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RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in?

Posted by decca4 (A) on January 8, 2011 at 14:05:59

In Reply to: RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? posted by Lew on January 5, 2011 at 06:52:55:

Hi Lew and others

My impression is that you got upset by my questions. If you read my post again you will find that I have only asked questions, not argued any particular stand point. The way you talk about "cooking capacitors" I got the impression that it is a common held knowledge/belief that you get a positive effect by cooking your capacitors. As this a blank field to me a posted my questions.

Basically I think it a sound starting point to be sceptic about early and scattered observations. Having said that I also think that you should keep an open mind. If you and others that you trust repeatedly observe a particular phenomenon one should take note and ask questions regarding how the observed phenomenon could be explained. I think that that is part of the fun of our hobby.

Back in the late 60s early 70s me and some friends observed that different types of capacitors and later also cables sounded differently. This is common knowledge today but certainly was not back then. Most people were very sceptic to these observations until they had a chance to experience it themselves. I believe that it was Walt & Jung who wrote a pioneering article in "Audio Amateur" explaining that a capacitor is not just a capacitor but also an inductance and several resistors. Others have followed explaining why different dielectrics will effect the sound. There are numerous of other odd observations like that we can detect absolute phase in the audio chain and so on, that has been observed and then later explained. I would say that I am rather open to odd observations however there is a limit to my openness. I refuse to "cook" silver mains cords or even use them.

Back to the subject. Lew if I understand you correctly a reason for things improving would be that the dielectric will integrate with the foil by the heating process. If so, why is it not done at the factory? If I here a capacitor that I find is sub standard I really would not bother trying to cook it. There are others out there that will sound fine right from the start. Is there a particular reason for you and others to go the length of "cooking" it that I have missed?

Have you found that this "coooking" process affects other capacitors than pollystyrenes?

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