Hi Folks,
Kendeil caps are available in Australia, and possibly in NZ too. They are distributed by Semikron, which is less than half an hour's drive from me in Melbourne. Semikron have an office in Albany NZ, so the chances are good that they distribute Kendiel in NZ too.
They are right across the road from Monash Uni and Australia's new Synchrotron, to which they are a supplier. The normal Kendeil application I'm told is as banks of paint tin sized caps linked together with bussbars, digesting hundreds of amps of ripple current. They had plenty of good old Aussie aluminium too as heatsinks about 3 metres long by half a metre wide with 200mm fins and a 20mm base. You can have a whole one or they will cut you off a length.
As to what they have done to my system, its AMAAAZING but you'd better hear the whole story.
I started by installing one of Andy's Superregs into my SNAPS early this year, and pulling the MM and tape buffer boards from my NAC32, then I saw some cheap 12V/7Ah SLA batteries at the local Electronics shop(AU$9.00/GBP3.50), so I bought 4 and built two more SRs to power my MC boards. The caps I used were the old caps from my recapped 250. They are 15000/63V SIC-SAFCO and the cans are 50mm dia by 112mm. One has actually leaked so I was a bit dubious, but the result was fantastic, so much so that a) My new CDX2 hardly got a look-in for several weeks and b) I'm getting a Nima to replace my Ittok, so as of 6 weeks ago I hav'nt have a vinyl source. The Nima came within a week, but I cheated and ordered a new LP12 top plate with bolt, which arrived bent, so I think I'm waiting on a replacement.
With the LP12 gone and the CDX2 sounding clean but oh-so-flat by comparison I bought two more batteries and powered each gain board with 27.5V from SR/cap/~39VDC. This also was a great improvement, not so much in dynamics as this came with a single SR, but in a fluidity and clarity, and I came to believe that the CDX2 was capable of generating real emotional involvement.
I then worked my way through recommended mods to the NA323 and SR boards with each having audible improvements, to the point that I thought I must have gone most of the way in what these 4 boards could deliver.
I then saw the 'source for caps for the NAP-140 - Panasonic anyone?' thread, and realized I should replace the SIC-SAFCOs. Surely 10000uF would be enough, as the 321 boards draw 10mA DC and about 100uA AC for full output at any audio frequency. I set off to RS and bought a pair of 10000uF/63V ALS30A. They turned out to be absolutely gutless from just below male voice on down, not merely lacking in dynamics but in actual volume. Much worse than the single 10000uF 21 year old cap in my SNAPS. Above male voice and guitar they sounded lacklustre, but they might have been not much different to the SIC-SAFCOs, because in the small range represented by male voice/guitar the system sounded open and lucid with a lower grunge floor.
The BHCs are ALS30As, 35mm dia by 80mm.
With this dismal result I thought how lucky all you eurolads are with easy access to Kendeils, so I felt like I had won the lottery when a couple of hours later I had 4x 15000uF/63V K01s in a little box complete with mounting hardware, nuts bolts etc. They are 50mm dia by 80mm.
I intended two for use with a vinyl/MC solution and two for the gain stage. I connected them up, powered up and the result was Christmas. The power returned in droves. I was getting more power/lower frequencies than ever before, causing the wooden floor to vibrate quietly in sympathy. The clarity and reduction in grunge went from the bass on up to female voice and symbals, (tho' not brushed symbols). I settled in for some listening...
...And after a couple of days I realized I was NOT getting the same attack or transient edge to drums and low electric bass guitar as the SIC-SAFCOs. Amazing, as the SSs are 19 years old. I added the second pair of Kendeils in parallel, making 30,000uF per channel. And now it sounds AMAZING. All the clarity, dynamics and staging are like never before. You can be listening to the rhythm section grooving away on a jazz track say, and almost move back involuntarily as the soloist starts up seemingly right in front of you. There is no strain, just easy natural power when needed.
I have since added 0.1uF polypropylene caps to the Silmics in the 321 feedback position, and this, surprisingly has added more clarity to bass leading edges as well as sweetening up the top end.
You may like to ponder about the difference between batteries and a transformer in feeding reservoir caps. The question that nags at me is how come reservoir caps make such a major difference over the whole frequency range when I am using fairly highly evolved Superregs. I heard the changes myself when I added the bypass caps to the LM317s, removed C7, added Silmics.
All thoughts welcome, especially Peranders and Hacker.
Regards,
David
Kendeil caps are available in Australia, and possibly in NZ too. They are distributed by Semikron, which is less than half an hour's drive from me in Melbourne. Semikron have an office in Albany NZ, so the chances are good that they distribute Kendiel in NZ too.
They are right across the road from Monash Uni and Australia's new Synchrotron, to which they are a supplier. The normal Kendeil application I'm told is as banks of paint tin sized caps linked together with bussbars, digesting hundreds of amps of ripple current. They had plenty of good old Aussie aluminium too as heatsinks about 3 metres long by half a metre wide with 200mm fins and a 20mm base. You can have a whole one or they will cut you off a length.
As to what they have done to my system, its AMAAAZING but you'd better hear the whole story.
I started by installing one of Andy's Superregs into my SNAPS early this year, and pulling the MM and tape buffer boards from my NAC32, then I saw some cheap 12V/7Ah SLA batteries at the local Electronics shop(AU$9.00/GBP3.50), so I bought 4 and built two more SRs to power my MC boards. The caps I used were the old caps from my recapped 250. They are 15000/63V SIC-SAFCO and the cans are 50mm dia by 112mm. One has actually leaked so I was a bit dubious, but the result was fantastic, so much so that a) My new CDX2 hardly got a look-in for several weeks and b) I'm getting a Nima to replace my Ittok, so as of 6 weeks ago I hav'nt have a vinyl source. The Nima came within a week, but I cheated and ordered a new LP12 top plate with bolt, which arrived bent, so I think I'm waiting on a replacement.
With the LP12 gone and the CDX2 sounding clean but oh-so-flat by comparison I bought two more batteries and powered each gain board with 27.5V from SR/cap/~39VDC. This also was a great improvement, not so much in dynamics as this came with a single SR, but in a fluidity and clarity, and I came to believe that the CDX2 was capable of generating real emotional involvement.
I then worked my way through recommended mods to the NA323 and SR boards with each having audible improvements, to the point that I thought I must have gone most of the way in what these 4 boards could deliver.
I then saw the 'source for caps for the NAP-140 - Panasonic anyone?' thread, and realized I should replace the SIC-SAFCOs. Surely 10000uF would be enough, as the 321 boards draw 10mA DC and about 100uA AC for full output at any audio frequency. I set off to RS and bought a pair of 10000uF/63V ALS30A. They turned out to be absolutely gutless from just below male voice on down, not merely lacking in dynamics but in actual volume. Much worse than the single 10000uF 21 year old cap in my SNAPS. Above male voice and guitar they sounded lacklustre, but they might have been not much different to the SIC-SAFCOs, because in the small range represented by male voice/guitar the system sounded open and lucid with a lower grunge floor.
The BHCs are ALS30As, 35mm dia by 80mm.
With this dismal result I thought how lucky all you eurolads are with easy access to Kendeils, so I felt like I had won the lottery when a couple of hours later I had 4x 15000uF/63V K01s in a little box complete with mounting hardware, nuts bolts etc. They are 50mm dia by 80mm.
I intended two for use with a vinyl/MC solution and two for the gain stage. I connected them up, powered up and the result was Christmas. The power returned in droves. I was getting more power/lower frequencies than ever before, causing the wooden floor to vibrate quietly in sympathy. The clarity and reduction in grunge went from the bass on up to female voice and symbals, (tho' not brushed symbols). I settled in for some listening...
...And after a couple of days I realized I was NOT getting the same attack or transient edge to drums and low electric bass guitar as the SIC-SAFCOs. Amazing, as the SSs are 19 years old. I added the second pair of Kendeils in parallel, making 30,000uF per channel. And now it sounds AMAZING. All the clarity, dynamics and staging are like never before. You can be listening to the rhythm section grooving away on a jazz track say, and almost move back involuntarily as the soloist starts up seemingly right in front of you. There is no strain, just easy natural power when needed.
I have since added 0.1uF polypropylene caps to the Silmics in the 321 feedback position, and this, surprisingly has added more clarity to bass leading edges as well as sweetening up the top end.
You may like to ponder about the difference between batteries and a transformer in feeding reservoir caps. The question that nags at me is how come reservoir caps make such a major difference over the whole frequency range when I am using fairly highly evolved Superregs. I heard the changes myself when I added the bypass caps to the LM317s, removed C7, added Silmics.
All thoughts welcome, especially Peranders and Hacker.
Regards,
David
). It's wierd, because when I was powering the 62 from my 140 the bass went lower, but didn't have the sheer punch that it does now; the wierdest bit is that the 140 only has a 470uf BHC cap to feed the 62!