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drdna wrote:

Romy the Cat wrote:   My attitude with my main TU-X1 is “do not harm” as I pretty much have no complains of frustration to it’s sound and I would be pity to loose what I have now from this tuner. I have some people told me about specific mods but none of them were able to describe to me the Sonic benefits they were able to get after their mods in the terms that I would consider not idiotic.    After reading about the TU-X1 heavily modified in: http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?postID=9084#9084 I was considering whether to send th tuner to this Mr. Chow at http://www.componentplususa.com/pages/upgrades.html but of course I am hesitant because, after I have the TU-X1 because of its wonderful tone. I do not want that to be lost with some upgrade to "better parts" like the prominently mentioned Blackgate capacitors. It would be helpful to hear about some experiences with before and after the modifications. The TU-X1 continues to evolve in its sound over the time I have had it. Initially I had the odd character of expanding and collapsing images in the soundstage. Now, the soundstage is very much not an issue, that is to say it has become less obvious overall in listening. At the same time, the liveliness or "random" factor in the sound has diminished as well. I cannot complain about the tonal balance; the sounds are very precisely soft and silky without being excessively emphasized. It seems correct, but it is somehow less involving emotionally. Adrian

Well, it might be something is still not right with your TU-X1 or person some is not right with me. My TU-X1 is the most “involving” among all of audio sources and I have no absolutely no complain in this department.

Regarding the modifications – I do not know. If you tuner was not alight then it is unquestionably need to be done to make sure that the tuner dose what it topology permits. As far as the parts swapping – you are at your own to decide.  I would call Mr. Chow and would ask his views how the specific part exchange will let sonically lead to specific sonic consequences. I would see how comfortably he will be defending his modifications.

You see there is a catch in all of it. It takes a different mindset to properly align tuner and to voice tuner with parts. To properly align tuner any BS about the tuner sound and sonic character shell be dropped and person shell be motivated and fallow only he his knowledge of RF sections and his ability to properly measure proposer things, his ability (and willingness) to interpret the measurements, and his ability (and willingness) to react upon the interpretations. It sound like it is hay nerdy work but in fact it is not and a good alignment in many instances is very creative process, but the process that is very much bounded with objectively of fact. Many technicians who do good alignment do not even listed to tuner and it is what I would prefer. To make the assessment what parts after detector might be exchanged in order to make it sound “different” usually requires another side of brain… It is possible that it might be done by one person but I would be cautious with those expectations.

BTW, you can make your own changes of some parts on your TU-X1, after it was aligned. It is very simple, he TU-X1 has very easy access, the schematic is available and the parts are well marked. You can do one per time and tom observes what happens in very well-controlled conditions. The parts change in output section will not affect your alignment.

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