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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
volleyguy1's avatar
volleyguy1
343 posts
 
Interesting.

This thread oddly enough started with bi-amped Linn speakers. Linn also is into Aktiv. (as they call it)

In terms of value for the $ I think straight bi-amp or tri-amp is maybe the worst value! In my speakers I could barely hear the difference of a second $5k amp running through a crossover made with max. $20 in parts...

Yet I could hear easily changing cheap crossover parts to better ones.

Sometimes the change was so great like CAST tweeter caps I thought I wired something up wrong...

This would go back to a balance Steen Duelund had talked about 50% of the $ in the speakers, 50% of the $ in the speakers in the crossover.

Here I am fretting over not having CAST in a single spot in the integrated amp. (with Duelund RS being the likely replacement)

Going active would mean three amps with CAST caps plus the cost of the active crossover... Plus three times the Duelund Silver 2.0 wire.

I have yet to ever hear small parts sound better so what would an active crossover cost with big parts?

It is not a road I am going down as I am already on the simple few high quality part road.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Volley guy I accept the concept that there are many roads to good sound quality. I however agree with you the road I prefer is of one very high-quality amplifier driving a speaker with a simple crossover network that uses few but high quality parts. The Deulund CAST tweeter cap is such an asset in my speaker. Simple step with big results.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,467 posts
 
Ricevs, I have to thank you for mentioning the upgrade of bypassing all binding posts for better sound on your website. We all agree that better parts equal better sound in crossovers and spend big money on the right parts. Funny thing is we live with our signal being degraded by the binding posts. No matter how good the posts are they degrade the signal.

I now use the binding posts on my amp to simply clamp the speaker wire and output signal wire of the amp together. I actually soldered the output of my crossover directly to my speaker cable using no binding posts or spades. You don't have to go this far, but you can certainly just use your speaker binding posts as clamps removing them from the signal path.

Folks this is a significant upgrade that is free! Just takes some DIY effort and execution.
volleyguy1's avatar
volleyguy1
343 posts
 
Grannyring and Ricevs
I am going to try this as well. I know removing a screw in the woofer signal was one of the biggest upgrades I have got so far and it cost nothing.

It was truly shocking the signal went through a cheap screw.

Duelund RS caps are here. I would say about 40% shorter than CAST. Hopefully a chance to install very soon.
salectric
748 posts
 
I know this thread is mostly about capacitors in speaker crossovers but there have also been a number of comments about caps in electronics. For the past year I have been using a 1uf Duelund CAST as the output coupler for my phono preamp. Prior to this I had a .47uf CAST for a few months and then before that a 2.0uf V-Cap TFTF. Recently I replaced the 1uf CAST with the 2uf V-Cap, the same one that had been there before, and I was a little surprised to find that overall I prefer the V-Cap.

The V-Cap may not be quite as neutral in tonal balance as the CAST but it more than makes up for this by having a more lively sound with excellent micro-dynamics. They are both very good sounding caps and I can see how other people might reach the opposite conclusion, but to my ears and for my system the V-Cap is better.

For what it's worth, my preamps now use V-Cap TFTF exclusively and my power amps use V-Cap CuTF couplers.
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