Output Capacitor Upgrading Questions

Yes, I do take reviews with a grain of salt....er bourbon actually. but... 1) I do see some consistency in reviews (of the whole 2 i've seen), 2) they are interesting, 3) gotta start somewhere, and 4) I think they do a fair service at pinning down the really good from the really bad (or rather so so caps). What do you think about this guys observations (see proceeding link)? Do they at all jive with yours? Anyone else find significant deviations from his observations?

Thanks in advance...
 
I understand what you are saying when you say "I have to start somewhere" because I was there not too long ago.  I was reading reviews and speck sheets and just about everything else hoping to make a truly informed decision about the very best caps for "me", of course.

There is a lot of personal taste and a good bit of psychology that goes into what any person thinks is an awesome capacitor for their system.  Myself included.

Find some reasonable priced (in your opinion) caps that you think you might like and go with them until you really know their sound (months and months).  If you like them, do nothing.  If you think a different cap will cure whatever you are hearing then try something else. 

Premium caps are all pretty good, some will add a different color than others.  All of them have their fans.  Keep in mind that most of the great sound of these kits come from other aspects of the circuit.  The well-designed power supply, the single-ended parafeed, etc. 

Enjoy your time doing the research and when you are ready just pull the trigger on the ones you think you will like the best. 



 
jrihs said:
Yes, I do take reviews with a grain of salt....er bourbon actually. but... 1) I do see some consistency in reviews (of the whole 2 i've seen), 2) they are interesting, 3) gotta start somewhere, and 4) I think they do a fair service at pinning down the really good from the really bad (or rather so so caps). What do you think about this guys observations (see proceeding link)? Do they at all jive with yours? Anyone else find significant deviations from his observations?

Thanks in advance...

Perfectly put jrihs! - These are ALL subjective opinions, and YMMV. I submit to the adage "everything makes a difference", whether that difference is positive or negative will vary. I definitely do not discount other reviewers opinions if I buy a product and do not agree with the reviewers assessment. If I didnt cross reference other reviews and experiences then its my bad. I just bought a Emotiva power amp and the reviewers opinions I have found are spot on. One happy camper. I actually optimistically expected more of an approximation.

Now, pure silver interconnects have been another animal. I have a stereo Crown amp that I use for my sub-woofer (class D pro amp not meant for audiophile grade home audio). When I swapped it into my main system to see how 500wpc would drive my maggies,  the silver interconnects sounded "harsh" compared to silver coated copper - very noticable, and the first time I have experienced silver as being "harsh". When swapped back in with my much cleaner class T the preferred sound quality switched back to the pure silver. I would not be at all surprised if caps can have the same positive or negative effect.

Peace
 
I applaud his efforts.  He must have spent a thousand dollars, probably more buying all these caps.  Looking at the review he uses two capacitors, one in the tweeter and one in the midrange crossovers.  He doesn't draw any conclusions on bass response, they were not used there. 

Using two caps, drawing a conclusion must be limited to the frequency ranges each is used in.  He does mention that he used different tweeters on caps to see which matched best.  That is a lot of work!
 
Grainger49 said:
I applaud his efforts.  That is a lot of work!  

Indeed he did put allot of work in it...

I have noticed similar comments and enthusiasm on this forum for relevant caps as he has. I find that encouraging...but like we all say, "...grain of salt, YMMV, whatever floats your boat, its subjective...etc."

Thanks for your assessment...spot on!
 
In general a film cap will have a dissipation factor at least an order of magnitude, and often, many, lower than the best electrolytics, so at least in theory, they should be cleaner, clearer, or whatever you find happens with lower ESR caps.

As Desmond said, I have a couplepairs of blackgate NH seies non-polar caps that are 150 uF 350v, which I could, and probably will at least try as coupling caps in the crack.  Not there yet though.

IMO you'll probably get more mileage of wrapping a piece of dynamat xtreme around the cap to help damp it.

Also what Desmond said about me and blackgates is not perfectly accurate -- in fact I fid most black gates to be over hyped, edgy, brittle and not worth the money -- with very few exceptions and in very few applications -- and the point is mostly moot as they are basically unobtainum these days.  The big WKZ series power supply caps were superb, but even if you can find them these days, the prices will amaze you.  FK and NH and N are really the only other BGs I've used but if a film cap that would have fit where I used them, I probably would have opted for that.

An all film cap power supply and film cathode bypasses on a SET amp is a thing of beauty, but the amp would have to be huge in order to accomodate the typical values/voltages we deal with.

I'm planning film PS bypasses in my stereomour, and cathode bypasses as well -- plus vcap copper teflon coupling caps (bought a used pair for super cheap) and a pair of 3.9 uF ampohm poly film/oil pf caps -- in case anybody wanted to know.  If the copper vcaps turn out to be too much then Reality MRs will be subbed.

Anyway, go with the film caps, and where the silmics are nice as electrolytics go, they are not available in non-polar versions, so they can't be used as coupling caps in the Crack.

HTH,

Jim
 
jrebman said:
...
Anyway, go with the film caps, and where the silmics are nice as electrolytics go, they are not available in non-polar versions, so they can't be used as coupling caps in the Crack.
The output cap in Crack has about 100vDC across it, and there is no technical reason to avoid polarized caps.
 
Paul,

Sorry, my bad -- for some reason I thought these had to be non-polar and that the caps supplied with the kit were NP.


Thanks for the correction.

-- Jim
 
Sorry Jim.  I should have said you were knowledgeable and/or had experience regarding the BG's, not necessarily a fan of them in general.  I assumed that based on our discussion a while back and I shouldnt have generalized, as you were specific about the non-polarized BG's. 
 
Desmond,

No problemo.  As I said, for the most part I think they are just overhyped and some of them actually seem to do more harm than good, depending of course on a zillion factors, so always best for people to try for themselves -- and if they like what they hear, so be it.

I used several in my Dad's Millet MiniMax and it sounds fine.  Of course there is absolutely no room in there for anything but electrolytics -- that amp is a true 10 pounds of potatos in a 5 pound bag :-).

 
Here is an electrolytic cap review to add to your collection if you dont have it.

http://tech.juaneda.com/en/articles/electrolyticcapacitors.html
 
I was reading through the thread and saw some talk about bypassing the electrolitic caps with Russian Teflon caps, but no comments on what the results were. I'm hoping someone could provide feedback on their reasults.

I'm burning in some .22uF Russian Teflons, hoping to hear if there was an improvement. I also have the caps in .1uF as well and may the them a try as well.
 
I have a pair of similar caps in the PDMPS of my FP 2.  Smooth sound to them.  Additional bass too.  As mine isn't a Crack YMMV.
 
I think that I will have to give them a try. I'm still burning in the Russian 0.22uF Teflon caps and want to try them first, before I replace the output caps.
 
BNAL said:

I have a pair.  Yes, you would have to do some shoehorning. 
I decided not to use them, I didnt want to shoehorn :-) 
I never even clipped them in temporarily so I cant comment on how they sound.
Maybe Ill give them a try at some point.  At the price, I figured I'd hang on to them.
 
When a shoe horn won't work:

http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,193.0.html

Put the capacitors outside the chassis.  I used heat shrink tubing to insulate the high voltage.
 
I have just recived my speedball upgrade, and have a pair of solen 100uf 400v that i will install after the speedball. And was wondering what orientation they have to be mounted? There arent any markings on them
 
The "proper orientation" will only give a slightly lower noise level, it doesn't really have a polarity.  You might contact the maker or importer for which lead is the outer wrap.
 
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