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Sounds good Dom. As you can imagine... I do have some thoughts I hope might help.
Audyns and Jantzens
I have experimented a fair bit over time with Jantzen Z-caps, as well as Audyn True Coppers and Maxs. In my Torii, 0.10 True Copper Max bypassed various nice 3.3 caps for several years, combined filtering the small VRs and inputs if I remember correctly.
I have also used True Coppers in other places in the power supplies, and in the mix on my speakers for extended periods.
The last time I dug in with them was a few years ago when I wanted to see if I could use the Audyn Coppers as primary tuning caps in the ZRock2, coupling caps and power supply bypasses, which almost worked for me. I could not at the time solve some, to me, rigidity and hardish clarity as fully as I wanted. Might be able to now, but didn't figure it out then.
Today I put in some 0.33 True Coppers in the place of the Miflex Copper Oil 0.33s, along with the 3.3 Jantzen Alumin-Zs on my tweeters, at first leaving off the bypasses.
I think the True Coppers are really good caps, but in my very resolving system, everything shows. And the issues I have consistantly had with these caps are that they are a little "too good" at what the do...They have a dynamic powerful feel, and nicely blend a slightly slow smooth warmth with quite clear balances. And they do this with a very good copper film flavor, that in this case, allows quite dense and smooth harmonics in space. It is just that, to me, on their own, all these traits tend to be just a little too obvious and forward. While not having quite enough very fine detail and higher harmonic information in their balance... altogether, this can equate to being a little too powerful, clear and focussed... so a little hard leaning.
Context
But this could be good in a different setup, or with less clear tweeters, or with more warm leaning setups, or ones that do not have ideal balances, or lacking great bass differentiation, or whatever. And this is just talking about this cap's influence as I hear it, not adjusted, and I have been able to use these caps in ways I love with the right company... so splitting hairs in ways, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of my experience with them.
And importantly, more and more, I realize my system is just different than most... developed with reading the most fragile very fine information and speed before considering all else... and if it is not there, generally, the part does not get used. Then all the other balances, including speeds across the spectrum, of course need to be pretty right, giving a refined foundation of resolution and speeds, no matter the flavor of all the balances as long as they are close...
Not that I "have it," always learning and refining. But room considerations, all cables, feet, all the power pieces, the components, computer/front end... speakers... all have been pretty seriously balanced, individually and collectively into a relatively heightened state. So for the most part, no smeared/muddled bass, instead all notes of all instruments naturally fast and musically differentiated… sounding like the instruments in a good room, with” right" feeling leading edges, textures and decays. And not muddled or too much in the balance, bass is faster, relatively impactful and deep, and generally does not mask the also well resolved mids. When it does leak upward too much though, it can be adjusted with gain tuning, my gain stages also tuned to help each other in ways that adjust speed, clarity, and density. Then the highs, integrated with and supporting mids and the low end, and without apparent smearing, resolution is clearer, showing amazing fine detail and complexity....the higher stuff emerging from open space with no apparent top, while being complex enough to not be hard on most stuff.
It is intersting how, in recent years in particular, with more room tools and nicer components, wires and parts, and combinations of these, how far we can go in refining how easily all the sonic information gets through... and how much more of "whatever" that shows.... But a lot of the habitual ways of designing, and tuning, and hearing, tend to make us think their limitations are still real. What I keep finding, is that we no longer have to be stuck in habitual hifi limitations and doldrums many of us came to consider normal. And as better balances, speed and resolution allow the system to let more information through more completely and musically, we might call it things like revealing or resolving, but that can mean a lot of things to different people depending on our experience and system/room. So it is hard to know how one baseline for evaluation relates to another.
I guess for me, the more I hear things in my system/room others describe differently, the more I realize just how much this setup shows, right down to pretty nuanced qualities... Creating yet another wildcard of a reference for observations and descriptions to come out of.
This is part of why I am always putting what I hear in the context of my experiences, and trying to describe pretty clearly what that sounds like to me... to make it less of a wildcard reference. Not sure how well this clarifies my observations, but something to keep in mind while interpreting them as they might relate to other systems.
In this context, so far, back to back, I have preferred Miflex Copper Oils over Audyn True Coppers, in part because they are clear, but softened a bit with paper and oil, contributing to the harmonics coming off as more complete to me, less overtly dense and clean, more complex and textured.
But the Audyns also have seductive balances and expression, including their smoother, more apparently dense harmonic clarity... also interesting… Splitting hairs, I find them a little slow/full in their warmth, but their clarity cuts through that nicely. And rolling off the very fine stuff a little proportionally… still can sound pretty complete. So these are preference things or things to work with in tuning. I can imagine why some folks love them, and why they rate high on HumbleHomeadeHiFi tests. And I don't totally love Miflex Copper/oils everywhere, or without the right company either, also preferring them with bypasses. It is just that so far, Copper/oils have been easier for me to use to get what I like.
Right now, having played the 0.33 True Coppers for four or five hours, they are waking up some from a long rest, and sounding quite good with Jantzen Alumin-Z 3.3 base caps, which are good at textures and revelation without being hard, but also need a little quality help up high for me... Still, with only the 0.33 True Coppers the sound is nice, the Audyns so clear in what they do, they sound good without bypassing them further...
Small Bypasses
Putting back on the same bypasses I was using before, now the 0.33 Audyn True Coppers replacing the 0.33 MIflex Copper Oils the only change, the increased fine detail and harmonic refinement is welcome for me, making the sound experience feel realer and more alive. Interestingly, with the Audyns flavor of warmth, the bypasses also brought out more clearly an interesting euphonic effect the Audyns are contributing to. Not sure, it may be a little too "colored" and expressive for me, right now hearing the system and the music, rather than mostly just the music. But with more play time, and time for me to adapt, the things the Audyns bring to the blend may cause me to fall for them again, bringing back good memories of when these caps had been part of the blend for some years.
Jantzen Superiors I have not carefully evaluated for a long time, but I use some 3.3s with Clarity TCs as base caps in the power supply of the Torii and liked that change... I am always trying to musically refine bass with the Torii, and part of that method has become using nicer film caps, which being big, seem to also allow less capacitance while still being good filters. So a double effect can be found with them... a little more refined clarity and speed with good film, and reducing the capacitance a bit in the power supply lets the whole breath a little more, not pressing all the following parts as hard and fully, so reducing forcefulness and thickness. To this end, I was trying a Clarity TC 70uF in the place of a pair of already reduced value 40uF Jenson electrolytics, wired in parallel, combined a 80uF cap. The Clarity, with its more balanced resolution and speed was good, but took reducing capacitance a little too far... it was a little too open and lean. Luckily, adding the Jantzen Superior 3.3s brought it into a pretty nice balance for me, while opening up more space and textures in the quite nice Jantzen Superior ways.
Again my system, but I always find the Superiors pretty complete and balanced in most ways, except being slightly sedate and thin. But this is why I wanted to try them in this power supply position... to beef up the capacitance some with an open, relatively neutral and textural flavor.
Bottom Line???
Long story short, this was all to explain why I think your choice of a 3.9 Jantzen Superior-Zs mixed with a 0.1 Audyn True Copper, could very well create a really nice cap. I think the Audyn will likely beef up the Jantzen some, contributing the Audyn's warmth, open space, and dense clarity and harmonics... while likely helping to musically pull the best out of the Janztens. My guess anyway. And if you ever felt the need for more harmonic complexity, you could try some small bypasses, choosing one(s) that might balance well with the sound the Jantzen and Audyn make together with your speaker.
Pinnacle Plate?
For your cap mounting concerns on the Pinnacle crossover... Since you are looking at binding posts anyway, why not make as minimal a MDF plate as possible that you could mount the current crossover board on, and the new caps, while creating a mounting plate for the new binding posts.
With some really thin gasket material to seal and reduce vibration, cutting a round gasket about 1/2" wide to go around the binding post hole, and strips going around the outside edge of the new plate, it looks like you could screw the plate down to the speaker back. Not sure what Bob uses now for gasket material, but years ago he suggested I try Silly Winks" 9x12x.08 inches sticky back sheets, and they seemed good to me.
On a new plate, I think you could secure your current crossover board with some little corner pieces of double-sided tape. If you turned the board so that the caps "hang down," I think a few small pieces of double sided tape per cap would damp and hold the caps pretty well, especially for your experimental period. This setup would allow pretty easy adjustments of caps and board.
My binding post and crossover plates are bolted in place using this really thin gasket material. And the interior caps and coils are all secured to the plate with pretty minimal, but well placed double sided tape strips. I used the more rubbery seeming gray lined stuff, not the white more clearly foam variety. And my caps are not giant like your 3.3 Miflexs but probably about as heavy as the Jantzens you are getting, and they have held for years now... I had to use new pieces of tape at times when I changed some of the parts, but pretty nice for flexibility.
ERRs
Finally, thinking about your Miflex burnin and sound. It may be that the foam or rubber material you used for damping, holding the caps in place, and feet for the cap shelves, is pretty transparent... But based on my experiences, that would be a pretty strong stroke of luck, as damping seems a lot easier to get wrong than right, potentially being dulling and slowing the sound in odd ways, especially with bigger pieces of damping material.
It might be worth a test. Like cut some little feet from a 2x2, and make some just large enough ply board pieces to put the caps on. I am imagining a tripod foot arrangement using the 1.5x1.5x1.5 feet. Then maybe cut something like two layers of cotton rag (tee shirt thickness) to place under the caps, and perhaps one layer between feet and board... It would be interesting to see what a much less damped, but slightly damped arrangement does for the sound. Not finished or glued, this could sound better, while being an easy platform for experimenting with different feet and damping that is not stuck down.
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What capacitor should I use to upgrade sound? (Read 145380 times)
