[I.Greyhound Fan]

I know this is an old thread but I need some experienced advice on caps for a Pass B1 preamp.

I am building this for my son to go with a Parasound A21 amp.  He likes a slightly more warm and colored sound with good air, transparency, detail and bass. 

The preamp uses 1 1uF 400V and 1 10uF 400V per channel.  I want to keep cost's reasonable and I am going to use a Mundorf MCap Supreme (1uF 600v) capacitor.  I was thinking about pairing the Mundorf with either a 10uF 630V Obliggato Gold or a  10uF/630V Clarity ESA.  Are these good pairings?

Any recommendations are welcome.

For resistors, I am using Riken Carbon in the output stage and Tx2575 for the input.  The other resistors are Audio Note Tantalum's.


Thanks!

[paul79]

I'd use a Jupiter Copper for the 1uf. The Clarity would work well for the 10uf, but I'd try to stretch and use the Jupiter Copper's throughout.

You might check with Pass about the value of the 10uf and how critical it is. You may be able to go down to even a 4.7uf here. I don't know enough about the pre to tell you.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I would love to use Jupiter caps but the cost is over what I have budgeted for the build.   I wanted to use AmpOhm's Aluminum PIO but you can't find them in the value's that I need.

My budget for caps is about $100.  If I was building this for myself I might spring for Jupiter's or Mundorf PIO Silver/Gold.
My preamp is a VK-51se.

[zeroalbedo]

I'm absolutely agree with paul79. But considering your budget limit and sound preference of your son, might I recommend in place of 1 uF the very last pair of 1uF AmpOhm's Copper PIO from http://www.partsconnexion.com/buyback.html. Now they have a very special 60% off for these caps.

These Copper AmpOhm caps are better, more musical and warmer a bit then the AmpOhm's Aluminum PIO.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I'm absolutely agree with paul79. But considering your budget limit and sound preference of your son, might I recommend in place of 1 uF the very last pair of 1uF AmpOhm's Copper PIO from http://www.partsconnexion.com/buyback.html. Now they have a very special 60% off for these caps.

These Copper AmpOhm caps are better, more musical and warmer a bit then the AmpOhm's Aluminum PIO.

Thanks for the info.  Do they have good bass?  I would probably pair it with the Obbligato's or Clarity ESA's.  I might stretch the budget for the Mundorf Supreme 10uF. 

I will probably purchase the ampohms on Monday when PC is open for business.

Thanks.

[zeroalbedo]

Yes, comparing to the Aluminium the Copper's bass is a tad deeper, maybe moore meety, mature and the point of gravity of its sound is closer to the low-mid then to the mid-mid.

The sound of this cap is natural, full of resolution and ambient information too. And it has a copper "orange" aura or light around of music. Of course this cap is not the very best today and not a wonder-worker, but for this price it has an ability of special emotion transmissivity of sound already. Just give them a bit moore time to burn-in, approximately 50 hours, please.

The another slow-disappearing last mohawk of nice audiophile products

BTW the Jupiter Copper is definitely better Believe us.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Thanks!  If the AmpOhm's are still available I will buy them.  If the build sounds good I may build a second one (or the Pass Pearl 2 Phono Pre) with Jupiter caps for myself.  I am already over budget with adding a remote control volume pot and boutique resistors.

Any advice on pairing the AP's with the 10uF 630V Clarity ESA's or Obbligato Gold's?  The Obliggato's seem to have more air, detail and transparency than the ESA's but the bass is supposed to be a little thin from the reviews I have read.  Both are around $30 each.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Any thoughts on Rike S-Caps Aluminum PIO?

[BobM]

Thanks!  If the AmpOhm's are still available I will buy them.  If the build sounds good I may build a second one (or the Pass Pearl 2 Phono Pre) with Jupiter caps for myself.  I am already over budget with adding a remote control volume pot and boutique resistors.

Any advice on pairing the AP's with the 10uF 630V Clarity ESA's or Obbligato Gold's?  The Obliggato's seem to have more air, detail and transparency than the ESA's but the bass is supposed to be a little thin from the reviews I have read.  Both are around $30 each.

Ampohms have been gone for a long time now, so if you find them they are leftovers or used. But here's a comparison that you might find interesting.

My phono stage (Hagerman Trumpet) has a polarity switch. I have Ampohm 1.0's on one polarity setting, and the new Jupiter coppers 1.0 on the other. Switching between these has a very slight sonic difference, but really nothing you would notice unless you have this direct switchable comparison.

[borism]

The tubestore has still some AmpOhm 1 uf copper/PIO capacitors available. They are very good. I tried them as interstage caps in my Bottlehead 2A3 amplifier.

[rollo]

Ampohms have been gone for a long time now, so if you find them they are leftovers or used. But here's a comparison that you might find interesting.

My phono stage (Hagerman Trumpet) has a polarity switch. I have Ampohm 1.0's on one polarity setting, and the new Jupiter coppers 1.0 on the other. Switching between these has a very slight sonic difference, but really nothing you would notice unless you have this direct switchable comparison.

  Bob not comparing apples to apples. The Polarity switch changes polarity so a direct comparison is frankly impossible. One in phase one not.


charles

[jonbee]

Just wanted to share my recent experiences with .1 mfd Audyn true copper caps as bypass caps in speaker crossovers. In recent the years I've used Sonicap Gen 1, Gen 2 and Platinum, Mundorf supreme and silver/oil caps as bypass caps. Sometimes the result was beneficial, sometimes not.
I've recently bypassed the ClarityCap ESA tweeter caps in my LaHave Melas with .1 mfd Audyn True Copper caps  and the results were wonderful. The tweeter is a very wide range 50mm driver from 2 khz. and up, a new version of the Jordan modules. Very fast and detailed, but they lacked ultimate finesse on top. Bypassing the ESAs fixed that. Now the top end is as open and well behaved as any I've used. Cleaner, less hash, more 3-d. 
I then bypassed the series midrange and tweeter caps in my Joseph RM33LE with the True Coppers. These use a very fancy crossover, infinite slope AND high order conventional AND series, all in one speaker! The existing film caps are mediocre generic quality. I wasn't sure how the bypass would work out with all this, but it has a similar effect, but perhaps not as big an improvement as in the Melas.
At $18 ea. from parts express they are a steal. Best bypass results I've had. No downside in either speaker.
YMMV, of course.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Thanks for every one's help.   I was going to buy a pair of AmpOhm Copper PIO but the pair the Parts Connexion has is used and they can't tell me how old they are.  I ended up with Mundorf MCap Supreme's for the 1uF and Clarity ESA's for the 10uF.  If I don't like the sound I will try bypassing or roll other caps.

Any one know anything about Takman Rey Metal film and Rex Carbon resistors?

[wroman214]

  Hello to all,  I have followed this thread along with another cap test and chose AudioCap Theta in the coupling position of DIY Tubelab SE built for 45 tubes. I have two questions, see below
 





I understand Jon does not like the 5842 tube,  the TSE uses the 5842 with a CCS and voltage is adjustable with a pot in this design. I have gone to extremes to have a cool running amp and power transformer.  Even though I was advised against using the FT-1 200v coupling caps they work and since I have a thermistor  in the H.V. supply the voltage never goes above the 150 volts that I have the 5842 running at.


1) Should I be concerned running the FT-1's at 150v given that they are 200v caps.  Startup voltage swing is not a problem, see above.

When I first installed the non burned in FT-1's for a couple of days I was very very happy.  None of the rich and full bottom end of the Theta's was gone but the top end opened up and I noticed three major differences. Bass definition and timing was improved.  Spacial images were rock solid steady and any effects in the recording process were immediately indefinable. There was a slight grain heard but not bad in any way. I have started running the amp full time the last few days and I imagine 150-170 hours have passed.
The grain is gone.  The lowest bass impact and fullness has almost returned.  If I had not heard the difference I might well say that this is perfect.  Not really complaining about the sound just wishing for more low end weight.  I want my cake and eat it too kinda thing.

 
2) My AudioCap Theta's are .47 uF and the FT-1's are .022uF 200V,  Should I buy some lower value FT-1's 2200pF 600v caps.  Will a lower value FT-1's allow more of the Theata's through?      Or do I just need to do more burn in?   Just noticed some 5600 pf 600v on FleaBay.

Thanks for any input.
Walt

[wroman214]

 I thought of one other question.  I installed the FT-1s below the circuit board and soldered to the exposed leads oth the Theta's.  I taped the body of the FT-1's with paper tape to avoid accidental arcing across other leads from below.  It is possible I do not have the FT-1's mounted in the same direction (after taped can read).   I say this because during the ugly part of the brake in the sound almost seemed phasey if you know what I mean.  I am going to check this but before I do I thought those of you that have an oscilloscope or cap tester and used to using the FT-1's you may give a preferred orientation based on the writing on the cap.
Thanks

[Manolo]

nt

[andyr]

nt

I used 1uF as output coupling caps in the phono stage I make (Muse) ... and a friend uses them as the output coupling cap in his tube phono stage (GoldenAgeAudio).  They sound excellent!   


Andy

[wushuliu]

So after years of hearing about them I finally ordered some Obbligato Premium Gold. I have speakers that require 50uf in series to the tweeter and figured it was time to upgrade from the inexpensive Bennics (which aren't that bad for cheap polys). The only 'audiophile' caps that I could get near such a high value without breaking the bank were the Obbligatos. Only a few hours in and they are a big thumbs up. Absolute bargain for the price. Once again humblehomemadehifi's Tony Gee nailed their sonics with his review: analogue with clarity. They are on the warm side, spacious, and natural presentation. They are like a refined ClarityCap ESA so far - or what you think the MR would sound like if they were more like the ESA. So far I would put them on the level of the Jantzen Superior - Z in terms of pedigree. And I got these 47uf  Obbligatos at the price of a Jantzen Superior 6.8uf! However, they've cleverly priced their lower values only a little less than equivalent Jantzen, etc.

But at higher values, these Obbligatos are for the money, the best caps I've heard.

[Folsom]

I used Obbligator Golds before, for the same reason. They were an obvious upgrade!

[Tyson]

I have the Audiocap Theta in my First Watt Burning Amp 3 right now, is it worth it to change to a ClarityCap MR?