A couple of nights ago I swapped the output caps of my Quickie to Clarity Cap MR Series 2.2uF caps. There was a noticeable improvement in soundstage width and depth and overall focus. Right away they were a step up over the ESA Series caps by Clarity Cap that I had in there prior. (not to mention BIGGER!)
Last night I had about 10 hours of playing time on them and when I sat down to listen I was not prepared for what I heard. It's been a long time since a part change made my jaw drop but it happened last night. Focus, clarity, dynamics, whatever you want to call it these caps just let everything through. I could hear so much more detail and the differences between recordings became much more prominant. Forward sounding vocals were in my face and more laid back recordings were behind my speakers. At a certain point I picked up my jaw, stopped being analytical, and just got lost into the music! So much fun!
It may seem silly to put $110 worth of caps into a $135 preamp but holy crap it made such a huge improvement! Not that the quickie was bad before because it wasn't. Now it sounds better than pretty much every preamp I've heard under $2K! I can't even tell you what kind of tubes I have in it.
I can't recommend these caps enough if you want to hear what the Quickie can really do! It really does sound better than it has any right to at this price and makes a mockery of most preamps out there.
My stereo:
Rega P25 with Shure V15VxMR into a Cambridge Audio 640P phono preamp with Pangea P100 upgraded power supply.
Ipod Touch on a Pure i-20 dock with coax digital out going to a Musical Fidelity VDAC MkII powered by a 12V rechargeable battery.
Bottlehead Quickie with PJCCS
Homemade and highly modified Dynaco ST35.
AV123 X-Statik open baffle speakers.
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2F102d2791.jpg&hash=b98b0e4ec5b8dd316c425e3be18b98edcc1090f5)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2F6d2b00d6.jpg&hash=749e79f088cf85c298eb555eae39ac0da2a90fa0)
« Last Edit: February 24, 2012, 04:31:37 AM by corndog71 »
The world was made for those not cursed with self-awareness.
Rob