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Self-Hell

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shep:
Rant :x :x 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:

--- Quote from: shep on February 26, 2009, 09:52:05 AM ---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. 

--- End quote ---

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

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.

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