Coupling capacitors give warm & sweet sound

Russian K40 PIOs. I just upgraded my ASL with them.
Jim McShane sells them:

jimmcshane@prodigy.net
http://pages.prodigy.net/jimmcshane/

If you're looking for more suggestions, a better place to pose this question is at Tube DIY Asylum

Jensen.. Had em' , okay but weak, a bit pulled back and soft... Mundorf silver oil is the only cap I would go with in this type if you want paper and oil, however they have very large bodys some space restictions and values will not work in some applications, and the fact again who knows if they will hold up under long durations of heat in 10 years put in electronics is not really known...

I have been thru, sonicaps, kimbers, Clarity cap S.A., auricaps, dynamicaps, mundorfs,Hovlands.. teflons, papers, oils, golds etc... More but to much money spent and lesser performance in the end..

Best overall cap, with excellent value(reasonable priced), size that should fit most, and soundstage with very warm yet very dynamic sounding from what I have heard in a single configuration... Jantzen superior caps. I highly suggest reading this link:

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

Every cap is rated, and believe it or not from all the ones I have tried these are pretty dead on results of the sounds and costs...

It's well worth browsing through this Audio Asylum forum:
My Capacitor comparisons: Mundorfs, VCap, Sonicap Platinum, Auricap, etc

Thanks Guys for your feedbacks.

I had gone thru the review in the humblehomemadehifi, it is actually more on the speaker caps. But very good review indeed.

I will browse the one recommended by Mingles tonight.

Actually, I had Hovland caps installed in my amps for appx 150 hrs. Should I be more patient and wait until 300- 500 hrs. I was told that the Teflon caps need longer time to break in.

thanks.

Your experience with Hovland sounding thin & hard as coupling cap mirrors mine-- even after long break-in. FYI, they are not teflon.

If it helps, I HATED the hovlands almost the most out all the caps I have had...

I have replaced the IC and Electrocube coupling caps in RIAA of my Paragon 12A with Mundorf Silver/Gold. In the beginning they sounded dead and like plastic but now they started to make sound much better. So alot of people reccomend Mundorf Silver/Oil as a ted warm but still "neutral" sounding.

I will see if Silver/Gold was the right decision after break in...or if I better get for Silver/Oil or Silver/Gold/Oil instead.

Undertow,

were your comparisons done as coupling caps in tube electronics or in speakers? What were your impressions of the DynamiCaps? And were they all sufficiently burned in?

I have used in Both... Speakers were really worse, hovlands are definitely not a good choice in the speakers from what I have tried... very dry, very compressed, and never really totally flatened out.. Electronics might not be as bad unless its used as a main cap really like an output cap on a preamp or something that I would not do... In other areas maybe somewhere even out of the signal they seem okay... But I would just use a cheap solen cap and be happier.

As for dynamicaps, not bad, but a bit too, "Explosive" or enhanced basically having a weird way of making things sound over the top sometimes, like a bit of a boombox with those Boost buttons all activated if that makes any sense, they are somewhat smooth but raw, and just as that artical says about them they DEFINITELY do not react too well mixed with other caps, the only thing that has worked well with them in the end with electronics was exactly what Soniccraft the owners of sonic caps says to do and that is bypass them with a sonicap platinum small value, but this gets very expensive... But balances and cleans them up pretty well.. I would still just go with a jantzen supreme single cap for way less money and get 99% of this sound however.. But Jantzen supremes bypassed with a sonic cap platinum is really killer..

There is a billion ways to get certain results so its all going to come down to the physcial size and costs you have to work with, and some applications will react better than others overall with some combos or caps.

Oh and by the way one of my favorites in critical applications like phono stage has been the cardas golden reference caps, but only available up to 1 uF and very expensive.. I believe the bass and overall was more neutral than the Mundorfs, however these take some time to burn in, cost, size, and values can be an issue... The Jantzen superior is literally as good in the applications I have used them however, very similar sonic signature as well.

Thanks Undertow. I believe there is a new version of the DynamiCap that is used in the new upper end Aesthetix Io Eclipse phono stage.

As you may know a lot of these caps are designed and manufactured by the same person, not that they are the same cap!

Piedpiper,
The dynamicaps are in fact some newer revisions, and they use to be the TRT caps not even named Dynamicaps, which by the way are branded made by Wondercap anyway..

I have used them with better luck in the electronics than speakers if that helps. More "Shout" from some speaker drivers from my experience.

The DynamiCaps are indeed descended from Wondercap through about 4 iterations but are actually made, as are the Cardas and many others, by the gentleman from Running Springs.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

My experience with Hovlands do not mesh with others here but I'm not disagreeing with those opinions. They took a long time to break in, however. I think they are a good choice to slightly modernize the sound of vintage equipment without going too far. Caps of this ilk are also a good choice if heat is a concern. I think the Hovlands are probably not a good choice on typical modern amplifiers...most of which strive for immediate wow factor at the expense of long term musicality and enjoyment.

I really think the only solution with these caps are to try them yourself and give each cap enough time to run in. Expensive and a hassle, I know. Also, it's not the specific cap that matters alone, it's the marriage of all the parts.

While Hovlands never sounded right for me in LS, large Hovlands sound extraordinarily good as stock crossovers in Merlin speakers. One reason could be that the caps are cryo-treated. I wonder whether cryo treatment would close the sonic gap between some "premium" caps.

Undertow,

just in case my last post wasn't clear, Peter Moncreif and his associate at Running Springs are continually changing the recipe. Every time I've ordered them which is many many times over the years, they are slightly different. Sometimes the name/branding has changed, such as Infini Seti Signature to DynamiCap, sometimes it hasn't. Evidently, there is a brand new version that is now being used by Aesthetix as mentioned above. Incidentally, I usually remove some or all of the tape on the ones intended for electronics. I also run them in before installing them so I can get an accurate assessment.

Just FYI.

Near Brand new Link on another freak junky testing caps, and lots of them!! Some good info and again I totally agree on the mundorf, and sonicap platinums.. But Auricaps are a joke, and use to be like a dollar or 2 more than a Basic Solen cap, now are like 4 times their own price and 90% of the time I have heard them in the same application were no better or worse than a dollar Solen cap!
See link
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=54218.0