I bought a Jolida Fusion 1102 amp about 8 months ago or so. Overall it's not a bad amp, but really next to no info out there about them in regards to mods. There is a bunch of info about the older 102, 302, and 502. The 1102 looks to be an updated version of the 102, so I read and read about those. I wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel, just improve things a bit. I'm happy with the Siemens E84L's, Siemens 12at7a, and a Telefunken 12ax7 tubes so it was time to go inside. I saw a lot of positive comments about using the K40Y-9 paper in oil caps vs the much more expensive caps out there. bought three pairs from a seller in Bulgaria and crossed my fingers they'd even show up. 10 days later they arrived and I was a bit shocked at their size, I wasn't sure I'd get them to fit. Here's the size comparison:
The K40Y-9's have an aluminum outer casing, I didn't have shrink tubing that would fit, so I mummified them in electrical tape. Not the most elegant solution, but effective.
A few shots of the original layout:
And now with the new caps:
Connected everything back up and took a deep breath when I hit the power button. No smoke, sparks, explosions...so far, so good.
How do they sound? Well, i wanted them to sound great so I was naturally biased. Picked a few albums I knew well and started to listen. I liked what I heard. The biggest change was unexpected. Before the change I had a bit of a bell curve to the soundstage, very tall in the center and it tapered off to the sides. After the caps, that rise in the center is more tamed and natural sounding side to side. Vocals also got a bit cleaner. That's the good, but there's a bit negative as well. Mid bass gets a bit sloppy or flabby at times. Maybe they need "broken in" or my ears need to assimilate to the new sound. Overall for $43 it was worth it and so far no regrets.
