CJ Upgrades

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  • george daniel
    george daniel Posts: 12,096
    edited February 2011
    good to hear,,no pun intended,,I knew that you would find the culprit--congrats.:smile:
    JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut)
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    So far after having it on for two hours its sounds good. Not OMG this system is 100% different but I feel I have a little more forward pre now. Now sure if I really like it but I will give it the 100+ hour brake in before I make any more changes or put the old caps back in. Still have an A/C port I can put in :)
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    CJ is now advertising that they use a proprietary Teflon capacitor

    http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/cap_upgrades.html

    anyone know if there is a similiar manufacturer out there? I've noticed that the CJ PV-10A
    I have is fairly slow on transients , wondering if upgrading caps would help or if I need to go the route of RHB Dezigns Ultralinear mods for the pre amp.
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    I called CJ before I did my mod and they said they dont sell the caps that are made for them. All the Teflon caps I have seen are small values and are worth more then cap per pound.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    Also to have CJ mod your gear is costly. For my PV-11 it would have been around 1600 for the new teflon caps
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    when I talked to RHB, they mentioned two options, line stage only Ultralinear upgrade (basically a new circuit) at about 650 for my model and a like price for power supply upgrade. So not cheap either path but those who have gone this route on Audiogon seem pleased. Didn't get into phono section since i was happy with it. Since the CJ line stage bypass caps (0.01uf 600V) are easy to swap out I've ordered some Multicaps as a replacment experiment, I like their reasoning that parallel smaller caps in a bundle are more responsive than 1 big cap. Nothing really to lose since I only use the CJ for phono now.
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    Can you post a pic of the inside of that PV10A? I thought the "A" pres didnt have phono.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    PV10A = with phono section
    PV10AL = line stage only

    Also contemplating changing out the tube sockets... gotta be bad news considering age (looseness, corrosion) and what appear to be gi issue sockets. Partconnexion has some interesting options with what looks like "twist and lock" levers similiar to positive lpressure lock for CPU pins. Need to see though whats actually under the PCB board first
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    I thought about replacing them but decided agesnt it based on 2 things 1 I dont think the last person rolled a lot of tubes and 2 it looked like a PIA when I looked at the board.

    What sockets are you talking about at partconnextion? I ordered my caps from there and looked at there sockets and didnt see anything like what you were talking about.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    I may not understand what those black plastic pieces are for. They have some better quality sockets listed but they appear to require an adaptor which I agree look to be a nuisance. I think this would be a good compromise, teflon composite, gold plated contacts. I've looked at the PCB board underside, big solder holes so replacing will be a piece of cake

    http://www.partsconnexion.com/TEFCOM-73293.html
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    Those are the ones I was looking at doing. If you want to do it more power to you but I didn't see that point as mine were still nice.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    So I have bypass caps, EIC connector, power cord, and tube sockets on order. Will post before and after pictures as well as any audible differences. Hoping the sockets and EIC power connector will help with transients which are currently soggy.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    Wow. Got the Multicaps and EIC socket installed today... the magic is back. Rolled highs are no longer there and plenty of punch... the CJ may be back in my audio chain again. In removing the power cable I had to cut it... oxidation very visible, not too much surprise on a PV-10A made in 1993. Chargerman, highly recommend you go ahead with the power cable replacement... im just using a stock EIC cable now and and dynamic range is so much better after the cable replacement. These Furutech EIC sockets weren't that expensive and were easy to work with... cutting, filing the sheet metal was the real work.

    http://www.partsconnexion.com/FTECHAC-65010img.htm
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    Thats the same socket I have sitting on my desk as I type this. Can you post some pics?
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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  • davide256
    davide256 Posts: 50
    edited February 2011
    Ok, some pictures, not great quality because my digital camera died and I had to use my phone. The tube sockets also came in, I've installed them, effect is more subtle than the other changes... better controlled base and cleaner high range... more of the absence of bad things then addition of new things. I had some high voltage wire left over from my Hafler mod, used short runs of that to reach the fuse and tranformer lead blocks, leaving enough slack to remove the back and flip it over for easy solder work. All in all I'm very pleased, just have left replacing the filter capacitors on the phono side. I'm finally getting the kind of sound I was hoping for out of my system ( with a big help from investing in power cables and better interconnects). The PS Audio Jewel cables are a good investment.
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  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited February 2011
    Your pre looks like is has a TON more room to put caps in. I just cleaned my tube sockets and it helped with a lot of tubes sounding microphonic so I'm going to stick with the stock sockets until they are to loose to hold a tube.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
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