II-series mods

[stuart a]

After enjoying fitting up my moving coil transformers this morning I seem to have the bug again to mess around with the solder iron....

What were the most worthwhile mods that people done to there -

PRE II
PHONO II
PSU II

Any help appreciated as I have a few long weekends spare coming up in Feb
and cant think of a better way of spending the time , I always had it in the back of my mind to mod these amps but things just seemed to always get in the way .....better late than never

Only problem now is that there is no info on the better mods that people were doing to these older amps on the forum anymore

Thanks in advance guys

stu

[Richard]

Hi Stuart,

Good to see you've got it sorted

I've not heard The WAD2 set up complete but folks say it was very good. Much of the design is carried over to the 3 series of course including the tx output of the Pre albeit with a new circuit.

I'd look towards PSU improvements to bring it up to PSU3 level. Schottkies for heaters and HT, and LDO reg also for heaters, expecially as you're using Phono and Pre from PSU. The full load does cause some dropout of the reg in the full WAD2 setup as NealG found, http://wduk.worldomain.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4131

Then fit 100uF caps in the ht supply lines inside Pre and Phono cases, again a la new versions. This decouples the long umbilical supply, prevents some oscillation problems ocassionally reported, and improves smoothing.

Rich

[stuart a]

Thanks Richard

I'm noting all this down to get some sort of parts list together

Anyone else care to add with there mods/experiances

Were the Jenson PIO and Blackgates not a popular mod aswell

As I said , any help appreciated

p.s. if these work out well I may be tempted to open up the 300bpse's

Thanks

[andrew ivimey]

My PSU is upgraded but the whole kit is now all Kiwame resistor, blackgate and Hovland caps, solid silver wire and biting the bullet ... I hardwired it all.

It seemed to make a huge difference at the time (a good while ago) and since then nothing has gone wrong and I just use WADPrePhonoPSU2 and just assume its the best!

Peace of mind.

[pre65]

Originally Posted by andrew ivimey

I just use WADPrePhonoPSU2 and just assume its the best!

Peace of mind.

That's why i "bit the bullet" and invested in the WD Pre3/Psu3/Phono3s set-up.

[Mike G]

Hi,

You may also want to try the shunt pot mod on your volume control.

http://www.wduk.worldomain.net/forum...read.php?t=198

I've fitted the 100uF cap as Richard mentioned earlier, in my PREII, and have also changed the diodes etc within the PSU.

Also upgrade the original grey WAD supplied internal cable with something better.

I also made my own shielded power leads between the PSU and PRE / Phono, as there have been many threads about mains leads, but can't remember any threads about the four core power leads.

Regards

Mike.