Russian PIO recommendations?

[Deke609]

Hi all - I am very happy overall with the sound coming from my BeePre + Stereomour II's (45 and 2A3) and would like to start experimenting with different tube and film cap combinations to get the sound dialed in to my tastes.

I recently replaced the Solen/Dayton film caps in my SII-45/EML 45B with ClarityCap CMR caps and the added clarity and attack is wonderful, although I find the sound is a bit "flattened" - still early days, and this may change. I'll have to try different tube/cap combo's to see what works best for me.  But the prospect of spending $1000's trying out different brands of boutique caps in my 3 amps gives me serious pause.  Spending $$ on tubes is equally hard on the wallet, but easier to justify because having them on hand means I can change my amp with a quick tube swap. Whereas caps that I only like 10% of the time will not get swapped in and just sit in a box of parts. (I know: "Welcome to the world of audio tweaking!")

The Russian NOS PIO's get good reviews on this forum and given how relatively inexpensive they are compared to the top-end offerings from Dueland, Audyn, Jupiter, etc., I am considering giving them a try. I recall Aaron J very much liking KBG's in his Beepre (perhaps even more than Jupiters?) and Tom-s is a frequent proponent of using Ruskies.  Geary L has also been proponent.

My questions:

(1) Are there types other than KBG that I should go for, or is KBG a consistent favorite performer?

(2) How do they compare sonically to expensive high-end offerings?  Am I getting 90% of the performance of say a V-Cap or Duelund for 1/10 the price? 

MTIA,

Derek




 

[2wo]

For the coupleing cap, I like the K40 they sound smooth and silky. In my Kaiju I have a pair of silver  Mica that so far sound really nice. A little faster than the k40 but without the hardness of some film caps but can be hard to find in a large enough value to use...John

[Deke609]

Many thanks John. I'll keep my eye out for both.

[Tom-s]

For coupling caps i'm using SSG (silver mica) en FT-2 or FT-3 (teflon) capacitors.
In one amp i'm using K40y-9 for the coupling cap, and that one also sounds very nice.

All three are worth a try. For the money the Russian caps are impossible to beat.

For larges values KBG-MN could be a good option, i'm planning on a pair to try in my S3X.
K75-10 are another good alternative for bigger capacities (for parafeed caps), just see what fits.

Haven't compared them to "modern" caps. But for now i can't justify the cost of those.
Tried the Mundorf supreme SGO 10uf in Mainline and found them expensive (maybe i'll replace them with K75-10 or MBGO someday).

[Deke609]

Many thanks Tom-s. So that's 2 votes for K40s and silver micas.  And a bunch of other options to look at it.

"See what fits": yeah, I think I'll need to add some legs to the SII-2A3 and the BeePre to get enough height to accommodate some of these monsters.

[Tom-s]

If i'd build the Stereomour (don't have one, but anyhow) i'd use FT-3 teflon interstage coupling caps 0.1uf and Audyn true copper max or Russian caps that fit the amp for the parafeed caps.

That's a nice and cheap / good setup that will probably fit.

[Deke609]

I've had my eye on the Audyn TCM's. They get very good reviews on other sites. But, while less expensive than Duelunds and Jupiters, they are still fairly pricey from Parts Connexion, the main source for such caps in North America. It looks like I can get them cheaper by ordering directly from Audyn in Europe. 

Do you know of an online retailer with good prices for them?

[Tom-s]

I'm located in Europe. So don't know about law concerning shipping to the USA.
A "local" store in Berlin has them: https://www.banzaimusic.com/

Edit: hmm, now i see for the size needed for Stereomour II (2.5-2.6uf, so 2.2 - 3.3 will do) Jupiters are cheaper from hificollective.

Edit: I don't know whats the optimal parafeed cap size for 45's?

[Deke609]

Many thanks. I will check those sources.

Re sizing for the 45 - yeah, that's an issue. The cap gets bigger (and more expensive): PB and PJ recommend 5 uF as the middle of the target range, and I'm using 4.7 uF.

[Deke609]

@PB or @PJ: for the 3.3uF caps in the SII-2A3, what's the lowest voltage rating I can get away with? There are a  bunch of 3.3 uF K75 Russian caps available for cheap, but they're all 500v.  Too low?

MTIA,

Derek

[Paul Joppa]

Yes, in my opinion 600v is the minimum.

[Deke609]

Many thanks PJ. I will keep looking.