Mica caps for high frequency EQ?

Anyone have experience with Cornell-Dubilier CD19 series standard dipped mica caps for high frequency positions on an EQ? Any problems with noise? Tone strangeness?

If not, is there a better alternative anyone likes for EQ caps in the range of 560pF to 0.012uF?

(I know Mica are dang expensive, so it would be nice to go with something cheaper. Even those Russia K40Y-9 PIO caps are way cheaper.)

These is the typical range where I do not think and pick a NPO/COG capacitor,  but I am not a cap tone guru 

I have always gone to surplus parts stores for mica caps and get them very reasonable.  That said my last parts store closed last month in boulder.  Now what!  I’m at the mercy or pleasure of online. 

Mica were THE go-to cap for sensitive radio tuners(*). They are perfect enough for any purpose.

(*)Actually, radio tuners must balance Cap-drift and Coil-drift to much closer limits than any audio circuit. There is little to be done for coil drift, but Ceramic caps can be "salted" to give + or - tempco, and selected ceramics became the common radio tuners (until we gave up tuned radio completely, we now just dump into a CPU and pluck-out the bits).

OTOH, at today's new-part prices, Mica is 10X the cost of NP0 ceramic! The supply of good mica schist is declining while clay (and similar compounds) is cheap as dirt.

Mica never made sense much over 1,000mmF (1000p, 0.001u; this was before Robin Williams invented the nano).  Except rarely in HIGH voltage doorknob caps for huge transmitters.

Me, I'd just use Mica for a few small values, NP0 if I had many smalls, and Panasonic Green poly caps for the larger ones. (I know, PSonic quit that biz, but there's similars.)

The Russians do silvered mica by the box quite cheap ,there big and very old fashioned looking though, the voltages are very high for transistor applications too ,even in something like a pultec you dont need the high voltage of the silver mica in the EQ  section,it is one of the most stable dielectrics though. 
Heres a guy from the Uk selling what appears to be Russian ones , but there are many other Russia surplus places where a huge  range of very good stuff can be bought cheaply ,including PIO's and Teflon caps .

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Silver-Mica-Capacitor-Glass-Silvered-Mica-Military-Cap-Various-Values/

PRR said:

Panasonic Green poly caps for the larger ones.

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Hi PRR,
what are the Panasonic green caps?

I use Panasonic Poly caps but they have an orange/redish color

The polyesters are green.......

scott2000 said:

The polyesters are green.......

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Never seen those,  have green polyester capacitors but they are not Panasonic.
I have also Panasonic Polyster capacitors but they are not green

http://www.banzaimusic.com/Panasonic/

There is no significance to green while many brands of polyester capacitors (AKA Mylar)  are/were green. 

Panasonic IIRC made their polyester caps orange. 

JR

I think we are alluding to talking about "orange drop" capacitors

will we make mention of tantalum caps? wima poly film caps? Polystyrene caps?

I have loads of the panasonic dipped caps and they are definately brown and not orange, these usually have the 'M' logo  for matsushita(a division of Panasonic)printed on them.
I have a bunch of green ones too ,some without any makers mark, some have a circle with a triangle inscribed , didnt manage to find out the company from googleing .

Tubetec said:

I have loads of the panasonic dipped caps and they are definately brown and not orange, these usually have the 'M' logo  for matsush*ta(a division of Panasonic)printed on them.
I have a bunch of green ones too ,some without any makers mark, some have a circle with a triangle inscribed , didnt manage to find out the company from googleing .

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Matsushita (ignoring the profanity substitution)  is actually the real name for the Japanese parent company, Panasonic is a brand name.

JR

Silver mica can be a high quality, low loss capacitor. The only potential problems I have heard of are from poor electrode termination, which causes the capacitance value to rapidly change, or 'scintillate'. This is the same sort of problem with any sort of film capacitor - most of their problems are from poor quality electrode termination. There is also the possibility of microphonics from poor quality mica, whose layers are not perfectly immobilized.

This is one reason why C0G/NP0 multilayer ceramics are a safer bet. The way that they are constructed makes it very difficult for the electrodes to be terminated poorly, or for the layers to move at all, and thus they do not exhibit microphonics, distortion or scintillation effects like film and mica caps can.

Dont get me wrong, I don't care about capacitors color and I just normally buy Panasonic caps in general being Electrolytic or film because they are cheap (compared to Audiopholl brands) and reliable, always worked well for me and I still have some insurance about the quality being Panasonic brand, something I dont have from the obscure not known Chinese brands.

I was just asking for what could be the Panasonic Greens out of  curiosity because it could be a series I didnt know about and PRR knows much more than me.

Thanks

> alluding to talking about "orange drop" capacitors

Orange Drop is a long-time trademark of Cornell Dubilier (CDE). It was promoted as a better-grade replacement in troublesome TV sets. It looks good, and until Boutique caps appeared was often the most expensive cap in the store, so it has fans.

Cap-coating comes red and green and black and other colors. Often different colors from the same brand, denoting different construction or cost. I could swear I have been sold green Panasonics, but JR has bought and qualified millions more caps than me, so I may be confused.

Thanks for all the info.

I’m gonna go with Wimas instead.

Hmmmm.....when did Sprague (now part of Vishay IIRC) spin off the Orange Drop product line and trademark?

Bri

Tubetec said:

I have a bunch of green ones too ,some without any makers mark, some have a circle with a triangle inscribed , didnt manage to find out the company from googleing .

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The green one are probably Xicon metalized polyester film caps. Quite cheap and often used in guitar pedals.

JohnRoberts said:

Matsush*ta (ignoring the profanity substitution)  is actually the real name for the Japanese parent company, Panasonic is a brand name.

JR

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Technics is also a brand of Panasonic/Matsushita..

efinque said:

Technics is also a brand of Panasonic/Matsush*ta..

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and "National" was another Matsushita brand but IIRC not sold in the US.

Back in the 70s I had dealings with Matsushita when they became a licensee of a company I worked for. 

In the mid 70's I used a panasonic BBD analog shift register in an analog delay line. Matsushita licensed that BBD technology from Phillips. 

JR