Question About Capacitor Upgrade in Tube Amp


Hi,

I am preparing to do a coupling capacitor upgrade on a recently purchased tube integrated amp. The two 0.22uF on the preamp tubes are fairly straight forward. But I noticed another similar model 0.33uF cap on the large filter capacitor for the B+ supply that is installed across the hot lead to ground.

Does this cap on the B+ just block high frequency noise from the power supply or does it have any effect on the amp tone? Is there any reason to "upgrade" this cap?

I know it may be hard to tell exactly what is going on without a schematic.

Also any recommendations on a good cap to use in the upgrade of the coupling caps? I was looking at Mundorf SilverGoldOil for the quality at not too crazy a price. The amp already sounds good but lacks a little clarity that I think a coupling cap swap will help with. It is SET 300B amp.

Thank you!

 

calieng

Yes too many amps right now. I ordered the Willsenton R300 and the Muzishare X9, X10 just in the past weeks with the intent of auditioning them and only keeping one or two. It is hard to decide before hand when there is nowhere to hear them before purchase.

The Muzishare R100 I have had for a while and is already for sale in the local craigslist. Very nice amp but I just do no need that much power or heat of the 845 tubes and it is also a bloody heavy thing to move. But no complaints on the sound quality. Very nice.

I have already decided the Muzishare X10 is a keeper as there is no other amp that I have that grabs the speaker drivers like those Kt150 tubes do. It would be the one for more modern / pop music. The bass is tight and bold and really gives you a punch to the chest when turned up.

Of course someone else may have different opinions as system matching is always much more important than the tweaking of capacitors and tubes.

Cheers.

It's more complicated than just hanging a film cap across B+. If you assume the designer knew what he was doing, had good ears and related equipment, you could make things a whole lot worse by making willy-nilly changes.

Too often audiophools make changes that make ZERO difference but think they have due to everyday occurrences like fatigue, humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, line voltage / noise, etc. etc. etc. 

I don't have any real experience modifying hifi gear so this will be my first attempt. I do not plan to change any cap values for the Willsenton R300 as the amp sounds good as is. Nice bass response etc. But I do believe the clarity can be improved with high quality coupling caps. 

The Muzishare X7 uses the same silver film coupling caps as the Willsenton versus the Muzishare X9 and X10 models which come factory equipped with Mundorf. I can definitely hear a difference in the clarity of vocals and the separation of instruments between the X7 vs the X9 and X10. So let's see how this upgrade works out once I get the parts.

I do have experience building tube guitar amps....initially from kits and then some scratch builds for Fender and Marshall schematics. So I can say from those builds I could even hear a difference in cheaper caps such as Orange Drops vs Mallory 150s in those builds. And a lot of musicians will pay top dollar for some vintage BumbleBee PIO caps for their Les Paul guitars claiming an improvement in guitar tone. So there has to be something there. It cannot be all imaginary.

But I take your point that often the expectation of an improvement colors our impression of whether or not an upgrade has really made a difference.

@calieng But I take your point that often the expectation of an improvement colors our impression of whether or not an upgrade has really made a difference.

I am glad that you see his point. I do not. He makes smug and arrogant assumptions about people he doesn’t even know. He has no awareness of the background and experience of contributing posters here (Who’ve provided insight and information).  Audiophools? Who are they? Again an ignorant and dismissive assumption.
A useless and unhelpful post in my opinion.

Charles

@charles1dad  I am glad that you see his point. I do not. He makes smug and arrogant assumptions about people he doesn’t even know. 

They are just words on a computer screen. Don't get mad at some LCD pixels.

Unless you are on Twitter and someone tweets a nasty message at you! That would be different. Thems fighting words! I'm a gonna start a Twitter war!

😀