As for the TF020. The leads can be soldered out and replaced with some nice wire for a much improved sound.
Aa very nice balanced resistor, but felt the TX2575 to have a more incisive hifish character which can be too much of a good thing. I balanceda TX2575 with nichicon caps for my cdp output. It was perfectly balanced.
Now, with the TX2575 with rubycon zl, the sound became bright, hard and super etched. Here where the TF020 can sound nice with with the zl caps. |
Salectric,
How do the PathAudio resistors sonics differ from the Duelund?
I find the Duelunds a bit bright on hasher recording, but sound sublime on well recorded.
I don't have external crossovers, so swapping is a bit of a PITA to try.
Specifically are they more neutral? (just worried they might sound detailed but too laid back or distant sounding.
Any more specifics on how is the mid bass and low bass, is it as reported above more solid and body in comparison.
I'm rather very happy with Duelunds now, except for the few recording which sound a tad sharper, could well be the silver end leads of the Duelund, but like the very lively and exceptionally clear sound.
Thanks |
Salectric, Thanks for the detailed impressions, i did just come across your other posting on the path's.
I have only tried the duelunds, both cast and non cast. Your impressions do mirror mine, although no comparing with other resistors. Having swapped the standard resistors, the detail and clarity was an overwhelming improvement.
As the lightness in the midbass, i too feel the duelunds was slightly glossed over and oversmooth, while nice, loss some weight and heft.
The high's, your definition of wispyness. I would describe a Qsound kins of effect, allowing a wide stage and sound floating midway between the speaker and listener. Its forward tendencies means the sound are not at the speaker or behind it, lessening the impression of any depth. Its like a 3d fanfare between the speaker and listener, quite pleasing i might add.
Sadly, yes the slight brightness add to the dynamics of the whole frequency range, including the bass. It this an artificial artifact of dynamics, sometime i feel its can become slightly bright and piercing.
The duelunds for sure never sound dark, alway accentuating the clarity and detail.
I will try the paths for the mids.
I do like the clarity in the highs using the duelunds, do the paths neutrality make things less exciting or more distant, i.e say cymbal stay at the plane of the tweeter and not project further out like the duelunds giving a front row seats impression. Is it more midhall presentation for the paths? Something like the presentation of a mundorf supreme cap (neutral and more distant) vs the silver oil cap(more direct and upfront with added brightness of the silver)?
Still on the fence to try the paths on the tweeters. Just too much work! |
Great,
looks like i should just ditch the duelunds.
I have always had the problem as you described thin airy and bright (adds details).
I never got a tighter solid center vocal imaging, it always sounds larger than life with the cast resistors, goes with the airy wider soundstage.
i was just thinking of changing the resistor to the midrange as i felt is has a upper midrange brightness that was a bit painful on brighter recordings.
I do however, like the overall presentation so far, guess from you description, it is worth a try (just hope its not too much of a direction change to the sound). FWIW, i am using a cast cap for the tweeter as well.
It's just quite startling just 1 resistor can contribute to the sound. |
SalectricOne more question.
did you use the same value.
I am getting some tinnitus form the highs currently s i did not mention as i like rock on a louder volume :)
I am asking as i feel that there may be seem to be a boost in the highs, could it be the bright and thinny highs.
I shall post my impressions, sadly they have a lead time as non stocked of a couple of weeks, darn! |
Thanks Salectric,
I have just got my resistors in, 1 for the mid and 1 for the highs.
Just deciding if i should do 1 at a time or dive in with both.
The resistors you have are all in the high network? Just curious why you still have a mix of duelunds and mills.
Did you find a mix better than all pathaudios? |
After a backbreaking afternoon, the paths have been installed in series the mid and tweeter.
I was broken in on the frybaby for a week and a couple of hours on a bedroom set.
I not sure if the were even close to brokem in nut has a bit strange highs which quicky vanished after half an hour.
These are good and won't hesistate to choose them on the pencil lead resistors. Duelund have good detail and did mostly good with the exception of harshness in the uppermid(midrange driver) and tweeter on 20% of recording which caused some hurt to my hearing.
All these are now banished, thanks to Salectric ;) i had always felt from changing caps etc. the duelund cast gave to the sound i would not expect more.
Details, bass, mids, highs of the path are spot on, no touch of brightness, no shortcoming that i can tell. I feel the biggest difference is the control of the individual sound and sure footedness in the music now, more balanced over the frequencies.
The cast remind me of the mundorf sio capacitors sound, beautiful but with a larger unfocussed and slightly messy soundstage. Swapping the the path resistors were akin to moving up from the mundorf sio cap to something like the duelund cast / Vcap teflon capacitors.
I initially had reservations on how the cast resistors could be bettered, and hesistant to swap in the paths as i had already bought them. I do not need to swap the duelunds back in now!
I guess they can only get better with more run in. |
For any system towards the darker side, the duelund cast resistors should work also, but cost more than the paths, so it's a hard choice. The duelund resistors do impart a "live venue" sound which is also kind of nice, maybe in a more damped or dead room will help bring the required liveliness or airiness.
I did not connect the shield, cannot imagine any improvement as the other signal path is not shielded. Could it lead to quieter/dull sound?
I feel the level of boutique parts have reached a level which one could well be happy with either of these parts with some good matching with other parts. I do have casts in the tweeter and bypass the mids in the crossover, they don't do harm but i never felt they were exception (very good as it is) comparing to teflon vcaps / jupiter copperfoil - they are all top notch. i actually felt the vcap TFTF gave more air than the duelund cast while never sounding bright, just very extended though a touch more neutral than duelunds.
The highs pricing of some of these parts , however good, just cannot maintain a decent cost/performance ratio with the competition available.
The cast caps are good in the output stage of my preamp, nothing magical. just neutral with no misgivings. I feel the Vcap TFTF and CUTF can give more noticeable difference (super linear for the TFTF and saturated tonal colour for the CUTF) which can work even better in a system correctly matched.
I have a jupiter in the output of my phono, nice and have lost the desire to find the best. Maybe sometime when i have time to listen to LP's will i swap the duelunds in - that when i have/tryout a passive preamp. The sound of the cap can be compensated elsewhere that i am lost at the number of permutations in tweaking possible. So long as the cap is of a certain level, it works for me, or should i put it as i will make it work for me.
I now focus attention to the PSU which brings about dramatic changes. Gone are the days of just swapping in "better" electrolytic caps. I now focus more on changing transformers, low noise regs etc. in the PSU circuit which i find makes more difference on a cost/improvement, but still learning in this area. |
Still enjoying music with the new resistors in place.
Another point, the Duelund cast resistors now seemed coloured and gives a distinct sonic flavour or same enhanced "live music atmosphere" over more songs than the pathaudio resistors. I do miss abit of the colour!
Paths are so much more neutral in this regard. By no means does the path's sound cold, thin or lean. It just sounds more linear and neutral. |
Yes, every part contributes to the sound.
In a resolving enough setup,even footers can greatly affect the sound. Every bit of wire, type of solder used etc.
I once had a bad fuse holder replaced with a different part, i noticed a difference in sound.
Each product manufacturer has a house sound, tuned based on cost of parts to achieve what the designer references presentation of music.
In the past few years, a number of very exotic equipment manufacturers now used these audiophile components, meaning -expensive parts in their design with different grades and market it accordingly. To a non tech savvy customer, at a much steeper price markup as opposed to what these parts costs, especially considering their oem costs.
Just stick to what is recommended by users based on their sonic finding and try. The more exotic parts usually always work rather well as opposed to mid tier audiophile components, which are many out there. These are a bigger effort to get them sound right in most ways than their tried popular and costlier counterparts. |
Update on Pathaudio and Duelund resistors.
Somehow, i blew 1 of the Path resistors and dug out my old Duelunds to replace 1 side for the tweeter network.
Same values.... now boy it was that different.
The Duelund are louder at the same volume, very clear and bright...totally unlistenable. I added another 10% increase in value Duelund i had laying around in series.
Ok, not as loud still very prominent highs. This resistor brings detail very upfront with super clarity, but uitimalely lacks the balance and depth of the Path's.
The duelunds do revealmore detail, artifact of a very upfront sound? I think they need a copper wire instead of silver leads and vice versa for the Paths stranded copper leads.
Overall |
Some developments, now came the mundorf m-resist resitor as a temporary fix till my 1 pathaudio replacement. I dont know what happened to the my pathaudio resistor which value went from 6.8ohm to 47k. It did not break but value went up so high i thought the tweeter had problems.
The sound of the duelund cast were had very spotlight detailed, too much of a good thing, internet streaming showed certain tracks distortion very clearly.
I could only try the Mundorf available the nest day, now:
M-Resist, 1 went in the right speaker first, banished the duelunds with great relief! This was much more balanced with very good detail and has a tiny hint of sharpness as compared to the Pathaudio.
This may not be sharpness, but because the Path's are darker sounding (or more neutral), not as highlighted yet detailed. The Paths were more relaxed and smooth, allowing a higher listening volume without fatique. I believe that the slight hint of brightness associated with the steel legs on the mundorf's which i feel is the minus point in the design.
Overall, these mundorfs are the best balanced out of the 3 brands tested though i will revisit the Paths after the new replacement has been burnt in on my cooker. |
Dgarretson, yes the Duelund would likely be a very good match for the esotar.
With a metal dome it can be a little distracting, very defined detailed. The other resistors are very detailed and do not obscure detail, similar to when you use silver wiring (which the leads of the duelund are.
The Mundorfs surprisingly sound very close to the Duelunds and the Paths sounding a little more laidback and softer detais(you look into the details as opposed as the details coming at you which i do find it more more relaxed sounding.. |
I have also replace the Duelund resistors with Path Audios.
I have'nt done much comparisions, but have been contented with the Path's. It is just too tedious
The Duelunds have much more of a colouration and emphasis towards the upper frequencies which i also noticed even before trying the Path's.
There's a new resistor on the block, Lefson from frace and are also carbon based.
Likely, also made from a 20 cent pencil lead like the Duelunds. |
Mozartfan, there are a number of signal resistors which the 2 watts ones can be replace with a quarter watt.
The Vishay TXs are one of the best, if not the best for use in the Jadis.
Zipost, what have you replaced the TXs with, in a well tuned system, i too struggle To find that correct balance, some distortion and warmth certainly adds so ruggedness and liveliness and the Vishays undeniably have superior full and performance, detail, clarity and extended frequency response does sound cooler which opens up the extremes which smoothness making your experience of overly refined very likely.
It may excel on classical pieces mostly with the added refinement. |
