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
Since getting an all foil signal chain of vintage and then massively improving with Duelund I have only one nagging question?

In the begining of this thread I took as fact my Linn Lp12 sounded great and the Linn Karik a piece of junk capable of making everything sound dead and plastic.

Well several K$'s in Duelund parts and my CD player sounds awesome. Crazy super natural sounding! Just mind boggling. Now my Lp12 (almost a loaded one before recent updates) can sound very good but there is always present a slight groove noise that is clear to me know. Even on mint (almost never played) vinyl. It gets worse as you move through the LP. The stylus is not very old either.

Now if one thinks about it. Why would there NOT be almost a static high freq sound caused by the rubbing of diamond on vinyl? Also it should get worse as the stylus moves faster in the groove.

So after ditching 150+ lps because of clear wear and have more to ditch. I have thought about getting rid of the turntable maybe as well.

This is not what I thought was going to happen by getting high quality parts. I believe the "treble air" I thought was some unique part of the vinyl "live" experience is really just high freq static mechanically generated. Of course digital can not generate this "treble air".
"Of course digital can not generate this "treble air"."

Sure it can. Try upsampling.

My Zero One Mercury CD/HD player has selectable oversampling and upsampling from 44kHz to 196KHz. I find that the oversampling modes (even multiples of 44KHz such as 176KHz) sound much cleaner and more natural then the upsampling modes (such as 196KHz), which tend to introduce the "treble air" you speak of. At first it sounds like an enhancement, but soon it starts grating on my nerves.

I can also select the high-frequency filter to be the typical brickwall or several more gentle slopes; I find the HQ2 setting the best (between brickwall and very shallow slope) - too shallow a slope and you get unwanted high-frequency stuff introduced to the components that makes it sound markedly worse, too steep and you get noticable ringing on HF notes.

Finally, I can also choose the dither setting used to reduce noise - in this case I prefer no dither at all.
Put back in the EL84 to compare one last time CAST vs. VSF in tweeters. For me it is whether it is 1 CAST with a VSF in series or 2 CAST's. (for SURE not 2 VSF's) I want to solder this up with the Duelund wire (speakers) and one last order on coupling caps and be done.

Very happy.
What a saga...you are a very patient man with a great deal of time on your hands. Congrats.
Roxy54

I was a ticked man who did not know why my new gear could not touch this old stuff and I had to find out why? (personality trait or flaw) I don't subscribe to the vintage is better thing so I had to understand why? Foil caps with no plastic. Plastic permeates so much of most modern hi-fi. No doubt due to cost.

There is one major rock I did not overturn and that would be a SET amp. Also never went down the Silver wire or caps route. (just out of my league)