Nichicon Muse KZ Capacitor Review For Gainclone Amplifier

Despite the debatable discussion regarding the capacitor upgrade are actually give a beneficial improvement or not, hence from my experience, the correct upgrade of the capacitors sure can give such sound quality improvement.

If I looking to the top-end audio product, they are very selective to put the audio capacitor on their product. Let's say the CD player Marantz using many Elna Silmic on both signal and power capacitors. This decision sure have a reason for the audio improvement.

In this post I will do an upgrade only on the power capacitors in my Gainclone LM3886 amplifier here which previously using standard Nichicon VZ(M) capacitor and now will be upgrade to the Nichicon Muse KZ.

Based on the Nichicon Muse KZ datasheet, this is the highest grade audio capacitor. The maximum capacitance value in this KZ line up is only 1000uF. This is very suitable for the Gainclone amplifier which doesn't require so much capacitance like others amplifier does.

From the photo bellow, you can see the standard 2200uF Nichicon VZ(M) is smaller than the Nichicon Muse KZ. It is common for audio grade capacitor that have larger dimension than the typical capacitor.

Those capacitor are the DC filter capacitor and this the only capacitors in my Gainclone amplifier, except the muting capacitor that not related to audio performance.

I have finished replacing those capacitors and I immediate put this amplifier to my audio system again.

The same songs, the same setups, but now the sound is different.

With this Nichicon Muse KZ the music feels richer with extended top ends. Quite different with previous capacitors. I think this Nichicon Muse KZ capacitor doesn't need time to break-in. Once I installed them, then I can feel the sound is improved.

Overall, I am really happy to have this sound improvement in my Gainclone amplifier.

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