Electrolytic caps changed with what? Thanks

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Pentium

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
73
Hi there I get the impression electrolytics are not desireable in
audio circuits.

Q1 Why is this?

Q2 What type are they replaced by, if you replace them (I have heard some
people calling them high quality film caps, are these polyester, polystyrene,
polyprolene?)

Q3 Do they/are they needing to be polarized like an electrolytic?

Thanks
 
1. Distortion, Lifespan and tolerance (depending on use).

2. Generally speaking, plastic film capacitors which fall into many different types including all three which you have mentioned. Otherwise, high quality audio specific electrolytics such as Black Gate.

3. For plastic film caps, no. Polarised electrolytic and tantalum are the only ones you really need to worry about.
 
Thanks rod, are not all electrolytics polarized?

If so is it still ok to replace these with the film versions?

I am considering the black gates for one channel of this

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=839512841&size=l

Just to see how it sounds (SMPRO Audio PR8E)

I would not be entirely sure which would achieve a benefit,
could get pricey 12 caps per channel....



Thanks
 
As far as I know, all electrolytics are polarized, but in most if not all applications, that has to do with their design, not the purpose they serve. Replacing them with film is fine. The other issue concerning this though, is sheer size. A vishay sprague 470uF lytic cap is about an inch and half long. 7/8 of an inch in diameter. A film cap of that value would be about the size of a soccer ball, if you could find one, which I doubt. Not that you'd need a cap that size in an audio path, but you get the idea.
As far as cost goes, black gates aren't exactly cheap. Angela instruments is having a sale on them right now though.
Depending on the values you need, antique electronics has Solen Fast caps that are good quality with higher voltage ratings, if you can fit them in the space allowed. Somewhere around here is a thread comparing the sound qualities of different types of caps.
Good luck.
 
you could change the sound of a circuit when changing caps, make sure thats what you want, instead of going for orig sound of the project.
 
As far as I know, all electrolytics are polarized

non-polar 'lytics are called Bipolars.


Forget black gates, mainly hype and mostly audiophoolery, use good bipolars in all coupling situations.


most circuits don't need 100s of UFs in a coupling application, they only stick them in there because it cuts down on low freq distortion and is still cheaper than a film cap.
 
[quote author="Svart"]
most circuits don't need 100s of UFs in a coupling application, they only stick them in there because it cuts down on low freq distortion and is still cheaper than a film cap.[/quote]

Not forgetting low frequency response in general too, of course.

[quote author="Pentium"]
I am considering the black gates for one channel of this

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=839512841&size=l

Just to see how it sounds (SMPRO Audio PR8E)
[/quote]

To be honest, I probably wouldn't bother unless you've read the discussions regarding that preamp here and the mods other people have done. As far as I recall, it's not exactly the best circuit. Use Google to search this forum as the search function is fucked. I can't remember how to do that, although I know it's simple. I think someone may have posted audio samples of this very preamp with replacement caps and opamps at different stages, so this may be worth a look.

Roddy
 
The circuit is quite different from the original from what I have been lead to believe anyway. The opamp changes have made a very significant difference
and I wondered if caps would squeeze the most out of it?

Maybe it would get too expensive, I reckon $40.00 per channel
which escalates the price significantly and is probably not worth the effort
and cash.

Thanks anyway.
 

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