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
Hi Tom,

Thanks for you advice. I will be changing one component at a time, listening and measuring the effect. I will try changing the inductors too, but they do not improve the sound, I will keep the original ones.
Cheers,

VN
On the fritz again. EL 84 today into the repair shop. Thank goodness I found a local amp repair shop and builder.

Amp was sounding fantastic.
After the amp went I hooked back an old DVD player knowing the TV sound was going to be really bad after the the Duelund loaded amp was taken in for repair.

What really SHOCKED me is how much better the Oppo BDP95 picture is! Holy Smokes just crazy! Even my wife is going Holy Smokes this is awful compared to the Oppo.

The kids got Lost series for Christmas (we have watched at ton of it and I do not normally watch TV) but I have to admit watching it on the Oppo and hearing the sound of my system is just unbelievable. Makes watching VERY enjoyable.

Using the same system for music and stereo TV has really reduced any complaints from the wife! (about $$$) The wife and kids think the sound for movies is awesome!

Duelund makes great a product but so does Oppo. Not only did the BDP-95 beat my $7k CD player it is just AWESOME for sound on movies in stereo (we do not use 5.1 just one system) and has a fantastic picture. The realism in voices just amazing... (fantastic value)

I am very glad I went the one (really high quality) system route and has really worked for me! (and the whole family)

When your wife and kids really want your amp to get repaired this works wonders on how the money was spent as a family purchase.
By co-incidence I found a local tube amp builder and repair shop. He does repairs from all over North America...

My amp had a tube starting to arc. He checked over the amp and did not redo my soldering, which I thought he might.

He also has a customers Audio Note 300b in for repair and I hope he calls me when he sound tests that amp after repair...

For testing reasons he can make sure any amp I have is up to snuff. Already he found on testing some Raytheon tubes (EL84) that were in one amp I tested (and shelved) that I had a ASC poly cap power supply installed that the tubes were defective. They tested good on the tester but distortion appeared when volume was turned up... (tested good sounded bad)

I will be able to get back to that test ASC power supply. Reason I want to know what power supply cap matters? That test would be ASC vs. vintage which is the best I have had so far...

In his amp builds he uses no electrolytics.

Now I can get push pull or triode options of newer used or custom made with power supply caps of choice... I know it will be Duelund CAST in the coupling but not sure about style of amp or power supply.

On getting back the amp and hours piling on in the phono stage. I am also running a hard drive to the Oppo with 24bit high res music coming in. Early testing but even high res digital is not as good as analog in realism...

The Duelund CAST phono stage caps might have moved the vinyl playback beyond digital in the sense of realism. Before caps were changed in the amp all the way through digital sounded better....
More info to come but I have revised where I would spend money first on caps...

I said tweeter caps before but now have changed that to phono stage.
I am reading a voltage increase of 400 to 1,000 on even moving magnet and 10 times that on MC cartridges.

The CAST caps difference here is just jaw dropping. To the point I am ordering new power tubes just to be sure.

To a great extent it makes sense. This is a very fragile signal. A not stellar cap will lose info... This is an area where you DO NOT want a high resonance cap!

Duelund CAST in the phono to me is a slam dunk!

More info to follow on comparing to a modern Audio Note 300b that was at the repair shop...