Recommend hi grade caps

Brian L. Chaffins

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Feb 20, 2001, 7:52:58 PM2/20/01

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I was wondering if anyone could recomend a good source for hi grade
audio tube coupling caps?

Thanks.
Brian

Ian Iveson

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Feb 20, 2001, 8:07:08 PM2/20/01

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Where are you?

Ian

"Brian L. Chaffins" <orie...@5thelement.com> wrote in message
news:3a9310ce...@news.shutter.net...

Brian L. Chaffins

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Feb 22, 2001, 6:52:58 PM2/22/01

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I'm in the Detroit area.

I was just wondering if there was a particular capacitor type that is
recommended for tube audio equipment. Ive seen adds for Hovland
MusiCaps and was wondering if they actually make a differance.

Thanks
Brian

Rick

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Feb 23, 2001, 1:25:59 AM2/23/01

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Brian L. Chaffins wrote:

> I was just wondering if there was a particular capacitor type that is
> recommended for tube audio equipment. Ive seen adds for Hovland
> MusiCaps and was wondering if they actually make a differance.
>
> Thanks
> Brian

Brian,

In my Dyna SCA-35 (not the best amp in the world, but good enough to hear
the difference), I first put in ~$1.50 'Orange Drops' in place of all the
original coupling caps. I had put in a new Black Beauty volume pot &
bypassed all the tone, filter, & even balance controls at the same time,
so I couldn't say what the caps alone did. The amp sounded much more
transparent than stock. I stayed with this basic configuration for a
couple of years.

Then, following Kurt Strain's suggestions, I put in some ~$8 RelCap RTX
caps for the input to the 7199 phase splitter/driver tube, and Hovland
Musicaps for the 7199 -> EL84M coupling.

Without a doubt, the sound improved in many ways. More transparency, a
little more space, etc.. I could hear 'further into' the mix (more
low-level details came thru without trying to listen too hard for them, or
something like that). Maybe that means the noise is lower? I don't know.
Guitar sounded more real (I play, so I know). Still not the ultimate, but
on my beer budget, pretty darn good.

One thing that was very noticable at first was increased sibilance; on
Jewel's CD's, the S's and P's were very pronounced. After a week or so,
the sibilance faded, but the good sound remained. I think that was the
RTXs, that Kurt said take a long time to break in.

Kurt suggested that "higher resolution" caps (ones using teflon ($$$), or
polystyrene (the RTX's)) should go 'first' in the signl chain, then "Lower
res" caps (polypropylene (Musicaps), other dielectrics, paper-in-oil)
should come after to 'smooth out' the sound.

I saved his cap opinions 'article' if you want it.

I even heard a very noticable improvement when I substituted $1 each
surplus oil-in-paper caps in the bias setup, in place of generic caps.
This was after the other cap upgrades. More transparency & spaciousness.
Not an illusion!

People swear by different caps, but I do believe they make a big
difference in the sound. For a <$50 upgrade in my case, well worth it.

HTH, - Rick.

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Rick

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Feb 23, 2001, 1:33:45 AM2/23/01

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I got my Orange Drops from http://www.Angela.com, & the exotics from Handmade
http://www.hndme.com/

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