Subjective Comments

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There is an intentional lack of self aggrandizement on my web page.  Many folks have asked me for subjective inputs about the 1801 sound quality.  I have politely refused to offer subjective opinions.  Further explanation about why I don't offer subjective input can be found in the cynicism page of my rhetoric section.   I do have some feedback about the Audio Cap crossover components that seems fair to offer.  These comments were made by other people.  Below is a copy/reiteration of their comments.

21 Dec 02:  I have discontinued use of the Audio Cap PPMF capacitor.  However, the remarks below remain pertinent.  The benchmark of the AudioCap PPMF serves as a very good reference for the quality of the SonicCap.  I have some remarks about the SonicCap at the bottom of this page.
Hello again Dave,

How are things going ?  I thought I'd write to give you a preliminary review of my modified pre amp and CD player.  This is sort of long winded, so bear with me :-) I will do a formal review for audioreview in two weeks once all of the new parts have broken themselves in.   My first mod was to the Anthem Pre-1.  This was a challenge.  Basically I had to disassemble the entire pre-amp.  Removing the circuit board was cumbersome due to the short length of wire from the DC input to the circuit board.  After approx 5 hours of
pain, I managed to safely remove, and replace all of the Solen caps with Rel Caps Audio Cap Theta's (some of the best - the-world-over according to some people).

When I plugged the pre-amp back in, hooked everything up, put some music on, I nearly had a heart attack.  Standing behind my speakers, in front of my audio rack, the pre-amp sounded sooo different I thought i screwed something up.  I sat in my listening chair, and then I had a grin from ear-to-ear. The Anthem no longer sounded like an Anthem Pre-1 (not that it sounded bad before), but as you said with the mods you made to the CD-1, the difference on the pre-amp was ASTOUNDING!  Just a quick listening revealed, more detail, a lower noise floor (especially on the phono stage, where the drop in noise floor was spooky!).  At that point I was happy, and very tired.  I took the day off today, and decided I would try my hands at modifying the CD-1.  This was much easier, mods took about 1.5 hours, fitting some of the large caps was problematic, but I found ways around in order to make things fit.  When I plugged everything back in, nothing worked!  The CD player was blowing fuses, left right- and-center.  I called Sonic Frontiers, ready to ship them the unit to fix up some bobo that I had made.  Then their technical support person gave me a couple of things to try before giving up, it turns out that one of the wires was pinched under a screw that was holding the main circuit board in, hence causing a direct short.  I quickly fixed the problem, put everything back, and tried again.

Words cannot describe the overall improvement in my system.  Well recorded CD's have a rap-around effect (almost suround-sound-like), that I have never heard before with the Anthem.  I have heard this effect on much costlier CD players.  Low level detail has improved.  After I ran dedicated, and isolated-ground power to my CD player, and Amp, I heard an improvement in low level detail.  Again once I power-corded everything up I heard another fabulous improvement in low-level detail, along with an improvement in base-slam, and soundstage depth.  But I have never thought that I would be hearing some of the sorts of things that I am.  Verly slight things that pop out of the recording, that I never realized were there before.  On the tonality side, Base was improved the most, in both the Pre-Amp, and CD player, I noticed a significant improvement in persevable slam.  Base detail, was also improved by an order of magnitude.  The midrange was one spect that my system did really well befire, but it-to has been improved, vocals seem to be more forward.  The top end, (at first) seemed to be rolled off.  At first I was a bit discerned, but after listening to a few CD's, I had realized that the bit of grain I had before was gone.  Top end detail had improved, without sounding etched, or as if someone cranked up the treble.  In other words, music seemed more natural.  But, by-far the largest most discernable improvement was the improvement in sound stage depth, and width.  The focus and transparency just blows me away!,   I cant wait for everything to settle down, and break-in, so I can hear what it will really sound like.

I will let you know.

Again, I have to thank you for getting me in on this :-)

Take Care,

Lou
Hello Again,
 
Well here is where my system stands after two weeks of continuous break-in.
 
Words can not describe what I am now hearing / enjoying.  Instrument placement is beyond both the left and right speakers.  Soundstage is better than what I have heard on systems costing 2X - 3X what mine is worth.  Side-to-side soundstage is about 60%  wider.  Depth is about 20% deepper.  Low level detail has been very much improved.  Everything has exceeded my expectations by a factor of 100!  The only down-side, is the home-brew cable going from my pre-amp to my power amp is now my week-link.  The connectors are older WBT's, but the clamps don't make good contact, and this is causing phase errors (it has for a while), but is more noticable now.  Also this cable that I made (very good considering the cost), had a tendancy to sound too dark (laid-back).  My system sounds smoother now.  On some recordings my system sounds too dark.  I believe that the new caps are "trurer" to the sonic signature of the CD-1 and Pre-1, and I have a bad cable match between PRe- and Power amp.  I am trying the much adored DH -Labs Air Matrix silver / copper hybrid.  Not sure if this will resolve the problem, I have read many reviews from  people who say that the DH-Labs Air Matrix is detailed, and forward sounding.  My guess is that it will do just the trick...  One 2 M length is on order now. If it works I will keep it; if not, there are a couple of other resonably-priced cables that I will try.
 
Overall, I still can not believe the improvement!  Just stunning.  My VR-3's completely disappear into the background, and the focus is nothing short of world-class.  I hate to use the term world-class, but I have heard $40K-$50K systems, and in terms of pre-amp, and CD player, I don't think I could get much better.
 
As dificult as modifying the Pre-amp was in terms of being able to fit the larger caps on the circuit board, I would recommend this modification to anyone with Anthem gear.  I would love to do a comparison with the Anthem Pre-1, and a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 or 3, and see just how good my pre amp now is.  Mind you I don't have any envy towards more expensive gear. 

I will write again after the cable comes in, hopfully there is some synergy there, and I will be finished with my system upgrades for a while.

Sincerely, 

Lou Walters
... I saw your post on the Goertz wire after mine. I guess I should thank you for turning me onto it. It really is very nice!! I used the MI-Y 13 ga  instead of the GHT 14ga.Great stuff! I'll wire the internals on my 2 ways with GHT when I get them veneered and done.

Jeff G. has turned out to be a great source of high grade parts. I recently swapped out the Solen caps and Eagle resistors on my 2 ways and went back in with some AudioCap PPMF caps and Mills resistors. Smoothed and opened up the sound all in the same step. I also upgraded the output caps in my Foreplay tube preamp with his AudioCap "Theta" film and foils. Fantastic transients and detail, soundstage goes out past the walls, and the tightest most coherent image I've ever heard in a simple small system like mine.

 My 2 channel system now consists of a Cal Audio DAC and transport, all silver digital and single ended interconnects, Foreplay pre, Golden Tube Audio SE-40 amp, the Goertz, and the highly modded SEAS 2 ways. Great sound on a budget.

What's going on with you lately? Did you ever get a SEAS monitor
built? How'd it turn out? drop me a line.

Kind regards,
Dan
I did a comparison of the PPMF and the Hovland and Solen. Two of my audio buddies and I compared the three caps. in the output of my Tjoeb CD player and I have since had an opportunity to compare Hovland and PPMF in the crossovers of my 11.2's.

In my applications the PPMF is superior to the Hovland in terms of smoothness and just plain being more musical while letting the detail through.

The Solen were a grainy also ran.

The Hovland was my cap. of choice until I found the AudioCap products, after going to the PPMF it was apparent to me that the Hovland are a bit grainy and can be a tad bright in some applications.

I recently replaced the Jensen PIO (Paper in Oil) copper caps. I had in my 100watt AKSA with the Theta and I think the Theta give a more realistic presentation while being absolutely smooth and detailed.

The Jensen are a bit to "tubey" for my tastes.

I think the AudioCap PPMF is about the best deal going out there and the Theta is the cap. of choice for high performance apps.

Tony D.
I have corresponded with others who tried the Audio Cap capacitors, but I didn't save their email messages.  None of these gentlemen said the Audio Cap's were different.  They universally touted how much better the Audio Cap sounded. 
In November of 02 I received a test batch of SonicCap capacitors from Jeff G. at Soniccraft ( www.soniccraft.com) .  Within a few weeks I a/b tested them against the Audio Cap PPMF in the tweeter circuit of the 1801.  The immediate was immediate and obvious.  There was more detail and less noise.  I heard things in recordings that were brand new to my ears, but were surely evident on the recording since inception.  I am very pleased to have the opportunity to purvey the SonicCap.  I will also offer some apologetics here.

I disassembled a pair of very respectable commercial speakers only to find that the highest quality components in the electronics were the binding posts on the back of the cabinet.  I believe this model follows with other things too.  manufacturers tend to place great emphasis on what is visible.  Capacitor leads are obviously very visible.  Folks can easily understand the tenets of a better capacitor lead.

The SonicCap has a plain tinned lead.  It looks almost cheesy.  However, a smarter guy knows that there is about 5" of lead on any capacitor, AND there is 126' of foil in an ideal 4.7uf (relatively small tweeter value) capacitor.  Hence, that very short 5" lead is almost a non-factor.  Jeff put his $ in the SonicCap where the improvement is most evident - IN THE FOIL!  It makes very good horse-sense to spend $ on the VERY LONG strand foil and very little sense to spend $ on the lead.  The SonicCap is a very well engineered capacitor.  It will be my standby for many years to come.  I am certain that the future will find the SonicCap in many very good commercial products.