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Capacitor log Mundorf Silver in Oil

I wished I could find a log with information on caps. I have found many saying tremendous improvement etc. but not a detailed account of what the changes have been. I have had the same speakers for many years so am very familiar with them. (25+ years) The speakers are a set of Klipsch Lascala's. They have Alnico magnets in the mids and ceramic woofers and tweeters. The front end is Linn LP12 and Linn pre amp and amp. The speaker wire is 12 gauge and new wire.

I LOVE these speakers around 1 year ago they started to sound like garbage. As many have said they are VERY sensitive to the components before them. They are also showing what I think is the effect of worn out caps.

There are many out here on these boards I know of that are using the Klipsch (heritage) with cheaper Japanese electronics because the speakers are cheap! (for what they can do) One thing I would recommend is give these speakers the best quality musical sources you can afford. There is a LOT to get out of these speakers. My other speakers are Linn speakers at around 4k new with Linn tri-wire (I think about 1k for that) and the Klipsch DESTROY them in my mind. If you like "live feel" there is nothing like them. In fact it shocks me how little speakers have improved in 30 years (or 60 years in the Khorns instance)

In fact I question Linn's theory (that they have proved many times) that the source is the most important in the Hi-Fi chain. Linn's theory is top notch source with lessor rest of gear including speakers trumps expensive speakers with lessor source. I think is right if all things are equal but Klipsch heritage are NOT equal! They make a sound and feel that most either LOVE or hate. (I am in the LOVE camp and other speakers are boring to me)

So here goes and I hope this helps guys looking at caps in the future. Keep in mind Klipsch (heritage Khorns Belle's and Lascala's especially) are likely to show the effects of crossover changes more then most.

1 The caps are 30 years old and
2 the speakers being horn driven make changes 10x times more apparent.

Someone once told me find speakers and components you like THEN start to tweak if needed. Don't tweak something you not in love with. Makes sense to me.

So sound
Record is Let it Be (Beatles)
The voices are hard almost sounds like a worn out stylus.
Treble is very hard. I Me Mine has hard sounding guitars. Symbals sound awful. Everything has a digital vs. analog comparison x50! Paul's voice not as bad as John's and George's. Voices will crack.

different lp
Trumpets sound awful. Tambourine terrible. Bass is not great seems shy (compared to normal) but the bad caps draw soooooo much attention to the broken up mid range and hard highs that are not bright if anything it seems the highs are not working up to snuff. I have went many times to speaker to make sure tweeters are even working.

All in all they sound like crap except these Klipsch have such fantastic dynamics that even when not right they are exciting!

Makes me wonder about the people who do not like them if they are hearing worn out caps and cheap electronics? Then I can see why they do not like them! If I did not know better from 25+ years of ownership that would make sense.

For the new crossover I have chosen Mundorf Silver in Oil from what I have read and can afford. I want a warm not overly detailed sound as Klipsch already has lots of detail and does not need to be "livened up" they need lush smooth sounding caps. Hope I have made the right choice?

When the crossover is in I will do a initial impression on same lp's. Right now it goes from really bad (on what may be worn vinyl) to not as bad but NOT great on great vinyl. (I know the quality of the vinyl because tested on other speakers Linn)

The new caps are Mundorf Silver in Oil and new copper foil inductors are coming. I will at the same time be rewiring the speakers to 12 guage from the lamp cord that PWK put in. PWK was a master at getting very good sound often with crap by today's standards components.

The choice of speakers would be a toss up now depending on what I am listening to. Klipsch vastly more dynamic but if the breaking up of the sound becomes to much to effect enjoyment the Linn would be a better choice on that Lp. If I could I would switch a button back and forth between speakers depending on song and how bad the break-up sound was bothering me.

volleyguy
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
Beyond capacitors and coils? I am designing a two way active x-over that should be the most transparent active x-over ever made. It will have zero feedback fet buffers and no gain. All parts and power supplies totally top notch. NO pots, switches or push on connectors. Everything will be soldered. The padding of the more sensitive amp will be through the use of soldered resistors. If you have all Dueland silver caps and silver coils and the x-over is simple then you are already set. Every one else will get benefits from an active x-over using state of the art parts and execution. You will be able to select from 6, 12, 18 and 24 db per octave and also vary the xover frequencies (all using soldered pads or changing resistors (very tweaky thang). I hope to bring the x-over in around $1000 (single ended, 2 needed for balanced) and I also have Class A amps coming that will be $1500 for a stereo 25 watt amp. 50 watt monos and 150 watt mono balanced bridged amps for twice as much.

When you have no passive x-over parts the transparency and dynamics are through the roof. The trouble is that no one has ever made a transparent line level x-over. Until now.

I you have a two way speaker then you are in luck. If a three way then you need to either use two of my boxes in series or use something like a Behringer or plate amps or servo woofs on the bottom and use this x-over and two amps on your top two drivers. If you have a 4 way....then sell it...he he! Why would you want something so complex? Have you seen the Hawthorne Audio 700 hz waveguided AMT driver.....$370 each and 96db sensitive. You could mount one of these on top of a box with two sensitive 8s or 10s or one 12 or 15 and use my active xover at 24 db per octave and have a speaker that would kill most things out there. There are lots of possibilities.

I went from a 16 gauge Erse coil on my Neo 10 planar driver to a 14 gauge wax foil coil from Jantzen and it was way better....then going to a 12 gauge got even better...dynamics and transparency galore....but I look at the big 12 gauge coil and I think...."man, that is still a lot of copper the signal has to go through"....I cannot wait till I bi-amp the speaker. Well, tri-amp really. Since I already use servo woofers up to 200hz.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,518 posts
 
Very interesting. Why would an active be any better in general. I use all top line copper parts from Jupiter, Duelund, Path Audio etc..... Why would an active sound better? I like that it can be adjusted and fine tuned, but the sound?
justubes2
203 posts
 
Hi Salectric,

Which position do you still perfer the duelund resistors?
salectric
755 posts
 
Actually I no longer use any Duelund resistors. Just Mills and PathAudio.
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
The parts are much smaller and purer sounding at line level than at speaker level. Your giant Path Audio resistor is no where near straight wire compared to a very tiny surface mount thin film resistor. The speaker is a low impedance device that needs lots of current. The parts you use for x-overs are super large and inductive. Lossy. When you can drive the speakers directly from a low impedance source (amp direct) and not have the veiling sound of passive parts you get way more dynamic and pure sound. Now, this is relative. Like I said, if you have a simple passive x-over using all silver Dueland coils and caps then the loss is very minimal...and until now there have been no line level x-overs that are very pure. My line level x-over will start at around $1000....add $1500 for my new Class A 25 watt a channel amp....and another $1000 for the extra interconnect and speaker wire and you get $3500....not cheap....but far cheaper than silver Duelands! Plus you can use many different drivers and cross over at different frequencies. A 10 gauge coil on a midrange or woof can sound great....but as good as the driver with no coil? Another word for coil...is choke....that is what it does to the sound.
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