Preamp Deal of the Century

I spoke with Mick about 5 months ago about the V-Caps, and he said he needed more time to form a final opinion. He only had about 50 to 70 hour on them. I contacted him recently and he said after putting 400+ hours on them that he did not like them and would not recommend using them. I continue to stand by my opinion that Mick got my Cortese right from the start. It sounds great to me in stock form. I have no desire to change tubes, volume control, or caps. I just continue to enjoy music!

Kgturner,

Glad to hear your Cabernet Dual is on it's way to you. I hope you enjoy it. I am sorry the Malbecs did not work out for you.

Not my experience at all with V-caps. I love them, but who am I to argue with Mick.

I find the V-caps get rid of a lot of fuzz. Yes, they do seem increase detail, but I would rather describe them as more invisible. And don't forget, the upstream components have a lot to do with what one may hear from their Supratek.

As much as I respect Mick, he is one opinion. There are a lot of high-end manufacturers that have gone exclusively to V-caps.

So I guess to each his own, but I can't stand the fuzz of the Auricaps nor the haze of the Alps pots. I believe both components add a more diffuse sound to my Supratek and I don't like it. I prefer cystal clear detail that is still musical. And I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. If the V-caps were brittle or harsh in my system I would take them out in a heartbeat (since I was the one who put them in). I just haven't found V-caps to be a negative in any way in my system. But I do have a Forsell Air Reference Transport (noted for it's analog sound) and an Audio Note DAC in front of my Supratek.

Clearly, the system as a whole has to be viewed in the context of what one component may do to the sound. If your system is smooth, I believe V-caps will give you more smooth, if there is any harshness anywhere in your system, I believe V-caps will help expose that. YMMV

Hi Powers,

I've got two v-caps in my Cabernet Dual as well as a whole bunch of Auricaps. Mick did say the V-Caps in mine are in the position that make the most difference. I'm also considering removing them as I don't find the Cabernet Dual as musical as the Sauvignon, I had earlier. A lot more detail yes, but maybe not as musically satisfying. The detail is probably more due to the 101D section of the pre-amp then the capacitors.

I would like to second Fiddler - in my cortese the V caps gave bass extension, detail and cleaned up the "fuzz" - I don't see why detail and musicality are mutualy exclusive -often when resolution is improved it exposes other challenges in the system - my experience is that vibration control and room treatment need to be developed at the same time as the rest of the system

It's clearly a matter of taste. I can see how what I like about the AuriCaps, someone else might relate to as fuzzier.

I think Mick started to use VCaps because customers asked him to. I didn't like the change and asked him what he thought. After he'd put on 400 hours, he disliked the VCaps and went back to the Auris. When I asked about Audience's new Teflon caps, Mick said they were expensive as sin and he'd only recommend those to people who don't care about money (which ain't me).

Just speaking for myself, I'm thrilled to be back in the AuriCap reservation. At the end of the day, it was a great exercise to hear just how much a simple swap of two parts (one per channel) can affect the outcome of a finely calibrated circuit.

I'm sending my VCaps back to Mick so he can use them for one of his customers who wants 'em -:)