[MusicMtnMonkey]

Those Mundorf's sure do look pretty in there, do they sound as good as their reputation??

Nice build and story, Thanks for sharing!

[PatOMalley]

I will try the FT-3s bypassing the Mundorfs.

I'd like to hear what you have to say re the FTs. I have put a set of Ju[piter beeswax at output on my Clarinet and it is the most real sound. The topend is exteneded just fine but I have read complaints aobut thes caps as being thick etc. I haven't dound it so but if were to to bypass them with anything it would be the FTs. Not sure if I need it but let me know what you hear.

[ronpod]

Wayne, thanks for the compliment. Paul, my local tube source, has a nice stockpile of tubes. I check to see if he has a CBS 5V4GA. He has offered to allow me to roll through his tube supply until I find the tube set I am happy with. Then only charge for the set that I settle on. Now that is customer service!

Ron.

[ronpod]

MusicMtnMonkey, The Mundorf's have been installed since day one, so it is hard to single out the their contribution. I can say that the Cornet2 as I have configured it with the Mundorf's installed is an awesome unit! It is a quantum improvement over the vintage Pioneer SX1250 phono preamp that I was using before. Right now I would not remove anything from the C2, but look forward to adding some Russian FT-3s. Thanks for the kind words...

[ronpod]

Pat, I am looking forward to installing the FT-3s. I am allowing the C2 to burn in to establish a baseline. The FTs also take some time to burn in so it will be awhile before I can give you a good assessment. I'll post the results when I have them.

[tubesforever]

Hey Pat!  Glad to hear you've tried the beeswax and like it.

I will try to better discuss what you hear with the FT-3's as a bypass cap. 

First, these are aluminum and teflon construction.  There is a lot of surface area in these caps.  When you solder them in the first thing you notice is that you do not have to turn up the volume as much.  That is an interesting observation! 

Second, on any type of really dramatic passage in the music, the dynamics will be passed along in an easy and natural way.  I have some iron tests for dynamic passages and the best I heard them was with ANY cap bypassed with an FT-3 cap.   There was absolutely no collapse to the soundstage. 

I compared my C2 to some very expensive phono sections this summer and the C2 with the Teflons beat every one of them in dynamics and soundstaging.   Think better bass slam and incredible definition of things like the drum head quivering.  I like what I hear with the Teflons.  They are never coming out.

Third, these caps burn in and become completely transparent.  They have no signature of their own.  They allow high frequencies to pass without any white noise which is an added benefit.  I like glocks, triangles, cymbals and high hats.  It is fun to hear them as they actually sound live.

I think the FT-3 are superb if you love slam and dynamics.  If you value the sound of real instruments then the FT-3 will help get that magic flowing.

Someone asked how the Silver Supreme Silver in Oils sound.  I started with Auricaps, went to Dynamicaps, then on to the Silver in Oil.  First thing I noticed was big expressive bass lines.  These became more neutral over time, however the FT-3 and  SIO seem to make for a very symbiotic relationship on overall bass response. 

The SIO give you a really wide and tall soundstage.  I like the midrange detail and space around every performer.  This is something silver seems to do really well. 

Since every capacitor seems to be a sonic filter of sorts,  it has been fun to hear a variety of these for myself.  I will have to try some beeswax and I would like to try the Sonicaps as well.  Right now my time is being spent on turntables again. 

Cheers!

[hagtech]

first thing you notice is that you do not have to turn up the volume as much

Interesting comment.  When we play audio games at our audiophile meetings in Honolulu one of the things that make our experiments in tweaks noticable is when the apparent volume changes.  Usually everyone hears it - "did you change the volume control?".  Typically, a louder impression corresponds to an improvement in sonics.  Is it just better clarity?  I'm not sure.

Recently we were experimenting with (oh my, I should not admit this) hair curler ionizers.  I forget what it was exactly, something about thorium or whatever used to change the water droplet size in hair drying.  Vidal Sassoon.  Anyway, a treatment of the atmosphere (or equipment) in the apartment made for a sincere change in sonics.  I hate when that happens.  The engineer in me freaks out.  This should not be happening.  Then the fun part of guessing possible theories keeps us occupied for awhile. 

I guess the moral of the story here is aimed at you non-believers.  You're probably reading this thread thinking what a bunch of lunatics we are.  That's fine.  Have your fun.  For the rest of you new to audiophilia, pay attention.  You are getting valuable advice and honest opinions here that could save you hundreds of hours of experimentation.  Digest it.  Think about it.

jh

[ronpod]

Oh Jim, you must spark animated conversation and thought processes at technical/scientific cocktail parties all the time! You have increased my synaptic activity to the point of needing a "volume control." Maybe it's just because I woke up to an extra strong Expresso. So lets take the trip to the "lunatic fringe" at the risk of spinning into the Lab, but with a promise to return to normalcy soon after.

Volume increases after changing a "passive component" indicate reduced impedance. Impedance means energy is dispersed (heat, noise, etc.). All components are a mixture of real and reactive impedance just in various ratios. Even the "ideal" shorting wire has minuscule contributions of impedance. The reactive impedances reshape the signal (music) in some way. The reshaping can be counteracted by adding more reactivity (capacitance vs. inductance). Jim Hagerman's genius (sorry about addressing you in third person) is in using the least number of components to do the job (this is really only one item in his arsenal of genius ideas turned into brilliant implementations).
If a cap is changed and the volume increases, then it stands to reason the the reactive impedance has reduced. Several ways to have that happen, but an additional benefit may be the the music is reshaped less.

Sorry for the didactic sounding dialog, I humbly admit that I do not have much experience in audio. For the record, I have spent my life trying to figure out how the human body reacts as a part of an electronic circuit.

Jim, your exploration in "water droplet size" gives a glimpse into why your circuit designs are so elegant; your broad observation of phenomena yields creative and inventive insights. Increasing droplet size provides more surface area, surface tension, etc., evaporation, cooling -- hence atmospheric density is effected. Could a transfer function of the sonic circuit between the speakers and our ears be generated that does not include this contribution of density? I doubt it. Ah, the fun of guessing causal relationships...

Now, resuming normalcy

I have used the hair dryer (maybe Vidal Sassoon) to heat the clear heat shrink around 8 FT-3 caps. They are now in a neat little row on my kitchen counter awaiting the Belden Teflon coated silver-clad copper wire to be silver soldered, twisted-paired, and installed into the Cornet2. Oh, my freshly educated, engineering earlier self would look at me now with sneering contempt. How could I have plunged so far into the audio sensory abyss?

Ron.

[tubesforever]

 

When you solder them in the first thing you notice is that you do not have to turn up the volume as much.  That is an interesting observation! 

Jim, I have to tell you that your design work makes it much easier to hear sonic changes with passive components and tubes.  Kudo's for designing such as simple and effective circuit. 

I came across these FT-3 Teflon caps by sheer accident.  I purchased some K40Y9 PIO Russian caps to evaluate as bypass caps and the vendor claimed his best audio cap was the FT-3.  I just had to try a few to see what teflon does for the overall sound.  After all there are some expensive American teflon caps out there and I do not have an endless budget for parts evaluations.

After soldering these in, I went straight to my toughest CD.  When the FT-3 caps allowed high energy passages to just flow by like a live performance, I was stunned.  I had always said before that if you want to hear really dynamic music, it would have to be a live performance.  No electronics I knew of would transact these tough passages perfectly.  They always had a short coming in the sound field either with peak dynamic collapse, or imaging stess, or a combination of failures here or there.

I guess that the very large surface area of aluminum is what allows for the transients to stream along and still have energy left in reserve.

Here is something I think you might appreciate.  My father was an aeronautical engineer for Hughes Aircraft.  His division specified teflon coated wire for the missle guidance process.  They did so because no other insulation allowed faster response times to electronic signal propogation.

The feedback systems between the guidance and the control devices to steer the missle were always under incredible stress.  He told me it is one thing for an aircraft to funtion at 400 knots per hour and another thing altogether for a missle which might be negotiating directional changes at mach 2 or faster.  Extremely fast reaction times were critical to performance.  He was sold on teflon insulated wire.  He said it was the most responsive dielectric they had evaluated. 

I was really taken with the sonic improvement of the FT-3 caps.  I tried them with all three of my final signal caps, Auricaps, Dynamicaps and the Mundorf Silver Supremes (SIO).  The fact that all three brands sound better with the FT-3 bypass caps was very impressive to me. 

I took them out for about a week, just to see if I could adjust to the sound of the SIO Mundorfs alone.  I just could not enjoy the music as much.  The Mundorf could not navigate the tougher dynamic pieces.

BTW on my Dale Vishay stepped attenuator, I have 24 steps.  To get to 86 db I had to run the Mundorfs at 14.  With just the addition of the Teflons I get to 86 db at approximately 9-11 steps.  I say between, because there seems to be some cd's with "hotter" recorded levels than others.   

Jim, have you evaluated the Vishay nudes or Texas Component nudes.  They are the same, just not labeled Vishay.

I ran into a Naval scientific equipment tester about 3 weeks ago at my local electronics shop in Reno, and he told me the sound analysis equipment used in US submarines can detect digestive noise from biologicals.  Sometimes over very great distances based on the ocean thermal layers.   He said this equipment utilized these nude resistors. 

Interesting! 

[ronpod]

Burn in time for original build: approximately 50 hours

These are the FT-3 caps with clear heat shrink ready for the attachment of wires:

[ronpod]

This is a closer shot:


The wires that I am attaching are Teflon insulated, silver plated copper wires made by Belden. And yes, I am using RS silver solder; hence the alligator clips to protect the FT-3 caps from heat damage (the silver solder requires more heat than other solders).

Here are the caps all in a row, ready for installation into the Cornet2.



Installation is not pretty in the standard Lansing case because of compact space. I will dress it out and post pics later. I have replaced the C203s and paralleled the Mundorfs (C208). With only 10 hours on this combination I can say that there is a difference but I'm early in the burn in process. Sound is constantly changing but the dynamic range seems to be enhanced. Funny scratchy sounds in the background and the left channel sometimes seems to lose its higher frequency dynamics (but they come back). When the sound is well behaved, I like what I hear but then I am reminded that burn in must continue. I do have faith that this change will be significantly better so I will be patient. Now I'm wondering if I should have just installed the B+ bypasses at the same time to let everything settle rather than installing signal couplers and seeing what happens.

So far so good.

[BobM]

I probably shouldn't admit this, because Jim might freak a bit, but I installed thse Russian teflon's as bypasses to the final coupling cap in my Trumpet phono stage. The soundstage widened and deepened and transperency increased very noticeably. Scary stuff here. I've also installed them as bypasses in my tweeter crossovers.

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm in on the group buy and intend to put them in a few other places as well. You havben't heard transparency like this until you've gone teflon.

Enjoy,
Bob

[ronpod]

Burn in time on base unit: approximately 65 hours
Burn in time w Russian FT-3 caps: approximately 15 hours

The burn in clouds were all around during assent but at about the 13th or 14th hour I came up "on top" into the sever clear and the audio is atmospheric. I have been listening to Teddy Wilson playing classic jazz piano comps, Ella and Bassie on Pablo, Cal Tjader Plugs In at the lighthouse, the Duke Ellingtion Orchestra - Digital Duke (?, I know, sounds good though), and a series of Europa Jazz volumes. The first indicator that clarity was achieved is when the dog ran around barking during a live jazz piece convinced there were strangers in our house. Second was when I was changing records and ready to go clean some more of the garage sale purchases when I thought my wife had called me but she hadn't, the system fooled me just like the dog! Then I returned from record cleaning to spin Carmen McRae on Europa when the dynamics coming from the speakers were noticeably clear. As tubesforever and Bob note, the transparency is quite good. There is a liveliness to the music that wasn't there before. The funny little annoying sounds have receded and the noise floor is dropping (what a relief). The music is so engaging that it is hard for me to sit writing this and not surrender to a massive listening session. As Jim (tubes) has pointed out, there seems to be an increase in musical energy (volume). Though it seems as if the dynamic range has been boosted rather than an overall increase in volume. Can this be? I, too, don't need to turn up the volume to the level it was before but it sure is pleasant to here the music just a little louder because it has a more engaging element.  I look forward to more improvement as time-burn in continues. I gotta sign off and do some more listening. I have no problems recommending these Russian FT-3 caps as a bypass addition.

[PatOMalley]

ronpod,

That's it for me. Ol' Tubey-wan sold me a set of these some time back and I have held back thinking to use them in the Cornet2 I am sourcing parts for. But the Clarinet just got a nice set of Jupiter's and they came in with high appreciation with the Mundorf's on a site I was reading: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/orgy-capacitors-cap-thread-284863/

Forget it, they are going in the Clarinet next chance I get.

Have you thought to damp that Lansing chassis? I dropped the bottom 'lid' and laid some generic blu tac around the inner perimeter, meaning inside the screw holes, all the way around with a circle of it in the center. It still had a resonance on tapping that was still up there so I laid two sided 3M foam tape at each inner four points within the blu tac perimeter and now all the usual commendable nonsense applies. Solid solid solid. I am using Herbie's HALOs as well on the tubes but the chassis damping is a worthy effort for very small dollars. Check out Jim's blog where I got the incentive; he is doing the same thing in his high end products. There are screw holes on the side and I am getting a friend to make me some wood side panels. That should dampen with a sympathetic resonance as well as well as adding a little 1970's panache.

Thanks for your feedback re the Teflon's and thanks again Tubey-wan for selling them to me.

[hagtech]

How could I have plunged so far into the audio sensory abyss?

Probably because it ended up being so fun and rewarding!

They are the same, just not labeled Vishay

No, I haven't tried the TC nudes yet.  I really need to look into it.

jh

[ronpod]

Disclaimer: I have no connection with TC other than I called them and received excellent personalized customer service.


Jim, This is likely to be information you already have but, if not, let me provide you with a short cut:

Vishay uses TC to make their resistors to spec and the resistors most audiophiles are referring to are the S102 series.
Spec sheet here:     http://www.texascomponents.com/pdf/vrths.pdf
The "nude" type does not have the epoxy case for better sonics.

I would prefer not to spread rumors but my understanding is that TC makes a similar "audio" resistor known as the TX2352.
Spec sheet here:   http://www.texascomponents.com/pdf/tx2352.pdf
Someone please correct this statement if it is in error.

TC also makes a "quieter" audio resistor known as the TX2575.
Spec sheet here:    http://www.texascomponents.com/pdf/tx2575.pdf
As you have seen in my previous posts, this is the one I have used. I have no scientific data to back a claim that this is the ultimate resistor for phono preamps. All I can say is that it works and works very well thank you.

I would be very happy if someone would do a resistor "shootout" including this component to others of similar application.

Jim, I would also be very happy to help you look into these matters out in Hawaii!

[tubesforever]

Ronpod,

I evaluated the digikey specified 1 watt carbon comps (I think these are Panasonics), Kiwami 2 watters, Mills wire wounds, Dales and Vishay nudes.

Unfortunately I cannot use the nudes everywhere.  They do not have the right wattage for the grids and the step downs. 

I can use them in the direct signal path. 

What I heard compared to other resistors is this.  My test album was a Robert Ludwig engineered piece called The Devils Trill.  This is a Nonesuch recording.

On this piece I can clearly hear a difference in the reflections of the music between the ceiling and the side and back room boundaries.  This is the type of thing you hear when you are at the event.  This level of precision is something I could not hear with any other resistors.  The Dales came the closest but were still short. 

My choice to pay a few extra dollars with the Vishay nude versions is based simply on my desire to use mil spec resistors since this is tube equipment running higher voltages.  I need a resistor that will not drift under stress or load.  I am not saying the TC resistors are deficient in any way.  They may be manufactured completely the same but might not be tested against the mil spec requirements.

I also bought these because they are carried by M. Percy audio and I like keeping him in business.  He carries a great deal of stuff I use regularly. 

Another benefit of the Vishay/TC nudes is that there is a nice clarity in vocalists.  Just listen to some complex choral stuff.  Beethovens 9th, Handel's Messiah and stuff like this.  You can hear every singer individually in their own space.  There is absolutely no homogenization of the sound field.  I also like that I can hear the words more clearly.

I could go on and on about the Teflon bypass caps and these nude resistors.  They simply elevate the Clarinet and Cornet 2 to world class status.  You will not be disappointed. 

I hope your FT-3's are all settled in now.  They are simply remarkable and when combined with the nude resistors you are in for a serious bit of audio sound quality! 

[WGH]

Installation is not pretty in the standard Lansing case because of compact space. I will dress it out and post pics later.

This I gotta see, I have a Cornet2 with the Lansing case and curious how you stuffed all those FT-3's in there.

Wayne

[ronpod]

Here is another website with information on "nude" Vishays and TCC resistors:

http://www.ariaaudio.com/WVVishay.html

ronpod

[ronpod]

Pat,
I have dampened my turntable with a multitude of items; Dynamat, cork, blu tak, MDF baseboard, ebony wood cartridge body, and the 3M visco tape, but I haven't given the Cornet2 the same treatment. Now you have me thinkin' I should. I sits on a very solid cabinet. I'll likely give it a go, why not, very few $$. Thanks.