Capacitors and Headphone Upgrades

[alepoli]

Hi All,

I have finished my speedball upgrade and it is sounding great. I am also running a 12au7 RCA cleartop and an RCA manufactured and branded 6as7ga. Everything sounds great through my HD650's but I am hungry for more!

I was thinking about upgrading the output capacitors to Mundorf Evo aluminum oil capacitors (100mfd 350v). Anyone have any experience with these?

Also I have been thinking about getting a new set of cans. I have heard the HD800 and Audeze LCD-3. I enjoyed the HD800 quite a bit other than the 6khz resonance, and the Audeze LCD-3 were amazing! So now it is between the HD800s (which fixes the resonance and adds some bass at the cost of 2nd harmonic distortion) and the LCD-3. Does anyone have any experience running the LCD-3 with the crack +SB? I know the output impedance is 120 ohms and that a headphone impedance well above that is recommended for proper electrical dampening, but is it worth trying with the LCD-3? Or is the HD800s just gonna blow the Audeze out of the water?

Thanks!
-Alex

 

[Tom-s]

Be aware of the size of those Mundorfs. With 75mm diameter you'll have a hard time getting those to fit the small enclosure. Although with 50mm long you could fit them at a 90degree angle.

With a 110 Ohms impedance and 102db/mw efficiency i think these would work. Putting bigger output caps would be better when planning on using these.

 

[grausch]

I could not find it right now, but someone has used those Mundorfs in a Crack before. However, that person used a custom top-plate that was slightly wider. I was investigating those for my Crack, and just based on the measurements, I did not think I could get them to fit.

Edit: And just to prove me wrong, here is a build with them in a standard Crack - http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=8359.msg79997#msg79997.

I believe this is the gallery with the custom top plate, but the photos no longer show - http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=3627.msg32282#msg32282

 

[Adrian]

I installed 100uf Mundorf Mcap MKPs (49mmX66mm?) - look here for comparison of fit:
http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=1723.msg83904#msg83904

 

[Paul Birkeland]

The LCD-3 is not a suitable match for the Crack. 

The LCD-3 will work great with the SEX amp, and there are a couple of kits left.

-PB

 

[drewh1]

I have a Crack with Mundorf Mcaps, they just fit. I am thinking of bypassing them with a v-cap or Jupiter at some point.  I use it with T1's but have compared them at length with my friend's 800. I really liked the 800's with the Crack. The newest version is supposed to have corrected the 6 khz bump.

I know everyone thinks it is BS, but I replaced the input and output wires with some nice OFC and cotton insulation. I though it really smoothed out the sound nicely, of course, we all know wires don't make a difference  ;D

The biggest issue is, since I have gotten my Kaiju, I only want to listen to that!

 

[alepoli]

I think that I can get the capacitors to fit, them having a 75*50 mm dimension and just rotating them 90 degrees. Thanks for the suggestions and examples. However, I still would like to know whether or not the Evo caps will sound better than the MKP audiophiler capacitors. Anyone heard both? Is the extra 20$ worth it?

As for the LCD-3 vs HD800s, will the LCD-3 not work because of the efficiency? Because the HD800s and LCD-3 are separated by 1 db/mw in efficiency (less than 1%). So is it the lower impedance? or something else? I just want to understand exactly why they wouldn't work.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Doc B]

LCD-3s will "work" from a technical standpoint, but they are not a particularly good match in terms of impedance. You can find many positive reviews about HD600/650/800s in use with the Crack, and not many at all about the LCD-3. I'll suggest that as a good indication of which is the best match.

As PB says, LCDs sound very nice with the S.E.X. amp.

 

[JamieMcC]

I have a Crack with Mundorf Mcaps, they just fit. I am thinking of bypassing them with a v-cap or Jupiter at some point.  I use it with T1's but have compared them at length with my friend's 800. I really liked the 800's with the Crack. The newest version is supposed to have corrected the 6 khz bump.

I know everyone thinks it is BS, but I replaced the input and output wires with some nice OFC and cotton insulation. I though it really smoothed out the sound nicely, of course, we all know wires don't make a difference  ;D

The biggest issue is, since I have gotten my Kaiju, I only want to listen to that!

Going with Russian military surplus Teflons instead of V caps would be much kinder on the wallet they only cost about the same as a fancy cup of coffee. I used the Russian Teflon K72P6 in my Crack and loved what they did with the T1 but bear in mind the general opinion is the Teflons caps take around 200hrs before they are considered burnt in.

Some of my Crack experiments

http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=5284.msg50963#msg50963