Its a slippery slope!
Poor speakers.
Poor speakers.
Are you going to make your Crack have 'blue butt cheeks'I love that beast he made lol.
I have had the chance to play with the Rike S-Caps in both a 1 uF, DC blocking cap and a 6.8 uF tweeter crossover cap. Frankly, they are really good, one the best caps I have auditioned, but also not at all what I expected from a PIO. I'm a little hopeful that Jon L will be interested enough to try them. It would be great to have a review from such a grand database as Jon's.
I say that they are unexpected. Most PIO's (at least in my experience) have a lush, even colored mid-range and often lack a little detail and sparkle on top. Now I haven't tried any of the really good and expensive caps, so my comparisons are to lesser, but still good caps. Acting as a DC blocking cap at the input of my power amp, the Rike S-cap excels at clarity and detail. I think they are better for clarity than the Audyn True Copper and a Mundorf ZN that I have tried. They stand out as clearly better than a Jantzen Superior Z or an Obbligato Premium Gold. The later caps seem veiled and thin sounding by comparison, at least in my system.
Another interesting difference is that the Rike S-Cap displays more dynamic range than other caps. You seem to hear more of the quiet details, but they remain quiet, while the loud sections of music seem louder somehow. The combination of clarity, detail, and dynamic range result in an excellent sound stage with width, depth, and focus.
As for balance, the bass and mid-range are there in appropriate proportion, but perhaps a bit recessed from the higher frequencies. Also, the mid-range seems clean and clear, but not warm or lush as you might find in a K75-10 or a Jupiter HT. In fact, I would say that the Rike has a character similar to the K71-4 Russian Polystyrene, just better than the K71. With a system that is already warm sounding, the Rike might be a perfect choice. I guess that makes sense as it was developed by a company that designs tube equipment.
When I tried the Rike in the tweeter section of a passive crossover, I found a similar effect, clarity, focus, and dynamic range. Choosing something warmer for the mid-bass crossover section was a really nice combination.
One of the things that I really like about the Rike is that tone is very natural. Polypropylene seems to give everything a slight plastic tone, polystyrene is fairly neutral but maybe a little harsh, and teflon, at least the Russian FT teflons, are a little slippery or oily in tone. To me, paper in oil caps give a nice neutral and natural tone that I like very much. The Rike is just the best of the PIO's that I've tried because it keeps its natural sound and opens up the detail in ways that most PIOs don't.
Overall, if you are looking for caps in the Rike price range, they are definitely worth a listen. That is especially true if you goal is unveiled and detailed.
I recently changed my power amps again, so now I am out again looking for new DC blocking caps for my DCB1. The input impedance is now 22K (10 times less than my previous setup which was 220K) which means that the rolloff starts way early with my 0.47uF FT-3s.
The new value I need is at least 4.7uF to maintain the same deep enough rolloff, while Salas from diyaudio suggested I tried a 10uF one for even lower rolloff and to avoid some phase shifting thingies.
I have already ordered some K75-10 which will be bypassed with the old FT-3s, but I am open to suggestions.
Has anyone tried the non-polar Nichicon Muse ES series (metal green can) or compared them to the Russians??
Jamie, that scaffolding is starting to look a bit on the ridiculous side. LOL. Does it all still fit? When are you going to give up an A) build a bigger chassis B) Mainline.
I'm trying to wrap my head around using a choke to clean up the power supply. Any pointers? If I understand the mechanics, the bridge rectifier craps out a lot of noise and the capacitance reservoir of PS is supposed to bury it. But in practice this reservoir is still muddy because output is always still tied to input. Electricity is not water.So its best to clean it up before it goes in. My understanding of implementing electronics is very minimal... like my theory. But I'm pushing my knowledge to get better tunes. .... currently hunting for a used scope.
And that JFX is mammoth. I guess there's bypassing the last cap... and replacing the last cap with film. Two totally different animals.
I'm trying to wrap my head around using a choke to clean up the power supply. Any pointers? If I understand the mechanics, the bridge rectifier craps out a lot of noise and the capacitance reservoir of PS is supposed to bury it. But in practice this reservoir is still muddy because output is always still tied to input. Electricity is not water.So its best to clean it up before it goes in. My understanding of implementing electronics is very minimal... like my theory. But I'm pushing my knowledge to get better tunes. .... currently hunting for a used scope.