VTV D300 Digital amp

This past weekend over the span of two days I upgraded the internals of the amp.  On Friday, I replaced the original EMI/RFI filtered inlet with a Furutech FI-09 G inlet.  I had to drill two holes in the backplate to secure the Furutech to the chassis.  Goodbye warranty. By removing the original filtered inlet, this removed some restriction on the dynamic current.  If you are familiar with Shunyata Research, then you must know about their rule #1 which is to not impede what they call "DTCD" (Dynamic Transfer of Current Delivery).  I have a Shunyata power conditioner so I'm allowing that unit to do the AC noise reduction instead.  I also replaced the the original AC power wires inside the amp with 14ga Neotech Stranded UPOCC copper wires.  I hooked up Furutech FP-09 gold spade connectors to one end of the wires and then I crimped down.  My amp comes with a 12V trigger module so I made sure to connect its wires to the Furutech wires before I crimped down the spade connectors.  Then I screwed down the spade connectors into the Furutech inlet.  The Furutech does not have an On/Off switch so now I use the 12V trigger for On/Off.  On the opposite end of the ground cable I crimped on a ring connector and then connected it to chassis.  I crimped on the pin connectors to the Line and Neutral wires and then I connected the pins inside their connectors to the Hypex board.  Then I had a listen...

The difference was very noticeable.  There was more energy to the music and it was more dynamic.  These are two very important qualities for me.  I also noticed I didn't have to increase the volume as much to get the same level of output from the amp.  Feeling pretty good about these AC power upgrades, come Saturday I moved to replace the DC power wires from the Hypex to the EAS board.  The original wires were 14ga stranded copper and I replaced them with 14ga Neotech Solid UPOCC copper wires.  Because these are solid wires, I had to solder the contact pins to the wires.  After the soldering was done, I inserted the pins to the connectors and then attached the connectors to the boards.  I had another listen.

The DC cable upgrades may have been more impactful than the AC upgrades.  With both the AC upgrades and the DC upgrades I found the soundstage had lifted up slightly higher in elevation.  I've never had this experience before in all my past system upgrades.  I can hear more details and instrument separation is better.  The music had better attack when called for and the sounds "popped" more if you know what I mean.  

Needless to say, I highly recommend these upgrades.  This amp is now on steroids.

I went back to using an RCA SPDIF cable so now my next upgrade is to replace the stock RCA connector and associated wires with a WBT 0210 RCA connector and Neotech Solid UPOCC copper wires.

sirnui,

Way to go....you tweaky dude!

You and I have the only VTV D300 amps in existence (more coming soon). Right now I am working up mods on the Peachtree GaN 1 (brother of D300). I will be doing the same mods to both amps. Please try some better speaker output wire. I will also be offering my binding post bypass system using quarter inch nylon bolts, nuts, flat washers and wingnuts used as a clamp. This is even better than the WBTs but you cannot use banana plugs.....only spades and bare wire. All speaker connectors suck....please use bare wire or tinned bare wire everywhere you can and especially on speaker cables. I have been hardwiring my amp to my speakers for over 35 years!

Thanks for posting your sonic findings.....most people have no idea how simple mods can completely change and improve the sonics of equipment (and the mods you did will have no impact on measurements....none). I have been tweaking since the 70s.......he he....since I am in my 70s.....maybe that is not so long.

Have fun!

I have to disagree. I’ve been modding/tweaking for many years...

I have never heard any audible/musical improvements with any modifications to the power side of any electronics. I have done my mods to simplify the signal flow (removing fuses/switches), upgrading contacts (pure copper), more robust/solid connections (solder), and better wiring (OCC, Triple C). For me, as an engineer, purist, it’s a fun hobby.

If you really need to mod some parts of their equipment for better performance, shame on the OEM.

I have ALWAYS (since the early 80s) heard a sonic change with every single thing I have done to the AC power inside a component..  To each his own.  What I did to the GaN 1 the other day was mind blowing....all it was....was purifying the AC going into the amp.  It completely changed the character of the amp....way better sounding.

ricevs,

Thank You ... again.  Cheers to the VTV D300 and tweaking!  I've done plenty of tweaks outside of boxes and in between boxes but I've never seriously done tweaks inside the box.  Now I know first hand what can be achieved by doing this.  My speaker cables have BFA connectors so I won't be following you down your route with binding posts but I do plan to change out the internal speaker wires with more Neotech Solid UPOCC copper wires.

I also use the VTV D300 to listen to headphones using a Zynsonix speaker amp to headphone converter. If I ever make the D300 a dedicated headphone amp or if I get a second D300, I may just hardwire the converter box to the boards on the amps!  Thinking about it some more, there is some space inside the D300 that may allow me to put the internals of the converter box inside the D300. This should allow me to cleanly hardwire the internals directly to the EAS board.