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Claritycap PX Experiences?


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A while back I replaced the capacitors in my KG4's with Daytona 1%'s which seemed like and was a fitting replacement at the time but I recently decided to try a different cap since I had a couple Clarity PX lying around. I was quite surprised by the difference... I had figured I might notice a difference between the Daytonas and something a bit higher end but thought the PX would be more or less identical? I was wrong... just not in a good way? Despite the PX seemingly superior build quality and Clarity's reputation, to me, they have an unpleasant midrange forward quality and lack the openness of the Daytonas. They make the KG4's sound flat and cheap? I was so befuddled I tried them in my KG1.2's as well, with a similar change in sound? I am now trying to figure out if any one else has noticed this or if it's just my ears or if these are bad caps? There is quite a bit of info out there comparing Daytona, Standard-Z, QS, PX and MCAPs to more expensive caps but little info comparing them to ea other?

Any info could prove useful?

Thank you for you time.

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I have used them in B&W's and been very happy. Are they the correct value?

Leave them in for a wile and see if they get better, if not, put the Daytonas back in.

Caps can also be trial and error. Some very expensive speakers use relatively cheap caps and sound amazing. B&W's Nautilus 800 series uses electrolytic caps. Klipsch Pallaiums use Bennic caps. Both are outstanding speakers, but the manufacturers have the benefit of a lot of R&D.

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey welcome to the forum and to audio experiments. Some caps can take a long time to settle in give them a few weeks first before you pull them and play them as much as you can non stop if possible face to face wired out of phase and covered with a blanket feed them inter channel noise from a tuner or receiver. That will make them work. hacwe a look at this site there is some good info there. Best regards Moray James.

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

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I have actually read over the Humble write up a couple times. It's quite helpful. Actually the last time I looked at it I noticed this:

Clarity Cap SA MKP 630VDC 5% tolerance

Sound: The Clarity Cap range has an overall similarity in tonal balance, going up the range you gain a bit in clarity and spatiality. I find the SA to be neutral with a slightly warmish presentation but also a bit closed-in. Compared to the Clarity Cap PX definition and separation are better, the stereo-image is also little larger. I did find the top end to be slightly rolled-off, not that they lacked detailed but on some recordings I wanted a fraction more transparency - but all in all still very nice. On the downside the "S" and "T" in vocals can be a bit plasticy, this is probably due to the lack in transparency in the top octave, making the octaves below sound a little masked. Making a capacitor using about 90% Clarity Cap SA and about 10% Mundorf Supreme works very well, this tends to open up the top end just nicely without altering anything else.

While he is talking about the SA line this does come fairly close to validating what I noticed with the lower PX line. I am also wondering if using more than one in series (eg. 3rd order network) compounds this flaw as I did not notice the issue, almost at all, when testing these capacitors in series with other brands. I actually liked using the PX in the 3uf position with a standard MCAP, which I also tested. The MCAP is a much brighter cap. An issue that I believe also gets compounded when used in both the 3uf and 8uf position. The two together seem to marry well though I'm not sure how much better this set up is compared to the Daytona/Bennic 1% caps I had in before I this wild testing hair appeared. In fairness though none of my test setups have/had near enough burn-in to fully judge them...

I would still like to hear some of the other budget cap lines like the Janzten Standard-Z and Audyn Q4...

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Yeah that was sort of what I was thinking -- use it as an anti-hot seasoner if you already have them.

I tried the MCAP+SA recipe and it was indeed better but I'm still playing. FWIW, some FT3 bypasses added nothing up high to the combo. I may not have a hundred hours worth of AC into them, though, yet, FWIW. Giving them some time is low-effort.

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