Disappointing Audiolab

[Phil Y]

Hi Richard,

Well, the Wimas are just standard commercial grade caps. It is not that I think they must be terrible, it is more that I'm pretty sure that there is room for improvement. More specifically, although the DAC sounds fairly nice, it is a little soft in balance and a little more "air and sparkle" would be no bad thing.

Phil.

[Richard]

Hi Phil, well all of my gear consists of commercial grade components but I get what you mean.

It will depend on space, money, and time comparing any alternatives I suppose and yes it would be good if anyone has any easily subbed alternatives

Electrically, polypropylene would be the next practical step but even commercial ones are quite a lot bigger.

We can also find differences in sound from specialist audio caps but it can be a long and expensive process. I went right round the houses from polyesters through alu and tin PIO, polyprops, polystyrene, teflon etc and 2 years later ended up back with polyesters. A tone control would have been much more sensible

[Black Stuart]

Phil Y,
re.your replacement o/put caps - they are probably too large but I have lots of K73-16 2.2/63V caps - they are L 32mm H 11mm/axial, superb transparent sound, I can match the. If they would fit you can have them for the cost of postage.

[Phil Y]

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the offer but no, they would not fit. It is a shallow case and they are down between other, taller components. Any replacements would have to be close to the same size/shape.

Phil.

[Black Stuart]

Phil,
I thought that would be the case, it's a shame. With stuff like DACs you can understand the need to keep signal paths as short as possible. However with amps, even s/s stuff why not leave room to choose what caps/resistors the individual wants to use.

[Richard]

Just thinking Phil that it may sound better anyway after you've replaced all the electros. I've done a dozen or so full re-caps the past few years and every one has sounded no worse or better/fresher.

[Phil Y]

Absolutely agree Richard.

After changing the first half of the caps the sound definitely improved. I have now changed most of the rest and the sound has livened up some more, although the "gentle" character remains.
I have six caps remaining, 2 of these because they are mounted on their sides underneath a plug on "daughter" board. They are 470u 6.3v and the replacements I bought were 470u 10v. The replacements were slightly bigger diameter and would not fit in the space between the two boards
I now have ones that should fit and hope to put them in tomorrow.
Another 4 are on the front panel board, again between a main and a daughter board. On examination, the header on this one is soldered both ends so I don't fancy getting that apart with just a solder sucker! I will leave these and just check them occasionally. If those leak, I will reassess.

The other week I changed a 100uF cap in my phono stage psu. It had a slight bulge on the rubber end but still no leaking and measured within spec. The difference changing this made to the sound is dramatic. I am still getting used to how much better my vinyl is sounding.

Phil.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Phil Y

Absolutely agree Richard.


The other week I changed a 100uF cap in my phono stage psu. It had a slight bulge on the rubber end but still no leaking and measured within spec. The difference changing this made to the sound is dramatic. I am still getting used to how much better my vinyl is sounding.
Phil.

Excellent and yes, a similar case with an amp of mine. I'd put off changing the mains filter caps as they still measured full uF and no signs of bulging. They were almost 30 years old though and I couldn't check esr. I'd changed the small caps so eventually did the big ones and didn't expect much but wow what a difference! Clearer, fresher, better bass and treble, it really was like a new amp. I've a stack of these old caps now and may one day get an esr meter which would be interesting to see if it shows any correlation. The problem of course is that you have to detach the cap to test it so when it's that old you may as well change it... Another amp had 2 caps which had blown their ends open and dried brown gunk on them. They'd been fitted the wrong way but the amp still worked. When they came out I checked them and they still showed half uF, something like 25Uf instead of 47uF, probably been like that 20 years

[Phil Y]

Mmm, I'm starting to wonder about the PSU caps in my KaT88 now.
I assume that they will be the originals.

Phil.

[Greg.]

Originally Posted by Phil Y

Mmm, I'm starting to wonder about the PSU caps in my KaT88 now.
I assume that they will be the originals.

Phil.

I upgraded them with Evox Rifa in accordance with Richard’s own upgrade path at the time. Yes, they’ve been in a long time.