First let me being by saying that this comparision is completely based on my own personal experience and actual usage / testing and listening and YMMV. FMs who follow me know by now that i do a lot of DIY stuff and at times i take it to extreme level to find the right sound signature that i am looking for. Agreed that we all listen differently and what will be good for me could be bad for you and vice-versa. For each one of us this is your own personal discovery and unless you have burned your fingers discovering this you won't be able to judge what is good and what is bad. Below is my own journey past 5-10 years with various components / gear that i have used in my DIY endeavor and some of this finding will amaze you and lot of FMs won't agree and will troll me. But i am ok with that as my version of the truth has to be told -
1. Capacitors (Electrolytic / Metalized Polypropylene)
Nichicon Vs Keltron: Now this will come as a shocker as its difficult to believe that Keltron's electrolytics are much better than Nichicon Electrolytic unless you have burned your fingers. I had used this Nichicon Electrolytic capacitors in my phono pre-amplifier 3 years ago believing they will be better. I purchased them from theaudiocrafts.com and within a week almost all the capacitors got bulged and i was hearing hum in my audio. I contacted Aminder from theaudiocrafts about the source and he mentioned the source is mouser.com and there was no question of them being duplicate. I did not pursue further and replaced all of them with Keltron of the same rating. I am using the phono pre-amplifier happily ever since that and have no issues of either bulging or hum.
Mundorf metalized polyproplene vs Epcos motor capacitor - Another one of my discovery is this. The Epcos is meant to be used in motor applications, AC and submersible pumps and not marketed as an audiophile capacitor. Most customers of Epcos are generic electricians who wont pay much for a capacitor. They are used in extreme conditions and playing audio for them is like yawning. This is what i too discovered after paying as much as 10 times more for a Mundorf metalized capacitors of the same values. I have a Mundorf 68uF, 400vdc and an EPCOS 72uF,450VAC and i have done this test couple of times and it was easy to retain the Epcos after listening test. I just paid 1/10th for the Epcos. Again most audiophiles wont agree with this too.
Orange drops / DEC / CTR - In this case not much difference between orange drops and CTR but the Indian - DEC is a bad polyster capacitor to be completely avoided.
2. Potentiometers
Allo stepped attenuator / Alps carbon film / Elcom carbon film / Potel wire-wound potentiometers - This was a great discovery after using the ALPS blue velvet carbon film potentiometer and the Allo stepped attenuator which are priced similar and have similar sound signatures where the Alps being much mellower than the Allo. But the greatest discovery was using the Potel (Indian Brand) wire-wound potentiometer and both the Alps and Allo wont come closer to the resolution of the Potel and that too at 1/4th the cost. The Potel is an industrial wire-wound potentiometer and not used for commercial applications and i would have been the rarest person who have used them in an preamplifier. Its specifications and tolerance are better than Alps and have a 20000 cycles guarantee. Sound stage and resolution is unmatched with anything i have heard before. The Alps blue velvet potentiometer that i have used before is no match for the Poten wire-wound potentiometer and another great discovery by me after spending lots of cash.
3. Resistors
Vishay Roderstein/ Intron (local Indian Brand) - The Vishay Roderstein 1% metal film resistors that i have used is quite noisy and actually induce a lot of distortion in the input grid to ground driver tubes. I replaced these Vishay with an Intron (Indian Brand) thin film resistors with superb resolution, dynamics and distortion benefits. It was easy to scrap the Vishay within 5 mintues of listening. I am now planning to replace the cathode bypass and the plate resistors of the driver tubes with these for further benefits though it will be quite expensive replacement. Again this is difficult to fathom - how could an Indian brand be better than an American brand resistors. But i am ok with whatever FM think. This is my own analysis.
Raatronics / Mills - This one came as a shocker for me as the Mills are 10 times more expensive than the Raatronics in India. But performance and measurement wise it wont come even close to the Raatronics. Again difficult to believe but fortunately true. The Mills though sold as a 1% and non-inductive resistance was actually having 5% tolerance and a 8.66k resistance showed an inductance of 40mH in my HTC LCR meter where the Raatronics was 0.2% tolerance though sold as 1% tolerance and for the same value resistance was truly non-inductive and open circuit inductance. Nevertheless to say the Raatronics outperformed the Mills by miles and it was very easy to scrap the Mills. After listening to both Mills and Raatronics i could easily find out that the Mills were bandwidth limited and they actually compressed the high-ends too much. The Raatronics were quite smooth, mellow and open.
4. Output transformers
Poshan / Softone / Delta / Dared
The Dared (Chinese) was worst of the lot followed by Poshan (Hongkong). Delta (Indian) was quite good compared to the previous two but
was easily out numbered by the Softone (Japanese) R-core OPT. The Softone was the best OPT that i have ever listened to till date.
DIYers can try these locally available components at a much lower price but better performing than the imported ones as listed above and do not fall for the saying - "Everything imported has to be good or better than locally available ones". Only after burning my pocket deep i have done this discovery and now am wiser with my purchase. DIYers should use my experience and do not fall prey to other forums rant and go for any purchase blindly but use their due diligence. Its a completely different thing if you have a higher budget and have a strong feeling that only imported products are good, but dont try to prove that since its imported it has to be good. If you say then provided valid evidence of you using a local component and doing a comparison and then saying that unless not. My 2 paise.
Thanks for looking.
1. Capacitors (Electrolytic / Metalized Polypropylene)
Nichicon Vs Keltron: Now this will come as a shocker as its difficult to believe that Keltron's electrolytics are much better than Nichicon Electrolytic unless you have burned your fingers. I had used this Nichicon Electrolytic capacitors in my phono pre-amplifier 3 years ago believing they will be better. I purchased them from theaudiocrafts.com and within a week almost all the capacitors got bulged and i was hearing hum in my audio. I contacted Aminder from theaudiocrafts about the source and he mentioned the source is mouser.com and there was no question of them being duplicate. I did not pursue further and replaced all of them with Keltron of the same rating. I am using the phono pre-amplifier happily ever since that and have no issues of either bulging or hum.
Mundorf metalized polyproplene vs Epcos motor capacitor - Another one of my discovery is this. The Epcos is meant to be used in motor applications, AC and submersible pumps and not marketed as an audiophile capacitor. Most customers of Epcos are generic electricians who wont pay much for a capacitor. They are used in extreme conditions and playing audio for them is like yawning. This is what i too discovered after paying as much as 10 times more for a Mundorf metalized capacitors of the same values. I have a Mundorf 68uF, 400vdc and an EPCOS 72uF,450VAC and i have done this test couple of times and it was easy to retain the Epcos after listening test. I just paid 1/10th for the Epcos. Again most audiophiles wont agree with this too.
Orange drops / DEC / CTR - In this case not much difference between orange drops and CTR but the Indian - DEC is a bad polyster capacitor to be completely avoided.
2. Potentiometers
Allo stepped attenuator / Alps carbon film / Elcom carbon film / Potel wire-wound potentiometers - This was a great discovery after using the ALPS blue velvet carbon film potentiometer and the Allo stepped attenuator which are priced similar and have similar sound signatures where the Alps being much mellower than the Allo. But the greatest discovery was using the Potel (Indian Brand) wire-wound potentiometer and both the Alps and Allo wont come closer to the resolution of the Potel and that too at 1/4th the cost. The Potel is an industrial wire-wound potentiometer and not used for commercial applications and i would have been the rarest person who have used them in an preamplifier. Its specifications and tolerance are better than Alps and have a 20000 cycles guarantee. Sound stage and resolution is unmatched with anything i have heard before. The Alps blue velvet potentiometer that i have used before is no match for the Poten wire-wound potentiometer and another great discovery by me after spending lots of cash.
3. Resistors
Vishay Roderstein/ Intron (local Indian Brand) - The Vishay Roderstein 1% metal film resistors that i have used is quite noisy and actually induce a lot of distortion in the input grid to ground driver tubes. I replaced these Vishay with an Intron (Indian Brand) thin film resistors with superb resolution, dynamics and distortion benefits. It was easy to scrap the Vishay within 5 mintues of listening. I am now planning to replace the cathode bypass and the plate resistors of the driver tubes with these for further benefits though it will be quite expensive replacement. Again this is difficult to fathom - how could an Indian brand be better than an American brand resistors. But i am ok with whatever FM think. This is my own analysis.
Raatronics / Mills - This one came as a shocker for me as the Mills are 10 times more expensive than the Raatronics in India. But performance and measurement wise it wont come even close to the Raatronics. Again difficult to believe but fortunately true. The Mills though sold as a 1% and non-inductive resistance was actually having 5% tolerance and a 8.66k resistance showed an inductance of 40mH in my HTC LCR meter where the Raatronics was 0.2% tolerance though sold as 1% tolerance and for the same value resistance was truly non-inductive and open circuit inductance. Nevertheless to say the Raatronics outperformed the Mills by miles and it was very easy to scrap the Mills. After listening to both Mills and Raatronics i could easily find out that the Mills were bandwidth limited and they actually compressed the high-ends too much. The Raatronics were quite smooth, mellow and open.
4. Output transformers
Poshan / Softone / Delta / Dared
The Dared (Chinese) was worst of the lot followed by Poshan (Hongkong). Delta (Indian) was quite good compared to the previous two but
was easily out numbered by the Softone (Japanese) R-core OPT. The Softone was the best OPT that i have ever listened to till date.
DIYers can try these locally available components at a much lower price but better performing than the imported ones as listed above and do not fall for the saying - "Everything imported has to be good or better than locally available ones". Only after burning my pocket deep i have done this discovery and now am wiser with my purchase. DIYers should use my experience and do not fall prey to other forums rant and go for any purchase blindly but use their due diligence. Its a completely different thing if you have a higher budget and have a strong feeling that only imported products are good, but dont try to prove that since its imported it has to be good. If you say then provided valid evidence of you using a local component and doing a comparison and then saying that unless not. My 2 paise.
Thanks for looking.
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