Question About Capacitor Upgrade in Tube Amp

Once I get this one done I will take a look at the Muzishare X9 next. It is also a SET 300B and better built than the Willsenton. It also has the clarity of solid state with the warmth of tubes. But it is lacking in bass. It may improve with more run in but I suspect a few capacitor value changes will help. Although I am not knowledgeable enough about electronics to really follow what is happening in the circuit.

It certainly is a fun hobby and I appreciate all your expertise.

@calieng

You certainly have quite the amplifier stash. I wrote earlier that the Bottlehead tube products were although inexpensive they are well thought out engineered components. A price point is targeted and so the best quality parts can not be utilized.

Well, it seems that this principle is applicable to the Muzishare and Willsenton amplifiers. Good solid design with decent but not the best quality parts due to cost restraints. So very good candidates for upgrading part quality to achieve better sound. I believe that your project will turn out fine.

Charles

Yes too many amps right now. I ordered the Willsenton R300 and the Muzishare X9, X10 just in the past weeks with the intent of auditioning them and only keeping one or two. It is hard to decide before hand when there is nowhere to hear them before purchase.

The Muzishare R100 I have had for a while and is already for sale in the local craigslist. Very nice amp but I just do no need that much power or heat of the 845 tubes and it is also a bloody heavy thing to move. But no complaints on the sound quality. Very nice.

I have already decided the Muzishare X10 is a keeper as there is no other amp that I have that grabs the speaker drivers like those Kt150 tubes do. It would be the one for more modern / pop music. The bass is tight and bold and really gives you a punch to the chest when turned up.

Of course someone else may have different opinions as system matching is always much more important than the tweaking of capacitors and tubes.

Cheers.

It's more complicated than just hanging a film cap across B+. If you assume the designer knew what he was doing, had good ears and related equipment, you could make things a whole lot worse by making willy-nilly changes.

Too often audiophools make changes that make ZERO difference but think they have due to everyday occurrences like fatigue, humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, line voltage / noise, etc. etc. etc. 

I don't have any real experience modifying hifi gear so this will be my first attempt. I do not plan to change any cap values for the Willsenton R300 as the amp sounds good as is. Nice bass response etc. But I do believe the clarity can be improved with high quality coupling caps. 

The Muzishare X7 uses the same silver film coupling caps as the Willsenton versus the Muzishare X9 and X10 models which come factory equipped with Mundorf. I can definitely hear a difference in the clarity of vocals and the separation of instruments between the X7 vs the X9 and X10. So let's see how this upgrade works out once I get the parts.

I do have experience building tube guitar amps....initially from kits and then some scratch builds for Fender and Marshall schematics. So I can say from those builds I could even hear a difference in cheaper caps such as Orange Drops vs Mallory 150s in those builds. And a lot of musicians will pay top dollar for some vintage BumbleBee PIO caps for their Les Paul guitars claiming an improvement in guitar tone. So there has to be something there. It cannot be all imaginary.

But I take your point that often the expectation of an improvement colors our impression of whether or not an upgrade has really made a difference.