Modification that has proved to be transformative


in a manner well beyond swapping out gear, tweaks, wire and the like. Ok Agoners I have owned and gone through lots of great gear as evidenced by my feedback:-)

However, over the past year I have learned something I want to share. Some of you will know all about this and others will have heard about it, but with doubts. Three words....

Duelund CAST capacitors

Sure, I have cap rolled and part rolled for a few years now. Fun stuff to do and sometimes I liked the change and other times not so much. However these CAST capacitors are an entirely different animal. I placed them in my tube preamp, hybrid amp and speakers. In each component the improvement was dramatic and a game changer in many ways. Universally, each component was greatly improved by a percentage easily exceeding 25 -30%. I can't understand why gear retailing for $10,000 or much more would skimp on a crossover or coupling cap. My hybrid amp used $30-$50 caps that sounded good, but not great. Same thing in my speakers for the midrange crossover caps. The Duelund CAST caps made these high dollar pieces sound the best they are capable of.

I picked these up at Parts Connextion at a great sale price recently. They are very expensive caps, but made more affordable due to the recent sale.
I cannot overstate how superior these are to all other boutique type caps often talked about in audio threads. This, at least in my experience, has been the case in my cap rolling endeavors. I say confidently they will greatly improve any component they are used in. No need to debate about synergy and the builders tuning with parts etc...as these CAST caps are just going to make good and great sounding gear much greater!

So if you have gear utilizing coupling caps in key circuit positions this is an upgrade that will deliver far more then their high cost. Spend your thousands here before any wire change or buying and selling gear. If your gear is of very high quality and the key circuit caps are good, but not Duelund CAST, consider a cap upgrade.

I purchased two .47 uf caps for $398 and four .22 uf caps for $800. I used these in my tube pre and hybrid amp. This is easily the best $1200 I have spent in my 30 plus years in audio. As much as wire and certain tweaks do improve the sound, these caps did even more. Other highly touted caps did not garner quite this reaction from me in my system.

Now, these caps would have cost me double this if not on sale. However, they would still have qualified as a best buy in terms of their impact on my music.
128x128grannyring
Charles, I think the CAST cap would fit depending on the value. No doubt it would improve the sound, but understand it would cost and it can be hard to break away and go to someplace new. I have done it so often now that I no longer mind or fear the whole process. I have learned a great deal.

My crossovers are also hard wired and many are.

Raytheprinter, I would say the vast majority of speakers selling for $7500 and above use decent sounding and performing crossover parts that can be purchased very cheaply. $30 caps are a norm.

They are usually housed in a speaker cab full of vibrations that hurt the sound. Many have tested this and plotted the improvements. Actually pretty simple to mod a speaker with an external crossover. I purchased custom made wood cabs that match my speakers, upgraded the caps, speaker wire and damped the crossover cab fully with proper deadening material.

The fact is we owners can greatly improve the sound of our existing, highly touted and reviewed gear, with parts like Duelund CAST caps etc... The builder may or may not agree, but no worries as they don't often know as they have either not tried or decided they they cannot afford it. Some don't believe in these boutique caps etc... So they scoff. This scoffing is also prevalent.

I owned Soundlab speakers that came with $30 caps etc...and the owner actually helped me mod the speaker to great effect. I did a host of modifications to the active crossover based on a schematic he made for me. Great guy!

One of my favorite all time speakers are the Silverline Bolero's. They came with $20 crossover caps and the sound was greatly improved with Duelund caps. The builder did not believe in these caps! Ha!

I own another set of speakers that sounded great, but once I opened up the speaker I noticed the tweeters were wired incorrectly. They always sounded good, but a bit dull in the highs. I reversed the wires to the tweeter and bingo - huge improvement. HUGE. I will not mention the company, but they are well known.

My Aesthetix Atlas amp is amazing and a great sounding amp. I noticed the rather mid grade caps employed in key positions and replaced them with with the Duelund CAST caps and the amp now sings so much better in every single way important to the fidelity of the music we love.

One has to be willing to learn, try and perhaps make mistakes along the way. Yes, even Sphile Class A gear can be greatly improved! No, builders don't always think their gear can be improved.
Grannyring,
As stated earlier I`ve changed caps in a preamp with good results.The cost of the Duelund would not deter me. Israel says the cap does`nt fit(he should know). Otherwise I`d be willing to give it a try to hear for myself.
Regards,
Charles, I have Coincident Super Eclipse III speakers and upgraded the (horrible) Solen cap used in the midrange part of the crossover to a Dueland VSF (not CAST). Night and day...the improvement is major and took me by surprise. I can't figure out Israel's comments as it is clearly a significant improvement. One note of caution, the caps are glued to the speaker sidewalls and with the internal construction the parts swap is a major pain....clearly the speaker is not designed with upgrade/repairs in mind. Being a 1st order speaker there are not too many parts in the crossover so relatively cost effective to upgrade. I highly recommend Dueland...including their resistors. All IMHO and experience.
Yes, the VSF are flat style and may also fit. They are also very good indeed.

Charles, you would need to know the size of the space and cap involved to know for sure regarding fit. Perhaps you can find out the value of the cap needed and look up the physical size and determine if it will fit? Duelund has changed the look of the CAST over the last 5 years so perhaps the builder does not know today? The VSF would also be a big improvement.

Perhaps they won't fit, but I would check it out to be certain. You could also put it in a different spot also with some effort etc....it may require some creativity which can be fun.
Fizzletop,
Thanks for your feedback it`s inspiring.Your speaker apparently uses different caps from the Total Eclipse.The TE is very natural and disappears with most of my recordings.The possibility that it could further improve is tempting. Perhaps from excellent to truly sublime(like the amp and linestage are).This will take more investigation.Thanks again for your insight.
Regards,