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
I agree with Grannyring on many new exciting parts.

The internet and threads like this have really changed audio. The world wide market has opened competition to supply to enthusiasts with these parts.

to Eric

Value can be something like Duelund 16ga tinned copper wrapped in cotton. Not expensive at all and I think cheaper than any Duelund wire ever. Is it not the internet, threads like this or blogs like Jeff's place that give consensus (somewhat) to value?

Eric like your recommendation for the lower cost Mundorf caps being good value. 

it is very hard now for a company to have high prices to low value with a bunch of people like everyone who has posted here. You get found out pretty quick!


At the beginning of this thread I felt in the dark.

sometimes I wasted money reading ads on caps etc. As time went on through recommendations my cap choices narrowed to the likes of Duelund, Jupiter, Jensen and VCapCuft and I am using every single one of them now, some I like more than others but none of those are anything but very good!
Schubert

The Gold Lions were two matched sets with date codes 2011 and 2012.

The ones in use for 4 years are worn out sound not as good as the old tubes I have. One set maybe 10,000 hours the other 7500.

The Psvane's 12ax7's are clearly not worn out at this time with in between the other two pairs.

I liked the sound of Gold Lion's better but they might not last as long. The Psvane's in first test sound as good as vintage, easily.
Just installed my second set of speakers Duelund RS tweeter caps. They have sat here for a month or so.

Not sure why I waited? Busy and maybe some fear these might not be the huge improvement they were on my first set of speakers, years ago...
The old vintage aluminum foil in oil cans are out. They sloshed when you shook them, so no resonance control at all.

Replacing the caps with Duelund RS again sounds like completely different speakers.

The vintage caps are extremely alive. The problem again this is too much resonance. 

So far it has been just like many years ago. It was not easy (years ago) to replace the original caps and maintain the foil in oil sound until Duelund VSF caps went in. The other caps then poly caps changed the sound extremely. (plasticized the sound)

My wife (years ago) did a double blind test of Sonic Caps vs. vintage and was utterly shocked at the difference and chose the vintage caps...

She thought I did a great thing! Problem was she was picking the vintage oil caps...


Duelund RS, juicy detail, listener fatique way down, natural sounds. MASSIVE cut in noise. More relaxing grown up sound. 

Vintage oil caps, things sound like a lively noisy rock concert even when you know it was recorded in a studio, noisy high freq with loss of control of high freq. Listener fatique. In short bursts maybe the most alive sound ever?




Could any vintage cap (Western Electric etc) of any era sound like Duelund RS? I can not imagine it? Was anyone using resonance control?

Vintage caps certainly no bargain. Better I would like to know how? Other than vintage. Certainly a large group like WE wire but general consensus is Duelund better. I have both but have not compared. The Duelund now sounds very good with Duelund RS tweeter caps. 


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