Cap Voltage: Does it effect/affect the sound?

[matta]

Hi Guys,

This might be a silly question but do the V of a cap change the sound of it
in any way? I am under the impression it doesn?t but I need to check.

To put it in context I am needing to buy some Rubycon Electro Caps, the
project calls for a 16V, but I need to order a min quantity of 50 and don?t
want to take such a low voltage because some other projects require higher
voltages, i.e 63V.

So I am think I should get 50 x 63V ones and use them in place of the 16V,
but will it change the sound of the unit in anyway?

Thanks in advance

Matt

 

[gyraf]

1) What unit is it?
2) What is the cap's function?
3) Is there DC across them, or mainly AC?

Jakob E.

 

[matta]

Hi Jakob,

1> Your Calrec EQ Clone ;-)
2> Caps strapped across the input from what I can make out on the schemo.
3> I assume DC as by the time it hist the board it is regulatored DC?

Also Magnus parts list called for a 22u/16V electro, closest I found was 50V in the Rubycon YXF series.

And some of the Polys from WIMA only come in 100V, not 63V as stated on the BOM.

Thanks again.

Matt

 

[gyraf]

The 16V is a minimum-reading.

Use whatever you can find - I'd suggest Elna or Pana FC, both available from RS.

Or - if that's not possible - any low-esr type (rated-for-switch-mode-psu) you may come across

Jakob E.

 

[matta]

Hi Jacob,

So 16V is min, but there is no max? So 63V would work just fine from what I gather from your info. And with the Poly's, in the WIMA's 100V seems to be the smallest in certain caps witha 7.5mm pin spacing.

Cheers

Matt

 

[bcarso]

Higher voltage electrolytics tend to have lower ESR; they are also more tolerant of small momentary reverse voltages, not that you want to subject them to this.

I had a situation where a 'lytic was installed in a bunch of units backwards due to a silkscreen error that wasn't caught right away. At least the current to the circuit was limited to a small value, and there was just enough of it and the leakage low enough under reverse bias that the circuit continued to function. Scary... but experiments indicated that it slowly repolarized and recovered most of its capacitance, and the leakage current slowly went down more or less indefinitely. So a recall crisis was averted.

 

[pstamler]

[quote author="bcarso"]Higher voltage electrolytics tend to have lower ESR;[/quote]

Not necessarily; I did a bunch of capacitor tests recently and was surprised to find only a weak correlation between working voltage and ESR in some series (notably Panasonic's "M" caps), and no apparent correlation in other series (including the "FC" and "NHG" series). The data are online at http://www.audioxpress.com/magsdirx/ax/addenda/index.htm; they're very hard to read because of the line wrapping, but print 'em out and cut & paste.

Peace,
Paul

 

[bcarso]

Huh! Another rule of thumb demolished! Thanks for the info Paul.