Ok, so thoughts.
One thing about having a really nice system is that I can listen to genre's of music I never took seriously before, like Jazz, because IMO jazz simply sounds boring on low level mass consumer gear. Even on decent multimedia speakers, which is what I was running before all this, there is simply no comparison to the way the music just opens up and becomes alive on a real-deal audio system. I've been running through a very diverse series of albums to truly get a grip on what changes have occured with the new caps.
The first revelation was the Rush album "Permanent Waves". Normally I would have just played this album as maybe some background music, something different to listen to. Not this time...
But first a disclaimer. The Two.2 bypassed at 80hz uses VirtueCaps. I loved the sound. I loved them even better (oddly enough) than the full-range Auricaps. But that might have been due to the lesser load of 80hz. I'll never know. Either way, I liked them, and the stock Two.2 is everything anyone has ever said about it, it is a
fantastic sounding amp and truly doesn't
need any upgrading. Adding the Two.2 had my jaw on the floor from the first minute, even with the stock supply. Point: The Two.2 is a ridiculously good amp worthy of all the praise heaped upon it. They should change the marketing to "Virtue Audio: come get some ear candy", because that's what the amp gives you. I honestly think if I can swing it, a Three has to be my next amp, and when the time comes to swap out my DAC for something better, I'm going to take a good hard look at the Virtue Dac because the Two.2 is just irresistable.
But.... with these ClarityCaps installed, yes there is improvement. I don't have decades of experience and therefore the full audiophile vocab to draw from (apparently much of that stuff is bull**** anyway), so I'll keep it simple.
Back to the Rush album. There are lots of stereo effects and high value production stuff that I'd never noticed before, but these new ClarityCaps seems to have not only increased the, yes, clarity, of the amp, but also increased is the spatial nature of the music, and the soundstage front to back is much more obvious than before. Also the seperation of instruments, while fantastic before, is more defined here. I was hearing the music as intended, with very cool stereo effects produced in the music very clear and dancing between and filling the space between the speakers, around them, it was awesome. I didn't notice that before with the original caps. From beginning to end the album was a true audiophile experience. And the same was true of any well recorded album I own.
I think you just get a much better signal through these caps, and it makes things that were there before, it brings all that to your attention, is the best way I can describe it.
I would guess (it has been a month) that it sounds a little less "warm" than it did before, but I don't care, I'm more into fidelity than coloration. But in every other area, I count improvement.
Right now I'm running GR Research-Insignia monitors, and there is a mix of caps in those speakers: Erse bypassed with Sonicap Gen II's. If I weren't moving to Magnepans next I'd probably be interested in rebuilding the crossovers in those with ClarityCaps, simply due to the very nice performance increase realized in the amplifier.
A worthwhile upgrade.
Are those ClarityCaps or are you just happy to see me? Notice the tiny black VirtueCaps above, those were what was replaced by the boys in blue.
