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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
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,479 posts
 
My Duelund Alex caps sound poor after 120 hours and sounded glorious after 30 hours.

My bass. Is now all but gone? I am really fustrated and will let them burn in another 100 or more hours.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,479 posts
 
Fact is I am so upset - "Having such a high level of fustration that I completely forgot to pronounce/spell the first "R" in the word "frustration" :-)
michaelvv
52 posts
 
Hi Regismc , how big uF is the decoupling caps in your pre-amp ?? In mine where i'm using V-Cap CuFT 400+ hour they are only 0.1 uF , which gives me a quite fair price..

I still don't have the V-Caps in my mono 6c33 , but i'm very happy with my Clarity MR in my Tannoy HPD-385a.

I can not live without the speed , details from the V-caps , and i have heard the Jensen Copper not Duelund.
regismc
112 posts
 
Sorry to 'hear' that the 'Alex's have gone mia in your rig. I suppose I'll find
out in my own soon. There doesn't seem to be much out there in cyber world
as to what to expect as they r pretty new. I had some 3.3s in the Dodd battery
pre & replaced the base teflons w/Mundorfs SGO. That was a pretty big cap for a pre, what type of tube pre r u running? Perhaps the larger cap will take more
time to fully break in.

My current pre uses .22s, the same as my amps. The MR's r very good & there
is nothing wrong in the sound or presentation but, there's no fool like an audio
fool, so the quest continues, trying to 'take it up a notch'. I suppose w/the
current info. I should sit on the config for a month or so & see how things
'evolve'. I'm hoping the Alex's 'open up' even more, but as of now they sound
very good.

Michaelvv, it sounds as if you & I r on a 'bit of the same path' w/the 6C33C bottles and such. What caps r in these currently? Your suggestion as to the
CuVcaps is tempting as they seem to provide tone & detail in abundance which
would be a nice step up perhaps, in my own pre. I suppose that since both
they & the Alex's have copper foil it comes down to how would teflon & oil mix?
;-) Modern alchemy as such....
undertow
1,033 posts
 
Well I suggest to all here, don't just rely on one pair of supercaps! Fact is there are many other necessary upgrades to get full potential out of a Duelund or Clarity MR. If you have not pulled out all the generic orange drop stock caps and other peripheries, including sometimes wire, and other Electrolytics in the power supply etc... You will only get a small percentage of sound enhancement.

I just for example went thru and removed all 80 parts in my phono amp, dumped in far higher quality film, and electro caps, along with some silver mica's etc... THEN the final touch was running a pair of Duelund caps on the main outputs with NOS tubes directly hard wired up.

I also did a friends Tube preamp, 100% tube, with 100% built in tube phono stage. The whole thing got large Jantzen superior coupling caps, with a pair of Clarity MR's on the outputs and no bypass caps. Nothing comes close, its amazing, and it had all Mundorfs with Cardas gold caps before that and sounded generic in comparison! There are quite a few high grade resistors, like Bradley's or similar, with solid silver wire.

So lesson is, there is no quick fix without doing it all right. Op amps, or tubes design, sometimes many resistors, caps, power supply mod's, you name it, it all adds up. So as a warning one pair of exotic output caps hooked up to a Chinese special circuit board with 50 other small caps on it that in total cost about 1.75 U.S. will not necessarily net you the best results.

As for the Alexander problem above, that is strange, but as I explained earlier in this thread I now tend to stay far away from any oil based caps inside electronic gear, save those for speakers.
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