Calling All Tube Gurus, Poll:Capacitor Rolling vs Tube Rolling


For those who have done both,which one was more impactful and which one provided the better return on investment?  

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful input.

 

mustagefan

Not a cut and dry quick answer for this.  It depends on the piece of gear, what’s in there now for a capacitor and finally the location/function of the capacitor.  Output capacitors on the output of a preamp or dac can have and bigger impact for sure.  If going from a $5 cap to nice copper foil type the improvement can be remarkable and help you hear even more differences and impact when tube rolling.  Once done no need to replace the cap as it ages. One time expense. Just one example.  

Binding post rolling, amp case rolling, roll them feet...who can resist resister rolling? All are somewhat time consuming but hey...you do what you gotta do. I did stick some large Mundorf caps in my speakers (suggested by Pure Audio Project) which is the only cap roll I’ve done and they added something...or should I say "that certain something" and besides, they look cool (open baffles display everything). I have piles of tubes that lead to frequent rolling generally for no logical reason except hey...they're otherwise just stuck in their little boxes with nowhere to go.

With higher level equipment I wouldn't touch anything but tubes. And with lower level equipment - I don't want it, anyway.

Caps can make a significant difference. As with tubes the improvement heard is based as much on what was in the component before the change as any other factor. Tubes are very easy and thus make more sense. The best bang for the buck I have found are certain Jupiter caps. My least favorite caps of note and they came stock on my amps are the expensive teflon V-caps. They are still changing a bit after 300 to 350 hours.