Quickie cap upgrade

[badman]

Are the K75 PIO?

My experience was related to the teflon russian caps in cans.  Definitely don't open up the oilers-

But the extra leads, connections, and resonant case are definitely drawbacks on the teflons, they sound better without.

Best,
bad

[Grainger49]

Yes, they are PIO.  I have this bookmarked:

http://www.diytube.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=898

I also have a page in Russian but can't read much of it.

[aragorn723]

Hi,

Just wanted to post a few impressions on the K75s now that they have 50 hours on them.  The sound is definitely unique-I like the presence of the midrange, and after reading some views, a few things surprised me about the sound.  One thing that was different was that the bass was noticeably tighter than the stock caps.  It is that musical kind of sound that draws you into the recording-these make you want to re-listen to your music and hear what it sounds like.  The treble sounded a little bit laid back on some recordings (and makes you want more) but other times I felt like there was more treble than before.  Overall they sound really nice, and opened up the soundstage from the stock caps.

Dave

[Bonzo]

Just the sound I have in my system!
I made this experiment once: I listen to "Pictures at an Exhibition" from my DAC and then from my vinyl.
Tha DAC is above any suspect: no output caps, only decoupling transformers as per diyAudio mods; the phono preamp's coupling caps are K75 bypassed by ft3 and the Quickie has k75.
I could clearly hear the difference between bass and high, and the vinyl was clearly the most extended.
An eye-opener experience!

Ciao, and let us know if you hear any further improvement

[Grainger49]

Dave, try bypassing your K75s with a KK Teflon (as Bonzo did and I have done).  A small value will work.  The Teflons need 200-400 hours of burn in. 

I bet your first impression will be good.

[aragorn723]

Grainger,

Is that the same as the K72's?  They are fairly cheap on ebay, what would that do to the sound?  Maybe .02uF would be good?

Dave

[Grainger49]

Sorry, yes.  There are a number of KK Teflon configurations.  There are K72P-6, K72P-3, K72-11, FCH, FT, FT-1, FT-2 & FT-3 (some say the best sounding).  There are a couple of others you want to ignore; the "Doorknob" caps and the K72-8 with antenna connectors on them.

Some have studs, some have leads and some have the tabs on the end.  I think the differences happen with value (uF) and voltage ratings. 

There are a lot of variations out there.

[aragorn723]

Wow.  I had no idea there were so many.  So the preferred cap is the ft-3?  The only question is which cap to pick.  The cap selection is subjective (ideally if someone had the same piece of equipment as you and had similar taste in sound they could recommend a value (at least that's what I hear from the Bottlehead folks!)  Anybody out there tried a bypass on the quickie?  Experimenting with these buggers could be a very time-consuming hobby, since teflon has a 200 hour burn-in    I'm pretty impressed with the sound of the k75 by itself, but you never know when the upgrade bug will strike, so this would be handy information to have!

Dave