Well, it ain't over yet. The sound alternates between harsh top end and boomy base and silky-smooth top and very deep and articulate low end. Couple of days the "pendulum" is stuck one way, then it swings the other way. Recently the frequency of changes has intensified and when it is good - it is indescribably good. The black, the soundstage depth are utterly uncanny.
Really good choice Audyn True Copper, i think you will have a lot of fun
The EVO's was one of the first mods i did not wanted to change any values then.
I always recommend what I've used myself because I guarantee the good result. 0.47 uF True Copper Max replaced all the WIMAs. They won't fit on top of the PCB, of course. But underneath - there's plenty of room and you can use a good quality sticky (on both sides) tape to firmly secure them in place. Forget the film caps. Always use copper foil!
Very good plan. But be sure to bypass each of the 4 True Copper Maxes with 0.01 Duelund JDM Silver Foil caps:
Well done, Joostp! I don't envy your friend
He will be very envious...
Amazing isn't it how even expensive, famous brand components will be filled with cheap caps, resistors, etc - a result of designing to a price point. My similar upgrading of my Pathos TT RR is described in my posts at this forum. At this point every component in my system including my speakers has been modified to include "world's best" parts and hookup wire. The huge caps in the "2020 mods" photo are Dueland Cast PIO Tinned Copper Foil. Note that the addition of Bybee Music Rails in both my Pathos and Unison amps and my Modwright-modified Marantz sacd player resulted in a significant reduction in noise. I've also had very good results with the Stage III Concepts hookup wire. Note that the 2011 mods (2nd photo) were done by Nick Doshi (who used to be an official Pathos repair tech) long before he became a leading high end manufacturer. My tech and I consulted with the Pathos factory on the 2020 mods to make sure we didn't do anything counterproductive. To my surprise they gave advice and suggestions and shared some things that they had tested but were "too expensive to put into production".
I've had all my equipment modded with better electrical parts, Mundorf and Audio Note amongst others. The difference in sound quality is astounding. I have to wonder if spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on much of what's considered the best equipment is more about ego than sound quality.To answer your questions... Yes, cap mods were done in stages. Many stages indeed. The first coupling caps I used (for about a year) were Mundorf Supreme SGO. Then I tried Audyns and realised film can not compete with foil. Ended up using CAST Silver Foil Duelunds as my main coupling caps, which I first bypassed with Audyns and 0.01uF precision Duelunds. Eventually, I replaced the Audyns in that position with the Jupiters. That trio will stay there for ever. Splendid! Remove CAST Duelunds and we've lost top end agility and liveliness. Remove the Jupiters - and we've lost fabulous mid range. Top copper and silver foil really complement each other well.
No more comparisons will be done in my system. Stock gear does not excite me any more. With any price tag. These days I prefer to enjoy what I have here...
Cost of mods... I never kept any financial records. You can see it all on the pics. Just grab a calculator and do your maths. I never cared what it cost because I am addicted to best
I find attempts to describe the sound futile. Words are pretty much meaningless because everyone will interpret those words based on his own scale of reference. All I can say is that resolution has gone up tenfold. The sound is natural, organic and utterly addictive. Music plays here, right in front of my nose, not there in a distance and I find it very hard to stop listening to it. Taking vacations is a problem. 3 days go by and I already want to go home to listen to some music. I sopped attending live concerts with amplification. Everything here sounds so much better...
Don't forget that replacing capacitors requires a long burn in process during which the sound will change several times. The final sound is not at all like the beginning of burn in. I've found that electrolytics need at least 300 hours of burn in and film and oil caps at least 50 hours, more is better.
I'm 500+ hours in and it sounds glorious - in my small listening room and within its 35w/ch limitation, as good as the Vinnie Ross L2i and any of the six figure separates I listened to at the last Capital Audiofest. Can you tell me where you got the silver plated Soviet military fuse holders?
Bill Thalman at Music Technology, Inc. in Springfield, VA does incredible work. I have no way to attribute specific aspects of the improvement in sound quality to the Stage III hookup wire vs. the Dueland caps vs. the Bybee Music rails, etc. Too many things were changed, and just about every aspect of the amp is improved. All of the wiring in the signal path (all of the white wires in the photo of the stock Pathos TT that I posted) was silver in the stock amp, so I looked for a superior silver wire to replace it with. I chose the Stage III because of the unique spiral conductor which gets it very close to an air dielectric. I had also listened to several different Stage III cables and was impressed with the sound quality. Note that reviews of the stock amp described it as a little polite and subjectively not the fastest. There is an increase in speed and dynamics with the mods that goes beyond what I expected to hear based on previously modified components (e.g., Bill Thalman used the Dueland tinned copper wire in his modification of my Unison S6). I thought the Stage III Concepts wire might be at least partially responsible for this but again I have no way to prove it.
