[commsysman]

I have upgraded the coupling caps on the input of my power amp over the years, with progressively improving sound at each step (electrolytic to MIT Multicap to TRT Infinicap), and the most recent upgrade, to the TRT Dynamicaps, was just a mind-blower. The improvement in detail and clarity was stunning. I am currently using an Audio Research  LS-16 Mark II preamp, which sounds great, but I still had my old AR LS2B around.
I decided to see what output coupling caps IT had, and discovered the MIT multicaps were used.
I decided that before I sold it, I would try upgrading it to the Dynamicaps to see how much difference it would make; the answer is, a huge sonic improvement there, too.
These things are really wondeful.
The LS-16 mark II stll sounds substansially better than the upgraded LS2B, BUT...the upgrade probably eliminated 60% of the difference in sound quality between the two units.
I needed 8 capacitors to do the upgrade, which cost me about $140 US, but with some preamps you would only need 2 or 4, so the cost would be a lot less. These things will give you a sonic upgrade on 90% of the power amps and preamps inexistence, and we are not talking about a small one, either! Consider it!

[KT]

I, too, have Dyamicaps in my system and I'm as enthusiastic as you are. Funny thing is, the first couple of times I tried them in my preamp, they sounded dry and clinical. Either I had them in not faced the right way or I didn't give them enough burn in or they didn't mesh with the other components in my system at the time.

But, boy, when I put them in this last time and let them burn in, the sound was so engaging - great pacing, dynamics, and impact, great transparency, but also with a good dose of the smoothness, warmth, and intimacy of a good oil cap.

They're not dirt cheap (nor are they super expensive), but if you only need two or four of them in your preamp, they're worth considering.

I find it interesting that there's not a whole lot user feedback about Dynamicaps online. Maybe more people will try them out.

Best,
KT

[JoshK]

Caps are a funny thing.  You hear people raving about this one or that one all the time but about the most comparisons you hear are a simple pair-wise comparison in one specific application.  I think this is a big reason why one or the other might not be super popular, because little comparison is ever done among the better known caps.

For example, multicaps have long been being claimed to be outperformed by brand X or brand Y or brand Z.  But you never hear about brand X vs brand Y vs brand Z.  So when you hear someone come out a say brand Z smokes multicap (picking on them for this example), I feel the reader discounts this statement heavily because that isn't that hard to do.

Tony Gee is about the only guy that I have seen do lots of cap comparisons, and even he only chooses one application to test.  I want to see more comparisons on the bespoke caps, of course the testing is very boring imo.  I'd like to see more comparisons done on the following:

Auricap
Sonicap
TRT Dynacap
Mundorf Silver/oil or other supreme versions
ANSAR Supersounds
Russian Teflons
VCap
Sonicap platinums
_____ you fill in the blank

Also, application should be stated (power supply, line level coupling or speaker crossover) as the ranking will not necessarily stay the same from application to application.

Afterall, if your $4,000 audiphile amp beats a $200 yamaha stereo receiver, that really doesn't say much does it?

[commsysman]

All of my comparisons were in my Audire Forte power amplifier input coupling capacitors (120W@8ohms), which is now out of production, but which has outclassed many amps in the $2000-5000 range in direct comparisons BEFORE the Dynamicaps. The only exception was the one experiment with the output coupling of the AR preamp.
I have tried, at various times, the Auricaps (which did not sound good to me compared to the MIT Multicaps), and several of the others you list.
I particularly remember getting a really strong recommendation about 4 years ago for a Classe amp in the 120W/$3500 range (don't remember model #), and I took it home and was very disappointed by the comparison. It went back.
Audio Research was using the MIT multcaps in the output stage of their top preamps through most of the 1990's, then went to the TRT Infinicaps (which have had several stages of development), and then about 3 years ago TRT came out with the Dynamicaps to replace them.
Interestingly, the AR Reference 3 preamp has what AR calls "new proprietary caps" for output coupling, and everyone raves about the sound of it. Are they Dynamicaps in a plain brown AR wrapper...??..I suspect so.

[JoshK]

I wasn't intending to be such a prick as my post sounds.   Thanks for detailing your findings.  I was just trying to reply to why I think Dynacaps aren't more popular as KT had asked.  

There are a LOT of uber caps out there, and testing them all would be tiring, tedious and expensive.  So whether someone as yourself comments on comparisons that they have done to other caps it is all the more helpful.

[commsysman]

No problem; didn't get any negative vibes, lol.

I do want to say this though; when I went from electrolytic to metallized poly caps in the power amp, that was a big improvement (from a 2 to a 4.5 on scale of 1-10).

When I went from the MIT Multicaps to the old silver TRT Infinicaps, that was a definite improvement (from a 4.5 to a 6).

When I went from the Silver Infinicaps to the Red Dynamicaps, that was from a 6 to a 10!!

We are not talking about an incremental change so much a totally spectacular change:

Voice: from "good" to "I'm there live listening to Tosca"

Kettledrum: from "good" to "every microdetail of the dynamics and gradual fadeout perfect"

Bass Drum: from "down the street" to "gee, I'm glad we got front row seats at this parade" ...(makes you jump)!

Violin: from a "slight edge" to the tone to "How did Heifitz GET that tone...how controlled and seductive...."

So don't blow them off as "just another cap". They are THE cap! Nothing comes close at all.

(my ARC LS-16 Mark II, by the way, apparently uses a totally different Infinicap for its output coupling than what I had in my power amp until recently, by the way. The ones in my amp had a silver foil wrapper and were circa 1999. The ones in the 16 are white wrapper with dark green epoxy ends; I suspect they are very close to the Dynamicaps in construction, if not identical, because it sounds so good. The 16 was manufactured in late 2004, so they are much newer than the ones I recently replaced in the power amp.)