Modding Synergistic Research MPC to Galileo status

Is the modification worthwhile for a digital cable?

Btw if anyone wants a Spallone modded MPC I seem to have one surplus to my needs and if you want it then PM me and we can arrange how to get it to you, just pay shipping, thanks

Thanks to this thread and Michael Spallone I'm now getting absolutely undreamed of awesome sound from my new (to me, they are 15 years old!) Synergistic Research Element CTS speaker cables.

Element CTS are active shielded and these were bought and came with the Galileo MPC. Even before buying these I had read about and wanted to do the MPC mod. For comparison I was one of the early adopters of Active Shielding way back when it came out and bought have run a Master Control Center from the beginning. So I know that even things like changing the power cord on the MCC, or putting it on Cones, etc, works equally as well as these things work with anything else. Because of this the idea of being able to improve the MPC with better quality diodes and caps made total sense to me.

I was a little skeptical however, because of things like Quantum Tunneling. Synergistic runs a million plus volts through all their stuff now, something no modder is going to be able to do. Still, Michael Spallone assured me that his modded MPC will outperform even a Galileo MPC. Also, he said, that with the 8 ft length and complex shielding of my CTS that one MPC per cable works a lot better than just the one powering the pair that I have now.

So I sent them off and got them back and right away noticed a deeper more layered stage with a lot more inner detail. Again, this was right away. Even knowing Michael burned them in some before shipping still to sound so good right out of the box was pretty impressive.

I kept listening and by the time I was done that first night they were sounding a whole lot better. 

Its now been just about one week. There's a process a lot of components go through where they don't improve all aspects equally and evenly as they burn in but instead some things get a lot better while others lag until somehow by the end it all balances out. Well that is the way it works with the good stuff anyway. A lot of crap just never does get much better no matter how long you wait.

In this case what I heard was incredible inner detail and microdynamic shadings right from the beginning. Then a few days later it seemed like maybe a bit less of this but a bit more dynamic. Now at one week, wow, the detail for sure never went away in fact there's tons more. Only now with dynamics and fundamental harmonic development all in balance and with a palpable presence so far beyond anything I ever heard before it is frankly kind of hard to believe.

I mean the CTS alone even with the Galileo MPC are a really hard act to follow. As I told Michael before sending these off to be modded, between their powerful articulate bass, startlingly realistic dynamics, wealth of inner detail and holographic imaging it is hard to say which they do best. Which is another way of saying don't mess with my freaking amazing cables! Just please make somehow make them even better!

Which he did. And they are. Crazy good better! 

Last night there was presence like I never heard before. Not presence in the usual sense of midrange but presence in the sense of the music being present in the room. Dynamic, open, deep, wide, and of course utterly divorced from the speakers.

I don't know which part of it amazes me more. That these are 15+ year old cables. That they sound this good. Or that Michael Spallone somehow found diodes and caps that are so much better than what Ted Denney with all his resources managed to come up with.

Whatever. Who cares? Its awesome!

And hey, its only been one week!

@fazee his contact is debragrace@aol.com

not it sure what he can do with your Galileo cell but good luck

I now have about 90 hours on Michael's mpc upgrade. Much quieter background and more dynamic with better soundstage too. Michael was a pleasure to deal with and turnaround was exactly one week. A must do for anyone with SR mpc cables.

Recently I sent my stock MPC to Michael , all the way from Malaysia . Shipping cost me more than the mod itself but it's worth it . Excellent turn around time of less than a week.  Amazing how a simple mod to the adapter can bring so much improvement to the syst- quieter, denser & definitely more dynamic . No brainer upgrade . In fact this synergistic research active USB cable got me very curious abt the performance of Synergistic Research ...

I asked Michael mod two of my stock MPCs to his v2 status and I can say that these are great mods. Although I haven't been able to do proper A/B comparisons because of some ongoing system changes, I will say that I don't notice any difference between using these and my Transporter SE for the MPCs on my Tranquility Bases.  Great service and turnaround time too from Michael to ensure that I didn't have much time without being able to use my MPCs.  A big thanks to him.

I also had Michael perform his magic on my stock MPC. It made more of an improvement than I could have hoped for. I would recommend this upgrade to everyone with a stock MPC.

I had Michael do his MPC V2 Mod to a pair of 5m Elemental Tungstens.  It really opened up the soundstage, much quieter background with unbelievable micro dynamics, tighter imaging and control which overall made for a more realistic, musical presentation.  Hard to describe....increased the details yet removed the "glare" if that makes sense.  On some tracks the cymbals would seem to be way out front and dominate the presentation, after the mod, the cymbals are just as detailed, but the "ringing" is gone and they are in the correct spot in the soundstage....much more realistic.  I've read others describe it as "more detailed yet smoother"......my guess is the decay is much more accurate on all instruments and therefore much more realistic and appealing.  
I just had Michael do the MPC V2 mod on a pair of IC's from source components...same result.  A pleasure to work with Michael and a real bargain in this wonderful hobby!  

I had Michael do the upgrade to my Quattro and was extremely happy with the improvement, I just recently replaced it with a Transporter SE Ultra. There was an improvement but not a large as going from the stock MPC to the modified Quattro.

Hi Michael,
Would definitely like to pursue this V2 MPC upgrade on my two year lod pair of SR Elemental Tungsten interconnects(5M)  Can you please respond with your contact info?
Thanks
Pat

The modifications done to stock SR MPCs back in 2013 were done to the tiny circuit board within the MPC itself, and as intended produced outstanding results when compared to a stock SR MPC, and even sometimes approached the performance of a SR Galileo in some systems.
In my latest Ver. 2 mod, I eliminate the circuit board and switch to a different SMD type ultra high speed rectifier diode and Rubycon ZL electrolytic cap with it's own, as needed, .1uf or .01uf polypropylene bypass. I hard wire these components together to create an MPC that now not only exceeds the results of my original SR MPC mod by a wide margin, it also beats the SR Galileo handily by all that have heard it.
With my new V2 MPC mod the sound stage is simply so much more open and seems to explode in width and depth, with dynamics, transparency, air and decay that you simply have to hear to believe. Even bass air and decay can now easily be heard. You gotta experience it! 

Devilboy thanks for the kind words. The cost of the mod is as you say, between $39.99-49.99 depending on how many stock SR MPCs one gets modified. $49.99 for the first, $44.99 for the second, and $39.99 for the third and more. The combination of the IXYS HiPer FRED rectifier diodes, and the extreme low impedance of the 680uf 50v Panasonic FM with it's .1uf bypass cap, do indeed bring about a lower noise floor, with a much blacker background, thereby allowing increased high frequency & midrange air, transparency, detail, and depth and width of the sound stage, of the recording venue to be much more noticeable. Bass is also, as you and many others have heard, much improved, and is now much deeper and visceral yet better controlled.