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
Chris old me they were genuine CAST and I assue Frederick no longer ollows this thread?
David:
To burn the parts, you must first DISCONNECT and REMOVE the speakers from the crossover network. They can NOT be connected to the cooker. The inputs of the crossover are the speaker cable connections side; the outputs of the crossover are where each of the drivers was connected. If it's a parallel crossover, let's say a two-way with tweeter and woofer, I would only burn in one driver circuit at a time e.g. the tweeter circuit only, then later the woofer circuit. Hook the + input (speaker cable) side of the tweeter crossover to the + input side of the cooker and the + output (speaker driver) side of the crossover to the + output side of the cooker. Do the same cooker connections for the - tweeter input and output legs of the crossover. When connected, turn the unit on and burn (Signal polarity on the cooker is actually not important but consistency of connections is). You'll get the green light on in an Audiodharma if there is continuity. Double check the unit for right connections - negative leads connected in one loop to the cooker; positive in the other loop. Turn off the cooker if it's overheating. It shouldn't. When finished, do the other driver filter circuits, e.g. woofer. If it's a series multi-driver crossover REMOVE all the drivers and burn in the one half the circuit with the passive caps and inductors in it (the other half of the circuit has all the removed speaker connections in it and you aren't burning that in). If none of this makes any sense to you after looking at a picture of the crossover, take the parts out and burn them in individually!

Volleyguy:
On the CuTF V-caps, my guess is they're not broken in yet. My experience was using these in an amp as an interstage coupling cap between the input and driver stages using a .1uF/600 volt value. Yes, it took 400 hundred hours or so, but the midrange sounds perfectly natural and not mechanical at all to me. It's possible the very low voltage signal in your phono stage is not high enough to break the caps in as quickly.
Barrysandy

I heard the same comment I mentioned by someone else Neutral but not Natural. Mechanical might not be accurate maybe Neutral is? (then go on to say VCap Cuft Natural does not describe them)

I could use many good HiFi terms to describe them.

Now are these CAST caps real, they do come in the values I need?
Question for those of you who may have some experience with power supply caps in a tube amp. I am totally going through a TAD 60 amp and upgrading many key caps and resistors as well as bypassing the volume and a few other things. Great sounding amp, but boy the parts quality is very poor and I expect to hear some large gains with my modification.

Fun fall/winter project.

The amp uses some large value caps in the power supply. 470 uf / 450 volt caps. Film caps are not possible, but what would you folks suggest to replace the cheap Nichicon caps? I am think about some large can computer grade caps from the likes of Sprague and others? Your thoughts please. Room is not an issue as I will be expanding the base of the amp with a nice wood frame.
Nichicon caps are it bad caps at all and to me they sound better then Sprague atom any day.
If they are before the regulator, as long as they are less than 10 years old I suggest you leave them alone.
Post regulation bypass is a different story. Try to use oil cans or at least stolen PPE fast cap. You won't need more then 47uF.