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Preamp Caps?Auricap,Mundorf, Hovland, jensen,solen

Hello,
I have a preamp with only 2 Signal caps directly in front of two tubes shot right out to the amps, extreme simplicity and excellent sound. This is the first preamp that came stock with Auricap's I have owned or heard, most in the past have always had Multicaps, Kimber caps in my previous pre's. I can say I think the Auricaps are quite a bit better but not that expensive or the end all-be all that I understand. Now I have had some crossovers and a Preamp with Solen fastcaps in it, and they are the best in Bass I have heard out of all of them, not that it makes them superior just an observation. I have also purchased Jensens oil and put them in Tube equipment in the past, not bad but did not blow my doors off.. And Finally Hovlands, not my Cup if you know what I mean, I found them the most expensive and the least impressive, could be the mix of component used in, but whatever too dry for me. Mundorf is a little newer on the scene to me and I thought the Hovlands were pretty obscene in cost, however these are the new Cost and hype leaders from what I can tell today. I am considering trying the Mundorf Silver in oil supreme caps at no small cost to see if they are gonna create more magic than the Auricaps. . What is the character of this cap? I want very 3d and open yet still have some intimate warmth and very powerful bass. Is this a cap worth venturing over all the other explanations I left here? Needs a liquid sound, and get that fairly deep bass solen seems to be capable of for only a couple dollars a cap, cause I do not want to soften the already slightly soft Tube bass. Thanks to all that know about this tweaking and expereance with these caps . . Again its only 2 Caps, very easy to install so its hard to keep my hands off, but do not want to go backwards or waste the cause if its not gonna be very significant in this specific application, Anybody know of any good tube equipment or preamps using these mundorf super caps? By the way my tubes are Mullards NOS. Preamp manufacture would seem to be irrelevant here and yes I am pretty dang happy with the sound for the money already, but there is always more right 
undertow
undertow OP
1,032 posts
 
Jeffrey, I really appreciate your time!
I am not a pro and I am finding now this might be super effective upgrade because:

#1- I threw in the new mullard tubes last night after I received them, Wow night and day! Big difference in bass and space, very smooth and warm. So obviously the 2 Capacitors hooked to those 2 tubes going straight out the RCA's will be fairly effective to the final sound, Kinda excited now about this upgrade just to see.. (or hear)


#2- I emailed the companies link you gave me, they replied below:
--The Auricaps are not bad, but there are better caps at a price. Either,
the Cardas or the Mundorf S/O would do better. However, you are
looking for more bass first. I would start by going to a 3.3uF cap.
This will slow thing just a tad, so you will want to bypass with a
0.1uF. My selection would be based on your budget. At the top, a S/O
3.3 bypassed with a Sonicap Platinum 0.1uF. At the bottom, a Sonicap
3.3 bypassed with a Cardas 0.1uF.

Remember, a single pair of caps can not make your system...........so we
should never look for it to.

Regards,
Jeff--

So Know I gotta be honest, although simple, Stacking and accidently burning caps together and fitting them correctly might be beyond the scope of my original comfort doing it myself. .Plus you give a bit different approch than they do in what to use value wise and all that.. For the few dollars in labor who would do this the right way to send it out? I hate shipping for this, but I live in Illinois, anybody got a suggestion.
jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
Under, e-mail me at jeffreybehr(at)cox(dot)net. I'm in Phoenix, have done cap- and resistor-upgrade mods for others, and I'd do this for you for a nominal fee...that would turn out to be maybe a quarter of what the pros would charge you. Also, I can help, with Jeff Glowacki, to resolve you capacitor choices.

I agree heartily with Jeff about changing the sound of a component by changing caps. If you LOVE this preamp, you can make it better, but you can't change its basic character simply by changing coupling caps.

For that pic that didn't display, and lots more, go to http://gallery.audioasylum.com/cgi/upload.mpl .
.
tabl10s's avatar
tabl10s
1,008 posts
 
I had V-caps installed in my dac and expect big things from them.
reb1208
518 posts
 
I am using a very small value, .01uf teflon cap to bypass a large 5.0 uf metalized poly.

After months on end of burn in. I will confirm that the teflon cap has higher resolution, smooth-almost lush midrange and not bright.

Compared to MIT RTX, the teflon is less bright, yet higher in resolution and clearer. Very rare and desireable traits indeed.
reb1208
518 posts
 
Update, I have gone back to RTX .22UF bypass cap in place of teflon. In my tube pre-amp- (the smooth midrange balance and ultra black background in the highs that seams to be a hallmark of teflon)was just to over bearing to live with. I want to hear the midrange that the tubes deliver. Not the smooth midrange of Teflon. Teflon would probably be the cap of choice in solid state. But for tubes...just didn't work out for me. I know others have also, ultimately felt that Teflon sounds that way to them. Just to smooth....IMO.

YMMV
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