Russian Cap Upgrade

[rockpassion]

Hello all,

I know this subject has been talked about alot but I found this upgrade to be one of the better ones I have done.  Anyway, I replaced the .1uf with an equivalent Russian Teflon Cap, and the .47uf with a .22uf Russian Teflon Cap.  I have put about 100 hours of listening time on these.  I was told this is about where they begin to breakin and start sounding better.

The difference is pretty big.  When I first made the modification I noticed a difference but it was not huge.  Basically, in the beginning the soundstage was deeper and clearer and it was more musical.  With 100 hours the soundstage is even better, wider and deeper and more realistic.  The bass is deeper and more concise. The best part is overall this upgrade made the music more musical, it calmed down the highs and the mids are just unbelievable. 

As far as cost goes it was about $75 for the four capacitors.  About half of that cost was the shipping costs from Eastern Europe.  For this cost I would recommend this upgrade to all. 

Richard

[mwaller]

Thanks for posting your impressions!
How did you go about securing the caps to the chassis?
Thanks,
Mika

[rockpassion]

Mika,

The .1uf caps while big fit perfectly next to the circuit boards.  I used a plastic tie and a self adhesive tie down tab right next to the circuit board.  This helped isolate this cap from the metal top. 

The .22 uf caps are very big but again they fit perfect in the spot right above where the .47uf caps were located.  I used a plastic breadboard circuit board and tied the caps to each one with a plastic tie down.  I then cut a couple of wooden dowls to the right length and placed them in the position above where the .47 caps were attached. 

I attached a couple of pictures that might help.

Richard

[Paul Joppa]

Sometimes it's a pain in the backside, but I totally love that our customers are so creative, and are having so much fun!

[mwaller]

Mika,

The .1uf caps while big fit perfectly next to the circuit boards.  I used a plastic tie and a self adhesive tie down tab right next to the circuit board.  This helped isolate this cap from the metal top. 

The .22 uf caps are very big but again they fit perfect in the spot right above where the .47uf caps were located.  I used a plastic breadboard circuit board and tied the caps to each one with a plastic tie down.  I then cut a couple of wooden dowls to the right length and placed them in the position above where the .47 caps were attached. 

I attached a couple of pictures that might help.

Richard

Looks great, thanks!  I'm waiting for all my parts to arrive before I start modifying.  I can't wait!
Mika

[rockpassion]

mika,

Good luck on the modification.  Keep us posted, I would like your take on what the mod does to the sound.

Richard

[rockpassion]

It has now been about 3 months since I added the Russian Caps.  I feel that they are well broken in now.  What i notice is the bass is very nice, not bloated but real precise and deeper than it was before.  The soundstage is not as forward as before.  It also is large from side to side with instruments placement much easier to discern than before.  I have always had slight brightness in the highs.  Some of it is my room but these capacitors have smoothed some of that out.  As long as I do not turn up the volume too loud and overwhelm the room the brightness is non-existent. 

So all-in-all I would recommend this as an upgrade.  It is easy to do and I believe a fairly significant change can be had. 

Now that these have broken in I plan on changing capacitors in my BeePre with FT-3 Russian Capacitors (Teflon).  I will post my impressions once they are broken in.

Richard

[galyons]

It has now been about 3 months since I added the Russian Caps.  I feel that they are well broken in now. 

Richard

I have found the FT-3's take about 400 hours for the caps to be fully "burned in".  Excruciatingly long time.  But, IMO  there are no equivalent quality caps available for 10 times the $$$$!

Cheers,
Geary

[rockpassion]

Geary,

Thanks for the information.  Can you give me an idea of what the change or changes I might expect.

Thanks

Richard

[galyons]

You are probably 99% there! They will continue to sound a bit more refined in timbre and imaging, but our "audio ennui" makes it hardly perceivable.  You are WAY past the hard part. 

Cheers,
Geary

[Why1504]

Could you advise on where you bought these caps?

[johnsonad]

If you don't want to source the Russian caps, another affordable when compared to V-Cap option are the Solen SQ3 Tefleon and Foil caps. I'm using these in my next Eros build.

[JamieMcC]

I've used Russian teflons as bypasses in my Crack, Sex and my Mainline has USA made RTI tinfoil teflon capacitors the burn in does take a long time and the changes are gradual so the effects of the teflons as they burn in settle down/develop or whatever takes place kind of creeps up on you and it seems to be a across the board effect. On both the Crack and Mainline for the sake of experimenting I swapped back to standard MKP films capacitors and the difference is immediately noticeable and it is safe to say the Teflons did not stay out for long.
 
Some well chosen Russian caps are hard to beat on both performance and price, they can easily hold their own against some very spendy audio cap options. 

Edit The Russian teflons for my Eros arrived this week 

[rockpassion]

To Whynot1504,

I have bought a number of Russian capacitors on Ebay from elecments13.  This seller is in Bulgaria so the shipping is  a little high.  But, his description is accurate, he ships very quickly, and in some cases he matches the values of the capacitors. 

I hope that helps.

Richard

[AudioDave]

Quick question,   I have some 0.1 uf Russian caps but they are only rated to 500v instead of 630v.  Would these work?
Dave