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I have opened up my favourite portable sony tape recorder to find there are 3 tantalum capacitors per channel in the signal path on the way to the recording head. There is enough space (just) to replace these with other more classy elecrolytics.
The tantalums are directly in the signal path but do have a small voltage of around 5 volts accross them. Would it be fine to use Non polar black gates in these positions, and if so do the non polars suffer from warm up time as much as the non polars. I have heard that the black gates afer being shut down for a while take a long time to re energise to work to their full capacity again. This would be a problem as the tape deck will not be used exceedingly often and then will only be powered up for short periods.
And does anyone have a comment for the pk miniature series black gates which would be a nicer fit into the little space in my walkman.
Thanks!
Follow Ups:
I am quite late to this post but thought I would chime in anyway. One thing that I remember reading from a brother inmate is to use Blackgates on gear that you leave on all of the time. If you will be turning it off quite a bit then perhaps you should try something else. This actually makes sense to me, as I leave everything turned on except my power amps. The amps sound fine at turn on but get "spooky" better after 18 to 24 hours of on time. Maybe it's the Blackgates, maybe not. The amps have plenty of run in time, they just do something a little better after a nice long warm up. Food for thought.Also, I would not choose electrolytics for a signal cap upgrade. There are plenty of film and PIO caps that would do a better job. Perhaps space is an issue???
I have (unfortunately) tried many of these in various circuit
positions, and frankly I see no improvement WHATEVER over the
sonics of much more reasonably priced Elna Cerafines or Michicon
Muse KZ units. Personally, I just use the Muse caps these days
for my cathode bybasses, etc.I consider the Black Gate thing to be, frankly, largely another well
marketed audiophile parts fraud --pure snakeoil. Caveat Emptor.Tell a Friend.
Most tantalums are polar caps so cannot use a non polar in that spot.
Use a muse KZ or B.G. F, elna silmics, elna tonerex, panasonic Pz all very good.
There is only around 5 volts across the capacitors. I kind of understand that a non polar is not exactly designed to hold a constant voltage, but surely a a 50 volt non polar could handle this small constant 5v voltage. Otherwise there seems to be very few places a non polar can be used.
Thanks!
And this is coming from someone who loves BG WKZ and N series 350V caps.Their low voltage caps are reasons why some people hate BG. They are not in the same league as the Big voltage caps.
I have tried them and will never use or recommend them.
Can't say that I like the Muse KZ either. Their cheaper green label ones sound better to me.
Thanks, That explains why I never really heard any improvement when I put some low voltage black gates in my old phono pre amp.
I have not had much experience with electrolytics but I have been happy with Nichicons that I have used in the past.
in the same application - get mine from Welborne
I recommend to put them in Super-E config for best result; i.e. two caps with same value in parallell with long leg against short leg (and vice versa). Happy hunting...Tom, Lillehammer (Norway)
300B SET, NOS DAC, Avantgarde Duo
Higher end; tubes and horns...
Your suggested "super e" configuration - putting electrolytic caps in parallel but in "antiphase" means that one cap will be reverse biased when placed between potentials in a circuit - won't it destroy itself???
They are non-polar, thus a "+/-" ala super E can be done without any danger. You can of course NOT do this on regular electrolytics like BG FK...
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