Citation I Refurb - Rounding Up the Parts

I've been saying I'll do a post about the rounding up of all the parts.  Well, here it is.  There's no pictures in this post so I hope I can keep your attention.

There is a lot of work involved in finding a source for all the Citation parts.  There is no one place you can go to get everything.  You would think Mouser or Digi-Key would have everything.  While they may have correct values for most parts they don't always have the part in the right material or physical size.

For example, say you want a 0.0075 µF capacitor for a switch.  Let's say you want polypropylene film and foil.  Because it's for a switch it also really needs to be no more than 10mm wide.  If you want a polyester cap you may not have any problem.  But who wants polyester?  First off, you probably won't find a 0.0075 µF cap (I didn't).  So now you have to choose between 0.0068 µF or 0.0082 µF.  One vendor I tried had one value and not the other, another had the opposite.  You may not find polypropylene film and you have to settle for metallized polypropylene.  The point is that it takes a lot of searching to find everything.

So what was my strategy for securing all the parts?  When I first started this project my aim was to buy the best types and brands of components I could find.  But just what is the best?  Should I buy carbon comp, carbon film, or metal film resistors?  For filter caps should I get polypropylene film or metallized polypropylene or something else?  How about small value caps?  Mica or polyester?

After trying to come up with all the "right" answers I gave up.  It was too much work and getting me nowhere.  In the end I based my decisions on three ideas.

First, Jim McShane has already done a lot of the experimentation.  Here's a quote from his Citation site (Jim McShane - Citation Amp and Tubes).

"A total recap of a Citation I is a very difficult, time consuming, expensive task. There are 102 caps in a Citation I, not counting the power supply cans! I've also found that many of the caps you work so hard to replace have no effect on the sound quality. Many are even switched out of the circuit in normal use! I don't recommend you do a total recap unless you're a glutton for punishment...  So what can you do? Well, I've tried to isolate the key circuitry, and focus attention on the caps that make the biggest difference in your preamp. The result is a pair of affordable, high quality kits of caps for the Citation I.  All the caps in both kits (except micas) are film and foil, and most have oxygen free copper leads. And they sound great!"

OK, first solution... let's use Jim's kits as a starting point.  But apparently I'm a glutton for punishment according to Jim as I'll be going a bit further than the kits.

The second idea takes his statement above (that many of the cap replacements have no effect on sound quality) and extends it with an opinion he told me in a private e-mail.  Basically, he said, just about any cap you buy out there today is going to be better than what was in the original kit.  What that means to me is that I'm not going to sweat it.  Jim likes film and foil and I'll try and stick with it.  But if I can't find a film and foil cap I'm not going to worry at all over buying something else like metallized polypropylene.  But no polyester!

Lastly, I'm using Jim's opinion on resistor replacement (because it matches my own thoughts).  I have heard opinions by some to use carbon comps in the Citation I.  But carbon comps are noisier than other types.  In tube equipment you have a higher level of inherent noise to begin with.  Don't you want to stay as quiet as possible in the pre-amp stage?  So why add to the problem by using carbon comps?  Jim was emphatic in his opinion to keep the pre-amp as quiet as possible by using metal or carbon film resistors and to avoid carbon comps.

I suspect that carbon comps are used by some to impart some of that warm tube sound.  Given that the Citation II amp is known to give a dry and "correct" sound with less of the usual tube warmth this idea may have merit.  But I'm with Jim on this one.  I'll be using metal film resistors primarily.

I also need to order various other pieces of hardware.  I'll need to order shielded wire, gold plated RCA jacks, some convenience outlets, etc.  It all adds up.  Some of you reading this may no doubt say that I could get some of these parts cheaper than from Jim.  True, a bit cheaper.  But Jim has done the legwork in many cases and I can trust that I'm buying the right component.  Jim's also an invaluable source of Citation know-how.  I feel it's only right to give him as much of my business as possible.

Now that I've decided on some "rules" let's get to the business of ordering parts.  Here's the first easy order.

Jim McShane Power Supply Kit - $107
Jim McShane Kit 1-CP (Phono kit) - $75
Jim McShane Kit 1-CL (Line kit) - $45

Jim also offered me an "Extras Kit".  He doesn't have this kit on his website.  At least not yet.  It contains extra caps and resistors to improve the "phono stage, NFB loops, and key resistors" that I suppose are the result of Jim's on-going experimentation with improving the sound of the Citation I.

Jim McShane Extras kit - $67
10 pairs of gold plated phono jacks - $6.50/pair
3 Kulka convenience outlets - $7

Round One Total:  $366

Next order of business is to total up all the parts in Jim's kits and compare to the inventory of parts for a Citation I.  The best source for this is the Citation I Assembly Manual.  The manual lists all the individual resistors and capacitors that shipped as loose components.  In addition, the manual has a separate list of all the parts that come pre-assembled on the switches.  This is useful information because you know that all of these switch components are going to be size restricted.

In order to determine all the parts that I still needed I created a spreadsheet to list out all components (by value) and their quantity.  I added a second column for the number of parts that came from the Jim McShane kits.  This not only gave me a quick way to calculate what was still needed, but it also allowed me to see what parts I could get from Jim.  For example, if I needed 10 resistors of X ohms and Jim supplied me with a total of 4 in his kits then I knew I could order the remaining 6 from his also.  For the rest I would be on my own.

The rest of the parts were ordered from various sources, mainly Mouser.  But I also ordered some parts from Digi-Key and Just Radios.  I used Just Radios to order two X1/Y1 safety capacitors.  These caps cost 60 cents each.  But Just Radios has a minimum purchase of $15.  So I ended up ordering small value mica capacitors from them that I can use in my next project.

Most of the parts from Mouser are Xicon brand resistors and caps.  But there are some Vishay, KOA, and CDE parts scattered about.  All the resistors ordered were metal film with the 1/2 watt ones being 1% tolerance.  The Vishay 1 watt 68K resistors were 5%.

500V mica caps were ordered for everything under 1000 pF.  All the micas ordered from Mouser were CDE.

The larger cap values (0.001 µF to 0.022 µF) were a mix of polypropylene film or metallized PP film from Xicon, CDE, or Panasonic.  The Panasonic caps were obtained from Digi-Key and were out-of-production stock of polypropylene foil and film.

The cost of the turret staking tool and the turrets that I spoke about in a previous post is also included here.

Jim McShane Additional parts - $79
Mouser Parts #1 - $64
Mouser Parts #2 - $28
Digi-Key Parts - $5
JustRadios Parts - $1

Round Two Total:  $177

Next I needed shielded wire.  Where to get shielded wire?  The biggest problem with wire is not so much finding it.  Rather, the real problem is that almost everyone has minimum order sizes of 100 feet or more.  I ended up finding what looked to be a good alternative from a seller on eBay.

He sells wire in 25 foot quantities and had almost exactly what I was looking for.  22 gauge silver coated stranded inner core with a Teflon jacket.  Then a shield of silver coated braid.  The outer covering was Teflon tape.  Total diameter of the cable is approximately 0.085".  It's actually slightly thinner than the original shielded wire, which is about 0.106".  Cost for 25 feet of this wire is $13.  Not bad.  The problem, of course, is that the wire is all one color.  But I talked about this problem earlier and my solution; wire labels from ZipTape.com to be printed on a color laser - $20.

This project will use close to 25 ft. of shielded wire.  While I was at it I bought a couple extra coils of this wire for future projects.  I've only included the cost for one purchase here, however.

Round Three Total:  $33

Lastly, I think, are the replacement machine screws I purchased.  I didn't have to replace the screws, of course, but the original screws all look pretty ugly (oxidation, corrosion, etc).  Sure, they're mainly hidden from view so who cares?  But I'm going to all this effort to refurbish this old beauty so why not go all out?  I've got a good tip for anyone looking for replacement Citation I or II screws.  Aaron's Machine Screws.  Screws, nuts, and washers are all about $0.15/ea when ordered in minimum quantities of 100.

This gets expensive when ordering all the different sizes for a Citation project.  But these are all good quality and good looking screws.  In fact, orders of magnitude better than what you will likely find at your local hardware store.  They also sell black anodized binding head machine screws with slotted heads, a very good match for the original Citation II screws.  Order the "fine" size black anodized nuts and lockwashers to match and you're set to go.

I will only be using some of the screws for this project.  In fact, the most called for screw in the Citation I kit is the #6-32, 3/8" size.  You need 48 of these I believe.  So I have enough to replace screws on a second Citation as well.  I have far more than I will ever use of all the other sizes I ordered.  So you have to spend $115 if you're going to get all the correct sizes.  But you'll probably only use about $30 worth of screws, nuts, and lockwashers.

Round Four Total:  $115

Well that's it for parts.  I think I've covered everything.  There are some little odds and ends here and there that I bought locally.  Nothing major though and nothing that would make a dent in the overall cost.

Grand Total:  $691

Yikes!  That's actually the first time I totalled up the entire cost.  I can't say I'm surprised.  I knew I was getting up there.  That amount also does not include shipping costs.

Not included in these costs - I already had on hand many feet of variously colored Teflon coated stranded wire.  So for anyone repeating my project, you will need to buy wire in addition to everything else.

One last tip.  In Jim McShane's power supply kit are two 0.01 µF PP caps.  Coincidentally, there are two of this size called for in the assembly manual.  The problem is that Jim supplies these caps as additions to improve the phono qualities of the power supply.  So when I went through my spreadsheet to calculate out what I needed to buy it looked like I already had the 0.01 µF caps in the original schematic.

So now I find myself two caps short.  These caps cost about $0.20 each at Mouser, but that will also cost you $7 in shipping.  Not exactly cost efficient.  So I ordered more gold plated RCA jacks for my next project to make it worth the shipping charges.

Lesson learned:  Shipping costs can eat you up.  Be sure to order everything in as few shipments as possible.