V-Cap ODAM: What the Future Sounds Like


The evolution of the capacitor has led manufactures to utilize copper foil in the finest of capacitors. There’s a new kid on the block that might turn the capacitor world on it’s head but it’s too small and too affordable to be a copper foil cap. At first sight, one can brush off this new cap as just another insignificant option to the plethora of capacitors that are already on the market. The ODAM is much more than just another capacitor, it’s revolutionary.

The VCap ODAM capacitor is quite possibly the most transparent capacitor on the market. It will allow your system to perform in a way that you’d never expect from a capacitor upgrade because we’ve become accustomed to the limitations of conventional capacitors. It unlocks the potential of your system and you can experience your music collection in a new way. The ODAM will show you that there’s so much more information in your music. You have no idea what you’ve been missing.

My first experience with the ODAM was when I tested it in my backup DAC, the MHDT Pagoda. This DAC is known for having a wide soundstage but I had no idea how much wider it can get when the restraints were removed by the ODAM. It was quite a revelation. There are so many adjectives to describe what improved and how much they improved. I’m going to fast forward that part to tell you that the key takeaway here is that I’m able to hear and experience the recording more than ever before.

The second revelation that the ODAM provided came from a power conditioner tweak. Use your favorite search engine and search for "Audience conditioner". You can find several images of the internal circuitry of these power conditioners and notice that there are capacitors installed in parallel to the receptacles. You may also notice that each capacitor is slightly larger than the next within the same series of receptacles. This is a simple trick to filter noise at different frequencies. I’ve used this technique in my conditioner for several years now and I’ve concluded that Teflon caps were the best cap type in this position but then the ODAM came along. I installed a 0.47uf and a 0.1uf ODAM @ 600V (one cap on two of the three receptacles of my conditioner) then I had a listen. This was an "OH SH*T" moment. I did not expect this much of a leap in sound quality. The noise floor vanished. My system was already very dimensional but now it’s like wearing 3D goggles for my ears. It was shocking to learn how awful my system’s A/C was all these years.

I was a teenager the first time that I experienced a soundstage through a stereo system although I must admit that I was under the influence of cannabis. I really enjoyed how the high accentuated my hearing ability but I quickly grew out of this smoking phase in my life. I eventually got a job, I bought a car, and had a sound system installed in it.

I followed what members of an online mobile audio forum were doing by installing SEAS or Scanspeak/Vifa drivers into the vehicle. That’s how I was introduced to high end audio and that’s when I realized that this hobby is the gateway into experiencing an audio high without being high. I chased that high ever since.

Most of us in this hobby can relate to the chase for better sound but the chase recently came to a conclusion for me. I’ve finally reached that sonic high that I’ve been chasing and the ODAM helped get me there.

The ODAM couldn’t achieve so much alone. It allows my Pass XA25 and the JCAT FEMTO USB card to shine. The ODAM is the closest thing to no capacitor. It imparts no tonal coloration whatsoever. There is no limitation to sound stage width and depth other than what your system is capable of.

So much has already been said about the ODAM and it’s posted on the VCap website. I encourage you to have a look. Those comments are spot-on.

c_avila1
Hi @c_avila1 ,

After discussion with @zipost, I decided to go to V-Cap CuTF 0.22uF 600 volt capacitor
I was waiting a parcel arrived for almost a month. 
My integrated amp has 3 stages of amplification: 6sn7-6f6g-300B.
There is Duelund Custom Cu 0.1uF between 6sn7 and 6f6g.
I used Duelund Custom Cu 0.22uF bypassed by Duelund Silver 0.01uF between 6f6 and 300B.
I installed V-Cap CuTF instead of Duelund Cu 0.22uf - Silver 0.01uF combination.

The sound from scratch was very nice. Actually it was very close to Duelund combination but a little bit more smooth and with no smearing sibilants on vocals.

But after 6 hour of listening music sound is getting less organic. So as I understand break in period will be very long. I will write how the sound will change.

Regards,
Alex.

I’ve been gradually upgrading the caps in my system to V-cap ODAMs, and have been amazed by the resulting improvements, but up until now I haven’t written much about them because I haven’t had first-rate competitor caps to compare them with.

That changed recently when V-cap introduced their new Tone cap line: (which I believe is essentially a low value ODAM marketed for guitar use).

The new caps allowed me to directly compare V-cap ODAMs with the much vaunted 0.01uf Duelund tinned-copper bypass cap that I’ve been using as the  first coupling cap in my Brook 12A power amp (a push-pull 2A3 with ODAMs or glass capacitors in every other position). 

I wired a switch into the Brook to allow rapid switching between the two capacitors - both so that I could get a good handle on the differences, and because I hoped to use the switch as a crude tone control.

The difference is not subtle. The Duelund IS very musical and has a nice Gestalt. It has a dark cast, and portrays the separate musical strands in a pleasing, undemanding way - somewhat undifferentiated but integrated very organically. The perspective is mid hall. The separate acoustics of multi-tracked recordings are not very apparent and everything coheres nicely.

Switching to the Tone cap, there is more “light” all-around (a slightly tipped-up frequency response relative to the Duelund?). The perspective is more nearly front row. Everything sounds bigger - even though I am listening in mono - and tone colors are more vivid. One can hear deeper into quiet passages and it becomes apparent, on repeated switching, that the Duelund’s impose low level noise (a sort of grayness) that obscures fine detail. This isn’t always an entirely bad thing however, in that sometimes it is nice to not be too aware, for example, of the separate strands of a multitrack recording. The Duelund is also easier to listen to with divided attention, like a really good radio. The Tone capped version by contrast, is intense, immersive, and almost hallucinatory in its effect on the listener. It cannot be listened to casually. I do sometimes find myself distracted by an awareness of the separate recording atmospheres in a mix with the Tone cap, but the extra color and vitality, the lucidity and the enhanced sense of being there, outweigh this slight drawback.

This is with ODAMs in every other position in the Brook amp - and a growing number up and down stream as well. Also with Duelund tinned wire throughout (both signal and power). 

For me, the V-cap Tone cap is the clear winner, and I have trouble leaving the switch in the  Duelund  position.

It should be noted that there is a new version of the Duelund tinned-copper bypass that the Humble HiFi guy says is substantially better than the earlier one I’ve listened to. Given how dramatically the Tone-cap bests the older Duelund however, I’m not going to bother trying the newer variant. 


Update: I’m afraid I misspoke. Chris infrorms me that the Tone capacitors are not low-value ODAMs, but another design entirely that just shares the same case. He did say that others have also used them as coupling caps to good effect. Whatever their design they sound amazing, and beautifully complement the ODAM line. Pure speculation here, but I suspect that, given their original (guitar, guitar/amp) target, they favor Tone over imaging and the like. They certainly reproduce vivid tone colors that nicely complement the main strength of my Spendor BC-1 speakers - their timbral accuracy.

Also should have added that all these capacitors have painfully long break-in times (many hundreds of hours), and can sound quite constricted and artificial during run-in. Well worth the wait however!

Best,

Halpern
Quick question-- If the ODAM body is conductive, has anyone insulated it?  And, if, so, with what material?