Reference Audio Mods presents High Performance Modifications to the PS Audio HCA-2 digital amplifier. If you currently own or plan to buy a used PS Audio HCA-2 amp, your in luck! The RAM modifications will take the performance of these amplifiers to an exceptional level, saving you many thousands of dollars over buying a much more expensive amplifier to only have lesser performance. what to expect in the differences made in these modifications is Dramatic. You will experience larger/wider/deeper soundstaging, more "air" around instruments, more resolution, more refined dynamics and more listener/singer emotion in your music. You will enjoy years of extreme high quality sound from a great and reputable amplifier!
The Modifications have been broken out in sections to accommodate audiophiles on a budget and/or want to upgrade is stages! The individual selected components parts used here in the modifications described below are tried and true CUTTING EDGE "State of the Art" type of parts that outperform everything else we have tried on the current market to get the best sound possible. We literally stay on top of the most cutting edge technologies and topologies to keep advancing to acheive best sound possible within your budgets.
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Modification Descriptions
-(Basic mod)Power supply and signal coupling capacitors upgrades
($600 installed, FREE RETURN SHIPPING!)
~Jensen 4-pole Electrolytic Capacitors-
We replace the main power supply caps and Digital Power supply huge caps with the Jensen 4-pole versions. Talk about fast and natural and neutral sounding as well as bass refinements and dynamics to die for. What else can we say, these caps rock! Major improvement in total tonal character and resolution. Please be advised that it takes 6 feet of Silver Wire and Cotton to connect these for this package and quite some time. We also have to modify the digital power supply to install these correctly, this includes new parts (resistors, etc..). This upgrade is major and takes things further than the advertised tweaks on the forums. This is not a easy plug-and-play type of upgrade and requires advanced skills.
~Rubycon ZA/ZL Series capacitors-
We replace specific critical rail voltage and critical signal path capacitors with the Rubycon ZA/ZL series caps!! Major improvement! The background becomes blacker, and instruments emerge like they are so real. A definite change in total sonic tonality and character over the stock caps! We are replacing more capacitors than the advertised tweaks in the Audiophile forums.
~Audio Consulting 99.99% silver wire & Natural Unbleached Cotton Tubing
We use various lengths of Audio Consulting Silver Wire and Natural Cotton Tubing to act as damping. This is used to connect the Jensen Capacitors together or to the PCB. This wire is the best we have heard to use in circuits. No Teflon or Plastic is found on this wire but rather than a Polymenstride enamel coating so it will not muffle the sound. This wire takes some time to strip and make but is well worth all the efforts!
~RAM Custom made Exotic Diode Bridge
We handmake custom diode bridges from exotic diodes to further better the sound and even further reduce any glare, grain or such in the stock design. These test out to sound better than the Harris/Fred types. These take approx. 20-30 minutes to handmake.
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Upgrade Option-
LeClanche Paper-In-Oil Capacitor Option ($75 installed)-
We add a LeClanche Paper-in-Oil Capacitor to the main power supply to further reduce the unnecessary distortion and harmonics in the AC Signal. Talk about major! Brings more emotion and "liveliness" to the music since it takes out the impurities that cause the masking of the emotion and resolution in your valuable music. This requires some silver wire/cotton and mounting.
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Upgrade Option-
Rewire Internal Speaker Output Wiring with Audio Consulting 99.99% silver wire & Natural Unbleached Cotton Tubing & Change Binding Posts to the Eichmann Cable Pods ($190 installed)
We Rewire the output speaker cabling with Audio Consulting Silver Wire and change out the binding posts to the Eichmann Cable Pods. Talk about improvement and additonal sound and resolution!!!!!! The stock crappy wiring needs to go (Monster Cable, yuk!) as well as the screws and ring terminals that get oxidized very easily and degrade the sound and provide the worst signal transfer characteristics. The stock binding posts are decent, but are large hunks of metal and get replaced with the Eichmann Cable Pods that offer significantly improved signal transfer charactertics and WAY LESS Metal (Less Eddy Currents!) We solder using WBT silver solders and we solder this silver wiring directly to the PCB, elmininating alot of the imperfections of the original design! This makes a great improvement and it requires over 17 feet of silver wire and cotton and requires a couple hours of labor to just get the wires stripped and coated with cotton.
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Upgrade Option-
Digital Power Upgrade Option! ($400 installed)
The digital circuits in this amplifier is extremely overlooked, and the components used are low grade electrolytic capacitors whose characteristics do not produce low E S.R, low distortion, fast discharge/recharge, low microphony. Similarly, stock diode bridge is a low grade silicon types, which is very noisy & slow and ringy. Any compromising in the digital circuits will yield poorer results further along the chain in the analogue domain. Smearing, masking, muddiness, compression etc....are examples of a piss poor digital power supply. This very important mod option focuses on the Digital circuits power supply and surroundings for the VERY CRITICAL Digital amplifier chips that make this unit work. The less noise, grain and glare going to these chips, the performance increases incredibly. The main notices here are much more effortless highs, more neutral/natuarlism and quieter background. I was actually stunned at the high frequency extension capabilites after this mod option. We replace stock diodes with handmade RAM Exotic diode bridges, replace stock smoothing cap with an exotic 4-pole Jensen Electrolytic. In additon, We replace the stock voltage regulation with an Audiocom Invisus discrete regulation circuit. This will bring an absolute improvment to the digital chip section of the amplifier bringing more emotion, resolution and dynamics. Incredible!
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INSTALLATION SERVICES INFORMATION:
East Coast USA: Contact RAM East (Douglas Jesse) in Warren, Michigan at (586-944-5611) or referenceaudiomodseast@yahoo.com
West Coast USA: Contact RAM WEST (Kyle Takenaga) in Riverside California at (951-780-2869) or referenceaudiomods@yahoo.com
The turn around time for these High Performance modifications is about 2 weeks!!!
FREE RETURN SHIPPING on all orders to the lower 48 USA states.
Additonal shipping on units outside of USA. We can modify and ship worldwide.
Please visit our website at
www.referenceaudiomods.com for shipping address information.
The link on the bottom of the page can be used to instantly purchase these mods and a reply email well be sent with shipping info for the player to be sent off too.
We also modify many other units and will work on pretty much anything. Please email or call for more info.
Thanks and we look forward to assisting you in the path of the best sound available today!
http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PSAUDIOHCA2&Category_Code=MODS
