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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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And it seems more and more often price is the only thing that is different.
People who say things like this typically haven't tried both or used equipment that can reveal the difference. SR-80's or DT-770's, or HD497's, or mp3 sources are going to so swamp the sonic signature, that you'd never hear know there was a good cap in there as there are so many bad ones. In that range of equipment, something like a few Solens will likely offer a nice step up from stock.
And, that brings up an important point with regard to how to read these reviews -- for instance, I like the Mundorf Silver Oil caps, but I don't like them if your combination source/amp/phones are in the sub $10K range. You just won't hear the difference and it will be as waste of money. This stuff is last 0.1% stuff.
People who say things like this typically haven't tried both or used equipment that can reveal the difference. SR-80's or DT-770's, or HD497's, or mp3 sources are going to so swamp the sonic signature, that you'd never hear know there was a good cap in there as there are so many bad ones. In that range of equipment, something like a few Solens will likely offer a nice step up from stock.
And, that brings up an important point with regard to how to read these reviews -- for instance, I like the Mundorf Silver Oil caps, but I don't like them if your combination source/amp/phones are in the sub $10K range. You just won't hear the difference and it will be as waste of money. This stuff is last 0.1% stuff.
Spending 50-100$ to recap an amp, you could put that money into a better amp in the first place.
Also, a good circuit would minimize the effect of the capacitors in the signal path.
You don't have to spend a fortune to get good capacitors. The reason audiophile capacitors cost so much is exactly that reason, they are marketed specifically as audiophile caps.
As well as the elitist factor. Part of the reason everyone is all about BG's and tend to ignore Muse, Cerafine, and Silmic II series.
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X-fi XtremeMusic > Citypulse 7.2x II DAC > PPAV2 maxxed > Grado SR60 & Grado SR325i & Beyerdynamic DT770 & Beyerdynamic DT990('05) & AKG K701 & Denon AH-D2000 FEEDBACK
Spending 50-100$ to recap an amp, you could put that money into a better amp in the first place.
Also, a good circuit would minimize the effect of the capacitors in the signal path.
Part of me says that I don't disagree with you at all. Once you have a great circuit that is well built and where there is little else to do, then investing in good caps is a good thing to do.
On the other hand, though, why is spending a ton of money to build a better amp so morally superior to getting the same benefit for the same money by using better caps? It is like tube rolling in the end.
You don't have to spend a fortune to get good capacitors. The reason audiophile capacitors cost so much is exactly that reason, they are marketed specifically as audiophile caps.
Maybe, maybe not. They may be more expensive than they need to be, but find me a non-audiophile cap that compares with a top of the line made for audio one and I'll use it. I've tried the Russian Teflons and their ilk, and they compare as mid-range caps. Compared to audiophile caps, they are a good deal, but they don't sound better than the best of the best.
As well as the elitist factor. Part of the reason everyone is all about BG's and tend to ignore Muse, Cerafine, and Silmic II series.
For a reason -- Blackgates sound better than those. No comparison.
Anyway, as I say, I don't think you have actually made the comparisons using equipment or a circuit on which you could tell the difference.
Any idea where we could find some answers to this question? It seems it may be a bit more philosophical than I'd thought. So far, we have "Boutiques sound better."
"But joneeboi, consider the CMoy. It's such a simple design that sounds really good to some people. How can you justify such reasoning when the CMoy design is nearly the most simple a circuit you can get with today's technology for a headphone amp?"
"You bring up a good point, imaginary objector. To that I respond with the fact that Blackgates perform leagues ahead of other capacitors in capacitor performance benchmarks."
"Oh, so now audio is reduced to numbers and specs?! You contradict yourself in your original statement that, and I quote, '[b]outiques sound better.' How do you know how a capacitor sounds when you're just looking at its performance figures?"
"Perhaps numbers and sound aren't mutually exclusive. I'll concede that numbers don't reveal everything there is to sound in general, but I believe that it can at least give us an idea about why it sounds better."
"You're a pig-headed bigot. I hope you fry yourself on a tube amp. Goodbye."
"..."
**
Well, that got heated pretty quickly. Anyone care to enlighten our imaginary objector?
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Something simple that seemed to get obscured in all this and it gets to the point in your observation about a CMoy, etc.
Premise: "Design the circuit to be the best it can be, then you won't need boutiques." (paraphrasing)
The problem with this statement is that some tube circuits require capacitors in the signal path, period. In those cases, the quality of the capacitor's sound contribution means everything. The sound of a tube amp may be totally controlled just by the output coupling capacitor. If the cap sounds bad, the amp sounds bad.
Applications like that are why boutiques exist.
Likewise for speaker crossovers - you have to have a capacitor - it's not a cutoff (RLC) without one. Yet, by definition, the signal goes right through the cap. If the cap sounds bad, the speaker sounds bad.
Something like a CMoy, or even the best digital amps, may not have a single cap in the path of the signal. What caps are there are for power. There are some who claim that BG's are even best in those cases, but the justification becomes much more problemmatical. A good Panasonic FM may be as good as it gets.
IMHO, and YMMV.
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TomB
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