Jupiter Condenser's latest production brings best of vintage sound and more into your mix Text and photos by Juan C. Ayllon Lead photo courtesy of www.tubeampdoctor.com The smell of silver solder and flux hung in the air. “Whatever you do, don’t let that lead touch the circuit board,” he cautioned, warning that a painful shock and serious equipment damage could result. Soldering iron in hand, he’d just replaced the stock 47 uf Jupiter AM capacitors at the RCA outputs in my Lampizator Lite 7 DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) with a pair of Mundorf MCap Supreme Silver/Gold and was now advising me on how to solder a second set of Mundorf MCap Supreme EVO Silver/Gold for comparison purposes when he’d be back in Europe. It’s been a year. My speaker building friend, Sam, had the blessings of his friend, Lukasz Fikus, chief designer and owner of Lampizator, the high end maker of vacuum tube based DACs, preamps and amplifiers based out of Poland. With each change, I enjoyed incremental improvements in the clarity of music -- greater detail, a heightened awareness of the recording space and a more refined sound enveloping my listening space (you can read more about that process here) Why swap out the capacitors? In addition to storing and releasing energy, the function of a coupling capacitor is to prevent the passing of DC signal into the audio output. With a microphone circuit, for example, DC gives power to parts of the circuit to operate, but when when someone sings into the microphone, the speech is an AC signal. When passing the AC signals from the microphone onto an output device like speakers or a computer to be recorded, we only want the AC speech signal to go through while the DC signal is blocked, which is why a coupling capacitor is placed in the circuit. (“What is a Coupling Capacitor?) Essentially, a coupling capacitor is a rolled up and enclosed sandwich of conductive plates with dielectrics (poor conducting material that results in polarization when electric current is applied); the plates are often metal foil or a metallised film. (Elliot) To Jupiter and Beyond Feeling pretty chuffed about the improvements, I was surprised that Sam suggested that I next try Jupiter Copper Foil, Paper and Wax capacitors in my DAC, claiming that their vintage sound would be more complementary to my system. Sure enough, Jupiter’s website claimed that their “vintage style capacitors are the most faithful to tone,” using techniques and materials that “have been forgotten by others.” (“Capacitors”) I had my reservations. Engineer and Do It Yourself guru, Rod Elliot, summed up the prevailing wisdom when he wrote,“Modern caps are almost always better than true 'vintage' types (paper, foil and wax was common in the early days of electronics), with far lower leakage [and], longer life.” (Elliot) Perusing the web, I discovered the following synopsis of the Jupiter cap in question at Parts Connexion: “Jupiter copper foil wax & paper capacitors go far beyond a mere copper foil version of the standard tubular HT Aluminum design. Every aspect of the capacitor construction was evaluated during the 4 year development process…wax with very special sonic characteristics, better damping and thermal characteristics was chosen as a perfect match…(now) life like vibrance gives the feeling of presence, along with micro-detail, holographic bass, and aural decay that is disarmingly natural.” (“Copper Foil, Paper and Wax Film Capacitor”) Moreover, I was surprised to read how competitive it reportedly performed versus the highly regarded and much more expensive Duelund Copper CAST PIO -- particularly in the midrange and organic presentation of detail -- in the May 2014 review at Enjoythemusic.com. The reviewer claimed, “the Jupiter does not have to make apologies to the best high-tech, modern capacitors when it comes to transparency or detail resolution.” (Lo) On the downside, a friend who builds his own equipment and is an engineer and software consultant for major companies told me that he preferred brands like Mundorf and other modern film capacitors over those made by Jupiter. I kicked the idea around a bit and then late last spring decided that I had to find out for myself. I reached out to Chris Young, proprietor of Hudson, Ohio’s Jupiter Condenser Company, who shipped me out a brand new pair from their latest batch. Dancing with the Ushers There is a maxim that says to get a true read on the contributions of a component in an audio chain, only change one variable at a time. Unfortunately, I had just sold my vintage Von Schweikert VR-5 HSE speakers and a brand new pair of Usher Mini Dancer Two DMD speakers that I was reviewing were being broken-in. For this reason, I did not immediately swap in the Jupiter Copper Foil, Wax and Paper capacitors. I wanted to allow the speakers to settle in a bit before making that change. With its synthetic diamond tweeters, I noticed that the Ushers were a lot more detailed and bright sounding in the treble range than the Von Schweikerts, which used a silk tweeter.. I wanted to give the speakers a chance to settle in more before trying out the Jupiter Copper Foil, Wax and Paper capacitors for comparison purposes. After several weeks passed, I made the move. As with the Mundorfs, freshly soldered in, the Jupiter caps weren’t that impressive sounding, but rather muddy; however, after 18 hours or so of playback, details, nuance and textural richness emerged. The highs weren’t quite as piercing, but more pleasant. The experience was similar to when I inserted the Cypher Labs Prautes Headphone preamplifier into my system, replacing my Richard Lee Passive preamp, adding a certain old world vintage tube warmth -- except with an added clarity across the spectrum. As the hours and days passed, I was pleasantly surprised with the improved soundstage; before, the sound was a little thin sounding, but now it had a fuller, warmer, and more engaging, lush tone. Excerpts from my review of the Usher Mini Dancer Two DMD speakers bear this out: Rupert Boyd, Laura Metcalf. “Pavane, Op. 50”. Boyd Meets Girl. Sonos Luminus. 2017. DSD128 Native DSD Music download. The Dancers underscore the contrast of the deft, lighter arpeggio of Boyd’s classical guitar swirling around Metcalf’s broader and deeper cello in three dimensions. Again, the sense of space, along with the timbre and virtuosity of these two brilliant artists -- hers more darkly emotive and his, consoling and entreating her to an intimate dance -- are at once very palpable, real and magical. A speaker builder warned me that metal tweeters, such as Beryllium, sound too sharp, but that’s not the case here. Using he Diamond DMD tweeter and the Usher Technology 8948A woofers in the D'Appolito Array is magical. No wonder Do-It-Yourselfers loved the 8948A when Parts Express carried them. They channel Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf to the front of my room! Mark O’Connor. “In Full Swing.” Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing Trio. Sony. 2003. DSD64. The Mini Dancers deliver the dizzying pace, emotion and energy of O’Connor’s violin, Frank Vignola’s frenetic, Django Reinhardt-esque acoustic guitar and John Burr’s brisk walking bass in delicious detail. The virtuosity is undeniable and, again, the Dancers voicing is natural, dynamic and dead on. I was hooked! (you can read the rest of my review here) Concluding Remarks I’ve heard that the use of quality capacitors to shape the audio signal are like spices in a recipe and, appropriately applied, can really produce outstanding results but, like rolling tubes (swapping different brand and types of vacuum tubes in components), their impact can be very system and room specific. The Mundorf capacitors I previously employed were excellent improvements over the stock Jupiter AM capacitors in my Lampizator Lite 7 DAC and, for that, I am grateful to the Mundorf company. That was an amazing experience. However, as detailed as my Usher Mini Dancer Twos are, they definitely benefit from the luscious, vintage sound of Jupiter’s copper foil, wax and paper capacitors. Their impact mirror the effect of my replacing the modern Emission Lab 45 tubes that came with my DAC with a pair of vintage RCA Radiotron 45 tubes -- a more captivating, delicate and nuanced quality. No doubt, this played a role in a friend’s reaction when he listened to them for the first time: “I really liked your Von Schweikerts, but your Ushers are more vibrant, detailed and dynamic. You can hear a lot more emotion coming through.” With the Jupiter Copper Foil, Wax and Paper capacitors in my DAC, I could really hear the emotion, soundstage and nuance shine in ways I had not experienced before. Thus, keeping in mind that altering gear can adversely affect ones warranty and result in shock or damage to your equipment if not done appropriately, I can heartily recommend the use of the Jupiter Copper Foil, Wax and Paper capacitor in the audio chain. Associated Software and Equipment
Work Cited “Capacitors.” Jupitercondenser.com . Jupiter Condenser Co., N.d. Web. 3 January 2018. “Copper Foil, Paper and Wax Film Capacitor.” Partsconnexion.com. Parts Connexion, 2016. Web. 3 January 2018. Elliot, Rod. “Capacitors.” Elliot Sound Products. October 2018. Soundwistles.net. Web. 25 November 2018. Lo, Jonathan. “World Premier: Jupiter Copper Foil Paper & Wax Capacitor.” EnjoytheMusic.com. 2014 May. Web. 30 December 2018. “What is a Coupling Capacitor?” Learning About Electronics.com/articles. Learning About Electronics.com Articles.com N.d. Web. 25 November 2018.
3 Comments
Mark
1/15/2019 05:35:22 am
Cool. Personally, I will never install paper again. That's just me. Make sure you test them for polarity. Don't go by those random black printed lines as negative.
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Michael
2/13/2021 08:41:09 pm
They're not random. Caps are marked for outside foil by the line by the company. It's not polarity either. It's the outside foil. Those lines are far from random. Marked for a reason. Including many other brands that are marked. Again not random. And these definitely aren't regular paper caps. Some of the best out there. Coupling, decoupling, bypass. They're impressive.
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Michael Pecikonis
10/11/2021 08:11:28 pm
They're not paper. Jupiter copper caps are Paper/wax/poly copper foil. With a good amount of poly. They're not what people think. Not some old school paper cap.
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