In Reply to: RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? posted by decca4 on January 4, 2011 at 15:40:16:
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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Follow Ups
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - Lew 06:52:55 01/05/11 (10)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - decca4 14:05:59 01/08/11 (5)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - Lew 15:09:59 01/10/11 (4)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - decca4 16:29:18 01/11/11 (3)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - Lew 14:16:41 01/12/11 (2)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - decca4 10:00:02 01/13/11 (1)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - Lew 19:03:17 01/13/11 (0)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - 6AS7_6SN7 12:24:14 01/05/11 (3)
- RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? - Ralph 15:09:35 01/06/11 (0)
- Thanks, Luca... - Lew 13:14:41 01/05/11 (1)
- Sorry: it's Luc Montagnier, not "LaMontagne". - Lew 18:56:53 01/05/11 (0)