Hello all.
I built a Cornet2 and a Clarinet line stage about six to nine months ago and have been playing with different types of capacitors and bypassing the "stock" specified, DigiKey sourced, Panasonic film caps.
In my Cornet2, I have settled on using 1uF Solen film caps for the B+ bypasses, Russian cold war surplus K40-Y9 Paper-In-Oil caps for the 0.01uF interstage coupling caps and the stock 1uF Panasonic films bypassed with 0.01uF K40-Y9s for the output caps. This has turned out wonderfully and no cap involved cost more than about $5 each. Very happy! I had tried many of the more expensive, "audiophile" caps and found that I like what I have going on now better than when I was using more expensive parts in the Cornet2. Bargain! The only difficult part is sourcing the Russian surplus capacitors.
The tube compliment in the Cornet2 is a Mullard GZ30 rectifier, a very old (early '50s) Raytheon 12AU7 and a pair of Mullard ECC83s (I really like Old RCA 12AX7s also). I am feeding the Cornet2 from my VPI HW-19MkIII turntable that is equipped with an SME 309 arm and a Denon DL-103 cartridge that has had it's body removed and been glued to a 5 gram brass plate. CineMag microphone input transformers provide the Denon moving coil cartridge the necessary step up to work with the gain provided by the Cornet2.
In the Clarinet I wanted to use upgraded parts that were readily available and not boutique priced. I had experimented with vintage Sprague VitaminQs as well as AuriCaps and the Russian surplus paper-in-oils but decided that I wanted to try for equal results using easily obtainable parts.
Because I know my DIY Paradise Monica2 DAC has output caps to block DC, as well as my Cornet2, I do not use an input cap on the Clarinet (jumpered). I bypassed the stock Panasonic B+ bypasses with MoJo Tone VitaminT 0.1 poly/foil-in-oil capacitors as well as using a VitaminT for the interstage coupler. I also bypassed the stock Panasonic 1uF output caps with 0.01uF MoJo Tone VitaminTs. The results are pretty impressive to me. The VitaminT caps are nice and small so I did not have the hassles of trying to fit monster sized caps into place. I mounted the 1uF Panasonics on the back side of the board with plenty of clearance between them and the top panel of my Hagerman supplied chassis. This left the bottom side of the board for my bypass caps.
The tube compliment in the Clarinet is a Mullard GZ30 rectifier and a pair of smooth plate Telefunken ECC82s.
The sound is every bit as good as it was with the increasingly rare Russian caps. This turned out to be a very rewarding project for me. Relaxing too.
Thanks for a great product Jim!
