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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
k2_nl
13 posts
 
The difference in score that Tony describes between the Ampohm and Auricap (respectively 12- and 9) makes me expect to hear a significant improvement with the Ampohm...

Of course the differences you hear between the caps are very much related to the quality of the entire system as well. The better that system, the more it will be able to reveal the differences between the different caps.
reynolds853
385 posts
 
K2,

Thanks for your response and your experience is certainly something that I will keep in mind if I don't like the results of my first iteration.

John
duelund_coherent_audio
110 posts
 
An often overlooked part in this discussion seems to be the quality of and/or discrepancy between solderings.

We have clients who use per example 1uFx15uF instead of one 15uF. All things being equal this means they are substituting pure metal foil with 30 solder joints or so. If nothing else, those joints better be 100%.
k2_nl
13 posts
 
But are all parameters equal Frederik?

I've got little technical knowledge on this matter but I would expect the 15 x 1 uF multiple cap to have a (even) lower inductance and resistance than the single 15 uF.

All caps suffer from some kind of resonance. The PIO types, and especially the ones created under high vacuum, I expect to have a relatively low resonance, and maybe their resonance will be somewhere in the audiospectrum where it affects the musical result to a lesser extent, but they will suffer from some kind of resonance as well. Maybe, maybe the multiple cap constructed with smaller value caps will have an even more benign resonance character than one big cap.

I think you're completely right about the necessity of having good soldering joints. Experienced this myself with the Scintilla xover (tortured by relatively high currents because of its < 1 ohm impedance) on several occasions. However with a single cap in a xover I expect that good soldering joints are at least as critical... A poor connection with one of the 1 uF caps and the other 14 uF caps connected properly will probably have a better result than a poor connection with a single 15 uF cap.

Kees
cady586
4 posts
 
K2, Thank you for the response any suggestions on the coupling caps? Should i expect to hear a similar level of improvement? The vt50 currently has four .86 infinicaps.
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