Jov, after reading over this old thread again, one thing occurred to me that may, or may not, be the cause of your less than good results after replacing the electrolytic caps with Black Gate Standards in you Threshold SL-10.
Older Threshold products such as the SL-10, as well as up through the S-series amps, all used small aluminum-electrolytic caps made by the now defunct company, Instrument Devices. These caps were marked with a stripe pointing to the (+) lead, which is totally opposite from Black Gate caps and the rest of the small electrolytic world. Its an easy mistake to put your new caps in backwards, if like most folks you figured that the old caps' stripe points to the (-) lead. You also may have thought that if you had put them in backwards, one of them would have popped by now, or the preamp just wouldn't operate, but that's just not the case.
I know, because when I recapped my Threshold Stasis 2, I unknowingly put the replacement Black Gate standards in backwards based on the old cap's pointer stripe. With the Black Gates unknowingly installed backwards, the amp sounded just a little better than before. That was probably because the old electrolytic were totally dried-out and shot; however, it still didn't sound right. At that point, I thought that maybe the new caps needed just a little more break-in time. After a three mount "break-in" and no improvement, I took a close look at schematic and concluded that I installed the new polarized Black Gates backwards. Also, a quick email to Jon Soderberg confirmed the reverse markings on the original electrolytic.
After removing the improperly installed Black Gates from the amp and comparing them side-by-side with a new matching Black Gate, you could see that the top of the case had a slight bulge, but none had popped. At that point, the reversed-biased Black Gates went out with the trash, and new identical Black Gates Standards were installed in their place.
The amp sounds much better now.
I wont make that mistake anymore.
I hope this helps you or anyone else replacing small electrolytic caps in their older Threshold equipment.
Older Threshold products such as the SL-10, as well as up through the S-series amps, all used small aluminum-electrolytic caps made by the now defunct company, Instrument Devices. These caps were marked with a stripe pointing to the (+) lead, which is totally opposite from Black Gate caps and the rest of the small electrolytic world. Its an easy mistake to put your new caps in backwards, if like most folks you figured that the old caps' stripe points to the (-) lead. You also may have thought that if you had put them in backwards, one of them would have popped by now, or the preamp just wouldn't operate, but that's just not the case.
I know, because when I recapped my Threshold Stasis 2, I unknowingly put the replacement Black Gate standards in backwards based on the old cap's pointer stripe. With the Black Gates unknowingly installed backwards, the amp sounded just a little better than before. That was probably because the old electrolytic were totally dried-out and shot; however, it still didn't sound right. At that point, I thought that maybe the new caps needed just a little more break-in time. After a three mount "break-in" and no improvement, I took a close look at schematic and concluded that I installed the new polarized Black Gates backwards. Also, a quick email to Jon Soderberg confirmed the reverse markings on the original electrolytic.
After removing the improperly installed Black Gates from the amp and comparing them side-by-side with a new matching Black Gate, you could see that the top of the case had a slight bulge, but none had popped. At that point, the reversed-biased Black Gates went out with the trash, and new identical Black Gates Standards were installed in their place.
The amp sounds much better now.
I wont make that mistake anymore.
I hope this helps you or anyone else replacing small electrolytic caps in their older Threshold equipment.