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RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in?

My primary coupling cap used to be MIT RTX, which are multi-section, polystyrene dielectric caps. They sound pretty awful for the first many hours of use (don't ask me how many hours, because I don't know, never kept track). I once mentioned this to whomever answers the phone at REL, which make the capacitor. He suggested applying a DC voltage to the cap at the rated voltage or very slightly above, enough to make the cap get "warm", for several hours at least, prior to use, as a way of foreshortening the perceived "break-in" time. He described the physical process in terms of the dielectric conforming to the conductive element, or something like that. When I did as he suggested with an external DC power supply, for several days prior to installation of the caps, it did seem to help. I later added the AC break-in process empirically; it's not really different from just using the capacitor but it speeds up the process, and I don't have to listen to it when it is not yet cooked. You are free to argue that break-in is a myth. You can call this mental masturbation. And you may be right. I later did the same with teflon caps, which I have come to prefer vs the MIT RTX, altho I still rate the latter as very good. If you search the AA archives, especially the Tweakers Asylum, I am sure you can find reams of posts on theory and practice in capacitor break-in.

FWIW, I have never ever bothered or even thought about break-in of electrolytic power supply capacitors. I just install them and go listen to music.


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