It had to happen eventually... capacitor upgrade question for the Mainline

[SmashBruh]

In my Mainline i went for Mundorf Supreme 10uf SGO's (because i thought they would just fit when i measured on pictures). These just did not fit, by 1mm or so. You can secure them a bit higher up in the amp with some zipties.
They were a bit too expensive not to try. They sound good.

So, I'm about to install the same capacitors in my mainline because I got a good deal on them and had a little bit of a question regarding securing it-

Is it okay if the capacitors touch other components? Or do they need to be completely free-standing? I'm not really sure how hot those two top blocks on the side get or if it's bad if the capacitor touches the PCB so I just thought I'd check.

 

[SmashBruh]

So for some reason the Mumforf 10uf SSGO juuuust got inside my mainline. Tom-a pretty much hits it on the head with his review. They sound good. Mine had 10 hours of use when I put them in but the more I listen the more I notice has improved. As of now I don’t think the upgrade was super worth the money, but I reserve the right to change my mind lol

 

[Tom-s]

I'm very glad how it worked out for you. I think in my Mainline they just didn't fit. It's a matter of mm's. Don't have any pictures of the undersides unfortunately.
Let us know what you've come to think of the Mainline after some months of use! Do post in the headphones with Mainline thread! For me it's a magical pairing with HD800's. It's absolutely stellar. Never heard an amp like it (and have been to a massive amount of headphones shows over the last few years).

 

[SmashBruh]

I'm very glad how it worked out for you. I think in my Mainline they just didn't fit. It's a matter of mm's. Don't have any pictures of the undersides unfortunately.
Let us know what you've come to think of the Mainline after some months of use! Do post in the headphones with Mainline thread! For me it's a magical pairing with HD800's. It's absolutely stellar. Never heard an amp like it (and have been to a massive amount of headphones shows over the last few years).

So it's been a few months and I swear to god that the SGO's really opened up! I haven't gone back to the old Daytons because desoldering is a PITA for me/I'm not inclined to, but the texture of notes, dynamics, base response and detail retrieval really opened up! Imo they've made the amp rather less polite than it used to be and far more lively! It definitely sounds a little "tubier" than it used to, but it's still very tight and detailed. I also use my mainline out of it's balancedconnection with the HD650, ZMF Atticus, Verite and Auteur. They all sound fantastic out of the mainline but I have to say the Auteurs and Verite really pair beautifully with this amp when upgraded.

 

[hsdrggr]

If anyone needs a pair of Mundorf Supreme Filter Caps, 10uf.  I have a new pair that I just received for my Mainline and then changed my mind and ordered a pair of 15uf Caps. I order from Europe, so not worth the cost of returning the set of 10uf caps.
I'm in the United States, Florida to be exact and will ship them for free anywhere in CONUS. Price is $90 for the pair.

 

[PassionForSound]

Hey everyone, I got the urge for another cap upgrade recently when I found a well priced pair of 800V 15uF Jantzen Superior Z-Caps on eBay. Installed them tonight and I'm noticing some really nice improvements over the Auricaps I had in there before (regular Auricaps, not XO as far as I know). The Jantzens, even without burn-in time, have a really nice attack to them that is a bit faster than the Auricaps which were really nice, but the Jantzens sound more transparent so far and I expect they'll only improve over time.

I'll provide another update after some further listening, but I can recommend these as a very affordable significant upgrade (just over $100 USD for the pair) for the Mainline coupling caps.

 

[amirhosein]

Has anyone tried changing the transformers to toroidal ones?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Has anyone tried changing the transformers to toroidal ones?

If you changed the power transformer to a toroidal one, I would expect enormous noise issues (despite what the marketing literature claims for them).

I haven't seen line level toroidal output transformers but I would speculate that high frequency response would suffer a bit.

 

[Love Rhino]

For advice: do you think it would be more beneficial to replace the stock 10uf caps with something higher end like an auricap xo, or to instead keep the stock caps and do a bypass with a higher end .1 uf cap?

Or go crazy and do both ?

Just found myself in the upgrade stage of both my mainline and my crack!  Appreciate any opinions!

 

[Paul Birkeland]

I would recommend performing that experiment on your own.  The results that I have observed don't tend to agree with the mainstream philosophies.

 

[Adrian]

So for some reason the Mumforf 10uf SSGO juuuust got inside my mainline. Tom-a pretty much hits it on the head with his review. They sound good. Mine had 10 hours of use when I put them in but the more I listen the more I notice has improved. As of now I don’t think the upgrade was super worth the money, but I reserve the right to change my mind lol

I put these cpas in my Mainline and liked them right from the start.
I have about 30 hours on them and they are a real improvement (for my tastes).
I have these caps in the para-feed position on all my amps (vice the Crack) - I guess I like what they do to each component.
The result of Cap changes are indeed subjective so be careful spending this much money on the changes ....

 

[Love Rhino]

Auricap XO 10uf 400vdc arrived and have been installed in the mainline.  Re-biased, and currently putting some time on them! 
They fit very comfortably, no issues.

 

[juihung]

Hey everyone, I got the urge for another cap upgrade recently when I found a well priced pair of 800V 15uF Jantzen Superior Z-Caps on eBay. Installed them tonight and I'm noticing some really nice improvements over the Auricaps I had in there before (regular Auricaps, not XO as far as I know). The Jantzens, even without burn-in time, have a really nice attack to them that is a bit faster than the Auricaps which were really nice, but the Jantzens sound more transparent so far and I expect they'll only improve over time.

I'll provide another update after some further listening, but I can recommend these as a very affordable significant upgrade (just over $100 USD for the pair) for the Mainline coupling caps.

Hi Loquah,

  If you have any updates, I am interested to hear from you on your impressions of the Jantzen Superior Z-Caps.  Thank you.

 

[Love Rhino]

In the following statement (taken from the capacitors web page) the outer lead would be connected to 20 and 30?

"The outer lead out, closest to the edge of the capacitor, is connected to the outer foil and as such should be connected to the lowest impedance path to ground, generally the signal output."

Thank you!

 

[Audioraider]

Greetings,
I want to install a set of .1uf vcaps as bypass caps in my mainline. They have a red and black lead. What side does the red league go to?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

From the instructions from the manufacturer:

"If using as a bypass cap to ground, connect green lead to ground."

 

[Audioraider]

I am going down the cap rabbithole first the red and gold Audio Research, they are really rich and big sounding but the base seems to be a little loose. I burned them in around 200 hrs, not enough to reach their full potential but enough to get a feel for them. then based on what Jamie has been doing with Duelund bypass caps I added some V-cap .1uf to bypass those. Didn’t really know what to expect but I have to say the highs are substantially better, I was rather shocked. Doc told me to watch out for smearing when I bypass those 10uf caps but I haven’t heard any smearing or ringing so far.
Next I have some Audyn tri-reference 15uf caps to try. These are monsters but if I move the boards forward I can fit them in. I’ve also ordered some Jantzen silver Z caps 15 UF. That I will try in a few weeks.
I’m also going to order a pair of the Duelund silver bypass caps that Jamie is using and try those in combination with his capacitors. I’ll report back my findings.
I tried to post photos but the bottlehead forum won’t let me do that. I posted them over on headfi

 

[mercury128]

Hey everyone, I got the urge for another cap upgrade recently when I found a well priced pair of 800V 15uF Jantzen Superior Z-Caps on eBay. Installed them tonight and I'm noticing some really nice improvements over the Auricaps I had in there before (regular Auricaps, not XO as far as I know). The Jantzens, even without burn-in time, have a really nice attack to them that is a bit faster than the Auricaps which were really nice, but the Jantzens sound more transparent so far and I expect they'll only improve over time.

I'll provide another update after some further listening, but I can recommend these as a very affordable significant upgrade (just over $100 USD for the pair) for the Mainline coupling caps.

Hi Lachlan

I purchased a pair of the Jantzen Superior 15 uf capacitors based on your recommendation. Any tips for how you installed and secured them, as they're much larger than the previous capacitors there!

Thanks
- Alex

 

[AllanMarcus]

Well, I'm thinking of getting new caps. So many to choose from. The first thing I want to try is 10uf vs 15uf (maybe 20, to really emphasize the difference). I was thinking of just getting the daytons, then I will be comparing as similar caps as possible, so the only difference would be the rating of the caps. Then, if I can hear a difference I like, move "up" to a "better" cap. Does that make sense?

I found myself contemplating getting and Eddie Current Aficianado for a really good price, but a cap upgrade for the Mainline might be a better way to fulfill my urge to do something.

My Mainline has Dayton MPT 10uF 250V 5% Audio Grade caps.

Seems like the options are DMPC and PMPC. Any idea which one was shipped with the Mainline?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

The first thing I want to try is 10uf vs 15uf (maybe 20, to really emphasize the difference). I was thinking of just getting the daytons, then I will be comparing as similar caps as possible, so the only difference would be the rating of the caps. Then, if I can hear a difference I like, move "up" to a "better" cap. Does that make sense?

Yes, this is a very good idea.

Seems like the options are DMPC and PMPC. Any idea which one was shipped with the Mainline?

It's quite likely that the factory takes a big lot of DMPC and measures them all and the ones that are very close to the nominal value get the PMPC wrapper.  I wouldn't spend the money on the 1% caps for this application.