Hi Gents, wondering if anyone has some suggestions on a few nice caps for a Bryston BP-25 pre.
It's a lovely preamp! I've sourced the majority of filter caps etc from digikey, but across the signal path there are these 100uF 40v axial bipolar electrolytics. Stock ones are nice, German made, and wondering what I could use to refresh or even improve upon them while doing the rest of the caps.
They measure out 25mm long / 10mm in diameter.
I've been having a heck of a time..
100uF
40v or higher
Axial
Bipolar
25mm x 10mm dia - There is a little wiggle room on sizing / creative positioning but not huge unfortunately..
I was thinking Mundorf E-CAP RAWs. Any of the pros here have thoughts?
Happy new year!
It's a lovely preamp! I've sourced the majority of filter caps etc from digikey, but across the signal path there are these 100uF 40v axial bipolar electrolytics. Stock ones are nice, German made, and wondering what I could use to refresh or even improve upon them while doing the rest of the caps.
They measure out 25mm long / 10mm in diameter.
I've been having a heck of a time..
100uF
40v or higher
Axial
Bipolar
25mm x 10mm dia - There is a little wiggle room on sizing / creative positioning but not huge unfortunately..
I was thinking Mundorf E-CAP RAWs. Any of the pros here have thoughts?
Happy new year!
Not much available in Axial BiPolar Electrolytics. If your BP25 is old, just replacing with "new" whatever Bryston used would be somewhat of an improvement in SQ. You could use radial BiPolars that will fit height wise - you would just have longer leads. The Nichicon Muse BP caps measure very low in distortion - maybe worth a try. Pretty sure they are 24volt rails so you could get away with 25volt caps. Some folks parallel a .1uf PP film cap to electrolytics claiming a sonic benefit. If your unit is fairly new - I wouldn't expect anything to get excited about just changing caps.
If you really wanted to "upgrade" your BP25 to a new listening experience, you should look in to installing Jung/Didden SuperRegs.
( available in the DIY store )
The left side of your BP25 has plenty of real estate to fit them. Bigger project than swapping caps, but well worth the effort.
If you listen to heavily compressed metal or pop/disco - I wouldn't bother with the project. But if you listen to music with real instruments
and real playing and good singers, the upgrade is definitely well worth the effort.
If you really wanted to "upgrade" your BP25 to a new listening experience, you should look in to installing Jung/Didden SuperRegs.
( available in the DIY store )
The left side of your BP25 has plenty of real estate to fit them. Bigger project than swapping caps, but well worth the effort.
If you listen to heavily compressed metal or pop/disco - I wouldn't bother with the project. But if you listen to music with real instruments
and real playing and good singers, the upgrade is definitely well worth the effort.
Thanks - The photo above is my recap job, I ended up using the Mundorf 100uf ecap RAW elec, which just barely fit. This preamp is from the late 90s, and due - my caps are warming up, but immediately could tell the originals were fading. Appreciate the tip into the SuperRegs! I hadn't thought of that, and looks really interesting. The left side was intended for the phono stage which mine doesn't obviously have, I mainly listen to jazz where I find I continually focus on the details - great tip, thanks!
Guys, what do you think of this. Above is the recap job I did on my Bryston BP-25. I used low tolerance, nice caps electrolytic all around, Vishay, Mundorf Electrolytic on the signal for I believe the balanced connections. Question is this, I'm wondering if I would gain any benefit bypassing the Mundorf, and I am thinking mica. I have had great results with mica caps on the signal path in other equipment, better result than film caps, thing is mica capacitors 'cap out' at .1uF and become cost prohibitive. If I were to apply a 5100pF or 6800pF mica cap to each Mundorf, would you think there would be any benefit to gain?
Nice job and you have loads of room to squeeze something in. I will try some of these MICA caps at around 0.1uf but the aren't cheap https://spec-corp.jp/audio/MC-DA/index.html
I love these and yes they do take as long as a Silmic to burn in https://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/arizona-blue-cactus-capacitors.html, the reds are more detailed but I love the balls and drive of the Blues
I love these and yes they do take as long as a Silmic to burn in https://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/arizona-blue-cactus-capacitors.html, the reds are more detailed but I love the balls and drive of the Blues
Given my recent experiences I have to say I really don't know and sometimes you have to try to know. I'll be taking a punt with some of the MICA's as an additional bypass to my AC coupling as an experiment. Whilst I have quite a number of caps that I tried and didnt like. In the grand scheme of thing sits a small price to pay for the overall improvements where they have worked.
Another tweak that frequently works is doubling up, I can pretty much guarantee if you added another 100uf Mundorf it would be better, I rarely find I cant try something then squeeze it in if it improves things, by the way a copper GND plate for the chassis to improve GND and sheild is usually a significant improvement. If it's a steel chassis and signal GND is through the chassis some big gains to be had here as well. I was shocked at the gains made here on a BR player, to the point I rebuilt the modified boards into a stock chassis just to confirm it did make this much if a difference
Another tweak that frequently works is doubling up, I can pretty much guarantee if you added another 100uf Mundorf it would be better, I rarely find I cant try something then squeeze it in if it improves things, by the way a copper GND plate for the chassis to improve GND and sheild is usually a significant improvement. If it's a steel chassis and signal GND is through the chassis some big gains to be had here as well. I was shocked at the gains made here on a BR player, to the point I rebuilt the modified boards into a stock chassis just to confirm it did make this much if a difference
Right on, very true, there is a lot to be said of 'just trying it'. Thinking back on so many things where things have had huge impact where i didn't think it would, and vice versa. You're right, maybe I'll just throw some on the mundorfs and see what happens. 👍
Great, I suspect 60-100+ hours before they are fully burnt in
In my tool kit is various double sided tapes, especially this tape https://www.amazon.co.uk/GXR-Multip...t=&hvlocphy=1006739&hvtargid=pla-827467185336
Sometimes caps get tucked away in side panel flanks, with copper heating pipe as a sheild, copper foil is great as a sheild too, self amalgamating tape and heatshrink are great too. I like Dueluend cable, Amtrans and a few others not only as they are higher quality copper but the insulation is more heat tolerant and no melted ends
In my tool kit is various double sided tapes, especially this tape https://www.amazon.co.uk/GXR-Multip...t=&hvlocphy=1006739&hvtargid=pla-827467185336
Sometimes caps get tucked away in side panel flanks, with copper heating pipe as a sheild, copper foil is great as a sheild too, self amalgamating tape and heatshrink are great too. I like Dueluend cable, Amtrans and a few others not only as they are higher quality copper but the insulation is more heat tolerant and no melted ends
Appreciate your thoughts - These spragues had a great impact to the preamp! Much more natural fuller sound, less tinny, a more expensive sound. Interestingly I had 2 more of these I put into a pair of JBL speakers on midrange, bypassing regular Mundorf EVOs - brought the speakers down! I removed them. As you said, you never know until tried...
I am about to do another build tucking anther cap in the other side panel to bypass the centre channel, no room to do all all channels (my player is a Bluray player used in my home cinema set up), this was the side panel used to bypass my Jensen LPS caps.
My brother has had great success with using these Arizona caps as a bypass with a Jensen 0.082uf paper in oil as well. He said this added a bit of resolution again and more solidity and body to the higher frequencies, more real and tonally better again.
My brother has had great success with using these Arizona caps as a bypass with a Jensen 0.082uf paper in oil as well. He said this added a bit of resolution again and more solidity and body to the higher frequencies, more real and tonally better again.
So interesting, I bypassed the 22uF axial caps with mica across the channels of the BP-25. Took typical 3 days to settle in, and nice; great details and now nice warm tight bass..
I have had great success with these MICA's I used 0.016uf, these are sent over from Japan https://spec-corp.jp/audio/MC-DA/index.html they worked out at £14 each but they are good !
