sozo premiums in

[vibratoking]

Travst - I, and I'm sure others, would love to hear your feedback about the STK caps after you have installed them in your builds/amps. I have a Super that I put ODs in and I am not really liking it - sounds a little harsh, but I haven't waited an eternity for them to break in.

[Structo]

I received my SKT caps and will be putting them in a Super and perhaps upgrading the Eagle kit a bit. Thanks again for the tip, Darin.

Just a word John, from earlier reports from guys that used the STK's, they do indeed take some break in before they give up the goods, so don't rush to judgement too soon.

[dartanion]

I received my SKT caps and will be putting them in a Super and perhaps upgrading the Eagle kit a bit. Thanks again for the tip, Darin.

Just a word John, from earlier reports from guys that used the STK's, they do indeed take some break in before they give up the goods, so don't rush to judgement too soon.

They may need some break in time, but my experience is that they sound great upon first use. This is after building dozens of amps with them, but YMMV.

[wiredturtle]

Rawnster thanks for the report on the caps.

You built a nice looking in the for sale section Ron

Mark

Thanks Mark. That amp is a Rocket-ish build I did a few months ago I posted in the trainwreck forum. There are a few gut shots there. The guy who posted it is quite the salesman. While that amp does sound very good, I truly am no amp master, like he says. I apologize to anyone who took offense at his post. He should be trying to sell it on the gearpage, craigslist, ebay or something, not here.

Why are you apologizing for anyone taking offense at my post, there was nothing bad other than mentioning the name that should not be named. You are the amp master and you put a lot of time, thought and energy into the build. Why not make it avail here first? Time to swing those guns buddy the world needs another amp hero.

[Travst]

I received my SKT caps and will be putting them in a Super and perhaps upgrading the Eagle kit a bit. Thanks again for the tip, Darin.

Just a word John, from earlier reports from guys that used the STK's, they do indeed take some break in before they give up the goods, so don't rush to judgement too soon.

I may do one amp with Mallorys, as I've already completed the Super board. The Eagle kit from RJ is excellent. I may put the SKTs in the Eagle to provide some comparison and then swap components as needed.

[dehughes]

6 hours? Be patient man, things like this take at least 100 hours to break in (that's not a solid number btw, just a guestimate).

EXACTLY.

Don't everyone else be so quick to dismiss Sozo Vintage caps as being an improvement/noticeably different than Mallory M150s, Sprague 6PS, etc... I for one am squarely in the camp that says the Vintage Mustards from Sozo are INDEED noticeably different and better than Mallory or Sprague equivalents.

The thing is...it's a FEEL thing first and foremost, and a "my ear can hear the shift in the EQ thing" secondarily. Hard to explain, but after about 10 hours of playtime in my Germino Classic 45, I could start to hear more clarity/transparency/softness in the amp, no question. As the caps have broken in (now about 30 hours) the amp just sounds better and better. It is cleaner, clearer, more articulate (in a soft, non-edgy way).

I've run the standards in two different Vox-based amps, and have the vintage mustards in this Germino, and I've not regretted those purchases one second. Beautiful caps.

Will they change your life? No. Will they make you a better player? Only to the extent appreciably better gear can inspire you to play your best. Are they categorically better than any other cap on the planet? Of course not.

My suggestion to all: quit bashing and use your ears. If you hear/feel an improvement, great. If you don't, great. Anecdotal evidence does not disprove a reality. Just because you don't hear a difference does not mean there is no difference whatsoever. Just because a scope reveals little difference does not mean that minor difference does not add up, in the course of the amp circuit as a whole, to a noticeable and worthwhile change for the "better".

One issue: The vintage mustards were giving me problems in the Classic 45 for a while, in that after about 45 minutes of playing the amp would NOTICEABLY loose low end and suffer a slight reduction of overall volume. I sent the amp in to Greg Germino and he tested the vintage mustards and found them to test to spec. He said he'd encountered the same issue with vintage mustards in the past, and also suspected it was a bad cap. But, upon installing them in another amp, he found them to perform flawlessly. Point is, neither Greg or myself are sure as to what the problem is, but it's doubtful to be a soldering issue. Perhaps it's just part of the break-in process? Since receiving my amp back from Germino it's only happened once...and that's immediately AFTER I pummeled the amp with a pitch-modulated delay drop into verrrry low frequencies. Might be a fluke, but who knows.

Regardless, I'm a fan of vintage and standard Sozos, for what it's worth .

[Structo]

So you most likely ruled out tubes as the culprit?

I had a friend that had a newly built amp. (he built it)

It did something similar that after an hour or so it would lose a bit of volume.
He must have went through that amp 5 times and never found the problem.
Finally he replaced a tube socket that he suspected as a problem.
I don't remember if it was a preamp or power socket but for some reason when that socket got good and hot something happened and it didn't make as good of contact on a pin or something along those lines.

He was really bummed because this was "The Amp" and he was going to gig with it.
He was one happy camper when he finally found the problem and fixed it.

It really sucks when you get a bad new component that isn't obvious and you go ahead and install it.

I had a NOS Allen Bradley 1 Meg pot that was bad.
I metered it before installing it. Only recently found it was bad after a few months.

These kinds of problems can drive you crazy when you can't find them.

[dehughes]

Yeah, I tried all known good tubes in all positions, and still it cropped up. Sent the amp to Germino and he re-soldered the caps after testing them, and I've had only one minor issue since (been three months). He said the same thing happened to him once or twice when he used Vintage Mustards, but the problem disappeared when the caps were installed in a different amp. Perhaps just a quirk of the cap-making process? Who knows....

But yes, the little strange issues are the most annoying to troubleshoot. It's easy if the tube isn't glowing or the cap exploded....

[ampgeek]

This thread started up just as I was laying out/procuring pieces for a practice amp for my brother in law. A Princeton affair with parallel pentode input seemed to fit the bill.

Thought that there must be a way to easily swap in different types but it didn't come into focus until I fell upon a trove of electrical stuff in the lab.

It had hundreds of those spring-clippy test lead thingys. Quick snip and a little touch up with the dremel and they are easy in-easy out (the solder sucker is our friend!) in a turret.

Thinking that they might have utility in a cap forming jig. Parallel up a dozen or so and splice it into a cathode follower stage (5F6A'ish)? How many might you be able to treat at once?

Anyway...thought that if anyone else was watching in and contemplating the same they might find it useful!

Cheers,
Dave O.

[Jana]

I don't think I would "pre-form" them. But first, I am making a presumption which I don't know if it is valid. The presumption is that, due the the direction of the flow of electrons in relation to the positive and negative potential there would be a forming process that isn't symmetrical. So, given that presumption, here is why I wouldn't pre-form:

The banded end (outer foil) of the cap should always go to the lower impedance side of the circuit. If it is a coupling cap coming off the plate of a tube then the banded end goes towards the plate (band is at + potential). If it is a cathode bypass cap the band goes to ground (band is at - potential). If is a PI input cap the band goes away from the grid of the PI tube (band is at - potential).

So, unless you have a very large stock of caps and want to also mark them as to + or - and then have to also keep in mind the banded end, I don't think I would pre-form them.