Top resistors

you'll get the biggest bang for the buck using them in the shunt positions or interstage loading points. If you really want to hear what they sound like, solder an RCA on each end and instert in a length of interconnect betwen a source and pre amp.

dont forget, as the level of the noise floor is reduced, any low level details will come through (good or bad). These are among the quietest (lowest noise) resistors available.

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The dissing of the Vishay S102 by Reb1208 is rediculous. This resistor is extreamly clear, smooth with a slightly sweet treble. To say it sounds like gravel inside a soda can negates anything this person says about anything that pertains to sound perception. Tweaker

I haven't done any resistor rolling myself, but, I once spoke to the designer/builder of amps and preamps who did not like the S102 for his designs. He found the resulting sound to be lean and seemingly stripped of harmonics. He was quite clear that the right parts in any design has nothing to do with cost, reputation, or any kind of judgment of intrinsic quality--it is a matter of specific voicing. For the same reason, he liked a particular conductive plastic Alps potentiometer that he could no longer easily find even though he could easily replace it with much more expensive alternatives and pass along the cost (he builds quite high end designs); he said he would gladly pay much more for that "cheap" part which was no longer being made.

if a person installs the Vishays and hears too lean a sound, you are hearing what the circuit is really doing. hard to argue with a 30 db improvement in signal to noise. The main purpose of using vishay is to get a blacker background.

I have re-wroked 5 pre amps of diffrent makes with vishays resistors and have always had stunning results.

Also agree the older copper end cap HOlcos are great for warming up a lean sounding SS amp or pre amp. Also dont forget the PS filter caps are in the signal path, so if you have not added any bypasses on those big caps, you are listening to the sound of the filter caps too.

happy soldering.

There is always a way to balance things out. I tried some of the nude Vishay's in my phono stage and found them to be incredibly transparent. However, I did wind up removing one and replacing it with a Carbon type that makes things more musical to my ear. The combo is perfect to me, where just using one in both locations was too much of a good thing one way or another.

Voicing!