Coupling caps

[Grainger49]

I have done every tweak in stages, whoa! That is not right.  I upgraded the iron on my Paramours.  It requires a larger, 10uF, cap so I did both of those at the same time.

But one at a time allows you to gain the knowledge and speak knowledgeably of what each one does.

[mcandmar]

Will do, but it will be a while yet before i start experimenting as its still new/fresh to me, when it becomes my baseline then i will start to experiment.  In the meantime i need to find your post again about the cap burn in rig and setup something similar..

Its funny as i'm used to SS amps swapping out caps and resistors and opamps to clean it up and try to improve its response and balance, but out of the box this amp is far superior to anything i have ever heard before. I'm still in awe of these little glowing wonders..

[boulos]

I changed the caps at once. I felt it is too much of a hassle to change one pair at a time. Changing them at once also helped in making the decisions on their placement. I agree though that one at a time would be more disciplined and illuminating.

Grainger, I am liking the sound here so much that part of me is reluctant to switch the Mundorf to the Russian caps when they arrive.  But who am I kidding ... will I be able to resist installing them?

[Grainger49]

In my experience you just might like the Mundorfs over the KK Teflons.

[boulos]

yeah, it is really a tough call, especially since these are sounding good, and the installation turned out relatively clean (if I may say so myself).

[boulos]

Slightly off topic, but wanted to wrap up this thread.

The Russian FT-3 Teflon caps arrived, but I was reluctant to install them since the Mundorfs are sounding great.  However, I was changing some tubes in my preamp (which I only use as a phono preamp), and noticed that a couple of power supply electrolytic caps were done (tops bulging). I also noted that the coupling caps between the first and second phono stages were 0.1uF.  So, yes, I installed the FT-3 caps there (and of course, replaced all the electrolytic caps, which were already over 20 years old).

I didn't know what to expect, but the sound changed drastically.  So clean and fluid.  Now I'm wondering, should I have installed them in the SEX instead? Should I order another pair?  Maybe this thread isn't over yet :-)