Deang Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Kevin, I love you bro, but you might want to read what you just wrote a couple of times. I'm just going to pretend you're asking me what my favorite cap is. Okay, well, that depends. With the first order ones (A, B & E), I like the Jensens. I would really like to compare the aluminum foil to the copper foil to see if I could hear a difference, but that's a pretty expensive experiment. Once I get past two caps and a coil, I like OIMP V-caps and AudioCap Thetas. Basically oil impregnated metallized types and film and tin foils, the latter being preferred in tweeter sections. So, anyone put in an order yet for some of the Russian PIOs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cut-Throat Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 but you might want to read what you just wrote a couple of times. I have read it 4 times, so I'm not sure what you're referring to. But, at any rate I was asking you what your favorite Cap was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cut-Throat Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 So, anyone put in an order yet for some of the Russian PIOs? I've been using Russian PIOs for years....They work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I'm wondering what/who is a good source for good value pio's. say for a type A network. i've browsed partsconexion or whatever it is and ebay. can't even locate the right value caps much less make sense of prices. any help is appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I'm wondering what/who is a good source for good value pio's. say for a type A network. i've browsed partsconexion or whatever it is and ebay. can't even locate the right value caps much less make sense of prices. any help is appreciated. Marty mentions to give him a PM about a source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 '84 HIP with the stock polypropylene sounded just as smooth and sultry as a pair of '58 Heresy loaded with its original PIO's last time I listened. Would've been nice to know how the original Cornwall caps stacked up to the new Russian PIO's instead of the aforementioned Sonic Caps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 new Russian PIO's I'm not positive, but I'm thinking the Russian Military PIO's (or film in oil) that's mentioned, are old 1980's military surplus capacitors. But these caps are usually hermetically sealed, with ceramic terminals. Built to last. Of course, one should measure for leakage, capacitance, etc... A lot with the older heritage speakers use what appear to be common motor run capacitors...not too sure on that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escher Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 As a Les Paul guy - PIO caps give LP guys that warm all over feeling.... aaahhhhh.... They are the grail in the vintage guitar world, next the vintage bumblebee's... Interesting to see the similar trend in my favorite speakers.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 I'm thinking it has been some time since Klipsch used PIO caps in crossovers. Does anyone know the last speakers built with them? I've had Khorns and LaScalas as old as 1977 and they just had motor run caps in the AA crossovers. So that's been 36 years in my own limited observation. So, I'm guessing it was Mr. PWK who made the decision to not use PIO caps. Can anyone offer some help with that? Any thoughts appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 So, anyone put in an order yet for some of the Russian PIOs? I've been using Russian PIOs for years....They work. As in generic sounding or they sure do sound good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 new Russian PIO's I'm not positive, but I'm thinking the Russian Military PIO's (or film in oil) that's mentioned, are old 1980's military surplus capacitors. But these caps are usually hermetically sealed, with ceramic terminals. Built to last. Of course, one should measure for leakage, capacitance, etc... A lot with the older heritage speakers use what appear to be common motor run capacitors...not too sure on that. More than likely from the 80's. I'm using the one guy because he appears to have good, properly stored surplus mil, based on the fact that Craig tested all eight of them and found them all to have very tight specs, no leakage etc. , and he has a much better tester then my little multi-tester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cut-Throat Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 As in generic sounding or they sure do sound good? Can't comment as I am not a 'Golden Ear'.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 As in generic sounding or they sure do sound good? Can't comment as I am not a 'Golden Ear'.... So you just buy high end esoteric gear of out of What? Boredom? Filling an unrealized but real undefined urge/need? Cause I can? My wife makes me do it? My boss is an audiophile and I am a suckup? I knew a priest one time who told me.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cut-Throat Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 So you just buy high end esoteric gear of out of What? Boredom? Filling an unrealized but real undefined urge/need? Cause I can? My wife makes me do it? My boss is an audiophile and I am a suckup? I knew a priest one time who told me.... Some things I can hear quite easily, others not so much. If the 'High-End' Gear is expensive and I can hear the difference, I buy it. SET amps are very pleasing to my ears as are Klipschorns. Cables....Not PIO Russian Caps are just as Cheap as any, so I buy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 What's a good way to identify and confirm the composition of these caps? Lots of variants out there, just curious how one would go about ensuring they got what they were really looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 new Russian PIO's I'm not positive, but I'm thinking the Russian Military PIO's (or film in oil) that's mentioned, are old 1980's military surplus capacitors. But these caps are usually hermetically sealed, with ceramic terminals. Built to last. Of course, one should measure for leakage, capacitance, etc... A lot with the older heritage speakers use what appear to be common motor run capacitors...not too sure on that. More than likely from the 80's. I'm using the one guy because he appears to have good, properly stored surplus mil, based on the fact that Craig tested all eight of them and found them all to have very tight specs, no leakage etc. , and he has a much better tester then my little multi-tester. I don't know if this is a concern to anyone here, but these old caps contain PCB's, even caps from the 1980's. Not trying to start a controversy but this is important health info that you should have, especially if they ever leak: In the 1970s, PCBs became associated with a variety of health risks, and by the 1980s, their use and manufacture was either banned or severely restricted in the major industrialized countries. However, although the U.S. and Canada stopped production in 1976, world PCB production is still considerable if falling. The Soviet Union was still making PCBs as late as 1990. In 1988, total production to that time was estimated at 1.2 million tons. About one third was already in the environment, two thirds in storage or in use, and only a few percent having been destroyed. PCBs are believed to cause liver and nerve damage, are believed to cause cancer, and to be teratogens (cause reproductive damage). Furthermore, their good chemical stability means that they biodegrade extremely slowly. PCBs are fat soluble rather than water soluble and are not quickly eliminated by the body. This allows disproportionately high levels of accumulation in body fat from low level exposure (called bioaccumulation). They are also concentrated by the food chain, sometimes many thousands of times (called biomagnification). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 There ya go...don't buy them. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escher Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Wow... I had no idea about the PCB's in these guys... Glad all my amp and guitar projects had nice clean PIO caps with no leakage... I guess I wont be buying any more.. Thanks for the heads up!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Wow... I had no idea about the PCB's in these guys... Glad all my amp and guitar projects had nice clean PIO caps with no leakage... I guess I wont be buying any more.. Thanks for the heads up!! They may be safe if they do not leak. I don't know. I do know that PCB's are a big deal in environmental investigations that I review. Just want to get the word out there, that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Mine have what Dean put in them (Dean Crossovers) so I will wait till I'm 111 years old before I replace those caps. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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