Anyone Tried Auricaps?

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#21
Gabevee said:
That is cool, and I have also found many caps close to their rated value. But... how do they sound?
Click to expand...

FWIW, I have tried Auricaps as output coupling caps in a little pair of 8W tube Antique Sound Lab monoblock amps.

The original caps were not any identifiable brand (the amps are made in China with mostly local components). The Auricaps were a definite improvement over the original caps. I heard reduced mid-bass, more apparent deep bass, and a generally more refined presentation... the bass seemed more integrated with the mid-range and the treble.

The question of value is another question, though. I recently finished building the Pearl, and used exactly the components Wayne specified in the article. That included some 10 uF AEON output coupling caps that cost ~ $5 US each. The 10 uF Auricaps are ~ $25 US each. I haven't felt any great need to buy the Auricaps yet...

Ren
 
#23
Hi Bernhard

I have some Siemens MKV B25833 5uF/660vAC which seem very similar to your favourites. A friend of mine in NYC swears by them, but i honestly find them a bit letargic and missing air. MKV is something like polyester in oil, isn't it? If anything they're a bit overdamped for my taste.

cheers

peter
 
#24
Peter,
MKV B25833 indeed may be polyester. Bt with similar types one can have bad surprises.

The MKV B25834, B25835 and B25839 i tried out and cannot second your impression. The B25832 is not recommended in my book. The B25839 is what i use as coupling cap and was what i raved about.
 
#25
Re: another try

cocolino said:
(oviously I´m too silly to attach a file here😡 )

okay let`s do it this way: Teflon MIL cap
Click to expand...

Christoph,
for attaching a pix it must be below 100k, it must belong to the permitted file formats (see edit box) and its size must not exceed 800 pixels in width and 600 pixels in height.

The Teflon MIL cap of your link, is it the stuff Gintaras sells? No, it is not the particular cap i was dissappointed with.

But if the housing is somehow magnetic, forgetaboutit IMO. Housing magneticity more than eats up Teflon's sonic beauty. Can only speak for myself, but magnetic caps make my skin crawl, my solarplexus cramp together, my attention go elsewhere. Any magnetic cap, the body symptoms ar so clear to me that i can tell without comparison: there is a magnetic coupling cap in there.

James,
the part number you posted should lead to the right one. The caps should be avaiable at Farnell Europe as well. TMK, they ship internationally. But i could not locate the cap in the catalogue.
 
#26
Bernhard,

your case seems to be giving psycho-acoustics a whole new meaning 🙂

With symptoms that clear, you should be able to pinpoint a cap that somebody slipped into your amp without you suspecting this.

On a more serious note: isn't all that iron in the transformers going to have a bigger effect? What would be the mechanism that makes a cap with magnetic housing sound bad?

Eric
 
#27
<i>What would be the mechanism that makes a cap with magnetic housing sound bad?</i>

coercivity/retentivity maybe????

<a href="http://www.consult-g2.com/course/chapter2/chapter.html">Since steel with a high carbon content hardened by heat-treatment would retain its magnetism, whereas soft or mild steel with a low carbon content would not, magnetic materials came to be called "hard" or "soft" depending on whether they would retain a permanent magnetic field or not.</a>


James
 
#28
Eric,

well, i know that nasty symptoms well, i certaily would ask "what is wrong with that amp" and then "someone built some hermetic BS in it?, please open the case".
But agreed, there are other causes leading to similar symptoms.

No idea what causes this, i love iron in a tube amp, particularly good chokes and transformers. But on caps and resistors i despise magnetism sonically.

Back then, as audio newbie, there were those fancy WBT interconnect plugs coming with magnetic clamp bushings. Then nonmagneitc were available in the shop i was working at, and i grabbed them just for curiosity. Then i auditioned them. Then i took all non-magnetic WBT bushings i could lay hands on until my interconnects were non-magnetic.
The effect was not as nasty with those interconnects back then but sonically going in the same direction as magnetic caps.
 
#29
originally posted by dice45:
Christoph,
for attaching a pix it must be below 100k, it must belong to the permitted file formats (see edit box) and its size must not exceed 800 pixels in width and 600 pixels in height.
Click to expand...
Bernhard:
Thanks for the instructions! My (jpg) pic was smaller than 18K, 368x177 pixels but it didn`t show up though.😕

And yes: the cap is from Gintaras. I still haven`t tried them sonically because lacking of a suitable setup for comparison.
The housing is magnetic but it shouldn`t be a problem to remove it eventually. Once I have something suitable I`ll compare them with and without housing. I´m curious if I can here any difference at all🙂
(since we are almost neighbors I might even bring it to You for some nice blind A/B comparisons..... 😀 )
 
#30
Christoph,
you should try to attach your pix immeditately befor you click "submit post" every time you click "preview post" the edit box is cleared.

ABing caps: do not believe in it. I do believe in serious long-term auditioning.
However, if you want to visit me, you are welcome. I email you my phone number and adress. I amy need some time, have to finish my speakers.
We can check them out and then i also get to checking out MKVs In Manfred Huber's 46 PP amp.
 
#31
Christoph,
you should try to attach your pix immeditately befor you click "submit post" every time you click "preview post" the edit box is cleared.
Click to expand...
Thanks again Bernhard!! That explains everything🙂If it works You can see the pic from my first post now:
And????
However, if you want to visit me, you are welcome. I email you my phone number and adress. I amy need some time, have to finish my speakers.We can check them out and then i also get to checking out MKVs In Manfred Huber's 46 PP amp.
Click to expand...
That`s a great idea!!🙂 🙂
And I´m also interested hearing the MKV`s because I have a hole box full of them (B25839).
 

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#33
Gabevee said:

Although I persnoally do not generally accept that a capacitor shuold affect the sound, mostly because NFB should remove any such anomolies, [...]
Click to expand...
Just for the record: this will only be true of caps inside the feedback loop, i.e. miller compensation caps and in a broader sense also supply caps.

Coupling and filter (both active and passive) caps will not benefit from NFB 'cause they ain't inside any feedback loop.

Eric
 
#34
All,

TME paper-in-oil caps always were pleasant, very pleasant sonically.
But they ate up the blackness of the background, the downward dynamic range (as Allen Wright like to call it). And compared to MKY and MKV and also the Audyn KP-Sn tinfoils and Roederstein polypropylenes they were not as involving as far as dynamics were concerned.
 
#36
MKV B25839

Peter:
You can find data-sheets with pics and dimensions here (25839 looks like any axial lead cap):

Datasheet for MKV 25839:
http://www.produktinfo.conrad.de/da...01-en-Leistungskondensator_B25839-C6224-M.pdf

Datasheet for MKV 25834:
http://www.produktinfo.conrad.de/da...1-en-Leistungskondensator_B25834-F6474-M1.pdf

Datasheet for MKV B25835:
http://www.produktinfo.conrad.de/da...1-en-Leistungskondensator_B25835-M6224_K7.pdf

and BTW: typo in my previous post - I do not have any 25839 - mine are 25834
 
#38
Christoph,
thanxalot for the links, downloaded them already, didn't have that info.

Peter,
i doubt you'll find them surplus, i did only once (took almost the whole lot, was B25834) and they are made over here.
They can be ordered from www.conrad.de or from www.schuricht.de or from www.buerklin.de . I get mine from Buerklin.
Websites are in German, (search = Suche) if you need help, email me. Maybe you try ordering yourself, writing them a nice email (most German companies have employees speaking English). If you fail, i still can send you samples, you mail me the money, i mail you the caps.
 
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