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In Reply to: RE: Absolutely you can try to improve... posted by Steve O on November 12, 2014 at 20:10:51
I bought a couple of Dynaco MK IIIs from a friend many years ago, when I was just learning to solder. Holco resistors and MIT Multicaps (I used RTX Polystyrene Film & Foil) were all the rage in magazine reviews at the time. Any equipment which came with them installed just had to be a winner. Money was tight back then, but I was going to transform these (otherwise stock) Dynaco amps by using some magic parts.
When I was done there were some improvements, but nothing like the transformation I was expecting. The money spent on parts was worth it, if only for the lesson learned.
Follow Ups:
I did a similar thing with an EICO HF89 with all high quality caps, resistors, wire, an upgraded power supply to CLC, and was totally underwhelmed by the result. It has good points but it did not reveal the emotion in the music which really separates a good amp from the others. I think a push pull amp should probably be rebuilt with parts that is as close to stock as you can find rather than using "precision" or boutique parts. It doesn't seem that using premium parts will necessarily lead to a better sounding amp.
On the other hand single ended amps are a different story. cheers, Dak
However, it isn't wise to generalize. In the right places and in the right gear Holco all copper resistors and RTX Multicaps can be really good. I'm a big fan of the RTX caps in particular...they do well used with K40s BTW.
The point was, I was under the naive impression 20 some years ago that upgrading resistors and caps to those of better quality would turn a pair of Dynaco MK-IIIs into a pair of Marantz 9s. That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but I knew nothing about the importance of power supplies, output transformers, and input stages back then. My expectations from a parts upgrade were unrealistic.
I posted my experience with RTX caps and Holco resistors based on the original poster seeking to close the gap between his amp, and the sound of a Marantz 8b via coupling caps, not to trash my choices.
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