Spectron Musician 3 First Impressions?

I want to add a bit to my post upthread. Before I started upgrading my equipment several years ago, I owned a Crown Macro Reference amp. 700 watts or more. Industrial strength amp in every way. I can refer you to an article by Sam Telig about the amp:

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/1292crown/

My point is that I am familiar with high power amps, and I built my heathy portion of Heaathkit's and Eico's and Dynaco amps and integrateds back in the day, 1960's mostly. So I know what lower powered tubes can do. A friend has a set of 300B jewels we listen to alot. Higher power amps, whether solid state or tube, find finesse and ease difficult. Some systems are hefty, some quick, some tuneful and full of PRAT.

My system always sounded best to me with higher power. I had a Parasound A21 for a while and it was pretty damn good, too. But it lacked an airiness with treble transients that I like. The PS Audio HCA-2 was quick as can be but lacked the strong control my woofers needed. I never really gave my horn a thought about control issues until I got involved with the SE Mk2.

Maybe I am wacked, but every register, whether below my crossover of 1200KHz or above seems more disciplined. The Spectron has achieved something in my system that I just have not experienced before. Accuracy of decay, deep tonality, AND this elusive finesse thing. Transitions are smooth. Quiets are in fact quiet. Transients clear regardless of intensity. This is the unique thing to me, and not unimportant to people who treasure music. It comes through the maze of wires, resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes and connectors clean and strong.

Yep, Wayne Gretzky is still the best analogy I can come up with, obscure or not. This amp is "The Great One."

Great! Good start towards answering that proverbial question,

"Whats different for the New Spectron Musician 3 SE Mk2?"

JPS wiring, very interesting.

Rod

I came across this interesting capacitor shootout:

http://www.tempoelectric.com/caps.htm

V-cap was named 'best in class'. With the popularity of V-caps, it seems that it will be a popular upgrade for Spectron amps.

When I send my amps for the MK II upgrade, the V-caps option will be at the top of my list.

What are your thoughts on the V-cap upgrade?

There is a cap shoot-out on audiocircle ,too,
but I don't know how to link.
On the (audio central) section of (audio/video), under (my capacitor comparisons:mundorf)etc.

Also look up in the v-cap website for their reviews and there is a good Chinese shoot-out.

Check with Simon on his thoughts with your amp topography
and Bybee plus / minus the v-caps and his custom cap in the Mk2.

Go for the best sound for you. Simon knows better then I regarding the nuances of the upgrades (as always UMMV)

I am too soon to give a sound review on my amp yet, as a life situation has postponed some plans.
Not to worry, still to come!
Rod

I find all this cap discourse quite fascinating. Some say V-caps are the greatest thing. some say the opposite. I think it may come down to component matching and personal preference.

One case that highlights this is Srajan Ebaen's Supratek Cabernet Dual preamp. He had the caps changed to V-caps just to have them resersed back to the old caps a few months later. At the other end, there are some Supratek users that simply swear by the V-caps.

I'll certainly check with Simon when I go for the MK II upgrade.