advice concerning large quantity/small footprint eq caps

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J

JW

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
1,100
Location
Portland USA
I'm installing fully inductive eq in the mid sections of my console.
I'm curious what you folks would recommend for the type of caps.

The values I'm looking at are

.047uF
.056uF
.082uF
.15uF
.27uF
.56uF
1uF
1.5uF
2.2uF
3.3uF

I was thinking about using Wima polyester caps for the low mids (especially 1uF, 1.5uF, 2.2uF, 3.3uF) because of they're small footprint.

I'm hoping for 5mm lead spacing, 7.5mm would work, 10mm maybe (but that's pushing it) These would be little breadboard circuits, so I don't have to fit them according to a PCB, but size is a concern because they have to fit inside the channel.

So I thought I'd pick some brains here. Maybe polystyrene for some of these values if I can find them?
I'm looking at 24 each for all those values, and price is a concern, but I'd be willing to pay a little bit more for one cap over another if they potentially sound sweeter.

I'm sure the common advice would be try them out and see, but I'm looking for some recommendations as to which caps to try out. Maybe metallized polypro, which I guess are smaller? Is there a panasonic series that any of you folks have thought sounded good in this sort of application?
 
JW said:
I'm installing fully inductive eq in the mid sections of my console.
I'm curious what you folks would recommend for the type of caps.

The values I'm looking at are

.047uF
.056uF
.082uF
.15uF
.27uF
.56uF
1uF
1.5uF
2.2uF
3.3uF

I was thinking about using Wima polyester caps for the low mids (especially 1uF, 1.5uF, 2.2uF, 3.3uF) because of they're small footprint.

I'm hoping for 5mm lead spacing, 7.5mm would work, 10mm maybe (but that's pushing it) These would be little breadboard circuits, so I don't have to fit them according to a PCB, but size is a concern because they have to fit inside the channel.

So I thought I'd pick some brains here. Maybe polystyrene for some of these values if I can find them?
I'm looking at 24 each for all those values, and price is a concern, but I'd be willing to pay a little bit more for one cap over another if they potentially sound sweeter.

I'm sure the common advice would be try them out and see, but I'm looking for some recommendations as to which caps to try out. Maybe metallized polypro, which I guess are smaller? Is there a panasonic series that any of you folks have thought sounded good in this sort of application?
Click to expand...

From my practical experience as a hobby electronics builder, particularly microphones and recording gear, I see no advantage in using polystyrene caps at all. I would just go for Wimas for all values if they are available, or other small footprint polyester caps. You should be able to buy these quite cheaply in the quantities you require. In this application, I can see no reason that different brand caps will affect the sound of the EQ.

Kindest regards,

zephyrmic
 
Thanks,

Hmmm. I noticed quite a large difference between the sound of various caps when I was swapping them in and out of a couple passive (pultec style) circuits. I suppose one could argue that what I was hearing was actually tolerances though. But I thought it was quite a difference in timbre (especially in hi boost mode) between different types and/or brands (all 5% tolerances)

Then again, this isn't that circuit.
 
From my experience I'd steer clear of polyesters, especially in low-frequency circuits. Polypropylene film or metallized polypropylene is probably your best ticket to happiness. Polystyrenes can actually sound very nice but are usually bulkier than the equivalent polypropylenes.

Peace,
Paul
 
IMHO there is also a lot of psycology involved in this...
If you have modded something, it sounds better because you know you have modded it!
That is also the reason that your last project always sounds better than any other project before...
 
Thanks guys

Looks like the Panasonic ECW series is closest to what I'm looking for. They have all the values, and they're polypro

I'm gonna have to change my size restrictions on some of those bigger caps though.

Anybody know of anything cheaper in the polypro persuasion? I'm still looking at over $200 for the caps alone, which isn't totally unreasonable, considering it's 24 channels worth, but . . .

 

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