Capacitor log Mundorf Silver in Oil


I wished I could find a log with information on caps. I have found many saying tremendous improvement etc. but not a detailed account of what the changes have been. I have had the same speakers for many years so am very familiar with them. (25+ years) The speakers are a set of Klipsch Lascala's. They have Alnico magnets in the mids and ceramic woofers and tweeters. The front end is Linn LP12 and Linn pre amp and amp. The speaker wire is 12 gauge and new wire.

I LOVE these speakers around 1 year ago they started to sound like garbage. As many have said they are VERY sensitive to the components before them. They are also showing what I think is the effect of worn out caps.

There are many out here on these boards I know of that are using the Klipsch (heritage) with cheaper Japanese electronics because the speakers are cheap! (for what they can do) One thing I would recommend is give these speakers the best quality musical sources you can afford. There is a LOT to get out of these speakers. My other speakers are Linn speakers at around 4k new with Linn tri-wire (I think about 1k for that) and the Klipsch DESTROY them in my mind. If you like "live feel" there is nothing like them. In fact it shocks me how little speakers have improved in 30 years (or 60 years in the Khorns instance)

In fact I question Linn's theory (that they have proved many times) that the source is the most important in the Hi-Fi chain. Linn's theory is top notch source with lessor rest of gear including speakers trumps expensive speakers with lessor source. I think is right if all things are equal but Klipsch heritage are NOT equal! They make a sound and feel that most either LOVE or hate. (I am in the LOVE camp and other speakers are boring to me)

So here goes and I hope this helps guys looking at caps in the future. Keep in mind Klipsch (heritage Khorns Belle's and Lascala's especially) are likely to show the effects of crossover changes more then most.

1 The caps are 30 years old and
2 the speakers being horn driven make changes 10x times more apparent.

Someone once told me find speakers and components you like THEN start to tweak if needed. Don't tweak something you not in love with. Makes sense to me.

So sound
Record is Let it Be (Beatles)
The voices are hard almost sounds like a worn out stylus.
Treble is very hard. I Me Mine has hard sounding guitars. Symbals sound awful. Everything has a digital vs. analog comparison x50! Paul's voice not as bad as John's and George's. Voices will crack.

different lp
Trumpets sound awful. Tambourine terrible. Bass is not great seems shy (compared to normal) but the bad caps draw soooooo much attention to the broken up mid range and hard highs that are not bright if anything it seems the highs are not working up to snuff. I have went many times to speaker to make sure tweeters are even working.

All in all they sound like crap except these Klipsch have such fantastic dynamics that even when not right they are exciting!

Makes me wonder about the people who do not like them if they are hearing worn out caps and cheap electronics? Then I can see why they do not like them! If I did not know better from 25+ years of ownership that would make sense.

For the new crossover I have chosen Mundorf Silver in Oil from what I have read and can afford. I want a warm not overly detailed sound as Klipsch already has lots of detail and does not need to be "livened up" they need lush smooth sounding caps. Hope I have made the right choice?

When the crossover is in I will do a initial impression on same lp's. Right now it goes from really bad (on what may be worn vinyl) to not as bad but NOT great on great vinyl. (I know the quality of the vinyl because tested on other speakers Linn)

The new caps are Mundorf Silver in Oil and new copper foil inductors are coming. I will at the same time be rewiring the speakers to 12 guage from the lamp cord that PWK put in. PWK was a master at getting very good sound often with crap by today's standards components.

The choice of speakers would be a toss up now depending on what I am listening to. Klipsch vastly more dynamic but if the breaking up of the sound becomes to much to effect enjoyment the Linn would be a better choice on that Lp. If I could I would switch a button back and forth between speakers depending on song and how bad the break-up sound was bothering me.

volleyguy
Ait

I should check to see what my amp runs at voltage wise as it is a big difference for the high voltage caps.

The CAST do take a couple of weeks to open up I think.

I am just completing the break in on the Jensen Copper Paper tube caps now that the speakers are all Duelund and all the same.

I am curious as to how the VSF and Jensen compare?
I received the CAST 0.56uF caps for my preamp and installed them last night, then spent about 4 hours listening. The main difference between the CAST and the Mundorf Supremes I was using is in tonal balance. The CAST has more rounded and fuller midrange, low midrange and bass than the Mundorf. The treble is about the same so far.

I do feel that the Duelund sounds better due to the better tonal balance. Sax sounds more like sax, voices are especially nice.

I'm using the 200VAC CAST, not the 630V "electronics version". They are smaller and just fit into the preamp - the larger 630V would not have fit without extensive modification. An added benefit is that they are also less expensive (but still close to $600 per pair). Both Duelund and PCX assure me that these can easily handle at least 200V DC, even though they are marked as 100VDC on the side of the caps; my preamp runs at 175V DC on the plates.
Other Duelund inductor is here.

Nice to have a full Duelund speakers of VSF and CAST. I only have the Autoformer and tweeter resonance cap that are non Duelund.

In many ways I am glad this is done. So many hours (and $) to get an understanding of what goes on in speakers. I can never look at a set of speakers the same.

Also one Duelund .047 VSF is here. That is one expensive little capacitor.

Irish I am going to do the same as you and sell off the non used parts. Which are mostly gone.

Anyone looking for a

Mundorf Silver in Oil 2.2uf (never soldered)
2.5 mh North Creek (never soldered)

If not I am going to list on e-bay.
Volleyguy,

The Duelund's that were never used was because I made some changes to the crossover. I used less expensive parts to do this so when I ordered the Duelunds I thought I had the correct values. I am building this from scratch.
I settled on a 30uf Cast instead of the 20uf I am selling. The 15uf VSF cap I replaced it with two 6.8uf Cast in series. It is not a fair comparison with VSF to Cast but I tried the replacement with Clarity caps first and using two smaller caps in series provided more air and extension on top then one larger one.
Don't get me wrong it sounded very open and organic before I pushed the envelope for better sonics. As I said in my ad I am in pursuit of the most natural sounding speaker .
As with the various parts I have tried Mundorf, Clarity, North Creek and many others it was the Duelund's that have made a permanent home.
With the Duelund Cast in the crossover it amazes me how little volume I need because they lower the noise floor considerably.
Irish65

It would be nice for you to post your thoughts on your extensive experiments with parts.
Irish65

Why are you selling off never used Duelund parts? Why were they not used? I might be interested in the wire?
Frederik/Duelund

You guys must be getting confident? or you need to make two parts at once? That is great because I have heard enough of the vintage and am starting to tire of one speaker.

The second inductor is being sent today as well as the .047uf VSF cap.

I must say the Duelund WPIO inductor is a great part. After listening more this part makes a GREAT difference in voices. With the grealy reduced noise level the sound is rounder fuller and lush. Much more human sounding. Which does make sense as sound tilts to the low freq more because of less noise. Sometimes the voices do not even sound the way I remembered them? Took some getting used too. Norah's recording is much more enjoyable.

Looking very forward to when the second inductor gets here. I am going to wire up one speakers hook up wire with the Duelund (copper) wire right away. The only comparision will be against the crap stock wire. Not a comparison against a good part just how much does hook up wire matter. I am done buying any other parts. Too expensive I lose money every time.

I want to complete the Jensen Copper paper tube burn in as that is a good part. (about 100 hours on them in the other amp)
Face

There is for sure more bass out of the Duelund. To me this is like going from VSF to CAST it is disorientating. When I put in the CAST (tweeter) I was shocked at how much less white noise compared to VSF.

My expectation on the changing the inductor was for more bass. (either NC or Duelund) Not sure why I did not understand noise from inductor???

As far as what an inductor does technically letting through the low freq signal blocking the high freq the Duelund is by far the quietest. (vintage second)

I am now starting to understand inductors better. When they resonate they make a thinner sound. You get the woofer adding high freq noise. (I really believe that Clarity white paper) This takes away fullness of the sound. The Duelund gives the impression of more bass but is it because of just less white noise coming through the woofer? (or like you said Face maybe purer copper and 12 guage or the silk?)

Norah's voice is richer fuller sounding. I think from the noise reduction from the woofer. So more of the voice comes from the woofer. On the vintage her voice is frail. On the Duelund you can hear more easily of the double tracking (on some tracks) of her voice to make it sound even fuller.

On Norah's voice you notice a huge drop in SSSSS's on Duelund.
If Deulund VSF is SSSS's
Vintage is SSSSSSSSS's
NC even more

Can we assume CAST is SS's?

Looking forward to see what the VSF does in electronics. Reducing noise without making things sound dead is the trick. The Jensen Copper Tube type does well at reducing noise just wish it was a little more realistic in the midrange.

I am going to spend awhile vintage vs. Duelund to see if I got my money's worth. At first when I put the vintage in (to compare to Duelund) I started to wonder? Now I coming to understand and appreciate the difference.
As long as the laminate core is used below a certain frequency, the distortion may not be audible.

As for why they may sound different, different purities, dielectrics, etc...
This is going to take a little while to figure out.

The Duelund and the vintage are for sure not miles apart. This was one part I was unsure of doing as an inductor does not wear like a capacitor. So any new one would have to be technically better.

One thing I always wondered was does gauge matter? A steel laminate core inductor using 28 guage has the DCR of .3 a 12 guage air core is about the same so on a technical basis both are about the same resistance.

Hysteris is supposed to be awful. (even sounds like a disease) Yet on a thread I linked here to Al Klappenberger said in reality the measured distortion was very low? (from the vintage Klipsch laminate core)

I know a 28 guage wire running to your woofer sounds terrible. But is .3 DCR not .3 DCR? Is it not the resistance that matters not the guage?

Now if both are .3 DCR and neither has resonance. Should they not sound similiar?

Joe any words?
Undertow

My DCR guage puts the vintage at .3 to .4ohm (supposed to be .29)

The NC goes from .1 to .2 and NC says .15 I believe.

I would for sure NOT say NC on the woofers. A wax paper inductor of some sort. I am testing Duelund vs vintage which are both wax paper inductors. Both have DCR's around .3.

I will post again soon.

Face I did not buy a resistor because I had to try the Duelund first which has a very close DCR at 12 gauge. So the resistor might not have been needed.

I did prefer the vintage over NC even though I knew the vintage was cutting bass. The vintage (wax paper) has much less noise and harshness. So again I would have just kept that inductor over the NC.

I can say after a few minutes that the vintage and Duelund sound more related than the NC.
Have you measured the two different inductor's DCR? How do they compare? Did you level match your mids after swapping the components?
So then north creek on the woofers, Duelund on the mids and tweets sounds like the most dynamic presentation. Obviously there are advantages to having "more power output" or efficiency to your large 15" woofer if your using K-horns with the north creek not needing nearly as much power. ThatÂ’s my take, and then duelunds yes make sense on horns. So if you were using the north creek on the horns than it makes some sense, did you try anything on the woofer? Or are you using the original inductor on the woofer and comparing these 2 inductors on the midrange?
Differences from North Creek to Duelund

The Duelund is darker more romantic sound. The North Creek crisper with more emphasis on middle and upper freq crispness. Drums have more snap on the NC than on the Duelund they are also of lower volume and crispness. On the Norah Jones CD the Duelund presentation will be lush but somewhat darker sounding. Norah is the star on the Duelund lush sounding on the NC the drums start taking the show and Norah voice becomes brittle.

With tone controls the treble is flat with the Duelund with the NC I would cut it back the treble. No contest in which is smoother, Duelund all the way. With the cuts in noise the Duelund will have more perceived bass. (less high freq and high freq noise) This makes the Duelund a easier long term listen. No hardness to sound at all. NC is sensitive to source and these differences are quite large.

I do notice the same things as when VSF or even more so when CAST went in the tweeter the amount/volume of sound goes down and this is noise reduction.

In the inductor the NC is MUCH louder volume wise.

Duelund works very well in this application as my speakers were tilted to much to mid and high. One may want an NC (although I think not) if your speakers were already on the dark side because NC for sure will tilt sound upward and be more crisp at a price though of harshness.

Face already ordered.

My gut feel is that the CAST would be even better? Duelund has MUCH less noise than NC and I bet CAST even less. I have to admit I never understood an inductor before.

Still have to compare against vintage. I bet the noise is about the same? Wax paper inductor essential in my mind. One really needs some way to deal with this resonance.

I still have some unused parts. (anyone interested)

1 Mundorf Supreme Silver in Oil 2.2uf
1 2.5mh North Creek 10 guage inductor.

Both are in as new condition never been soldered.
The inductor is a very overlooked part in my mind.

SET had posted on his thread that his North Creek is much better than a Solen inductor. For sure I can imagine this. I have never heard a Solen but there is no way to deal with resonance in this inductor. Just loose wire with twist ties.

The North Creek uses very hard wire and bakes to one another to one hard chunk of copper. This goes part way on resonance reduction.

The Duelund WPIO is a fairly hard chunk of all natural material of paper and oil and in which the wires do not touch each other.

What does this mean. The NC resonates and gives a blurry background in comparison. The Deulund sounds darker but more realistic. That high freq resonance that the Clarity White Paper talks about is very real.

The Deulund also sounds more natural in tone. Is that the Silk oil I do not know? I expect so. Nevertheless this is one fine sounding inductor. I can only imagine what a CAT sounds like. I would expect the same as in the caps even less noise.
Undertow

Yes you are correct. I just could not afford to do what Jimmy has done. I often reverse the parts and use several amps and reverse tubes etc. So Yes not exact but often there can be such a huge change it is not hard to hear at all.

Speaking of a huge change as much as I have struggled with the Jensen vs. vintage Vishay I am having no such trouble with the inductors.

The Deulund is MUCH smoother. The midrange much better. The North Creek has a starker and harder sound. The North Creek like Irish said may dig deeper? I am not sure yet? I had mentioned a long time ago every time I put in a Duelund part in seems to make all sources sound better. They make your best sound better and your worst. To me this makes them unique. The WPIO inductor is no exception.

This is a lush sounding inductor.

I will be comparing over next few days but if the initial impression is correct (and I think it is) I have ordered my last new non Duelund part as I simply am not interest anymore in anything else. I do want to see how this inductor compares to vintage though. So far better in every way. (from memory)
Acoustics, by the way this plays a HUGE part in what your hearing. First off running one speaker in one corner at time, lets imagine your cranking your stereo and a channel goes out, blows whatever.. What does this sound like? CRAP regardless how good the components used are! Fact is your missing now the Center image in the room, and yes DISTORTION goes up substantially because you hear all the artifacts of the room on that side no longer being integrated and even cancelled by the other side of the roomÂ…

Also Recordings for example, I can play one that is very GUITAR heavy to the left channel lets say, cut that speaker off and the right losses a bunch of the info in the right. Vocals foget it, Midrange forget that too as you cannot have a warm centered voice and sound stage in the room anymore because your missing a channel. Bass as well now you are OVERLOADING one side and it sounds like Crap.

So again I would like to know how this is an accurate style at all for really evaluating true hi end stereo 2 channel? Also just a note, I believe you are evaluation CORNER horns? This is even worse, they are only echoing out of one corner or the other, No breathing room as they are smack dead in your corners, so yes you basically would have a boom box blasting at you from one side of the room evaluating one Crossover at a time vs. Stereo.

So please you have spent the money, its time to get the Pairs to make your system work correctly and you might find that all this back and forth is not necessary and you will get a great sound already. I understand the stuff is expensive, but you chose to get into this in the first place, so its best to do it right at this point, doing yourself a huge favor getting a true balanced sound all together, and no doubt 2 channels with a "Sonicap" will sound better than ONE with a duelund :-)
I made a mistake this process would not even be really "Mono" but half of a signal! Half stereo missing many things on recordings that would be on the other channel. So this makes it even worse to evaluate stereo recordings as you are if I understand the way you are trying to come to these conclusions?
Again I have no idea how you can evaluate each component like this in MONO, yes you will get FAR better effect with every cap and inductor in stereo pairs on any speaker. ThatÂ’s why to me a lot of this was a throw away thread, I am sorry.

Until you can give a real evaluation with BOTH speakers set up correctly, running equal parts to hear the real deal in soundstage etcÂ… Not one speaker running with one supposed better part and just shifting your balance knob on a to the other speaker and saying OH I can hear one is better than the other, we don't have much to go on, because in this case not all things are equal from you are saying.

So yes I suggest if your serious about one part, order its companion and then put it in to the the real test running as it should on both sides of the room and see what comes together.

Its actually kinda strange many have fed the beast on this thread as it stands not reading or realizing you are evaluating a critical soundstage and passive component on one channel at a timeÂ… You asked the question so I say YES order it so you can hear the entire balanced soundstage of caps and inductors!

I don't believe any of the Tony Gee or whoevers reviews you refer to were doing this in a mono test on stereo speakers, I am sure they had a PairÂ… Beyond that believe me when I say even the more "Ruff around the Edges" caps or inductors you are stating don't do justice will actually sound smoother when you hear equal signals on both sides at once opposed to one sided mono killing the whole thing off in the first place.

I would like to hear back from Duelund on the thoughts of evaluating their caps and inductors in mono for speaker pairs?

Good luck
I am over 100 hours on the Jensen's Paper Copper Tube caps.

Jensen vs. vintage.

Well not all vintage is the same as is not all new caps. In the phono stage Fisher used some no name cap and it was not very good. So Jensen there all the way.

Now on to the linestage.

Jensen vs. vintage foil Vishay Ero Fol II. What this Vishay has in common with the Vishay that Tony Gee talks about I am not sure, maybe nothing?

Although this vintage shares many of the same traits. They sound very alive. "concert hall acoustics" Tony says about new Vishay ERO is it the same?

When I was done doing the speakers and wrote on here that Duelund blew away the vintage tweeter caps but it was quite close in the midrange, much closer than I was thinking it would be. I expected to get a blast from everyone and including Duelund.

I now understand that since Steen used vintage in electronics and since this was a midrange cap test it was not surprsing that it was close.

The Jensen vs. Vishay is going to need the full 200 hours to decide. It is very close. When/if the Jensen moves past the vintage in midrange realness then I have a easy choice.

Some of the best deals in Audio must be those old foil caps because they go for chump change. (now that they are old)

The Duelund VSF for the midrange is $500 each and it was close to vintage foil. The Mundorf's Supreme's for the midrange were $100 and the vintage was much better. In fact before I assemble the speakers I am going to try it again, to see how close. Now at least Duelund was better.

The Sonicaps vs vintage foil was the first test I did and my wife said that is the BEST thing you have ever done! (Audio wise) but the problem was she talking about the vintage!

The Jensen's were over $100 (on sale) for a pair and I still like (so far) the vintage better but Jensen is a good replacement and I see why vintage tube guys have used them for so long.

So I am taking out that amp and putting in the EL84 for a comparison from Duelund vs. North Creek inductors. (so that all parts are the same)

I need to know whether to order a second inductor or not?
Over on a DIY site a guy posted a picture of the crossover in his B&W 800D's, they have the following...

Tweeter - 4.7uF Mundorf Gold/Silver Capacitor
Midrange - 22uf+22uF+10uF Mundorf Supreme Capacitors
Woofer - 100uf+100uF Mundorf Mcap Capacitors

Tweeter/Midrange uses Van Den Hul CS-14 Copper/Silver 14AWG cable
Woofers use copper 12AWG cable

He was asking about changing the internal wire, which I would leave alone.
My ears are just recovering from Rubber Soul. I forgot how bad some recordings (compression and loudness) can be.

Closing in on 100 hours for the Jensen's and decent break in for the Duelund WPIO. I will change back to the EL84 so that the signal is identical this weekend to compare directly to the North Creek.
Just bought Rubber Soul on new remastered CD and am doing the burn in that way. It sounds terrible! Why do they keep doing this to music? Turn up all the instruments full blast and that's better, right? Clearly mixed for the video game.
Thanks Duelund

I am very excited to see what the VSF does in the DC signal path. I guess that the VSF is coming over in your next shipment at the end of the month? .047uf.

So far every Duelund part has preserved the "live" feel well reducing noise and giving better tonality.
Volleyguy,

True, he did that untill his designs could be made to cope with DC. His main criteria was to get the midrange right, feeling that this was a neglected part of the frequency spectrum of available modern designs.
Frederik

You once said that Steen used (for coupling caps)

"Prior to his own designs, he used vintage designs such as paper in oils, and wax/paper types".

I have the two Jensens in the linestage and the sound is VERY similiar to vintage caps. I can see why so many have used Jensen as replacement for vintage caps.

The one thing they are not yet as good is the midrange reality. Voices are not yet as real as vintage and I am aware of listening to a stereo.

I find if the midrange/voices are not "alive" sounding nothing else matters in the sense of wanting to recreate live sound. You will always be aware of the sound coming from speakers.

It is still very early and the Jensen are getting better. In most ways they are already better but not in this one critical area.
I will be installing the 3rd Jensen in the one signal path.

So far the two Jensens have increaed dynamics reduced noise made the sound quicker. They do not have a plastic sound like poly caps to me but yet the sound is more like HiFi. But that I mean I am completely aware I am listening to a stereo?

How I ended up with a vintage amp (and I have heard some very expensive new gear) was I was very curious how they can sound very real? Warts yes but alive.

So far only Deulund (in the speakers) seems to capture the magic aliveness of vintage with the advantages of modern. For me that is priority #1 is I do not want to feel I am listening to a stereo.

It is still very early in the Jensen break in and they can still come alive. I can see why Steen started with Jensen caps though not major faults.
Thanks Irish65 on the Duelund inductor.

I know you hold the North Creek in high regard as well as Duelund. I now have a North Creek and Duelund WPIO in each speaker. I for sure do not want to diss North Creek in anyway. I will hold all comments back on the this till all caps are replaced in the amp. I expect this to be fairly close between the both when working with new caps in the amps.

For ones (like me) working on a limited budget and looking for best bang for the buck. Money spent so far for best bang.

1. Duelund VSF in the tweeters over anything else (for sure vintage!)

2. Phono stage coupling caps (Jensen Copper paper tube over vintage) Big improvement for small $.

3. CAST tweeter caps over VSF. Still a big jump even at this level.

I know have put another Jensen cap in from pre-amp to output tubes. Not as big a jump as the phono cap replacement. But still breaking in. But there are two caps in that path.
They're very transparent and don't have a sonic signature like Mills or MOX do. Be sure to give them a few hours or so to break in though.
Ait:

Certainly not, but for the sake of not publishing too much information, would it suffice if I said, that they do differ a lot from the old carbon types, both in construction and sound.
That's what I've heard about Duelunds, and I fully intend to try the Duelunds out. I was just asking a technical question of Duelund, I hope I didn't insult them. I'm just curious about how/why a carbon-based resistor can sound so good when carbon comps are known to be very noisy.

Is it the monolithic nature of the carbon, i.e. no grain boundaries?
Ait, I am addicted to TX2575 in electronics and believe it to be the cleanest sounding low-power resistor. That said, Duelund graphite resistors are superlative in speaker crossover, exhibiting transparency untypical of carbon comp. or carbon film.
From what I read, carbon composition resistors are the noisiest type - how does the Duelund resistor differ from an old carbon comp type, and why would this sound better than a bulk metal film? Is it because the graphite is not present as separate grains as in a carbon comp?

I have used the Texas Components TX2575 metal Z-films in electronics and they are incredibly clear sounding, although only 0.6W in power handling; I'm thinking that paralleling a few of those into a higher wattage for use on tweeters should sound better than a carbon-based resistor, no?
76doublebass,

We are sharing a room with the Kaiser Kawero loudspeaker. It features a predominantly CAST based filter.

I hope to meet if you guys decide to show up.
Nice Irish65

I would expect with Duelund tradition you will notice a difference.

You never really could say what you thought the difference was in Duelund vs. North Creek in inductors. To me the NC is good down low but hardens the sound.

I am going to keep the North Creek until my whole signal chain is at least Jensen Copper Tube type. I want to be exactly sure and fair to North Creek. One thing is with out a doubt Duelund is very unique (to me) and not one of those parts that reveal weakness in your system. They seem to go with the flow.

Both the North Creek and Deulund both reveal that the vintage 28 (or something like that) guage inductor is really choking off a lot of signal. Which of course only makes sense. The North Creek let you know you had problems upstream. There was more there and more problems. Duelund to me is so unique that things sound much better without screaming problems elsewhere.

I have more Jensens to install this afternoon. The Duelund coupling cap and more Jensen's are on back order and will be in later in the month. I suspect it will be a full Duelund signal path when I am done.
Irish65,

I'll give the short version. We are using a new tube fused with our CAST material, which both lowers resonance and allows heat to better "escape" the resistive element.

Further, we are using a new type of glue around the resistor, which better controls resonances through means of a low Q nature.

Initial reception has been quite positive, which is always nice.

Att: Volleyguy, glad you like the Wpio, Steen was very fond of the design.
I would cost me over $5700 to replace all my series inductors with CAST, and another $3500+ to upgrade my parallel inductors... When I win lotto. :)
Volleyguy,

Glad you took the plunge with the Duelund inductors. As you know I have used North Creek 8 AWG inductors and feel they work best on the bass.
I use all Cast Duelund products in my crossover.
So just when I think I am done Frederik @ Duelund ups the ante and has developed a Cast version of their Silver graphite resistors. I placed my order and will report back when I receive them. I will be comparing them to the current Duelund resistors.
Maybe Frederik will jump in and comment on the differnce between the two resistors.
Not to get off topic But I see Dueland will be at the RMAF
this year.Is anyone going? This should be exciting .I guess they will be displaying a speaker system with all cast components installed.
I hope to see u all at the show.
Don C.
The Duelund WPIO inductor is here.

As with all Duelund products it has a smell that makes you feel you could eat it.

It has a similiar look as the vintage inductor (meaning wax paper type) except again clearly better made. The vintage wires (and is not a foil) are not held so tight. Clearly Duelund looks like a quality product. Duelund is just one hard chunk. Looks different than the pics too guys? The whole inductor is sealed like CAST?

The first 15 minutes are VERY good. Again Duelund sounds excellent right out of the box. Duelund has been the only product that is better than vintage in EVERY way and once again EVERYTIME.

The North Creek inductor was better in some ways but not in others. (ringing)

I took a big risk (for me) on this inductor. I knew the caps were worn out an inductor of course does not wear so the change from Duelund from vinage would have to be all in quality of part.

The sound is much more open than the vintage that while it does not ring is somewhat dead and muffled. How Duelund does this I do not know? The sound is alive.

Duelund keep stunning balance.

I have more Jensen Copper paper tube caps here and will do one signal in them. So far they are pretty good but even the Jensens which are better than the vintage in the phono stage but the vintage does sound more alive? Jensen nice from top to bottom but so far not liquid alive sound like Duelund parts?

I will see if that is a Jensen trait?

Maybe I am gettin too picky? Like Jimmy says once you hear Duelund nothing else seems to cut it.

Right now the test is with no Jensen caps in the signal just off the CD.

One Duelund trait not many mention is they make your best and worst CD sound better. To me this is very important as who cares if just your best sounds better.

I will get to do a full comparison in the next few days after the inductor is broke in. I will do a Duelund/North Creek as well.
Jimmy has done it again.

I think he wanted to make sure the Duelund was worth the extra cost over the Jensen.

Once I am done figuring out which coupling cap matters most, I expect phono stage tube cap but do not know maybe a CAST cap there? I can say that would be before any turntable or cartridge upgrades.
I also feel that when possible, a single cap is the best solution. I feel that paralleling multiple caps, especially on the HF circuit, can lead to some smearing. But, I would still take two high quality caps paralleled over a cheap or mediocre cap.
Years ago while upgrading my Dunlavy SC4's the first thing I did was seal the interior walls of the enclosure. Huge difference. Next was to build a multi resistor bridge using Vishay metal film resistors..Huge difference enough to make me wake my daughter and have her listen. Inductors swapped for North Creek 8 and 10 gauge..a little difference. Built multi caps to swap for the stock single value Solens. Things got worse especially in the bass lower mids.

Single upgrade cap in comparison to the same value Solen..the sub cap sounded much better. With that experience in ear and mind I built multi caps stacked all of the same manufacturer type and brand the outcome sounded thin and less involving. Its as if the bass was now combed and filtered ..multifiltered uneven in transistion. All caps were built within 1% of original published/printed Dunlavy values. My experience in this rebuild venture makes me profess the cabinet seal material the resistor bridges as well as the inductors. The multi-cap mis-adventure or by-pass has since made me stay with single cap swaps only..which I feel make for a better listening experience. Thats how I heard things . Tom