Ron this project has consumed a good 12 hours of my time now! At least it is a labor of love.
When I first soldered in my FT-3 caps, I was working with my Hagerman Clarinet's final output cap. When I turned on some music it sounded louder than before based on the position of the stepped attenuator I was using. I thought this was an interesting start.
I do my cap evaluations playing a specific CD. This is a Telark CD of Louis Lane conducting the Atlanta Symphony of Copeland's Fanfare for a Common Man.
This recording has both Tympani and Gong for the opening and most preamps simply crumble into an abyss trying to keep up with the demands of this piece. They might get the volume right for the strikes but then have nothing left to resolve the harmonic interchange. Other caps might get the harmonics pretty good but cannot hit the volume. In my experience no cap had ever been able to get the volume, the dynamics, and keep the soundstage fully intact.
Well the Clarinet held on for the ride without a single hiccup, gulp or gasp and this has to be THE ultimate iron test for any capacitor.
I was dumb struck. Really, I think I played that opening some 4 or 5 times in a row at different volumes just to see if I was imagining things. The sound stage never shrank and the harmonics of the gong and tympani were easy to hear during that difficult passage. If you will also try the Vishay S102 nudes you will actually hear the tympani head quiver and then shimmer as the drum strokes decay. This is something I have not heard as well conveyed even by the expensive preamps I have heard lately.
Jim Hagerman is doing some pretty cleaver things!
I was really impressed for a couple hours. Then I began to hear what I thought was distortion in the upper midrange. At about 2-4 khz something somewhat to an AM radio drifting out of center tune.
I took them out however now all those awesome dynamics and harmonic transient details were gone! The Clarinet went back to being a solid midfi line stage. I called a couple of friends and they recommended I solder them back in and enjoy some music at nominal volume while the caps break in. None of us guessed how much time it would take but I can say now that 10-20 hours is all that you need.
Actually the distortion disappeared in about 1 and 5 hours time. After about 20 hours I thought someone had stolen the caps out of the case. They sonically disappear.
I play my system almost every night but I do not leave my equipment turned on while I am away. It takes about 1 hour for the Clarinet to sound superb. After about 4 hours on time, my Clarinet and Cornet 2 get down and groove. They become world class pieces. They have beat out 7-10k dollar line and phono stages and I consider these other pieces to be world class phono/preamps.
I have not heard sonic nasties from these caps. Perhaps the other Teflons have issues, the FT-3 do not.
I know a couple of my friends who like to burn in their caps before soldering them onto the PCB. I figure if you give them about 10-20 hours you will have a nice sounding FT-3s.
The little bit of upper midrange distortion I mentioned is really not an issue or a problem. It is kind of like being between radio stations on an analog AM tuner. It will not harm your speakers. Just play them at normal listening value and they will simply disappear over time.
I played my Cornet 2 against some big top name pieces and not a single phono came even close to the dynamics and clarity of the C2. Jim Hagerman deserves a huge round of applause. Not only is the sound clean, clear, and dynamic, it is also timbrally accurate, involving and emotional. I can only say that with the right parts and pieces the Hagermans get everything right.
For those others that enjoy reading and following these posts, if you own only a C2 my recommendation is to consider the Clarinet for your next project. The Clarinet is actually the stand out piece of my system. With it all my sources sound superb, and the Cornet 2 is allowed full breathing room to do its magic.
