Posted on Sunday, 22nd November 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I visited my friend’s home few days ago. We planned to tweak his #26 Pre-Amp (with Parafeed design).

His Pre-Amp was a high quality pre-amp, in terms of parts and design. As you can see below, the high voltage section has Black Gate SKZ capacitor.

He just finished tweaking the high voltage section by adding 3 huge Russian Teflon capacitors (FT-3) and got significant improvement on the sound staging. He was poisoned by the VCap Power Supply trick as I did on my pre-amp, so he tried the cheap Teflon solution first, the Russian FT-3 before going down deeper with VCap

At first, his #26 used Jensen Capacitor Aluminum Foil. The overall sound is live, fast rhythm, and dynamic. A little bit less sexy on the vocal side for my taste and the top end detail was a little bit “flat”. Then we changed to Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube. How did it sound? Keep reading.

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Tags: 26, jensen, preamp, preamplifier
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Posted on Sunday, 11th October 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Still remember my other “stupidity” here? After several hours of investigation, I finally decide that the Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube is not a good capacitor for bypassing purpose. The music will lose most of its detail. YMMV, this is based on my investigation. Feel free if you have other opinion.

On the other side, I still have the “Classic” Jensen Copper Foil Aluminium Tube. Surprisingly, this capacitor works better on the High Voltage bypass section! The price of this capacitor is only 1/3 of the Paper Tube. I will give some more listening test, but so far I would stick with this “Classic” Jensen on the bypass section. This “Classic” capacitor gives warmth sensation without losing the details.

Tags: Bypass Capacitor, Capacitor, jensen, power supply
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Posted on Tuesday, 6th October 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I do love the improvement after I finish the VCap TFTF Capacitor Mods on my Aikido Power Supply. The staging is awesome. I could “see” not only a center point, but also a little bit left/right, even more left/right, left/right (on the speaker), and far away left/right. But sometime, I feel the Pre-Amp is too dynamic (to speedy). For instrument music, it’s ok. But for mostly vocal dominated music, I think I need to slow it down - a little bit - without losing the awesome staging off course.

Since we know the “problem” is caused by the VCap TFTF, so we have to start the solution from this point also (it’s just because I have “predicted” that I have no option to improve on the other section).

Ok, what should we do?

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Tags: jensen, power supply, VCap
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Posted on Saturday, 26th September 2009 by Jimmy Auw

It’s a weekend holiday and it’s time to scratch my laziness and doing some audio DIY mods. This time, I will try a capacitor from Jensen, the 4-Pole Electrolytic.

What makes it different from standard electrolytic? Well, it has 4 poles instead of 2 of standard electrolytic (that’s why they call it Jensen 4-Pole capacitor - I wonder why 4-Pole instead of 4-Poles?) But that’s simply out of our discussion here.

Again another question, why it has 4 Poles instead of 2? Keep reading.

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Tags: Aikido, Choke, jensen, power supply
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Posted on Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 by Jimmy Auw

If before I picked Obbligato as last Power Supply (High Voltage) bypass capacitor, now I’m experimenting with Jensen Pure Copper Foil Paper Tube in this position.

The result? Well, not as significant as VCap on the first capacitor (after first Choke), but compared to Obbligato, I feel “oh so natural” sound with this Jensen. Now the Jensen is side by side with the Duelund

Tags: Duelund, jensen, power supply
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (1)

Posted on Sunday, 30th August 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Still curious about the different between Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube and Duelund CAST PIO, I held another session to benchmark both capacitors. You can read previous articles here and here.

This time I visit another friend. His systems as shown below. Briefly speaking, we can see a Fostex full range speaker with extra Visaton Super Tweeter. The source are Cayin CDT-17A (fully modified on its analog stage and additional reclock module) and a turntable (VPI Scout with Super Platter and Van den Hul Grasshopper IV GLA cartridge). The preamp is Tube #26 with RGN Rectifier. The power amplifier is RS241-12E1-6J5 with RGN Rectifier also.

We compare the Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube and Duelund CAST PIO on the position between 12E1 and RS241.

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Tags: Duelund, jensen
Posted in CD/DVD Review, DIY Audio | Comments (11)

Posted on Tuesday, 18th August 2009 by Jimmy Auw

After you read this, perhaps you would expect a better system to test the capacitors. So today, I visit a friend, and test the capacitors on his system. We can call him, Mr. X. Here is some brief of Mr. X audio system.

Below is the power amplifier. Powered with RS241, RE604,and 6J5. Rectifier is RGN 2504 (later we try Klangfilm RGN 4004). OT is Tango. Currently powered with Jensen Copper Foil Capacitor and old NOS Western Electric capacitors. FYI, RS241 is claimed by most audiophiles as best sounding tube amplifier (forget 300B or 2A3) - and it’s really proven, if you have chance to hear it. This is an ultimate Single Ended tube amplifier (if you really know what do RS241, RE604, and 6J5 really mean to an audiophile).

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Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, tube
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Posted on Sunday, 16th August 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Just what I’ve promised before, finally today I do the most awaited Capacitors Battle. Actually the “real battle” will be done within next few days. Let’s say, this is as first impression to “hear” how good they would sound

I use ELMA Switch (2 poles, 6 positions). Click here for details. The connection in details also explained there.

Here is the appearance of my jig. It’s an Aikido Pre-Amplifier. Powered with 6N1P tube in front connected to 6N6P tube as buffer stage. Rectifier is RGN 1054. The capacitor used as output coupling. Each channel has it’s own ELMA Switch. Please remember the selection is made in “perfect” mode (read here for details). Oh, I use empty CD holder as base for my ELMA

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Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, ELMA, jensen, VCap
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (16)

Posted on Saturday, 4th July 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Still remember the extreme capacitors battle? Well, we need to break-in those capacitors first for a fair judgement. So here it is. I don’t have much time to break-in those capacitors. Around 2-3 hours/night for next 2-3 weeks. I think this should be fine

All those capacitors stacked together:

• Duelund CAST 1uF/630V
• VCap 0.47uF/600V
• Jensen Copper Foil 0.47uF/630V
• Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube 0.47uF/630V
• Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil 0.47uF/1200V
• Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil 1uF/1200V

All soldered together with WBT Silver Solder, connected to my Aikido via Silver Teflon interconnect. I use white cable heat shrink to cover all the leads (and for safety reason). This leads carry half of B+ or around 130VDC. Enough to shock you if touched.

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Tags: Aikido, Break-In, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, VCap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (14)

Posted on Sunday, 21st June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

After some “crazy” capacitors here, I keep adding some more items on my collections. I call it, rest of my life collections.

First, some N and NX series Black Gate. Best located at tube Cathode/Feedback position, since it’s only rated at 6.3V. Nasty and lazy 200 hours break-in time is killing me

Ah my new long awaited collection, the Duelund Carbon/Silver Resistor. Best used at speaker crossover. Unique design and quite expensive. Before I prefer Mills on crossover, but we’ll see how this will perform against Mills.

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Tags: Components, Hammond, jensen, mundorf, Solen
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (10)

Posted on Saturday, 13th June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Most of the time, money could buy anything - except time (and sometime, love ). Like this Duelund CAST-PIO capacitor. You have the money, but you have to wait around 6-8 weeks (not including shipping time), before you could get it on your hand (even if you could pay more, it won’t arrive faster). Well, it happens on me. After a long time waiting for this, finally it arrives today - the current most praised and perhaps most expensive capacitor (I’m not saying it’s the best sound one - not yet), Duelund CAST-PIO Copper (Cu) capacitor. I bought the copper foil version. The most expensive (and not reasonable from my point of view) is the silver foil, but that one should be completely out of my imagination (and budget).

Handmade in Denmark? Some say you can’t rush the Danes and yes you can’t. Just wait 6-8 weeks before they will finish your order. This Duelund VSFCu-PIO/CAST is rated at 630VDC or 300VAC.

Suffix CAST means this is the highest grade compared to VSF version only (without CAST). According to Duelund, as below:

The Duelund CAST Capacitor is our no holds barred flagship capacitor.

The construction builds on the foundation of our Virtual Stack Foil design but does so with the addition of a proprietary WPIO dielectricum which necessitates several days of impregnation under high pressure.

Hope they are right, otherwise I shall regret for the rest of my life for buying this capacitors

I plan to run some benchmarking from these capacitors below, to get the “King of Capacitor” title of my version. Please be noted that the best for my ears doesn’t have to be the best for your ears to. YMMV!

The contenders:

• Duelund VSFCu-PIO/CAST -  1uF/630VDC/300VAC
• Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil - 1uF/1200VDC/800VAC
• Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube - 0.47uF/630VDC
• VCap TFTF - 0.47uF/600VDC
• Jensen Copper Foil - 0.47uF/630VDC

I remove Audio Note Capacitor from my list, since I hate its leakage issue. Good capacitor but less durable is simply out of the league (well, at least for me). I hear the new Oil Filled Mylar from Audio Note is better and safer. Will try if I have chance later.

It’s also interesting to see the battle between Jensen Copper Foil (old one) vs Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube (latest generation). Just like Audio Note with its new Mylar Filled Oil, Jensen also update their premium capacitor line-up with its Paper Tube version. This Jensen Paper Tube version priced around 2.5 times more expensive compared to the standard Copper Foil.

Now, it’s break-in time!!!

Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, v-cap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (10)