Altec Lansing MX5021 Modification (Part 1)

Prepare your components and tools.

Soldering iron, soldering suction tool, solder wire, wet sponge, drilling tools, tweezer, long-nose plyer and cutter.

Here is the capacitors that I going to use to replace the stock capacitor.
Couldn't find any decent capacitor for audio, so temporary use these industrial grade capacitor.


Satelite Speakers

Samxon 4.7uF taken out from satelite speaker's high-pass crossover.

Parallel 4.7uF capacitor with 0.47uF film capacitor(see the picture below).
Not good. Sound harsh for this kind of capacitor parallel with high pass filter.
Try Evox-rifa, WIMA MKP4 or Vishay MKP1837 (value 0.01-0.1uF will do).

0.47uF film capacitor

Added in high pass filter bypass capacitor and replaced internal wiring with a thicker tinned wire.

Satelite speakers mod done.


Amplifier

Unscrew the rear cover and get the amplifier out.
Becareful, there is a connector between amplifier board and power transformer.
Unplug it gently with - screwdriver or multi-purpose knife.
After that, cut the woofer cable(is a must), else you can't take the amplifier out.

Taken off front panel.

Removed the silver frame and woofer. (green cable the one I had changed)

See the green colour audio cable? It's thicker a lot than the stock ones.

Internal view.

Amplifier PCB bottom view.



Click >here< to see which capacitors to replace

Components replaced.

This is the main Power Filter(a.k.a Reservoir) for Stereo Satelites's chip amplifier and op-amps.
Replace the C76/C67 and C71/C69 with 1000uF and 2200uF respectively.
Of course, you can change to a little higher ones.

This is the Power Filter(a.k.a Reservoir) for Subwoofer's chip amplifier only.
Replace the C77/C79 with 6800uF-8200uF instead of 4700uF.
The bigger reservoir, the tighter and smoother the bass.


Conclusion, not much difference.
but it has lesser distortion at higher volume, like giving more food to the amplifier.

Change OP-AMP will change its sound characteristic and SNR.


My advise, handle it with care to prevent any impact onto components during modification and plan which component and brand to use before start your work. Keep soldering and de-soldering will damage the PCB trace and try your best not to touch the SMD components with naked hand because they are sensitive to electrostatic.

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