No (well, about as much as a buyer who was lied to)
Worst case, the caps ad 0.1% capacitance to the stock ones (which I would call negligible).
Going of the photos, PCB looks untouched (does not rule out some more “mods” under the circuit board…).
Rightfully so.
Smartphone/Notebook/Computer out via the 1/8" in?
As for removing the bodge there:
Mask the circuit with paper and tape, you should be able to slide paper under the stock capacitors
clip the bodge capacitors legs, that should enable you to carefully pull them out giving you more room to desolder the remains
I’d personally leave them in there, or return it to the seller, it’s a negligible change to the capacitance, in the power section, of an amp that takes DC in, I doubt it has much of an effect if any. I have to wonder what whoever did it was thinking, but …
Why chance damage removing it.
Looking at the pcb briefly last night i didnt see anything else touched or soldered in a way that looked out of line but i didnt take the board out for obvious reasons (i think the white caps are glued to the side of the case)
The seller bought this second hand and is contacting the original seller as well, he has offered to ship it back and refund me if i want. My thing is i got this for a good price and since so many have passed and cost more. The person who sold it to me did disclose all other marks on the unit. But who knows people can always be pulling a ruse…
I can probably test via a dap i have, but tbh unless something is critically wrong i dont have a reference to compare to. It may also be double amping in there.
I opened it up because i was wondering if this was a newer or older revision and the cap color usually indicates this. Its easy enough to open so why not. I first thought this may of been a later revision to tame that on off sound people report, but it was too diy and the caps low quality.
If this is all he did, u can just clip them out to get back to “stock”.
But if your still not trusting this guy, return it if possible and get a new one.
I think some other questions are if anything else was damaged or changed. I trust myself to clip and desolder, but that glue looks like a pia.
I would also want to at least measure some things afterwards with a meter but i dont know what those measurements should be or if i can find out/neve will give me them to test. I also dont know if even though it measures right if anything else is not right…
Im waiting for what the original owner gets back from the seller. OG seller is a bigger reseller online so we will see. Just annoyed at the moment. I would of been more annoyed if i had the full chain and everything set up then finding this.
And his mods are one i can get behind. I do wonder how the gauge of the wrap will affect the sound if the lights arent blinding me and forcing me to concentrate on the sound
Though I do notice there is dynamat type material on the top of the case to make it sound less hollow when you knock on it. Schiit would do well to put some of that in the modius
I had big plans to do this on a custom guitar amp. I had the builder put in a channel. But he botched the light and his best try was electric tape that peeled off before i even received it.
I’m also looking at upgrading my DAC.
The resurgence of R2R DACs has my attention as I hate digititus/feeling of digitally processed sound. I’m looking at the Denafrips Ares 2 currently.
Hmmm. So for what you are after, I actually think the g111 might make a good bit of sense, it’s wider than the rnhp, also it has more speaker like impact and really gives the hawks very good drive. The rnhp will have a bit more organic sound, but the stage will be a bit smaller although you get more depth and better tightness in spatial recreation so imo it’s a worthy trade off, but you do loose some impact and control in the bass compared to the g111 imo, which makes me more inclined to recommend the lake people in this case with the hawks because I think the impact and control in the bass is pretty important for the hawks.
DAC wise, I think you would most likely enjoy the ares ii with the g111, it would be a warmer leaning neutral combo, that is pretty holographic and energetic.
I think the Gilmore might be a bit too intimate and technical for what you are after in this case, although it does give the hawks a nice treble bump
