upgrades to Spectron Musician III Mk 2

I'm like BostonBean, I have my Spectron with all of the upgrades but have never heard one without.

I do know that Simon recommends the Bybee filters as the bigger of the two upgrades.

I'm like the rest of you guy's I have the Spectron with all the upgrades and have never heard the standard unit.
All I know is that I love this amp.

Hello,

I bought me first Spectron (standard) in 2005 and by now I have two Musician III Mk2 witrh all upgrades. Its difficult for me to remember each one separately but I believe that Bybee made it closer to the good tube sound and VCAP - while I can;t rememberm details - they serve as additional filter in power supplies - so their effect is the additional supression of ear-piercing ripple artifacts and smooothing upper midrange/treble. Any caps in that place will do the job....just some will do it better then others.

To the best of my knowledge, both upgardes can be installed into existing amplifier but Bybees may or may not have less labor involved - Spectron install them not afer IEC where everybody does but in diode bridge where they are much more effective (forgot why, its specific to Spectron only..).

I recall vaguely that for VCAP the special board is required for Spectron and/or change in motherboard, labor intensive, obvously.

I hope it helps.

Rafael

Hi,
I got used Musician III Mk2 and then added both VCAP and Bybee (and then another amp with upgrades to run as monoblocks) - the difference was spectacular

Hope it helps
Mike

I started with Spectrons with Bybee and then later added the V-Caps. My impression is the V-Cap has taken longer to settle in than the stock cap amp. The initial amps seemed to improve over time, really seeming to shine after about 60 days. I cannot comment on how the amps would present without the Bybees, but my setup had a presence, especially on stringed instruments that was detailed but far from sterile and seemingly very realistic. I later sent them in for V-Caps, and I have had them back now for about 4 months. For at least half of this time they have been back, I have questioned whether it was a good idea. The sense of presence and visceral impact were not the same. They didn’t sound bad, but decay and perceived realism were not there as before. Much improvement has gone on in the last 3 weeks. The presentation is smoother than before and, I believe, a bit warmer, yet still highly detailed. Imaging and width have continued to improve. Decay is excellent. They now sound very good. I have read the V-Caps take a real long time to fully settle in, so I am really curious how the next 3-6 months will play out.

I also believe these amps benefit with clean input power and isolation.

Enjoy,
Will