Best Resistor Companies for Audio Gear

Hey, I'm a newbie, so I'm still watching YT vids about basic electronics.  I just started learning about resistors and how to tell the difference.  I went online and found a bunch of different materials and compositions.  What material and/or composition is best for audio, and who makes the best quality?

Jacob Sowell said:

Hey, I'm a newbie, so I'm still watching YT vids about basic electronics.  I just started learning about resistors and how to tell the difference.  I went online and found a bunch of different materials and compositions.  What material and/or composition is best for audio, and who makes the best quality?

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Most other components have more impact on path quality than resistors.

JR

In the vast majority of cases metal film reistors are all you need. In a small number of cases, wire wound types may prove better.

Cheers

Ian

one company I did some work for would use a specific company of resistor. I never noticed a difference in sound and when I inquired why we use that brand I was told it's because the print the resistor value in numbers on it vs color code. It's easier to read that way.

pucho812 said:

one company I did some work for would use a specific company of resistor. I never noticed a difference in sound and when I inquired why we use that brand I was told it's because the print the resistor value in numbers on it vs color code. It's easier to read that way.

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That is a great idea. Now that resistors are smaller and have a huge number of bands on them they are becoming hard to read with these old eyes. What was the name of the company?

Cheers

Ian

I know Dale has a bunch with numbering....... still pretty hard to read for me..

Surely there must be an iPhone app that uses the camera to scan a resistor colour code & display the value on screen?

Nick Froome

ruffrecords said:

That is a great idea. Now that resistors are smaller and have a huge number of bands on them they are becoming hard to read with these old eyes. What was the name of the company?

Cheers

Ian

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Holco resistors.  They come in all usual suspects  but beware the audiofiles like them too

pucho812 said:

Holco resistors.  They come in all usual suspects  but beware the audiofiles like them too

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The Holco I get are 0.1%. Which is why I get them. They are $1 to $1.69 each. I only use them for things like one op amp differential inputs and impedance balanced  outputs.

The Dale RN55 are 1%.  They look expensive and are.  Not worth the looks for me. I use the cheap ones everywhere else. It can be hard to decipher the stripes sometimes.

pvision said:

Surely there must be an iPhone app that uses the camera to scan a resistor colour code & display the value on screen?

Nick Froome

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There is, though I've never tried it.

https://hackaday.com/2015/09/12/resistance-is-theres-an-augmented-reality-app-for-that/

pvision said:

Surely there must be an iPhone app that uses the camera to scan a resistor colour code & display the value on screen?

Nick Froome

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I use Electronic Toolbox Pro. You have to select the colors  for resistors from a wheel. It has a lot of other useful stuff like displaying capacitance with uf, nf, and pf simultaneously. It has lists of transistors and IC’s with specs. It can add parallel resistance and series capacitance. Tons of useful stuff. The app gets updated often.

I use ETP also. Useful for a lot of quick info.

The problem with color bands isn't decoding them, it's interpreting what color the band is. I've seen parts with two red bands that are definitely not the same color, and what's worse, one 'red' was a color that is debatable whether it's orange and the other could have been a purple. Total mess. RN55 or RN60 resistors solve this problem easily. So do SMD resistors

> what color the band is

I had skylights in one office, a real daytime blessing.

Most fluorescents suck. Some LEDs are less than great.

After sky light, I favor a HOT incandescent. 100W conventional was OK, though now hard to find. 80W Halogen is a hair better and nominally "energy saving" so can be found.

With dirty paint-pots, sometimes it just isn't easy. But if you have frequent trouble you should check yourself for color "blindness". There's surely web-pages for this. A mild weakness in one color may go un-noticed in daily life but foil attempts to tell various reds and browns or blues and greens apart. (The eye-doctor has calibrated color charts and can give you an exact description of color weakness, but I don't see how this helps us.)

FWIW: most "color-blind" see colors. But a significant fraction of people have colors they don't see so well.

Note that about 3% of folks see red as brownish, which spoils a lot of popular resistors. (And if you are in the 3%, much of this chart looks OK to you..... find the "hidden 9" test charts.)

Xicons are very dependable & Mouser stocks the entire assortment of the metal films. Using them in the new high quality headphone amp I am satrting to manufacture. The 1/4w are between $0.19 & $0.22 ea.

ruffrecords said:

In the vast majority of cases metal film resistors are all you need. In a small number of cases, wire wound types may prove better.

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What he said re metal film. I guess WW come into power apps ?

Bulk Metal Foil might offer some technical advantages but not sure you'll hear any difference and many here will say def not
High Tolerance / low tempco for diff amp etc so Holco 0.1% and 10ppm or similar fit the bill if not using integrated solution with laser trimmed resistors on the same substrate (helps with ratio tracking against temperature)
For SMT metal Film MELF types (watch it - they'll roll away !) or 'Thin Film' types. Not 'standard' thick film chip resistors.

Of course assuming looking for high linearity / lowest noise etc and not some 'audiomagic' from vintage carbon resistors or whatever