Warming up the Amp6

[mrdon]

OK, I am really trying to enjoy my Amp6, but I find it to be on the clinical side sound wise in my system. Therefore, I am trying to figure out how to "warm" it up or color it so the mids will be more emphasized. Of course, the ideal places for this coloring to occur are the signal input caps and the Speaker output filter caps, but which area would work best? Plus, would I use paper-in-oil (new or vintage) or film? I currently have 3.3uf Sonicaps bypassed by .1uf Illinois MWR caps in the input stage. On some recordings, they sound a little wierd as if the mids are "smeered."Possibly the Illinois caps are not synergizing well with the Soniccaps? Any recommendations would be great!

[BWRX]

The Sonicaps I tried were certainly more clinical, if you will, than even the stock electrolytics or some Auricaps I tried. There's certainly no harm in trying other caps or even looking for a tube preamp possibly. Depends on what you want to spend I guess.

Maybe it's your recordings too. If you aren't used to hearing such detail then it will certainly sound a bit different!

[GJF]

I must say that I found the Amp 6 to be somewhat clinical with the stock Panasonic input caps.
Whilst the various versions of these (FC, FE, FM) sound and perform fine as power supply caps I hear a distinct sonic character when used as input caps.
In my Amp 3 even the ceramics were better as input caps.
I changed out the Amp 6 caps for some Elna Stargets that were lying around at hand and could not believe the change in tonal balance.
Afraid to say that when I have tried film caps in my amps they did not do anything for the sound in my system.
I know that will upset a lot of people on here but in my system, in my room it just doesn't gel, I prefer a good eletrolytic cap everytime. favourite is the Nichicon Muse and dirt cheap too!

P.S.
I found the Amp 6 to need a very long burn-in time before an hard edge dissapears and the sound opens up.

[Pano]

Try the Obbligato caps, they will probably give you the sound you're looking for. The paper in oil have the most lush sound, amazing mid range. Cheap, too!

The copper tube models are also very nice. Both types are jumbo sized, so you'll need room.

I agree with Brian, the Sonicaps seem clinical compared to other good film caps. The T-amps really do respond to changes of the input caps.

[mrdon]

Thanks for the advice! So go for the Obbligato oils, great! But...

I am a little confused about the input cap capacitance. Obbligato oils come in 2uf and 4.7uf. If I want deeper bass I should go with the 4.7uf correct? BTW, the bass freq of my speakers goes down to 45Hz.

[Lostcause]

I have some of the 4.7uf's and they sound excellent.
I have also tried the 2.2 copper cased and they are very, very similar.

[johnthedoctor]

My only experience with changing input caps is the stealth mod to the SI T-Amp. I used Russian 2.2uf pio from ebay. I'm very impressed but obviously can't compare them to any of the popular brands. No listener fatigue as opposed to the stock TI, and yeah, lush is an adjective that fits the sound I'm getting.

[Pano]

For input caps you really only need about 1.5uF. So the 2uF oil are plenty big and will get you flat down below 20Hz.

Lostcause is correct, the sound of the two types is very similar - I don't know why, they certainly aren't made of the same stuff!