Musical Fidelity X Can or V Can

[rab9090]

Hello all,

I had been thinking I'd buy a new V-Can II headphone amp but have seen the older X-Can models for around the same price second hand. I'm particularly interested in a second hand X-Cans valve amp - I think its the V2 but it doesn't seem to say anywhere - for £99.

Can anyone tell me how these compare to the new V-Can II?

Thanks for your help

 

[idc]

I have not heard a V-CAN, but have a X-CAN. The X-CAN whether it is the original X-CANS or the V2 is a hybrid valve amp that sounds very realistic and detailed. It is not for bass heads, it does bass detail as opposed to BASS oomph, but if there is BASS oomph in the original recording, it will do it.

One for £99 is a good price. They cost about £150 new and many will sell for that as they are so well made and look brilliant. The only issue is a poor volume control that reacts to the slightest of movement, or needs a big turn to make a difference. MF did not do well with specifying such a fiddly little knob.

 

[rab9090]

Thanks idc,

Think I may aswell save a bit and get one of these second hand.

Although I was looking at getting AKG K242HDs or K271 MKIIs a while after getting the amp; I've read a few times that these are a bit lighter on the bass. So would I maybe want to consider some different headphones if I bought the X-Can?

 

[stevieg330]

Hi,

Like idc I haven't heard a V-can but I have the X-Can V2 and I think his description of the sound is pretty much spot on. Just wanted to let you know that there are a couple of good tweaks you can do to the amp that, imo, really improve the sound.

The valves supplied with the V2, if they are original Jan-Philips 6922, can sound quite harsh (at least with my Sennheiser HD600's). The amp responds well to valve changesand I ended up using a pair of Russian miiltary tubes, Reflector 6N23P-EB which gave more detail and better bass response than the stock tubes.

The second big tweak, if you are handy with a soldering iron, is to replace all the capacitors in the PSU section with some good Panasonic FM high temperature versions. This isn't particularly expensive and, to me, this made much more of a difference than I was expecting. Well worth it imo.

There are other things you can do, including 'fixing' the volume problem that idc spoke of by changing a couple of resistors and also replacing the volume pot with an alps version.

So, I think its a good amp that can be made great by some relatively inexpensive mods.

I have not seen one for £99 so to me that sounds bit of a bargain.

Food for thought anyway

Hope this helps

Steve

 

[rab9090]

Hi Steve,

Earlier this evening I was looking at the upgrade kits available from Rock Grotto. I've only done a bit of soldering with cables, so probably won't take a soldering iron to it straight away!

Thanks for the extra info, I'll be getting the X-Can now!

 

[eggontoast]

The X-Can V3 is also worth considering, IMO it is an excellent little headphone amplifier. This version also benefits from a change of valve, I find the JJ E88CC works well in it.

With regards to the Pink Floyd upgrades. I have repaired four blown to hell X-Cans now which have had the Pink Floyd signatures on the PCB's and have been used with little pinkie power supplies. I've never repaired a virgin one though. I let you make a decision as to why this might be.

 

[idc]

An X-CAN and AKG does not make for big BASS IME.

That is interesting about the reliability of Pink Floyd upgrades.

 

[stevieg330]

The X-Can V3 is also worth considering, IMO it is an excellent little headphone amplifier. This version also benefits from a change of valve, I find the JJ E88CC works well in it.

With regards to the Pink Floyd upgrades. I have repaired four blown to hell X-Cans now which have had the Pink Floyd signatures on the PCB's and have been used with little pinkie power supplies. I've never repaired a virgin one though. I let you make a decision as to why this might be.

Interesting, all the mods I did are from the Rock-Grotto site and I've never had a moments bother with the amp and it's left on most of the time! When I came to mod the amp I had to repair some of the tracks and resolder some of the components as they do get somewhat hot! This was before I modded it though.

Not sure why these ones you have seen have had problems, the mods haven't made mine unreliable.

Lie I said, interesting!

Cheers

Steve

 

[eggontoast]

Interesting, all the mods I did are from the Rock-Grotto site and I've never had a moments bother with the amp and it's left on most of the time! When I came to mod the amp I had to repair some of the tracks and resolder some of the components as they do get somewhat hot! This was before I modded it though.

Not sure why these ones you have seen have had problems, the mods haven't made mine unreliable.

Like I said, interesting!

Cheers

Steve

Its always difficult to ascertain what failed first. I would say the blown units were more to do with the Pinkie power supplies failing first then damaging the amplifiers though.