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
The Duelund RS have just been stated as a pre-order at PCX. Price is competitive though still cost more than the jupiters.

Is there any way that is would be a worst bet as still untested.
Jupiters have been beta tested by folks who know Duelund and they say the Jupiter's are as good or even a tad better :-)
I bought an Audio Note DAC 2.1 from Audio Note Kits about 5 months ago. I had it assembled (immaculately) by Digital Pete, who is officially sanctioned by Audio Note Kits to assemble their kits. I asked him if he could use the lower end Duelunds as the coupling caps, and he did so for an additional $400.00. I have to say to anyone who may have just added a Duelund cap to any component...be patient! It sounded good right away, and better in 2 weeks, but it is only after a little less than 5 months that I am finally hearing what they do when they are broken in. They are so natural sounding, and so worth the money.

Has anyone here compared a familiar fully broken in cap to one that was the same and identical and then cryo'd a couple of times? The performance gain in cryo'd parts is pretty amazing. Caps, resistors, diodes, transformers, outputs and even chassis parts take a jump up in sound quality. Avoid this treatment on mains caps. All this started with some Hitachi metallized and Orange Drop film and foils in bypass across the mains caps. I now have parts run at least twice some several times more. The benefit is permanent unless you melt it down. Drivers maybe next. Tom
I see Duelund is doing autotransformers from the Jeff's Place website. For us that have them in the crossover this is big news! My speakers use similiar design to Westminster Royal's. I have been running out of parts to replace! With the exception of replacing some VSF with CAST or Silver which is just not happening here.

My current autoformer is a wax paper design which my guess can only be bettered by better resonance control of the CAST. There was much I liked about the VSF tweeter inductor but ultimately was too noisy. My only lonely Duelund part that sits in the closet. One thing I hope this thread does is avoids missteps for others, I wish I bought a CAST tweeter inductor wonder what was I thinking?...