[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I'm hearing a difference between these two stock walnuts, one has purple caps the other has black, both are same spec elna silmic 2, but the black caps are bigger than the purple despite same capacitance, voltage, and temp rating.
 
The purple caps sound more natural in vocals and instruments, warmer, more body, slightly more closed in. The purple caps win for jazz, pop, classic rock, 80's stuff.
 
The black sound more transparent, open and cooler in tone, more separation and definition. The black caps win for fast electronic, metal, orchestra, classical.
 
 
I really like both of them! I have three walnuts now, and I'm going to mod my first walnut as it has same caps as one of these.  And I'm still the only person with limited edition red light walnut? 

 Not a good thing, that blinking red light shows through my shirt pocket, I would be tackled to the ground in an airport! The yellow light is much more friendly lol.
 

 
Disclaimer, these are new walnuts that need burn in so these impressions may not be forever.

 

[nick n]

wow that is interesting.
 So the newer series/recent manufacturing date  caps are black I would guess.  Cerafine went from red to black for their latest runs anyhow at least when I recapped a couple amps here last month.
 
I'm going to go look here.
 
All I have are the yellow LED's
 
but 2 more incoming  .

 

[Raketen]

Hmm...I would agree concerning m50x but m70x are more flat. That may be true though as I have ear damage and sensitive to high freqs. thus I'm not a fan of brighter sounding phones.

Relative to the M50x (which I have only heard a little) agree is flatter , I just mean the highs/detail freqs are noticably accentuated compared to just about every headphone I have heard... maybe I am confounding "veil" and "darkness" though.

I'm hearing a difference between these two stock walnuts, one has purple caps the other has black, both are same spec elna silmic 2, but the black caps are bigger than the purple despite same capacitance. The purple sound slightly more natural in vocals and instruments, and warmer, slightly more closed in. The black sound more transparent, open and cooler in tone, more separation. I really like both! The black caps win for fast electronic, metal, orchestra, classical, while the purple caps win for jazz, pop, classic rock, 80's stuff.
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I guess the test here would be to swap them and see if the qualities carry over :blink: I should read up on how capacitor electrical properties can influence sound... someday.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ No need, everyone knows that capacitors affect sound... Particularly output dc coupling capacitors which are directly in the analog output path, which are the ones I'm talking about here.
 

  wow that is interesting.
 So the newer series/recent manufacturing date  caps are black I would guess. 

 
Yeah the newer walnuts have the black caps, which are technically better, but I'm guessing most would prefer the sound of the purple ones as it's more natural.

 

[Raketen]

^ No need, everyone knows that capacitors affect sound... Particularly output dc coupling capacitors which are directly in the analog output path, which are the ones I'm talking about here.

I just mean interesting in that you mentioned size notwitstanding that they appear to be the same model with the same rating- like I said I need to study some more, found some youtube vids by an "Uncle Doug" that look promising though.

 

[vapman]

I wish i had a red light one! I wonder if they're an earlier batch. Both mine are yellow.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I just mean interesting in that you mentioned size notwitstanding that they appear to be the same model with the same rating- like I said I need to study some more, found some youtube vids by an "Uncle Doug" that look promising though.

 


Oh, yeah it is interesting, probably just that the purple ones are an older model, the black probably are the newer improved ones or something, the black do sound more stark, open, transparent and defined but purple do just sound more natural. I like both equally at any rate.

 

[music4mhell]

At las my walnut got shipped.. !!

 

[nick n]

both of mine currently here have the black Silmic 2.
 One thing I did notice and likely not all that important = my main one  has the 1000uf/mf cap as a grey-blue Elna ( unknown series on it )and the spare has a black in that position.
 I didn't look to see what brand.

 

[iJay]

I wish i had a red light one! I wonder if they're an earlier batch. Both mine are yellow.

You could change the LED without much issue I'm guessing!

 

[nick n]

hmmm . the second one received a few weeks back I think,  has a black 1000uf/mf cap , a 25volt Chenbin one. ( T.R.A.N.C.E. both of yours also look to be Chenbin. )
 
I had to bend it up to read the branding
 
 
The rest are  Nichicon and Elna
Will swap it out later if i get more ordered for other things
Not sure it is all that critical where it is there though.
Might sound good
 
 
A warm white  led would look cool I think.
 
**** Well this is interesting. Halfway through the walk I adjusted the volume pot a bit to the lowest end then back up again and the lower end noise lessened to almost nothing.
then doing this again it came back a bit more not much but a bit.
I wonder if the volume pot is to blame for some of that.
Any idea what value it is 50k/100k or? I'll try to blast it with some DeOxit and see what happens.
Best to try that with the first unit and the old original opamp swapped back in because that was the one with a bit more than this has.
 
I can easily live with it either way but i do think that is where it is originating from.
 
BTW of the two so far I like the exposure that the stock one has the best I think, but the other is good for a slightly smoother sound. Though not testing with equivalent units precisely.

 

[vapman]

I've noticed the knob can be a little noisy too. travel is not exactly as smooth as it could be either. I've thought of trying to find suitable drop in replacements, but every time I look into it I'm too lazy 

 BTW at least one purple capped model here, would be the later one I got as I don't think I have any photos of the guts of the first I got. I believe TRANCE was the first, at least one of the first people here to get a Walnut, so i wouldn't be surprised if it was from an earlier batch of parts the Walnut guy had ordered.
 
Someone mentioned this player as unforgiving. I totally agree, but I also love that in a player. That said, it doesn't make MP3 sound like garbage no matter what, like the Mojo. MP3 still sounds good on this. It's just that WAV sound really damn good..
 
 

You could change the LED without much issue I'm guessing!

Yeah one day if I ever made an "improved" Walnut I'd switch the instruction light for a purple one.

 

[nick n]

Pulled the battery lead and hit the entry of the volume post area with DeOxit . that way nothing fries until it dries completely overnight ( safety first ) and I could work it back and forth  while holding it upright.
Will see.
 
Every time I put the darned thing on to test something I get doing other things and "forget" to take it off.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

hmmm . the second one received a few weeks back I think,  has a black 1000uf/mf cap , a 25voltChenbin one. ( T.R.A.N.C.E. both of yours also look to be Chenbin. )

Yeah I noticed that ever since Neog007 got his walnut as he also has the elna for the 1000uf. All 3 of my walnuts are chengbin for the 1000uf power filter cap, this is the least important cap in the walnut but it can still effect the general transparancy if the walnut is capable of revealing it, but the power filter cap shouldnt affect the sound sig like the other caps in walnut do. I think all new walnuts have the chengbin.

 

[deygun]

Yeah I noticed that ever since Neog007 got his walnut as he also has the elna for the 1000uf. All 3 of my walnuts are chengbin for the 1000uf power filter cap, this is the least important cap in the walnut but it can still effect the general transparancy if the walnut is capable of revealing it, but the power filter cap shouldnt affect the sound sig like the other caps in walnut do. I think all new walnuts have the chengbin.

Mine has black silmic 2 and elna blueblack. And red led too. Never realised the other walnut have yellow led.

Recapped the tiny 10uf. Still burned in the new caps to see the results. But my initiaal impressions the sound more relaxed not harsh anymore. Mid and vocal more lush and lively. Will post update about next 24 hours.

Btw my battery only last around 1day straight uses. I think i will make battery jig from 2 x 18650 (about 6000mAh) so i could do longer burn in period.