.

* which started to flake apart while I was soldering and taping the connections

I can imagine how it sounds!

Thank you for let us know all these changes you made...

Regards