[wuwhere]

This hobby can be fatal.

 

[Caution]

Well... I've just put my order in with the upgraded caps

 

[KingStyles]

I wonder what the lead time is?

 

[SleepyOne]

Quote:

The background story to this was that Anax bought something like 38 different capacitors to upgrade the interstage and feedback caps to his S7. (We wired in alligator clips for easy cap swaps and he almost died despite my warnings of high voltage and exposed wiring.) Anyways, Anax's experiments on the S7 also yielded good results for the Electra. The Jentzen silver caps are a little less grainy, more open and clear, more resolving, and has slightly better apparent bass extension than the stock WIMAs.

 
Did Anax post his findings re: cap rolling on S7 anywhere? Did he per chance try out exotic ones like Duelund Cu Cast or V-Cap Cu? That is something I would love to try out!

 

[purrin]

No exotic caps were tried with the S7 because for the cost, we would rather buy a custom-made 2A3 amp with a high-frequency heater from Craig with decent caps. Actually we were able to get our hands on a few other high-priced caps for testing. They sucked.

 

[SleepyOne]

Thanks purrin! High freq. heater on 2A3 would be very interesting indeed! I would love to try either v-cap or duelund on my 2A3 as it is min. mod - only catch is v-cap probably takes  a month+ to burn-in as it is teflon cap and the duelund might blow up my EML45 as it is paper/oil coupling cap... . 
 
BTW on the caps experiment on S7, how does changing the caps affect the sound, do they make the amp harder to tube roll? Is there any penalty as well as gain?

 

[purrin]

The changes are not significant unless the original caps were very poor performing to begin with. It does not lessen the effect of tube or even transformer rolling. There could always be negative effects. You may not like the sound. Generally, caps add a little warmth to the sound compared to no caps. The "better" caps could sound be too dry or even too analytical depending upon where they are used in the circuit. The Jantzen silvers were fine as interstage caps on the S7, but in the feedback loop, made the S7 sound too etched and grainy in the treble.
 
Cap rolling isn't too different from tube rolling. Taken to excess, cap rolling opens up another can of worms and causes neuroses which prevent one from actually enjoying music. I had already hinted at this to Anax, and he definitely understood what I meant after prolonged experimentation. If you can pm Anaxilus for details (just include your e-mail so he can respond.) He is banned from posting, but I think he can still read his pms.
 
EDIT: Anax says he's been listening to the Dueland CASTs for the last few weeks.

 

[SleepyOne]

Thanks Purrin for the wise word - it is another can of warm if one not careful lol (esp. when there is no baseline driver/power tubes)!
 
Regarding the Duelund CAST, did Anax like that or does that also sucks with S7? Definately will PM Anax - his experiment with caps would be interesting to a lot of EC owners I think!!
 
(I am not so brave, I think I will only roll coupling caps only lol!)
 

 

[MuppetFace]

First run of the Electra is now sold out.

 

[Caution]

Has Craig said anything about lead times? I've emailed twice with no answer..

 

[KingStyles]

First run of the Electra is now sold out.

That didnt take long. On another note, is the kt77 an acceptable tube replacement?

 

[purrin]

Yes. Unless Craig answered the wrong question to a multi-question sentence via e-mail.

 

[purrin]

Quote:

Has Craig said anything about lead times? I've emailed twice with no answer..

 
It's probably a matter of a few months. I know he didn't want to open it up too early for fear of it taking 2 years or something like that to deliver. The metal shop should be open again after the X-mas break. Last I know he was looking for better STAX connectors.

 

[n3rdling]

Why doesn't he just have some teflon ones milled?  KG has posted the exact dimensions and possibly CAD files before.

 

[caseyse]

Quote:

Yes. Unless Craig answered the wrong question to a multi-question sentence via e-mail.

I received an e-mail from Craig on Friday indicating he was closing this initial run.