|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
70.213.0.39
In Reply to: RE: Elna Silmic II caps?... posted by Lew on June 13, 2016 at 07:16:50
Another reason that the "internet" rates the SilmicII so high could be that they sound great . Some of what people like in the treble doesn't or at least may not exist in real live music, IMHO. It's likely that one could bypass them to make them brighter if that's what was wanted or needed, less possibly rolled off. Tweaker
Edits: 07/01/16Follow Ups:
They start to sound very good. I sometimes wish for a tiny bit more sharpness and crispness, just a tiny bit more edge, but globally they sound now very nice, I expect them to keep opening up a bit in the next few days... let's see!
KanedaK, Please report what you think about the Silmics. You should have burnt them in for quit some time now. I'm interested in what you think. While they may be somewhat rolled off on the top end I don't hear the kind of super fast leading edge and hyper detail in live music as I hear from some kinds of electronics. I hear no nasality from the Silmics. They are to me pretty much how Elna describes them. Warm, full, clear,deep bass glare free treble. My definition of good sounding. I'm a bit on the fence on the issue of treble extention and detail. I don't here in my main live music venues what may be though of as extended highs and sparkle, or extra sparkle, or for that matter any sparkle. I am soon to fully recap my dac with Silmics and do admit the possibility of an excessive treble roll off. Tweaker
Well, I'm happy to say burn-in is over, and it now sounds as good as I was hoping for.
Treble clarity is back, openness and image, warmth and purity, yes!
I suspect people who don't like Silmic II didn't burn them in long enough... the change for good happened quite recently (even tho I can't really count how many hours). They really sound like crap for a looooooong time!!!
K, Thanks for the reply. I myself have never perceived a bad period but I'm not paying attention to just one change and then waiting. The only thing that I see that may be " wrong" is a subdued treble although as I have said before I don't hear the kind of brightness in real live music like can be in many stereo systems. Sizzle and boom seems to be what many like. Also a very quick leading edge, if it were accurate can be a little hard on my old ears. I'm into warmth and comfort these days with a soulful, intimate presentation. The Silmics blow away the Nichicon KZ in this respect, IMHO. Glad they worked out. IMO they are what many people "should" like who want a " tube like" sound. Natural, musical, deep bass, glare free treble,forward mids. What more can one ask for from a sometimes 30 cent cap? Tweaker
Silmic II never get "sharp" or "edgy" or "bright", but they go trough a phase where transients are muted an strangely "muffled" with a lack of air and detail, while midrange gets a somewhat nasal quality. After proper burn-in, transient speed, attack, decay, layering of sound, all comes back, and midrange becomes transparent instead of nasal. My experience on my system anyways ;)
phono preamp I recapped with the Elna Silmic II's. I had the Nichicon KZ in there but even though it sound nice there was just something missing. I then gave the Silmic II's a try and immediately there was more musical presentation with a more quiet background and the music seem to come out from nothing. Then it took that turn to the ugly and I knew it was the break in and it seemed to take forever to clear up.
I know I still don't have 100hrs in music break in time this along with my ART 9 cartridge is still breaking in (25-35 hrs.) but it's sounding better every time I play my Vinyl. My Phono preamp doesn't have an ON/OFF switch so it stays on all the time so that has helped a some with the break in.
Once everything has passed that 150hr. stage then I will now what I have. But so far, it's going in the right direction. This phono preamp with my BAT VK-30 preamp are a great match.
I don't think these caps should be sold short by people reading the negative reviews. They are so inexpensive that they should be tried, IMO. Big game changers as far a I'm concerned. The fav of Nelson Pass. T
This is why I recommended them to you a while back. You also dead on with your comment about the tube sound. They do seem to bring that but this is not a bad thing and this is what I like.
What they don't do is present that sizzle you talked about but the upper end is there just not so dominant like other caps. They also have a deeper soundstage from what I can hear between them and the Nichicon KZ.
Hey, Would I steer you wrong. Their lack of edge is a quality I like about them. Full bodied and not peaky. Very natural sounding. Detailed without being etched or bright. They dust the Nichicon KZ, IMHO. Hope you can live with them. T
in the output coupling caps and later bypassed with the Auricap XO caps. That made a big difference than with just the Silmic II alone. But the Silmic II alone were still good sounding but the Auricaps XO's brought that little extra I was looking for plus a wider/deeper soundstage.
I did try the bypassing the Silmic II's with Dueland Alexander's just for the heck of it and that was even better sounding not by much than with the Auricap XO's but just they were just too big to fit.
I also used the Panasonic FM caps in the power supply.
Hope this helps!
The term "sounds great" for me is opaque, first because I do not even think of using any electrolytic as a coupling capacitor (except in the one instance noted, where space just does not permit use of a film capacitor), which is the most likely way to influence "sound", and second because the term expresses the opinion of the author, and I have no way to fathom his preferences. I do agree that I also can find no fault with ELNA Silmics used in solid state power supplies, and I also use them galore in my vintage direct-drive turntable electronics. Push come to shove, I would also use the best grade Nichicons in these applications with no hesitation. The Nichicon Muse bipolar capacitors are quite interesting. I own a Sencore capacitance/inductance meter. For yucks, I compared the ESR of a 10uF/50V Silmic II to that of a 10uF/50V bipolar Nichicon Muse, and to my surprise the ESR of the latter was quite a bit lower. This lead me to sub the Muse in for the Silmic in that one coupling application I mentioned above, in a Beveridge direct-drive amplifier.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: