Orgy of Capacitors: The Cap Thread

[Jon L]

Originally Posted by shokunin

Hey Jon,

Nice write up! Which amp were using for the comparisons, some of them caps (small ones) appear to be for the almarro. Are you also using some as bypass caps for your 2A3 amp?

Glenn

Yeah, in my Almarro A205a MkII and Paramour 2A3 SET in coupling positions. After *hearing* the obvious difference various caps make, I'm amazed that any component with many caps can sound half-way neutral..

BTW, Glenn, did you receive your FUGLY 'stats yet (yeah, I feel your pain), and what amp do you plan to drive it with?

[shokunin]

Originally Posted by Jon L

BTW, Glenn, did you receive your FUGLY 'stats yet (yeah, I feel your pain), and what amp do you plan to drive it with?

Don't get me started on my ugly gear, I hear enough of it from the wife. Of course, I had to buy yet another effen ugly peice of audio equipment, I can feel the eyes roll already from the wife. According to Fang it's two more weeks before they ship.

Well I can use Stax SRD-7 MK II using my dart, v-capped almarro, or if I can fix this time which I just bought Paramount 300b.

I may have a true electrostat amp in my hands before they arrive, we'll see though.

[Jon L]

Originally Posted by shokunin

..or if I can fix this time which I just bought Paramount 300b.

I may have a true electrostat amp in my hands before they arrive, we'll see though.

Dang, you've got to stop buying gear! I completely missed that Paramount Auction

Those EH 300B has got to go, though. I bet my AVVT AV32B tubes would sound GREAT in that thing

[shokunin]

Ironically, I didn't buy much in 2007, more like I waited for the stuff I bought 2006 to finally ship in 2007. I guess it's one of the even-year things. I should have bought more esoteric headphones and stockpiled them, they would have appreciated better than my portfolios, sheesh, the market's been brutal over the last two months.

We'll have to meet up as I want to listen to your Headphiled HE60's!! What 300b's would you recommend, I haven't been keeping up with the chinese/czech 300b's since I sold my Parabees a couple years ago with current production WE300b's. I knew I should have kept the 300b's.

[Jon L]

Originally Posted by shokunin

I knew I should have kept the 300b's.

Yup, you should have...

It's a sad state of 300B tubes out there. I'm glad I'm not in the market for 300B tubes.

We'll definitely have to meet up for a mini 'stat meet once your (improved look) 1.2B's arrive

[shokunin]

No kidding, been doing some searching through the asylum and other places, not much going on over the past couple years. Looks like you AVVT tubes have had some NOS problems in holding their longevity over the long term. That's too bad that age itself could kill the tube even though they've not been used.

Maybe I should convert it to 2A3, though I'm not sure if it'll be enough power. I'll let you know when the 1.2B's get here.

[shokunin]

My Paramounts arrived with Mundorf Silver/Oil 3.3uf Parafeed caps and .1uf coupling caps. Wasn't expecting such pricey caps on a fire-sale amp. Once I get one of them fixed we'll see how they sound.

[Jon L]

Originally Posted by shokunin

My Paramounts arrived with Mundorf Silver/Oil 3.3uf Parafeed caps and .1uf coupling caps. Wasn't expecting such pricey caps on a fire-sale amp. Once I get one of them fixed we'll see how they sound.

Lucky dog. Who the heck sold the amp to you?
Anyway, I seem to have acquired some Mundorf Gold/silver, Mundorf silver in oil, and Sonicap Platinums coming my way, so this thread will get an update later.

[shokunin]

I got the paramounts from the audiogon auction from Docgab. If you look at the auction pictures you can see a big ol fat mundorf Cap. I though it might just be an mcap supreme or some other generic mundorf cap, but to my surprise it was a silver/oil cap.

After several responses to Eileen at BH, she's has not replied back on buying a paramount manual. Seeing how this isn't too much different than the Parabees I built many years ago. Based on what I could gather off AA, some of the voltage measurements were off due to a cold solder joint, that and the coupling cap were nearly touching the monster resistors. Redoing those joints and moving the caps seems to have fixed any issues with the amp. *knock on wood*

the EH tubes suck. My parabees weren't this dark or lacking in air and sweetness. Must be the tubes (I hope). Sounds okay so far but I need new tubes. Has good 'body' but lacking in sweetness, air and attack of the Almarro.

My EH1.2's have shipped!!

[Jon L]

Originally Posted by shokunin

the EH tubes suck. My parabees weren't this dark or lacking in air and sweetness. Must be the tubes (I hope). Sounds okay so far but I need new tubes. Has good 'body' but lacking in sweetness, air and attack of the Almarro.

My EH1.2's have shipped!!

Ehh... You can try my AVVT 32B's when we do the 'stat thing after the 1.2B arrives.

I have a feeling, though, there may be too much of silver/oil goodness in your amp. Something like Sonicap platinum at the 0.1uF position "might" do the trick.

[Roam]

Originally Posted by majkel

Transformers are OK when not undersized (quite common) and wound on a decent core (talking amorphous or nanocrystalline at best).

Actually it's far more important to have proper winding & core geometry than core material. Proper interleaving, layering, choice of insulators, wire gauge and so forth will have a far greater influence on the sound than the core material. I have a set of regular M6 EI core transformers which are more detailed & resolving than amorphous core Lundahls, unfortunately it comes at a slight cost in bandwidth. The fun is in controlling the B-field and E-field events in the transformer and how they interact with each other, the best transformer winders can make them do some very interesting things, for instance, a push-pull transformer with negligible crossover distortion.

Originally Posted by Jon L

After *hearing* the obvious difference various caps make, I'm amazed that any component with many caps can sound half-way neutral..

It sounds half-way neutral, but it isn't. It seems that way since the capacitors have removed a roughly equal portion from every single part of the music, everything still seems in balance, except that there's a fair bit less of everything. Capacitor differences are always most obvious when you're down to the last one or two of them.

[Jon L]

Capacitor Impressions Continued.

Mundorf Silver-In-Oil



I really did not know what to expect from these. Some people's reports mention things like "liquidity" and "smoothness," which led me to believe these would share a rather pleasant but not kick-you-in-the-groin resolution or power. Boy, was I wrong.

If push comes to shove, words like liquid and smooth *are* applicable, but there is so much more. The calling card of Mundorf SIO seems to be infinite shades of resolution riding on the oh-so-smooth sonic flow. There is enough detail for even detail freaks like me, and those who value life-like dynamic range and punch would love these as well.

Compared to other metallized poly caps, Mundorf SIO seems to be at least 2-3dB louder(!) at the same volume setting with punch that slams harder and truer.

This cap makes me very curious about the top-of-the-line Mundorf Gold/silver cap, which I happen to have sitting in front of me

[spritzer]

The Murdorfs are very, very good and very cheap for what they offer.

[Rico67]

Could you speak about voltage and value to choose a good cap ?

[piotr z]

great thread - I was actually browsing google for mundorf's SIO when I found this - they seems to have one of the best performances at a very reasonable price