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
Tas

I have not used the VSF Black but have quite extensive use of VSF caps in electronics, inductors, caps in crossovers, CAST in electronics, CAST in crossovers and all Deulund is great. I am sure you will love the black. Sometimes I use like you VSF in electronics due to space.

I have heard the Black is in the middle from VSF to CAST and I think originally made to be in th middle for cost and sound reasons from VSF to CAST.

I have found you can intermix new copper foil in oil of different brands and even vintage. Now metalized poly caps... (no in my mind)

The difference in foil caps is the quality of the metal aluminum, copper, silver and the the resonance and it's control. You have low resonance caps Jensen Paper foil in oil VSF and lowest of all CAST and you have high resonance caps new ones like Ampohm and vintage fall into this category.

Resonance in some spots is worse than others. Tweeter caps need low resonance. Phono stage and pre-amp need low resonance.

Mid range? Resonance does add fullness to the freq that resonance occurs. I did not find a huge difference in VSF to vintage in the midrange. (like to do that test again sometime)

Woofer oddly enough you want a low resonance part there. Wish I had CAST but VSF was much better than vintage.
In addition bypass caps are usually a much smaller value such as .01 - .68 uf values.....the 5uf or so tweeter cap would not be bypassed with 2 or 2.2uf value!
Charles, are you absolutely sure your speakers don't have Zobel network parts....Have you looked all around? They may indeed....?
I definitely have a zobel network but it's located on the floor of the speaker cabinet along with the coil inductor. There's no capacitor on any driver other than the tweeter (5.6uf) and no resistor (except what's in the zobel network. Believe me we looked and also confirmed with Israel. This may be his simplest crossover. I didn't bother with the zobel components as I was told they aren't in the signal pathway and changes would be minuscule sonic impact. Changing the tweeter capacitor was quite significant and I'm very pleased.
Charles,
Wired up my other CAST cap for the phono stage.
Did not sound very good going in for the first 30 minutes.

New CAST caps are overpowering in the beginning at least in electronics. They sound stiff and aggressive. If I had not been through this before I would be worried but I am not. They tilt the sound big time to where they are (new) but the good news is they settle down in time. (and produce less volume)

This phenomenon which is strange is CAST (brand new) vs. CAST (well worn in) in this test.

Not sure what causes this? Did not notice this when the VSF's went in? I suspect something to do with the CAST'ing process.