Top resistors


Many threads with opinions on boutique coupling capacitors, but very little consolidated information on the sonics of resistors. Anyone care to share their thoughts on the attributes of their favorite brands & types for specific tube and SS applications? How much of a difference does a good resistor make?

My interest in the topic increased after recently installing the latest Texas Components nude Vishay TX2575 in several SS and tube phono & LS components. This was a proverbial "Ah-ha" moment-- a stray resistor dropped into signal path here or there, surprising with an improvement that equalled or surpassed the impact of a switch to a top coupling cap like V-Cap or Mundorf.
dgarretson
I have PathAudio resistors in 2 spots which are 5 and 10 ohms. Right now I am still using Mills in the other two positions. I plan to get some more PathAudios to try there as well.

You may want to break in the resistors before you put them in your speakers. I hook up new parts to the speakers in my video system first so I can run them 24/7 for a week or so without messing up the sound of the hifi.
Thanks Salectric,

I have just got my resistors in, 1 for the mid and 1 for the highs.

Just deciding if i should do 1 at a time or dive in with both.

The resistors you have are all in the high network? Just curious why you still have a mix of duelunds and mills.

Did you find a mix better than all pathaudios?
Yes, my resistors are all in the high-pass section of my 2-way crossover. And I am using a mix of Mills wirewound (black body) and PathAudio. I am not using any Duelund resistors these days.

As for why I have a mix rather than all PathAudio, my speakers need some emphasis in the extreme highs, and the Mills provide a sparkle or shimmer that the more neutral PathAudio does not. It is not a case of one being better than the other. You have to mix-and-match to get the particular sound that you were seeking.
After a backbreaking afternoon, the paths have been installed in series the mid and tweeter.

I was broken in on the frybaby for a week and a couple of hours on a bedroom set.

I not sure if the were even close to brokem in nut has a bit strange highs which quicky vanished after half an hour.

These are good and won't hesistate to choose them on the pencil lead resistors. Duelund have good detail and did mostly good with the exception of harshness in the uppermid(midrange driver) and tweeter on 20% of recording which caused some hurt to my hearing.

All these are now banished, thanks to Salectric ;) i had always felt from changing caps etc. the duelund cast gave to the sound i would not expect more.

Details, bass, mids, highs of the path are spot on, no touch of brightness, no shortcoming that i can tell. I feel the biggest difference is the control of the individual sound and sure footedness in the music now, more balanced over the frequencies.

The cast remind me of the mundorf sio capacitors sound, beautiful but with a larger unfocussed and slightly messy soundstage. Swapping the the path resistors were akin to moving up from the mundorf sio cap to something like the duelund cast / Vcap teflon capacitors.

I initially had reservations on how the cast resistors could be bettered, and hesistant to swap in the paths as i had already bought them. I do not need to swap the duelunds back in now!

I guess they can only get better with more run in.
Great report Justubes2! I am glad the PathAudio resistors have worked well for you. Your description of the Duelund resistors as having "a larger unfocussed and slightly messy soundstage" is, I believe, the same thing I was trying to describe as "wispy" highs that seem to float around in space; the soundstage with the Duelund resistors is big and airy but not focused.

Have you connected the ground shield lead on the PathAudios? If so, to what? I am still using mine without the shield connected.

I want to emphasize that my misgivings about the Duelund resistors (both CAST and regular variety) do not apply in any way to the CAST capacitors. I continue to feel that the CAST caps are the single best sounding capacitor for speaker crossovers. Expensive but well worth the investment. I am not quite as enthusiastic about CAST caps in electronics. In that application I think system matching is more of an issue, and I prefer a balance of CAST and V-Caps. Right now I use a CAST cap in only one place in my electronics---the output coupler on my phono stage. All of my other couplers are either CuTF or regular V-Caps.