|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
75.51.103.100
I put a few on display here.I have many of the mainstream caps auricaps,Hovlands,Sonicaps,Rel multicaps RTX,audiocap theta,SC gen 2 and SC plats.Out of all the mainstream caps I mentioned,the only ones I like are the Soniccaps amd especially the plat teflons.
Now,take a look at the rest of the caps.I only posted a couple examples of each but the Russian k40y-9 as well as the KBGS,as well as the Russian silver mica SSGs and the FT2 teflons,stomp everyone of those caps for price,performance,and then we get the vitQs and those babies are in a league by themselves.
Now,I mix caps a bit in rebuilds because as Jim McShane says,you don't want to have your amp or preamp sounding like a cap.
Yes,I like AN coppers and Jensen pio caps very much to but,they are very expensive and I have found the Russian caps to run pretty close to those if not beat them..The KBGs are a hell of a cap if you can fit them in..The Russian silver micas are absolutely incredible..Whats nice about the Russian caps is they can be had cheap..I didn't post any silver micas or kbgs but someone can chime in that uses them.I can post them later.The brown k40s you see are very good and the brown paint is an insulator.
The SC plats are paper in oil like their presentation.I use them in my more expensive rebuilds as well as the Russian tefloms amd pio caps.The paper in oil caps give you that layered sonic richness that we have come to love in our tube gear.The Auricaps I have found to be a little too mushy by comparison.The gray cap on the left is another type of vit q pio cap...You might also look at Jupiter Beeswax caps as they are really nice.
Edits: 07/27/12 07/27/12Follow Ups:
I'm going through a tweeter re-evaluation, where I really like the transient attack and soundstage of horns but find they can be obnovious at times with some clean guitar music and blue grass vocals which I listen to regularly. A decent dome isn't obnoxious and les sybalant but lacks the weight and attack of well recorded cymbals. They can also sound 2 dimensional and "white" at times.
What would you recomend to improve either situation?
Have you used the 6UF paper and oils on tweeters, opinion?
Scott
Mike,
There was a discussion here recently about silver migration in high voltage silver mica capacitors. The discussion made me happy I was too cheap to buy a bunch of SSG-3 in the .1uF range for coupling.
I use the KBG in my speaker crossovers and will look no further as I am very satisfied with them. I tried the FT-3 Teflon for a while as coupling caps but wasn't happy with them; possibly they need a long time to break in. In the end though I was most happy with direct coupling. The Mundorf Silver/oil have been mentioned frequently and I do like them when a cap is unavoidable.
I think it is silly to buy a lot of expensive caps for speaker crossovers and to not buy a capacitance meter too. A decent one is not expensive and will allow one to ensure both channels match.
The tweeter crossover in my Apogee Caliper speakers use 7 x 10uF caps in parallel. They are old Sprague caps and need to be replaced after about 25 years of use.
I planned on using a mix of Auricaps and Sonicaps in there, figuring I could get the best of both. Or am I deluding myself and going to get the worst of both?
What are your thoughts about mixing caps in a speaker crossover like this?
Thanks
A gentleman is best defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion ... and doesn't.
Mixing caps in a crossover can be very rewarding when a lower quality large value cap is paralleled (sometimes called bypassing) with a better quality small value cap, typically one-tenth to one-hundredth the value of the large cap. Especially on tweeters, where the high frequency characteristics of better caps is easily heard, it is recommended in order to obtain good sound for less money. Bypassing an electrolytic cap with a film cap can also give good results, but altogether replacing 'lytics with films is probably a better strategy, especially on midrange where a large value can be obtained by using multiple caps in parallel, none of which need be high quality or could be bypassed as well.
Mixing two brands of caps at random might not be the best way to go. I would select one cheaper brand as the "base" cap such as Sonicap Gen I to obtain a value very near the original value (70uF?), then add a higher quality cap such as Mundorf silver/oil of .68uF (a readily available value) or so. Don't worry if the final total value is off by a small amount--the originals probably weren't exact either. If you have access to a meter that reads capacitance, you can try combinations of different values to get close to the original. If you don't have a meter, ask your supplier to match values for you, which they will do for a buck each. What IS very important, is having the same total value for both L+R tweeters.
Mixing caps in line level signal path applications is trickier, with no guarantee that the combination will sound better than a single cap. People do it, but it takes a lot of trial and error to find two caps that compliment each other. I have never found a good combination, even using very high quality small value caps with decent large caps.
Peace,
Tom E
Thanks for chiming in Michael.
Once you started mention PIO and VitQ, I know that our taste vary too much. I note that your speakers are Martin Logan, which may appreciate and tolerate PIO better.
I love the Russian Teflon stuff (when they can fit in the space), I have not tried the newer brand caps, but Aricap has a sound to them that I like. I use them in reverse direction to conventional and they are my go-to cap for the last ten years.
Tried Multicap, Relcap, Hovland, Wima, Solen, V-Cap, a few more which I can't remeber now.
Need to find another go-to cap, maybe Sonicap Gen 1 is a start.
Cheers
Will
Wil
On the Russian Teflons,use the 200v version as they are physically smaller and they will work in up to 746 volt applications.Another great cap is the Solen film and foil..These are the white colored caps and nothing like the harsh black ones..What you probably didnt try is mixing pio caps with other caps..I think you might like pio caps mixed with a silver mica or a teflon..There are positives about every cap and there negatives about every cap.I use horn systems to and I like pio caps on those as well.If I use straight film or teflon caps,I get a sterile mechanical sound.This is why mixing helps tremendously.
Interesting they can go that high. The size is much nicer at 200v.
The Elaborate DAC=Johnny's Balloon Meshplate 27 Balanced Preamp=Balanced Six Pacs=Newform Research 645
iRiver H140/MB Balanced dac/amp/Ultrasone Ed. 9/JH13 Pro IEM's
see images at: www.pbase.com/jamato8
Its way underrated for its potential...In most cases,this cap will maybe see 380vdc tops on startup across the cap from driver plate to control grid.
The caps have to been tested to over 800vdc...I like to go 10% under its break down voltage.If you ever take the teflon material out of one of those caps,you can't tear it by hand,its that strong.
Now the paper in oil caps are not good to 4 times their rated range..They are good to 50% higher.
Can't seem to find them in 0.47uF on ebay.
Have you seen them in 0.47uF, or any idea where can I get them?
I haven't seen them on Ebay in many months.
I've switched to using the V-caps but I've not had a chance to audition them.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: