[LM]

I don't like it Hugh , I LOVE it .  As good as the original spec GK1 was, this upgrade was profound system wise.  I even had a widely respected (and not inexpensive) Arcam C31 pre in my home for week and if there was any doubt about which I should get, it well and truly went out the window with the Platinum upgrade.  Even the Platinum input caps for the LF/Soraya were not quite as significant though a clear improvement and extremely well worthwhile.

Glad you like the overall sound.  All the caps have well and truly bedded in now and and I'm extrmely happy with how complementary all of the components are to the system as a whole now - till you go and develop something better of course.

[stvnharr]

Oh Dear....... 

I feel the Platinum is the single best way to improve the GK1, you chaps have shown me the way!!   

You can reduce the value of the input cap on the LF slightly to 0.33uF if you use a teflon.  It is quite sufficient, but the cap is large and must be mounted off board.  Take care not to expose it to AC fields from a trafo or wiring, as these caps, being large, are susceptible to AC induction.

The cap you've replaced on the output stage is the charge suckout, Steve, it's a very important cap, too, but inside the fb loop, so not as influential as the input cap.

Lyn likes the teflon-ed GK1 with his Soraya, too, reckons it's VERY complimentary.  I've just returned from a listen at his home, thank you Lyn, GREAT sound!!

Cheers,

Hugh

I have a 1uf caps on input and output in the GK-1.  Were I to swap things around, I could take the .47uf from the LF, insert that on GK input, take the 1uf input cap and move it to the charge suckout, and put the Mundorf cap in the "spares" box.  But it's a lot of bother to do all that, so likely won't.  A .47uf or .33uf cap on the Gk input is a lot less costly than a 1uf!!!
The increase in sound clarity with the teflon caps is astounding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve

[Verk]

Yesterday I replaced C1 with a wire link and placed .47uf Platinums between RCA and live Input in my LF55.  In my system the improvement was immediate and very obvious.  MORE MUSIC.  Low level detail, bass, treble, the works.
My recomendation is to increase the house mortgage, sell a child, do whatever you can to get a pair of these caps.  The LF without this mod is a top amp, this mod puts it into the "I will never buy another amp" class.

Verk.

[kyrill]

Nice Verk

but all is connected, like different pearls in one girlie's necklace.
A Platinum as input in the GK-1 does not cloud the signal that comes in. It does not better the sound
That one is "clouded" by the probably not Platinum level output cap of the source.

So anticipate another joy when you replace the outmoded output cap of the source with a silver wire
mucho more expensive and less sounding is a replacement by another teflon

[whubbard]

On that subject:

Kyrill,

What do you use for your wire links?
If you do use silver wire, where do you get it?

-West

[kyrill]

there so many sources on the internet
try Google bulk wire silver

example 1) http://www.sisweb.com/ms/sis/wire6.htm
2) http://www.diyaudiostore.com/wire/wire.htm
3) http://cryo-parts.com/cryopartsag.html
4) http://www.vhaudio.com/wire.html

i would order 1 foot of pure gold it does sound good and
will add some special feeling. gold is an undeniable artefact
full of age old meaning and symbolism

[whubbard]

At $90 a foot you really think the gold is worth it?
I can understand silver, with $60 for 25 Feet, but the gold just doesn't make sense to me.

[AKSA]

Wes,

I owe you an email, my apologies, will get to it in a few hours, hopefully by tomorrow your time.

Breathless in Melbourne....

Hugh

[andyr]

i would order 1 foot of pure gold it does sound good

Hi kyrill,

I'm wondering what basis you have for saying gold "sounds" good?  (By inference, better than pure silver!) 

AIUI, the only reason it is used in electronics is because it is inert, so it's used to coat metals which would otherwise oxidise.  However, I believe gold has higher resistance than the same guage silver wire ... so silver should probably "sound" better?

Regards,

Andy

[kyrill]

Ah ya  is there a causal reason that better conductivity (relative, small differences) also should sound better?
I wonder. maybe it should be , but does it?

I notice over the internet that gold inter connects do sound better according to human ears..They seem to combine the crystal clearness of silver with the (tube like) warmth of copper.

to replace a cap with gold wire you need perhaps 0,5-1,0 inch of wire. So in a foot you can replace 12+ caps.
will you experience it as sounding better than silver? I predict yes as we are no scientific machines and we are culturally influenced. BTW one inch of wire ...can you discern differences in sound? The measurable differences  over such a short length to influences sound must be a night mare for an EE

[stvnharr]

BTW one inch of wire ...can you discern differences in sound? The measurable differences  over such a short length to influences sound must be a night mare for an EE

Or anyone else!

With several FEET of copper on the pcb board, one inch of anything fully conductive isn't going to change much of anything. 

This is starting to get a bit off topic.

[stvnharr]

A Platinum as input in the GK-1 does not cloud the signal that comes in. It does not better the sound
That one is "clouded" by the probably not Platinum level output cap of the source.

So anticipate another joy when you replace the outmoded output cap of the source with a silver wire
mucho more expensive and less sounding is a replacement by another teflon

There was something in another thread about removing the output cap on the source, etc, for the fullest nirvana, and I thought it was in this thread.
Nevertheless I have something to write as pertains to here.

With a large teflon on GK-1 input, it's safe to remove the output cap on source, providing that one can identify this cap, and anything in circuit with it.  Cd players may tend to have muting transistors after the dc blocking cap, which do more harm to the sound than any dc blocking cap.  Anyway, it's good to remove/bypass all this stuff, provided you don't totally disable the player in so doing.  Luckily my Marantz player has nice easy identifiable boards and all, not some mini board full of smd's.

A couple years ago I bypassed the muting transistors with noticeable improvement at the first sound of music.  And today I removed the dc blocking cap, one of those "magical" Black Gate 47uf/6.3v NX's, and just have a nice wire, copper like everything else, going to the rca from the where the cap used to be.  The effect wasn't much at all however.  With the large teflon cap the next thing in the circuit, well, that one takes care of everything. 

Steve

[kyrill]

ah ya
if the cdp output cap is well played very good cap already (Black Gate 47uf/6.3v NX's,) than the difference with the wire will not blow you away.

or the system have reached or is close to reaching  its max resolution capability

[stvnharr]

ah ya
if the cdp output cap is well played very good cap already (Black Gate 47uf/6.3v NX's,) than the difference with the wire will not blow you away.

or the system have reached or is close to reaching  its max resolution capability

The BG NX 47uf/6.3V caps have a great reputation.  I have used them as input caps in my GK-1 and amps, as well as the dc blocking cap in the Marantz.  I never really found them to be any improvement over the Evox Rifa caps that came stock with the GK-1 or amps.  They may have been an improvement over the Elna Silmics in the Marantz, but I replaced a lot of caps at once there. 
When I installed the Platinum caps in the GK-1, and later in the LF55, they replaced the BG caps with a very noticeable improvement.
I didn't expect much the other day as I'm quite convinced that the Platinum cap trumps everything.  And of course, we all hear what we want to hear!!!!

[kyrill]

hi
assuming a good cap does not better the sound, (wouldn't know how, how can the cap "know" how the music should sound in order to correct the signal?) and is at its best a "neutral wire" how can a Platinum as input cap sound better than the cap prior to the Platinum? The Platinum as wire then, shows the signal in a state "released" by the previous cap.
S0o the more perfect the Platinum is, the more it will show its quality as the preceding cap (brand X), no?

you can say the Platinum is a chameleon mimicking the previous cap properties which is out of sigth hiding behind the interconnect

[andyr]

assuming a good cap does not better the sound, (wouldn't know how, how can the cap "know" how the music should sound in order to correct the signal?)

The way I look at it, kyrill, all caps degrade the sound ... none of them "better" it. 

So, Steven replaced a BG NX with a Platinum cap ... and his GK-1/LF55 sounded better.

Regards,

Andy

[kyrill]

ya ya Andy aa
i agree on yr response to the first part of my message, but what about the second part?

[andyr]

i agree on yr response to the first part of my message, but what about the second part?

Well presumably, Platinum caps sound better than BG NXs IHO. 

Regards,

Andy

[kyrill]

hehe

i miss

[stvnharr]

Well presumably, Platinum caps sound better than BG NXs IHO. 

I don't think there's much presumability here!

In the Aspen preamp, the teflon film cap as input cap is a distinct sound improvement over the Aspen preamp with the BG NX cap as input cap, which was no improvement over the Evox-Rifa cap as input cap.
There has been no evidence/observation, etc. by anyone of anything any different to the above.
As yet, no one has removed the teflon cap and gone with straight wire for comparison purposes.
And, in my experience, caps in other positions, before and after, the teflon input cap, don't seem to have much difference on the sound, though it seems logical that they would/could do so.