Self-Hell

[shep]

Rant why oh why didn't I use a better soldering iron? Why am I an Audio neurotic? What am I talking about??? taking a f...ing x'over out to change the caps from Clarity SA to Jantzen Superior S. The maker of these speakers made a dog's diner: the leads were too short and everything dangling (no circuit board) and held together with tape and just barely room to push things back in place. And yes Dorethy, I have at least one bad soldering joint and have to do it again (when I'm calmer)
Breath! backtrack: I got both the caps and the Isotek cd today. First of all (thanks to 6Moons) this is a winner. Before I got down to the dirty, I ran it (the Isotek cd) thru a few times (hour or so since eveything is already burned in) The effect was immediate and obvious...(this is probably due to the demag. function) transients were handled better and a certain tendancy to shout at certain midrange frequancy and amplitute, disappeared. I had put this down to the speakers being pushed too hard (small drivers) but no...Even though the caps are supposed to be pre-aged, I gave them a dose as well.
For those of you interested in such things (caps) the improvement from a pedestrian to a hi-end part is blissfully obvious. It's like I have new speakers. Better, more "seated" bass, much more air at the top, dynamics swing easily, a certain dryness has been replaced with a more liquid sound. The sound-stage is better organized, more realistic, especially at the back where it was slightly out of focus and not as dimensionally convincing. Everything has more body and colour and form. Voila. I heartily recomment these Jantzen's as being a very good cap.; not ridiculously expensive and very even-handed.

[richidoo]

For those of you interested in such things (caps) the improvement from a pedestrian to a hi-end part is blissfully obvious. It's like I have new speakers. 

Nice rant shep. I hope you're feeling better now. We'll up your medication a little. (Is that possible??)

Glad to hear you got what you were hoping, and sounds like even more! So, all that you have changed so far is the dog food caps with the Jantzens?

[shep]

Yes please, more meds.! Dog food caps out, hi-class ones in. That's the secret. 70$ the pair and Bob's your uncle. Fabulous sounding. I'm not exagerating (for a change) Extended, sweet, airy...really nice. The Clarity caps are supposed to be good but forget it! There's a more expensive (silver) version of the Jantzen, but I followed the advice of Tony Gee of "Humble Hifi" http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html, who is right on the mark. Anyway it would be silly to put a couple of hundred dollars worth of caps in speakers costing 700.

[richidoo]

What brand of cap is this? "AD"   This is what came stock in the Ushers.  I priced the Duelund caps, it would cost several thousand dollars to upgrade my two speakers with them so I'll use something else, maybe Jantzen.



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[mgalusha]

I agree, the Dueland are horrifically priced.


FWIW, I used the Mundorf Silver/Oil in some Focal Mini Utopias for a friend a couple of years ago and they were very nice. Expensive but much less so than the Dueland. I used the Jantzen Z-Superior in my Abbeys and am very happy with them. They use the same type of double wind construction as the Mundorf to minimize the inductance but are a polypropylene film. I have a pair of the Z-Silver versions and from what I can tell they are the same as the Z-Superior with the exception of silver leads. Don't know if 4" of silver is worth the 50% price increase.

The Obbligato caps are nice in speakers as well. I put some in my Meadowlarks and they were cleaner and more open that the Sonicap Gen I's they replaced. Very inexpensive as well, the biggest drawback is they are only available from Hong Kong.

[richidoo]

I was reading the cap listening test suggested by shep which compared some of those you mention.  Danny Richie recommended Erse Pulse X, which are cheap, but I haven't been able to find any critical review of the sound. I can't remember if there are two boards in the speakers, but I only have photos of the one board. I'll have to open it up to measure the coils anyway.

shep, how's the Jantzens sounding now with some miles on them?

[shep]

No idea at all what the " AD" means! The Jentzen are really really good on my speakers. I can recommend them with no hesitation. Now that I've gone this far I am longing to change the stock resistores. There are only four. I found a very good site for this stuff, which you probably all know. http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/resistors.html. I am sorely tempted by the SHinko, which are something of a legend and I know them from a passive pre I once had. There's no place further to go with these speakers after this...but already they breath music in a way they didn't before. It's not the easiest road to travel and does require a minimum of skill and a maximum of balls and some risk taking, but changing the sound of one's gear this way is very satisfying and a lot cheaper than buying new stuff. I'm not so sure that sometimes the new gear sounds better because it has better parts in the right place! Even hi-end gear sometimes cuts corners in matters like resisitors and caps. Mind you, if we're talking dozens of parts, this becomes a scary proposition and some serious cash. Speakers are relatively easy to do, assuming (unlike mine) the X'over is easily accessible.

[richidoo]

You are inspiring me to go forth and open my wallet shep.  I found out that the AD is really AID Electronics, in Taiwan where the Ushers are assembled. There isn't a word about them mentioned anywhere else. The sizes I need are 6uF, 12uF and 40uF which few companies even make anymore, so I'll have to redesign the crossover to achieve the same frequencies with foil coils and new cap values.

shep, those Shinkoh's look cool. But they say only .5W and 1W power rating. Is that enough for your speakers? Usually 10-20W resistors are used in crossovers to handle the high power peaks.  That hificollective store is cool. They have almost everything!

[Carlman]

Another good resource for caps and 'stors is Percy audio: http://percyaudio.com/
FYI..

[richidoo]

Thanks Carl! They do have a good selection.

[stereofool]

Rich,

Here is another you might look into...http://diyhifisupply.com/

[richidoo]

Thanks Steve, they have the obbligatos!

[shep]

You are absolutely right Rich. I got carried away in my ignorance! The search continues. I don't know the correct values for my speakers. The maker was supposed to get back to me about this. My ex partner in crime, alias Michael Mardis, has a new site. It's a bit bare but he assures me it will be populated in time. He's found something new called DDX; some sort of digital amp that allows you to amplify a signal from a cd drive, directly to the speakers (no DAC necessary). He is more than enthusiastic. This supersedes what he has written on the DAC page of his site.http://www.michaelmardis.com/start.htm. I am very curious. According to him this makes everything else obsolete, is presumably not too expensive and sounds to die for. Have we heard this all before? Maybe not...he's always been very cautious about vaunting anything, in my hearing.

[richidoo]

You can measure the old resistors if you can get them out of the circuit. 10 watters should be enough.

[mgalusha]

Rich,

You don't need to redesign the crossover. With caps just parallel them. I need an 8uF for my Abbeys and Jantzen doesn't make them in that value. I used a 4.7 and a 3.3 and presto, 8uF. Caps add in parallel, no formula needed, just A + B + C.

mike