upgrades to Spectron Musician III Mk 2


I took the plunge and bought a Musician III Mk 2 with no additional upgrades used here on Agon last week. I should have it in my possession in the nest few days.

While I plan on listening to it for awhile in its present form, I wanted to ask you fellow Spectron owners what your thoughts were with regard to the V-cap and Bybee filter upgrades. I've read the info on Spectron's website re/each but want some owner's opinions, especially since I probably won't have the bucks to do both upgrades at the same time right now. Thanks.

Bill
billspecfoc
I have both upgrades but have never compared to a MKII without them. All I know is I really like the sound coming out of the amp. Not sure if you can do both, maybe one or the other, of these upgrades after the amp has been built.
I'm like BostonBean, I have my Spectron with all of the upgrades but have never heard one without.

I do know that Simon recommends the Bybee filters as the bigger of the two upgrades.
I'm like the rest of you guy's I have the Spectron with all the upgrades and have never heard the standard unit.
All I know is that I love this amp.
Hello,

I bought me first Spectron (standard) in 2005 and by now I have two Musician III Mk2 witrh all upgrades. Its difficult for me to remember each one separately but I believe that Bybee made it closer to the good tube sound and VCAP - while I can;t rememberm details - they serve as additional filter in power supplies - so their effect is the additional supression of ear-piercing ripple artifacts and smooothing upper midrange/treble. Any caps in that place will do the job....just some will do it better then others.

To the best of my knowledge, both upgardes can be installed into existing amplifier but Bybees may or may not have less labor involved - Spectron install them not afer IEC where everybody does but in diode bridge where they are much more effective (forgot why, its specific to Spectron only..).

I recall vaguely that for VCAP the special board is required for Spectron and/or change in motherboard, labor intensive, obvously.

I hope it helps.

Rafael
Hi,
I got used Musician III Mk2 and then added both VCAP and Bybee (and then another amp with upgrades to run as monoblocks) - the difference was spectacular

Hope it helps
Mike