Cap. rolling with PhonoII

[NealG]

It’s been a while but I’ve been capacitor swapping again. This time in PhonoII’s output stage.

I’ve been using the standard Orange drops as originally supplied since I built it. These are great all round caps. Their only real downside sonically is one of omission. They sound balanced but just don’t seem to really resolve low level detail and dynamics.

So I lined up some low cost alternatives to try, Solen’s, Aeon’s, RS Yellow’s and the Soniqs SAX.

By far the worst out of all of these where the Solens. Grey, drab, dull, boring! The Aeons where better adding a bit more body to the sound but still not right. Surprisingly the RS Yellow Polyprops sounded very good. Balanced and with good low level detail they were very nice to listen to, a bit like the Orange drops but with more detail, however, they where just a little too polite, sitting on dynamics a touch.

The best, and I feel embarrassed to say it on the WD BB, are the WD SAX caps. These where by far the best sounding or rather they where *not* the best sounding because as far as I could tell they had no obvious sound at all. They seem to be superbly neutral with a see through clarity, devoid of any obvious traits.

I’m trying not to sound like an advert for Peter (cough!) but they are a very good cap. The only downside is the limited range available, I would be tempted to try some in my amp. and also in the C10/11 position in PhonoII but they don’t come in those values unless Peter know better….

[Brian]

Originally Posted by NealG

It’s been a while but I’ve been capacitor swapping again. This time in PhonoII’s output stage.

I’ve been using the standard Orange drops as originally supplied since I built it. These are great all round caps. Their only real downside sonically is one of omission. They sound balanced but just don’t seem to really resolve low level detail and dynamics.

So I lined up some low cost alternatives to try, Solen’s, Aeon’s, RS Yellow’s and the Soniqs SAX.

By far the worst out of all of these where the Solens. Grey, drab, dull, boring! The Aeons where better adding a bit more body to the sound but still not right. Surprisingly the RS Yellow Polyprops sounded very good. Balanced and with good low level detail they were very nice to listen to, a bit like the Orange drops but with more detail, however, they where just a little too polite, sitting on dynamics a touch.

The best, and I feel embarrassed to say it on the WD BB, are the WD SAX caps. These where by far the best sounding or rather they where *not* the best sounding because as far as I could tell they had no obvious sound at all. They seem to be superbly neutral with a see through clarity, devoid of any obvious traits.

I’m trying not to sound like an advert for Peter (cough!) but they are a very good cap. The only downside is the limited range available, I would be tempted to try some in my amp. and also in the C10/11 position in PhonoII but they don’t come in those values unless Peter know better….

I just put a couple of 4.7uF caps into the treble section of my loudspeaker crossover and they're much superior to the solens I took out. As a result I've ordered 2 x 47uF PXX for the bass section and am fully expecting these to be better than the solens also.

Brian

[acorn]

Hi all

I have used quite a few of the PXX and sax type caps and can really recommend them , they sound really good to me and I have used them for cathode bias and speaker crossovers and I also agree with Neal that it would be nice to see more values like .22 ufd in the 630v DCw in the sax range.

Acorn

[Greg.]

Hi Neal,

You are talking about the 2.2uF aren't you? If so, a big price difference to a paper in oil type. I was thinking recently that there is very little subjective review of WD's caps on the forum. A bit of exposure from trusted ears is good. The fact that in this application they beat the RS yellows is for me significant because I use these as a bench mark on sound performance particularly for coupling. Thanks for the input. Anyone else had a good comparable experience with the WD Soniqs range?

Best wishes,

Greg

[NealG]

Hi Greg, yes the 2u2 o/p caps.

I use the RS yellows in the C10/100 position, they are good. The Soniqs are better...just wish they did some 0.1uF

[Gerry]

I also use the Sonix 2.2's in the Phono II .....very good..similar to Jupiters, but better...and a great price.
0.1's are Auricaps (from WD too)...best I've found without spending silly money.

Regards
Gerry

Hi all!

When I saw this topic my eyes lit up! I'm just finishing off a build of a Phono II pcb (I managed to damage my old one when trying to fit Auricaps!) and also starting the build of a WD88VA XL version. I have the Soniqs SAX for the WD88VA and was interested in how these might fair against the competition... I fitted Auricaps in my WAD KIT6550 and also in my Phono II with fantastic results over the orange drops and was thinking of doing the same again although I had heard that Dynamicaps were better than Auricaps..... Choices, choices... It is good to hear praise for the Soniqs!

I'd welcome any suggestions anyone may have for my Phono II and the WD88VA before I go ahead and buy a few caps whilst Parts Connexion have 15% off film caps...

Steve

[Brian]

Put a couple of 47uF Soniq PXX's into the bass filter of my KLS3s yesterday to replace 50uF Solens, so early days. The sound is bit bloated but good signs as tone sounds more natural straightaway. I'll give them a couple of months to see how they go.

Brian

[Richard]

Aother flavour to try for full-range coupling are Vishay Roederstein mkt1813 series axial polyester. Not as crystalline sounding as polypropylenes but very natural. I prefer these for full-range use such as amp couplings. Polyprops seem better across a narrow band, such as tweeters in speakers, but less well balanced in full-range apps.

Rich