Top resistors

Great report Justubes2! I am glad the PathAudio resistors have worked well for you. Your description of the Duelund resistors as having "a larger unfocussed and slightly messy soundstage" is, I believe, the same thing I was trying to describe as "wispy" highs that seem to float around in space; the soundstage with the Duelund resistors is big and airy but not focused.

Have you connected the ground shield lead on the PathAudios? If so, to what? I am still using mine without the shield connected.

I want to emphasize that my misgivings about the Duelund resistors (both CAST and regular variety) do not apply in any way to the CAST capacitors. I continue to feel that the CAST caps are the single best sounding capacitor for speaker crossovers. Expensive but well worth the investment. I am not quite as enthusiastic about CAST caps in electronics. In that application I think system matching is more of an issue, and I prefer a balance of CAST and V-Caps. Right now I use a CAST cap in only one place in my electronics---the output coupler on my phono stage. All of my other couplers are either CuTF or regular V-Caps.

For any system towards the darker side, the duelund cast resistors should work also, but cost more than the paths, so it's a hard choice. The duelund resistors do impart a "live venue" sound which is also kind of nice, maybe in a more damped or dead room will help bring the required liveliness or airiness.

I did not connect the shield, cannot imagine any improvement as the other signal path is not shielded. Could it lead to quieter/dull sound?

I feel the level of boutique parts have reached a level which one could well be happy with either of these parts with some good matching with other parts. I do have casts in the tweeter and bypass the mids in the crossover, they don't do harm but i never felt they were exception (very good as it is) comparing to teflon vcaps / jupiter copperfoil - they are all top notch. i actually felt the vcap TFTF gave more air than the duelund cast while never sounding bright, just very extended though a touch more neutral than duelunds.

The highs pricing of some of these parts , however good, just cannot maintain a decent cost/performance ratio with the competition available.

The cast caps are good in the output stage of my preamp, nothing magical. just neutral with no misgivings. I feel the Vcap TFTF and CUTF can give more noticeable difference (super linear for the TFTF and saturated tonal colour for the CUTF) which can work even better in a system correctly matched.

I have a jupiter in the output of my phono, nice and have lost the desire to find the best. Maybe sometime when i have time to listen to LP's will i swap the duelunds in - that when i have/tryout a passive preamp. The sound of the cap can be compensated elsewhere that i am lost at the number of permutations in tweaking possible. So long as the cap is of a certain level, it works for me, or should i put it as i will make it work for me.

I now focus attention to the PSU which brings about dramatic changes. Gone are the days of just swapping in "better" electrolytic caps. I now focus more on changing transformers, low noise regs etc. in the PSU circuit which i find makes more difference on a cost/improvement, but still learning in this area.

Still enjoying music with the new resistors in place.

Another point, the Duelund cast resistors now seemed coloured and gives a distinct sonic flavour or same enhanced "live music atmosphere" over more songs than the pathaudio resistors. I do miss abit of the colour!

Paths are so much more neutral in this regard. By no means does the path's sound cold, thin or lean. It just sounds more linear and neutral.

" The duelund resistors do impart a "live venue" sound "

Having not followed this thread, I'm wondering if you are saying these particular or certain kinds of resistors in general will always have the certain sound signature?

Seems to me results would vary case by case design by design and I would have no clue how to pick a resistor based on how it sounds. Based on clearly specified tolerances, build/part quality, etc., but it just seems to me too much concern about the "sound" of a resistor would be a wild goose chase for most folks. Maybe not for actual product designers who have to make such choices.

Yes, every part contributes to the sound.

In a resolving enough setup,even footers can greatly affect the sound. Every bit of wire, type of solder used etc.

I once had a bad fuse holder replaced with a different part, i noticed a difference in sound.

Each product manufacturer has a house sound, tuned based on cost of parts to achieve what the designer references presentation of music.

In the past few years, a number of very exotic equipment manufacturers now used these audiophile components, meaning -expensive parts in their design with different grades and market it accordingly. To a non tech savvy customer, at a much steeper price markup as opposed to what these parts costs, especially considering their oem costs.

Just stick to what is recommended by users based on their sonic finding and try. The more exotic parts usually always work rather well as opposed to mid tier audiophile components, which are many out there. These are a bigger effort to get them sound right in most ways than their tried popular and costlier counterparts.