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Where to get Elna Silmic caps?

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Sampsa

(A)

Who sells Elna Silmics in the US or ships them to the US?

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Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - Carlos 18:29:20 03/30/05 (3)
Elnasilmics do sound very smooth, smoother than any regular lytics, even smoother that Elna Cerafine.
I chose Elna Cerafine to mod my CDP because Silmic sounded too mellow in my system, for my taste.
Depending on how much smoothness you like, you may love them or hate them. IME the best-sounding smooth caps that still have definition and beautiful transients are PIO caps (paper in oil), GE for tube power supplies, Jensen for tube coupling applications.
PIO caps are unsuitable for transistor circuits (not enough capacitance). That's where Cerafine or Silmic will be a good choice.
BTW Oscon caps have some outstanding specs and some marginal ones...right now I cannnot recall which ones are bad. I suggest that you read the datasheet and post questions if in doubt about a spec.
I hope this helps
Carlos
- Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - Sampsa 20:09:54 03/30/05 (2)
  Thanks! My ears are quite sensitive to hardness and my Maggies are very revealing of it, so I really prefer smoother sounding components. I also listen to a lot of music with brass (e.g., Bruckner's symphonies) and it gets really fatigueing quickly if there's any hardness.
  These caps would be used for local opamp bypasses in an SS preamp, phono stage, and CDP analog output stage. The opamps are OPA627s and an LT1362 in the preamp. I'm thinking of a "Goudreau triplet," 100-200uF electolytic stacked with 0.01uF and 0.1-0.4uF SMD ceramics from V+/V- to ground, and/or Epcos B32560 uncoated stacked film caps between V+ and V-. The opamps are also biased with CRDs.
  BTW, since you mentioned Jensens, do you have any experiences with / knowledge of Jensen 4-pole electrolytics for power supplies in SS gear?
  - Goudreau Triplet (Open in New Window)
  - Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - Carlos 18:21:43 04/03/05 (1)
    Hello Sampsa. I will try to answer your questions:
    "These caps would be used for local opamp bypasses in an SS preamp, phono stage, and CDP analog output stage. The opamps are OPA627s and an LT1362 in the preamp. I'm thinking of a "Goudreau triplet," 100-200uF electolytic stacked with 0.01uF and 0.1-0.4uF SMD ceramics from V+/V- to ground, and/or Epcos B32560 uncoated stacked film caps between V+ and V-."
    I am not a big fan of bypassed capacitors, having found in all instances that the treble response sounds awkward. Do a search on "tank circuits" on the EE sites.
    Regarding Silmic as bypass, I suggest that you use Panasonic THSA or Black Gate N in the analog output stage of your CDP; these are faster, brighter caps. It's hard to explain why, but caps that sound smooth in pure analog circuits Do sound bright in digitally-polluted circuits, and amazingly, bright sounding caps sound smooth when used as digital bypasses. I guess it has something to do with the high-frequenvy impedance of the cap.
    THSA and BGN are very effective for bypassing anything digital, including the CDP analog stage, which is usually polluted with RFI.
    On your phono stage, I think Elna Cerafine will be a fine bypass.
    Elna Silmic is not fast enough to effectively drain HF noise, when used as a bypass.
    IMO Silmic is an excellent choice as the main power supply cap for "clean" analog stages.
    I have no experience with Jensen 4 pole caps, sorry.
    Good luck
    Carlos
    - Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - Sampsa 18:44:03 04/03/05 (0)
      Thanks!
      Actually, I figured the Goudreau triple is intended for bypasses at digital ICs, not opamps. Those SMD ceramics will do wonders in cleaning the digital PS rails of hash above 1MHz up to over 100MHz.
      I currently have Oscon SPs bypassing the PS rails of all opamps, in CDP, preamp, and phono stage. They're a bit hard, but wonderfully detailed and dynamic. I'm now thinking that I might just replace them with the newer Oscon SEPs or SEPCs that have about half the ESR and better behavior on audio frequencies.
      In addition, I have small ceramics guaranteeing the stability of the opamps, but based on Thorsten's earlier postings here, I'm going to replace them with Epcos film caps.
      The main power supply caps are Nichicon FGs or KZs, the latter in the phono stage, but after the regulators, all electrolytics are currently Oscons.
Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - dynafan 14:26:16 03/30/05 (3)
If you have to go with Elna Silmic try:http://www.audio-cube.nl/elna.htm
Bo
- Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - Sampsa 14:53:04 03/30/05 (2)
  Thanks! I emailed them about shipping to the US.
  But what do you mean "if you have to go with Elna Silmic"? Aren't they very good? Specifically, I'm looking for power supply caps that have a smooth, yet dynamic sound. I'm currently using Oscons and while they're very dynamic they might be a bit hard.
  - Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - dynafan 08:58:43 04/01/05 (0)
    What I meant is to maybe try Black Gate N and NX series capacitors if cost is not an issue.
  - Re: Where to get Elna Silmic caps? - sgerin 15:51:19 03/31/05 (0)
    Handmade Electronics has them REALLY cheap. (WWW.hndme.com) Very quick service also.

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