Conrad Johnson PV-10A mod experiences?

looks like its the usual with audio, fix 1 problem only to reveal another. I've known for a while that I need to send my Sota back for a new bearing but with the old caps the problem hadn't been "glaring". I've swapped in my backup AR ES turntable and the problem is gone albeit nowhere near as silky in sound as the Sota. As to caps used they are the RTX Multicaps. so will let this ride for 100 hrs or so of play and see what happens. I do have to admit the VCAPs (teflon/w tin foil)have my curiosity piqued, but that would run about $330 for the 4 required bypass caps vs the $50 for the Multicaps I paid.

Those white capacitors you are referring to are teflon capacitors, they last indefinitely; it's the two electrolytic capacitors that need changing. Find the best capacitors of the same value and replace them

Just getting back to this thread after a while. The small white caps in the PV-10A were
definitely toast. As to being teflon, thats speculative. From the era the PV-10A was made in
they might have been Wonder caps or they could have been rebadged Rel caps
based on materials construction.
After break in the RTX Multicap replacements had solved much of the dynamic range issues but the high frequencies were still soggy (splat, not snap). Both the mains and phono section have a pair of 2uf capacitors in their output stage. I decided on the mains to replace those first with Solens polypropylene and tinfoil caps, 2uf / 400VDC, SE Series. These I installed last night and they immediately made a big difference in high frequency range
and crispness of percussion transients. Still not getting quite the low base response I can
get by going DAC direct to amp but above 40hz all appears right now. Will let this bake
another 30 days and update

David, if you're talking about the low frequencies of music, it's bass, not base.

:-)
.

Very happy so far with the Solen replacements in the pre main section. While the pre is not as fast as going DAC direct for transients, the preamp now comes quite close and cause more smiles :<). Played a few LP's last night, I can definitely hear some of the same blurring on the phono side from the old 2uf caps so will pull the trigger this week on ordering Solen replacements for those. I do notice that the phono section is noisier than one would like, one of the original review critiques of the PV10A, still scratching my head on what can be done to improve that.