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A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 9:15 am
by MotneN
Hello all moog people
Just want to share a little trick to make your Voyager sound better..
recently i had to change the OP Amps for the Headphone and main
outputs.. I changed the "cheap" one with a better and more expensive one
(i can post the name of the OP amp .. if needed)
this Little change made a "HUGE difference" at least in my own ears"
I always thought that the Voyager sounded a little " how can i explain it .. Hard/edgy..
but now it got a more mellow and varm sound..
this is really worth trying.. 
best regard
Morten
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:50 am
by GregAE
MotneN wrote: recently i had to change the OP Amps for the Headphone and main
outputs.. I changed the "cheap" one with a better and more expensive one
(i can post the name of the OP amp .. if needed)
HAD to change? Why?
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:30 am
by MotneN
well ...its a long story ..
but when i bought my Voyager and played on for a while. i noticed that when i turned up the volume to .. lets say
about 12 o' clock.. on the headphones, it would cut the signal.. I then had to re-plug the headphones and turn the
volume down... in the beginning i thought that it had to be this way.... ( so that you dont blow your ears of
But as the years went by ...it began to make some strange things.. ( display would start to blink shortly.. and
that kind of stuff.. thougt i could be the software... BUT NO
And then one day the headphone output went completly silent..
and just before that ..the display was acting strange again.. Hmmmmm :/
I then took it to my friend, who is a very skilled tech. nerd
he then changed the Headphone jack with a much better one, and
he also changed the OP AMP for the OUTPUTS with a much better one..
AND "VUPTI" the problem was gone ..
there'es really a big change in the sound..
everything sonds much more ballanced now.. with no sharp edges..
the Only thing i had to do afterwards... was to dial thru all my presets, turn up the main volume...
and save them again..
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:02 am
by Fooger_;-)
That's nice if your Voyager sounds now as you like. My Voyager's in original condition, and what can I say: It doesn't sounds great, it sounds amazing
Taste is different I think. But it's interesting what people do to perfect their gear, I always like to read about. Thanks for sharing your modification
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:33 pm
by GregAE
MotneN wrote:
I then took it to my friend, who is a very skilled tech. nerd
he then changed the Headphone jack with a much better one, and
he also changed the OP AMP for the OUTPUTS with a much better one..
AND "VUPTI" the problem was gone ..
And so the replacement OpAmp was... what?
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:41 pm
by Portamental
^ Yeah! What is that magical opamp? Inquiring minds want to know.
But besides that, yours must have had a flaky chip. Sound quality on my OS is just as good as can be , both on main output and headphones.
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 5:57 am
by MotneN
There is nothing magical about it really..
its just an OP AMP called "TL 074"
... nothing fancy...
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 7:50 am
by MotneN
Fooger_;-) wrote:That's nice if your Voyager sounds now as you like. My Voyager's in original condition, and what can I say: It doesn't sounds great, it sounds amazing
Taste is different I think. But it's interesting what people do to perfect their gear, I always like to read about. Thanks for sharing your modification
Yeah... this is really i nice synth ...
and yes your right.. it sounded allso nice before .. when it was'nt modified..
But there's a bit more "cream" now..
) and i like it
))
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 1:02 pm
by metron
It could be that changing the op amps for the headphone output results in an improvement in the stock sound of the phones but that shouldn't affect the normal outs of the voyager, right?
Also it sounds like your headphone outs may not have worked correctly to begin with. It's entirely possible that fixing the issue simply made the phones sound the way they are suppoosed to.
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 3:35 am
by MotneN
metron wrote:It could be that changing the op amps for the headphone output results in an improvement in the stock sound of the phones but that shouldn't affect the normal outs of the voyager, right?
Also it sounds like your headphone outs may not have worked correctly to begin with. It's entirely possible that fixing the issue simply made the phones sound the way they are suppoosed to.
The op amp for the headphones is the same as for the main outputs..
The problem with the headphones output ( on my voyager) in combination with the headphones i use, was " WAY TO MUCH OUTPUT" ..
So when we changed the headphone jack.. to a better one.. we also put in a 200 Ohm resistor.. to solve that problem.
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 1:44 pm
by MC
MotneN wrote:There is nothing magical about it really..
its just an OP AMP called "TL 074"
... nothing fancy...
You disappoint me. I was expecting a pentode EF86 tube shoehorned into a 16 pin DIP socket
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 7:01 pm
by dr_floyd
Just curious, what was the original opamp that you replaced with the TL074?
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 3:04 am
by MotneN
dr_floyd wrote:Just curious, what was the original opamp that you replaced with the TL074?
I can't remember the name of the original one.. but i will talk to my technician
i think he kept the old one.. i write back to you soon..
best regards
morten
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:35 am
by latigid on
I wonder if harmonic distortion has anything to do with it
Re: A trick to make the Voyager sound better
Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 10:39 pm
by Voltor07
MC wrote:MotneN wrote:There is nothing magical about it really..
its just an OP AMP called "TL 074"
... nothing fancy...
You disappoint me. I was expecting a pentode EF86 tube shoehorned into a 16 pin DIP socket
That would be interesting, but would an EF 86 be short enough to fit in a Voyager? And I'm sure it would put a drain on the power supply...
