[Ferrstein]

Hello, new guy here!

I've had my Chime up and running for a couple of months now... love it!  I'm spinning an old Pioneer stable platter into it and it is simply the best digital I've heard... and I haven't even began parts upgrades!

Question - does anyone have experience with the power supply electrolytics?  I'm talking about the (5) 47uf 450V jobs.  There are five in the Chime.  I'm also about to build a Clarinet, which has three of 'em.

Anyway, my experience modding my Counterpoint SA5000 tells me that an oil cap can sound very good in this position.  In that unit, I replaced 9 power supply elecrolytics with Continental Caps.  I have also used Continental Sprague Capacitors in my Acoustat servo amp power supply with great results.

Aside from the obvious need to use a different enclosure (these puppies are 2" diameter and 4" tall), I'm thinking of giving these a shot in my Hagerman gear.  I just wanted to see if anyone else has experience playing with the PS caps in these things.

Thanks in advance!

[anumber1]

The Clarinet has film caps spec-ed to bypass the electrolytic filter caps. Mr. Hagerman has produced a well thought out design to start with and the DigiKey sourced Panasonic electrolytic caps are pretty good as such things go. I have messed around with swapping caps in my Clarinet and find small differences in brands but it didn't radically alter the sound of the unit. More of a slight coloration than a revelation in sound IME. I ended up bypassing the spec-ed 1uF PS bypass caps with 0.1 uF MoJoTone VitaminT's (about a buck each) and liked the results as well as using much more expensive boutique caps.

Then again, the cool thing about a kit is that you can do just about anything you like to it...Go nuts and let us know how it turns out.

[Ferrstein]

Thanks!  I'll have to revisit bypassing these caps.  I did that with the caps in my Acoustat Servo amps a few years back and I did like the results.  Later I went to Auricaps in the signal path and liked it so much better that I sorta stopped the practice of bypassing.  Basically an unscientific approach that probably left me with false conclusions.

I may get a small sister chassis to bolt to the bottom of my clarinet that will allow me to experiment with different caps... especially the oil caps which are quite huge.  The problem is that I need the terminals of the capacitors to end up very close to their attachment point on the circuit board... I've always found that long umbilicals can cause problems if not very well thought out.

[anumber1]

Yep, I agree that long umbilicals and excess lead length make things "ugly & hummy" at best and can be a fire hazard at worst.

The nice thing about Mr. Hagerman's designs are that those electrolytics are *already bypassed* in his design. I bypassed the bypass caps! Overkill OCD running rampant!  But what I learned by doing this is that the spec-ed DigiKey sourced, Panasonic film caps are pretty neutral to start with, not grainy like, say a Solen cap and by using a smaller, cheaper boutique cap bypassing the bypass cap, you get the sound of the boutique cap without having to source the relatively hard to find and more expensive 1uF @400v value part.

Not to mention that it is way easier to fit a 0.1uF oil cap into a space designed for a 1 uF film cap than a 1uF oil cap (HUGE).

Using the spec-ed Lansing chassis, I found plenty of room to bypass the B+ bypass caps by mounting the 1uF film caps on the top (tube socket side) of the board and putting 0.1 paper-in-oil caps on the normal "component side". There is even enough room to fit Russian K40-Y9 caps neatly on the board!

[tubesforever]

I pretty much agree with Al on his assessment.  After spinning in about a dozen bypass caps on my Clarinet, I found that any decent film cap bypassed with an inexpensive PIO sounded better than the boutique caps I paid 20 bucks each to spin into the circuit. 

As for the elecrolytics, the Hagerman specified Nichicons are pretty decent.  I used the Panasonic TSHA caps which seem a little smoother (read that less grainy).  Less grain is good in my system.

I think Al is 100% correct, just use the specified Panasonic film cap and use a PIO 0.10uf to bypass it for a little more extension of air and high frequency magic.

I am in a state of bliss with my gear right now.  I experimented with S102 Vishay nude resistors in the direct signal paths on my Clarinet with surprisingly nice results.  I like this so much I plan to reconfigure the direct signal path resistors on my Cornet2 as soon as my resistors arrive.   

I also replaced the 50k pot with a 50k stepped attenuator.  I prefer Dale Vishay resistors to a pot.  I also skipped the 25k/50k balance pot as well.  This gives me an ultra clear sound that is really intoxicating.  It is fast, detailed, and warm all at the same time--Such fun!

[Brinkman]

I think Al is 100% correct, just use the specified Panasonic film cap and use a PIO 0.10uf to bypass it for a little more extension of air and high frequency magic.

... I experimented with S102 Vishay nude resistors in the direct signal paths on my Clarinet with surprisingly nice results.  I like this so much I plan to reconfigure the direct signal path resistors on my Cornet2 as soon as my resistors arrive.   

So, on the Clarinet the 1uF caps are C303 and C301 (four total). You added a .10uF PIO across each of the 1uF capacitors? Additionally, one shouldn't bother swapping caps in the power supply circuit?
Also, as far as the Vishay nude resistors go, you replaced the "direct signal path resistors." Pardon me for being reliant on the assembly instructions, but are you speaking of R303, R308, R309 & R311? I can't tell if R302, R306, R307, R310 & 312 would also be considered in the "direct signal path," as they look more like they branch off...

Thanks,
Brinkman

[Ferrstein]

Okay, I have som K40Y-9 PIO caps and some FT-3 Teflon jobs on the way!  Hopefully I'll get this thing assembled and give it a listen before they show up so I'm not temped to just put in the bypass caps without listening to the difference... I like to be at least somewhat scientific, so I like to hear how it sounds as a completely stock unit before I start messing with it.

BTW, I built my Chime up with all standard parts and planned to go back in and experiment with component swaps... but I haven't wanted to take it out of my system!  That is one damn fine sounding DAC!