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In Reply to: RE: ELNA Silmic II posted by Lew on April 16, 2016 at 10:21:03
Lew, I used them in the PS to a dac. Compared them to KZ. May try them as output coupling but I'm looking for smallish film caps of high quality. I also am not sure if polar caps can be used as output coupling caps. Probably. Some think a film will almost always be better. I will eventually use the Silmic II for cathode bypass in my headphone amp. One can see comments how PS caps don't matter that much, can you believe it. Complete transformation of timbres, deeper bass, more intimate sound, and that's comparing them to the mighty KZ. Tweaker
Follow Ups:
I have one foot in each camp; I do believe in identifying and using "good" electrolytics, when I pretty much have to use an electrolytic. But beyond that, I do not fret. I empirically chose to use the ELNA Silmic II, based on reputation, in an outboard PS I built for a Klyne 6LX preamplifier that I bought off ebay for cheap, because it had no outboard PS. I also used the same types inside the audio chassis, where Klyne uses electrolytics as decouplers around each stage. However, I also used a big fancy Nichicon inside the audio chassis, because there is no Silmic available in the > 4700uF/50V value I required. Once having done that work, I would never think about replacing all those capacitors just to see if some other type might be audibly better. The Klyne sounds great. If I were to think of tweaking it, I would look elsewhere than the filter capacitors. Other "good" electrolytics with which I have actually built things include the Nichicon brand and ELNA Cerafine (no longer in production). Frankly, I have never been excessively impressed with Black Gates, but in fairness I never used the top of the line ones, WKZ, I think. I always thought the Cerafines were a better bang for the buck.
Yes, you CAN use a polar electrolytic for a coupling application. As I understand it, many inexpensive to mid-price solid state devices do that. In my Beveridge amplifiers, the circuit calls for a 10uF electrolytic as a coupler. It's shown on the original schematic as a polar capacitance. Because one of my amplifiers was acting up (oscillating) I dared not deviate from the schematic until I finally isolated the real problem. So, for a long time I used an ELNA Silmic II, 10uF/50V, as a coupler. Eventually, I bypassed that with a 0.1uF teflon film capacitor, and this is the only time in my experience where bypassing a coupling capacitor actually seemed to sound better than not bypassing. And now I've had the guts to use a bipolar Nichicon Muse in this application, no bypass. I actually do not think it sounds any better than Silmic + teflon. Next step would be to install some 10uF/100V polystyrene film capacitors that I was lucky enough to find, in place of the bipolars. Just for fun, I compared the ESR of the 10uF Silmic polar with that of the 10uF Nichicon Muse bipolar. The latter capacitor has a much lower ESR, which I have to think is desirable.
Ric Schultz thinks that the Wima MPK2 sounds great as a coupling cap. Since I can use a .33uf in my situation I will be putting it up against the Muse BP. If it doesn't cream it I may try the Silmic. Thanks for the info. Tweaker
Each of us is entitled to his opinion when it comes to how this or that part or component "sounds". I don't know how you derive from my post the advice to use a Silmic as a coupling capacitor, except that I did confirm that it is possible to do so. Let us know what you think of these options.
Lew, I don't see or remember coming to the conclusion that you recommended the Silmic for coupling? A Sonicap Gen II is small enough for the dac I have. I'm now thinking of trying this. Should be getting the PAScaps soon for the main amp. Tweaker
I am re-chipping a Rane AC23B, and the PS is getting UF4004's and Silmic caps, both ahead and behind the regs. It's a small amount of re-soldering whilst under the hood anyway...:)
cheers,
Douglas
Friend, I would not hurt thee for the world...but thou art standing where I am about to shoot.
Hope you like the Silmics. Since you are changing two things at once you won't be able to tell exactly what they are doing but they sound, IMO, very much like their description from Elna. Excellent timbres and full bodied, deep bass. What made you choose the UF4004 over soft recovery (IXYS) or Schottky? Tweaker
Edits: 04/28/16 04/28/16
The UF4004 choice was for the most part an ease of replacement/board choice. It works pretty well with 1N4004, so I figured the faster diodes would be worth enough to justify the replacement. Did not feel like going Schottky shopping either...LOLThe chip set in those cross overs is rather curious. The performance of the various frequency final chips is different. The biggest shortfall is the 2058 4x chips; they are getting swapped for 2060's...and the TL072 input chips will go to OPA2134's. Am going to eliminate the output couplers too; the DC offset is trivial, compared to headroom/operating point of the following input stage of the amps. Coupling through 'lytics appeals to me not at all...LOL
cheers,
Douglas
Friend, I would not hurt thee for the world...but thou art standing where I am about to shoot.
Edits: 05/04/16
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