Allow those Hovland caps 140 hours or so of break-in. The bass will flesh out much more after then. You'll hear gradual improvements after 50 hours. The Hovlands seem to take longer to break in than the Auricaps. Personally I prefer the Hovlands in my preamp. Increasing the capacitance will lower the bass roll-off but it might not necessarily improve the bass quality. It also depends on the impedance of your amp inputs. Anyway, I'd be interested in your impressions after the Hovlands have burned in a while.
Hovland caps VS Auricaps
I have linestage preamp base on 3 tubes 12AU7, and I already upgrade the output coupling capacitors with auricaps 2.2 uf/400 volt with great result i.e. the base was tight and nice treble.
I got another Line stage preamp (same type) with
1. Output coupling capacitor with hovland caps 2uf/400 volt
2. Replace all the resistors ½ Watt regular resistors with 1 Watt PRP resistor
3. Replace stock diode with fast recovery diode on power supply
4. Bypass on power supply with 1 uf/400
The result was more realistic on midrange & treble but I lost the base compare the preamp with Auricaps.
How to get more on base?
Do I have to put hovland caps 4uf/400 or increase the value of by-pass capacitors?
Is there any capacitor that will increase the low freq with nice real midrange and treble?
I need advice or any body with experience on this matter.
Best regards,
Adri
I got another Line stage preamp (same type) with
1. Output coupling capacitor with hovland caps 2uf/400 volt
2. Replace all the resistors ½ Watt regular resistors with 1 Watt PRP resistor
3. Replace stock diode with fast recovery diode on power supply
4. Bypass on power supply with 1 uf/400
The result was more realistic on midrange & treble but I lost the base compare the preamp with Auricaps.
How to get more on base?
Do I have to put hovland caps 4uf/400 or increase the value of by-pass capacitors?
Is there any capacitor that will increase the low freq with nice real midrange and treble?
I need advice or any body with experience on this matter.
Best regards,
Adri
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