Dtsag, I used a 9V battery snap on clip that you can buy at Radio Shack part #270-0325 package of 5 for $2.99.
Solder the 1000uf Electrolytic capacitor to the ends (red to + and black to-).
I then soldered another wire from the black wire to the ground on an RCA. It makes a nice compact unit that you can try on various pieces of equipment. It seems to take a few hours to charge up. |
I tried first the battery without the caps and it did not seem to do much. Then someone suggested that for solid state equipment to add the cap. The cap really did the trick.
By the way, it seems the higher the battery voltage the more it tilts the sound upwards. The 6V lantern battery is the most neutral.
I bought the Capacitors from Radio Shack, they were $1.79 each. I used the thinnest wire I could find, though I am not sure why I did. |
The 1000uf 35V Cap from Radio Shack is what I used. |
Jedinite24 , I am at work right now, but I think the arrow is pointing to the negative side on the Cap. After installation the first few moments there was an improvement in the mids and treble, the bass quality took a bit longer to flesh out. |
Well, at least you learned how to destroy a capacitor...LOL
I hope your replacement try gives you an improvement. |
Jedinite24, How did it go?
Well, Has anyone tried this tweak? |
Pixelphoto. Glad the tweak works for you. The Capacitors real are something.
I've noticed that too many of them in the chain adds depth but loses the 3D effect.
So far, at the Speakers with a 6V Latern battery is a real plus!
At the Amp and Preamp with 9V battery and a RCA plug another plus!
Adding one to my Cd player seemed too be too much of a good thing.
Also, putting one on my LCD and Cable Box was positive in improved picture quality. But on my LED TV I could not tell if there was an improvement.
Really interesting the way some items improve. |
I have been advised that a 10K Cap works even better. So I bought a package of 10 including shipping for $15 on Ebay to try. |
The tweak is using only the negative side of the battery because of the electron flow.
But, I really dont know if it matters because all I have used is the polarized caps. |
So, I just soldered in the 10K Caps...
It seems these are better than the 1K caps. There is a tighter center image with a wide left to right soundstage.
Seems to work great with my CD Player/Dac, Squeezebox Touch and Preamp. On my Amp, it didnt sound like an improvement so I did not use one there.
Also, different voltages change the sound somewhat. A 9V battery brings the image up a liitle higher with a little more upper midrange. The 6V Lantern batteries have more of a neutral sound.
I have found most of the front end equipment sounds best using 9V batteries.
However, my speakers sound best with the 6V lantern batterty. |
I sure hope that some of you have given this tweak a try. It really is quite impressive.
Costs about $10 bucks.
Deep, wide soundstage with a center image to die for.
If any of you do try it, go with the 10K Capacitors |
Glad you guys tried the tweak and have had a positive improvement.
I wonder why more Audiogonners have not posted?
Anyway, do try using the 10K caps it will improve still further. |
Ghosthouse, Yes you have it right!
You can also use it on your CD Player, Preamp etc. just by connecting the wire to the ground side only on a RCA.
Give it a try, and post your results. |
I think those are the same ones I bought, made by Rubycon ?
I think once a tweaker always a tweaker, it would'nt matter the price of the system. The tweakin is a hobby within the Audio hobby. |
Sgr, Yes, instead of hooking the wire from the negative side to the negative terminal on your speakers. Take that wire from the battery and solder it to an RCA on the ground side only. Then just plug it into any open RCA on your unit.
I think the Synergstic and the Audioquest are applying small voltages to the ground. In this tweak we are just using the negative electrons as storage.
Read up on the Audioprism Ground Control, that will explain the concept better than I can. |
Ghosthouse , Yes, Electrolytic Caps seem to be all polarized. That is the type of Cap used in this tweak.
I am now using a 10K 50V Electrolytic Cap on my speakers. Parts Express has limited selection. Digi-Key is a good source. |
Well, I have changed my mind on using the cap/battery on RCA source components, at least in my system. But do try them there yourself
Too many caps/batteries upstream on the source components and although they still widen the soundstage I think it thins out the bass.
So, just using the 2 sets of 10K 50 volt caps with 6V Lantern batteries on my bi-wire speaker cable ends is all that is needed.
But, another discovery is on my video. Using an RCA with 10K Cap and 9V battery seems to add more detail to my big screen LCD picture quality.
I still dont understand it, but well worth the experimentation. |
Since it is used as the ground and there is no actual current running through it, the battery should last as long as the battery has shelve life. |
Ghosthouse, I think it would be ok. You can always make two units for each biwire connection.
I am using a 10k 50V Cap on my speakers and I think the 6V lantern battery works the best on my speakers.
I just added another set (of 10K 50V Cap attached to a 6V Lantern Battery) to the negative side of my speaker spades via alligator clips at the Amp end. Adds even more snap with the units attached to both ends of the speaker cable.
I also have been trying this tweak on my HD Cables boxes. To these boxes it seems the higher the voltage the better. Right now I am using a 14 V battery to a 10K 16V Cap via RCA's. |
Sgr, I have noticed that the tweak works best on the speaker cable. The RCA hook ups are more hit and miss. Meaning on some components the soundstage improves ,and other equipment it doesn't. |
Sgro, What type of cap are you using ?
Just a thought.. Perhaps you are using Caps that are too low for your Amp/speaker.
I am using 10K 50 Volt. |
Pixelphoto, Mine seemed to sound pretty good right away.
However it seems to get beeter in the bass after a few hours. |
Has anyone run dual Lantern batteries at the speaker end for bi wire cables? Input would be helpful, but I'm going to try it later this week anyway.
I just converted my home made Speaker cabkes to bi-wire. They now consist of one run of 14 ga and a run of 18 ga 5N Soft Solid Silver wire. |
Well I now have a bi-wire speaker cables and I have just connected up 2 sets of 6V Lantern Batteries with 10K Caps at the speaker ends.
Wow! What a satisfied sound. The best I can describe it is, the music sounds relaxed and natural.
Now, I know I have raved about this tweak for some time. And there appears to be 2160 views on this topic thread. I hope I have encouraged some of you Audiogon tweakers to give it a try. |
Jedinite24, That's correct.
The 9 voltage batteries are more convenient to place and I think they perform better than the 6 Volt Lanterns on source equipment. With the 9 Volt battery I am using 10K 16 Volt Caps.
At the speakers and Amp the 6 Volt Lanterns sound best but they also need Caps designed for higher voltage like the 10K 60 volt you have. |
Just thought I would revisit this tweak. I just tried it again on my Pass Labs Amp after a very long time with out it.
The regular ground control do little, but add the 6V battery and large cap and it excites...
If any are interested, I will post a picture of the finished item in my system page. |
Zycomatique, No just the ones I had on hand. |
