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Tweakers' Asylum: REVIEW: V-Cap OIMP Passive Components by DocDicK

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REVIEW: V-Cap OIMP Passive Components

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Model: OIMP
Category: Passive Components
Suggested Retail Price: $43.19 and up
Description: V-Cap
Manufacturer URL: V-Cap
Model Picture: View

Review by DocDicK ( A ) on February 03, 2006 at 08:12:22
IP Address: 207.203.88.15
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for the OIMP


Equipment Under test: Conrad Johnson's 15 Phonoamp, with Nos tubes, and, V-cap or Jensen .47 Uf caps between initial and final amp stages. It is amazing that changing just two caps can make such a great difference for the better or worse.

Equipment: CJ 19LS line stage with Russian-Cryo tubes,

Basis PSTT interconnects and speaker cables,

Art Audio PX25 low gain monoblocks modified with the Jensen .47uf caps too. Two caps per monoblock.

Advangarde Duo horns with type 225 Sub woofer pair. Horns syncronized in a constan radius vertical arc relative to the listening position, to blend as a point source with sub cones.

Front end: Dynovector XV-1s cartridge (1 yr old), Basis vector arm with PSTT, continuous, small signal wires, Basis Debut (1984 vintage) turntable, with: vacuum, cable stand off and VTA options (2003-5 vintage).

Listening room 21 long x 12 wide with 12 foot peak ceiling at center of long span.

Music: Classic, Contemporary, Jazz, Soft Rock, Electronic, in other words anything well recorded and performed.

Curiosity: Some of the most stunning sounds can come from a $3 yard sale find....or expensive 180 gram UHQR.

Reason for trying V-Caps. Positive Asylum review and a need to hear it for my self, or the search of perfection, I am not sure which.

History: I liked the Jensen caps very very much above all the others I have tried including the Audio Notes, the Jensens are a great value.

Just after trying the V-Caps I tried two .22 uf caps in parallel in place of the single Jensen cap a 600v product while the pair of Jensen's are a 1000 volt product. My thought for using the pair was to improve the ability to handle transients by providing a larger conduction path-more leads and shorter foil warps less leakage current losses etc. The Jensen caps have silver leads and larger gauge wire than the V-caps too. Bigger should be better?

The sound of a Jensen: The single .47 Jensen caps provided more extension, and dynamic punch at the extremes over previous caps with little to no disliked coloration. The mid range was accurate with excellent to good harmonic structure.

The Test:

Next comes the V-caps.

On first light off the sound seems somewhat subdued. The V-caps seemed less dynamic than the Jensen cap. More gain was required to get the same perceived loudness.

Breakin begins. The first day's sound with the V-caps was not overly impressive, the sound is ok but limited in dynamics. Ran the system for about four hours. Next couple of days, ran the system about 3-4 hours. Now each day sees incremental improvements. A week of casual listening goes by and the sound is still changing. Week two: began to notice more textures among the instruments. Thought that the loss noted initially aren’t due to a limiting of frequency response as thought before but rather a better focus to the material being passed by the V-caps. It was like putting on your reading glasses and the printed word pop out of the smeared mass of black. The music is now better portrayed, less fooled around with, more focused. Details are more airy and are kept correctly spaced in the time domain. Yes, the base seems less somehow but tight.

Back to the Jensen's: This time with the .22 paralleled pair of 1000 volters. The sound is bold, bigger but not as focused and more is well not more. It seems less and not quite as listenable. After breaking in for a short time which probably was really too limited I longed too much to hear the V-caps again.

They're baaaack: I just hand to get the V-caps back in to really get a handle on their differences from the Jensen's. Could the Jensen's really be the lesser of the two-why did I want to listen to the V-cap sound more than the Jensen sound?

I reinstalled the V-caps, one in the right and one in the left channel. (It is a very easy thing to do with the CJ 15 and can be accomplished within a half hour including reconnecting back into the system). As soon as the system was up to temperature, about 20 minutes is required, I knew what I was liking with the V-caps. The sound was holographic. It was like viewing a forest across a field with slightly out of focused binoculars, you see a bunch of trees, pine tree shapes stand out for all the trunk type trees with the Jensen's then you focus the binoculars (swap in the V-caps) and the pine tree branches are clear, the trunk trees have smooth and rough bark, there are many more trees in depth that are visible through the branches of the foreground trees. Oh and there is a blue jay in the top of that one over there, I could hear him before but couldn't pick him out. The V-caps were like that. The details were extraordinary, more vivid yet the sound was not clinical, but rather detailed in a smooth more like live music way. Yes, the sound seemed less over the short listening span because there is less smearing like an out of focused tree is now thinner because it is in sharp focus. Recordings that sounded only good to fair with the other caps are harmonically richer and more textured with the V-caps.

Good recordings and excellent recordings become finger snapping, toe tapping, shake your body performances. I am rooting thru my whole collection of old rock and pop recordings to hear them for the first time reproduced to more life like performance. If you are happy with your system now don't change a thing...but if your looking for the next step up these babies won't disappoint.... V-caps are better than searching for a whole new preamp if you're in love with the present equipment and are worried of going backward in the sonic truth with a new piece of equipment. They should work wonders in any tubed unit I feel. If you have a cartridge worth $500 or more you will notice the difference the V-caps can make.


Product Weakness: High cost, but worth it.
Product Strengths: The most transparent of caps heard so far.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Art Audio PX25 monoblocks-low gain option
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): CJ 15 and CJ 19 LS
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Basis Debut w/Vacuum option, Dynavector XV-1s cartridge, Basis Vector w/PSTT wires.
Speakers: Sensitivity 103 db, Advangard Duo horns with a pair of 225 subs
Cables/Interconnects: Basis PSTT interconnects and speaker cables
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical, Pop rock, Jazz, Electronic
Room Size (LxWxH): 21 x 12 x 12-8
Room Comments/Treatments: Homemade
Time Period/Length of Audition: Two weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Custome Power Cord Co. 20A dual feed 8 way power block.
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: V-Cap OIMP Passive Components - DocDicK 08:12:22 02/3/06 ( 11)